Zelenskyy says ‘we must do everything’ against ‘wicked Russian attacks’ as Ukraine and US meet for emergency talks

The Ukrainian delegation has held talks with European security officials in Geneva, according to the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, Andriy Yermak.

“Overall, a series of meetings in various formats is planned for today. We continue working together to achieve a lasting and just peace for Ukraine,” Yermak wrote in a post on X. “The next meeting is with the US delegation. We are in a very constructive mood.”

The UK could’ve been a true tech leader – but it has cheerfully submitted to US dominance in a way that may cost it dear

Two and a half centuries ago, the American colonies launched a violent protest against British rule, triggered by parliament’s imposition of a monopoly on the sale of tea and the antics of a vainglorious king. Today, the tables have turned: it is Great Britain that finds itself at the mercy of major US tech firms – so huge and dominant that they constitute monopolies in their fields – as well as the whims of an erratic president. Yet, to the outside observer, Britain seems curiously at ease with this arrangement – at times even eager to subsidise its own economic dependence. Britain is hardly alone in submitting to the power of American firms, but it offers a clear case study in why nations need to develop a coordinated response to the rise of these hegemonic companies.

The current age of American tech monopoly began in the 2000s, when the UK, like many other countries, became almost entirely dependent on a small number of US platforms – Google, Facebook, Amazon and a handful of others. It was a time of optimism about the internet as a democratising force, characterised by the belief that these platforms would make everyone rich. The dream of the 1990s – naive but appealing – was that anyone with a hobby or talent could go online and make a living from it.

The dangers of artificial intelligence and its potential to consolidate power are clear. But used fairly, it can be a boon for good government

Democracy is colliding with the technologies of artificial intelligence. Judging from the audience reaction at the recent World Forum on Democracy in Strasbourg, the general expectation is that democracy will be the worse for it. We have another narrative. Yes, there are risks to democracy from AI, but there are also opportunities.

We have just published the book Rewiring Democracy: How AI will Transform Politics, Government, and Citizenship. In it, we take a clear-eyed view of how AI is undermining confidence in our information ecosystem, how the use of biased AI can harm constituents of democracies and how elected officials with authoritarian tendencies can use it to consolidate power. But we also give positive examples of how AI is transforming democratic governance and politics for the better.

Nathan E Sanders is a data scientist affiliated with the Berkman Klein Center of Harvard University and co-author, with Bruce Schneier, of the book Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship. Bruce Schneier is a security technologist who teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University

Danielle Bensky, who was abused by Jeffrey Epstein, says president was ‘incredibly disrespectful’ in recent comments

A survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse has condemned Donald Trump for dismissing the victims’ fight for transparency as a “hoax”.

Shortly after signing a bill to release the Epstein files, the US president posted a lengthy social media rant accusing Democrats of weaponising the scandal against him.

They agree on green energy solutions but fail to see eye to eye on Islamophobia. Can a retiree and a graduate find common ground?

Steve, 64, Canvey Island

Occupation Retired underwriter

With daft jokes and experimental wordplay, the first comprehensive translations of his lesser-known stories show Anton Chekhov in a new light

Few writers are as universally admired as Chekhov. As Booker winner George Saunders puts it, “Chekhov – shall I be blunt? – is the greatest short story writer who ever lived.” Novelists from Ann Patchett to Zadie Smith cite him as an inspiration. His plays The Seagull, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard still pack out theatres internationally. In the past year alone, Andrew Scott wowed audiences in his one-man Vanya for London’s National Theatre and Cate Blanchett took on the role of Arkadina in The Seagull at the Barbican. But how much did you know about his silly side?

Anton Chekhov: Earliest Stories offers the first comprehensive translation in English of the stories, novellas and humoresques that the Russian author wrote in the early 1880s. And it is supremely juvenile in the best way. The reason many of these stories are now appearing in translation for the first time is because, explains editor Rosamund Bartlett, they have never been regarded by commercial publishers as “worthy” of Chekhov’s reputation. They are too childishly comical. During the translation process, she says, “we would just collapse in fits of giggles”.

• Captain visibly angry after defeat to Nottingham Forest

• Accuses champions’ squad of letting down Arne Slot

Virgil van Dijk has delivered a scathing assessment of Liverpool’s woeful title defence, the club captain admitting the champions are in a mess and letting down Arne Slot while questioning whether every player is shouldering responsibility for the team’s slump.

Van Dijk could not contain his anger following Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest that left Liverpool in the bottom half of the table with a negative goal difference. Chairman Tom Werner was at Anfield to witness Liverpool’s sixth defeat in seven Premier League games, their eighth loss in 11 matches in all competitions, and a performance that unravelled against a Forest side that started the day in the relegation zone.

The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen gold watch belonged to Isidor Straus who, along with his wife, lost his life when the ship sank

A gold pocket watch that belonged to a man who died on board the Titanic when it sank has sold for a record sum.

The watch, which belonged to 67-year-old Isidor Straus, went for £1.78m at auction, the highest amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia. He was given the watch, an engraved 18-carat Jules Jurgensen, as a gift on his 43rd birthday in 1888.

• Cars failed to meet minimum skid wear measurements

• Loss of points places title within reach of Max Verstappen

McLaren have held their hands up and issued an apology to their drivers after their breach of Formula One regulations led to the disqualification of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the two leading title contenders, from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and putting the F1 drivers’ championship within the grasp of reigning champion, Max Verstappen.

The race was won by the Red Bull driver but Norris took a strong second and Piastri fourth. However, four hours after the race and following an investigation by the FIA, both were disqualified after the skid blocks on the floor of their cars were found to have been worn down below the 9mm limit defined in the rules.

‘Severe lack’ in territory where Israeli strikes have killed more than 50 people and injured over 100 in recent days

Hospitals in Gaza are running out of essential supplies, with new waves of Israeli airstrikes killing more than 50 people and injuring more than 100 in recent days, medical and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory have said.

Medics told the Guardian on Sunday that stocks of gauze, antiseptics, thermometers and antibiotics were running low.

ICE and CBP’s North Carolina operation faced an early-warning system run by thousands of volunteers

“The operation is not over and it is not ending anytime soon.”

The message from the Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin went out to Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday afternoon, in response to an announcement by Sheriff Garry McFadden that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was done with its immigration enforcement sweep.

Despite the US’s economic success, income inequality remains breathtaking. But this is no glitch – it’s the system

The Chinese did rather well in the age of globalization. In 1990, 943 million people there lived on less than $3 a day measured in 2021 dollars – 83% of the population, according to the World Bank. By 2019, the number was brought down to zero. Unfortunately, the United States was not as successful. More than 4 million Americans – 1.25% of the population – must make ends meet with less than $3 a day, more than three times as many as 35 years ago.

The data is not super consistent with the narrative of the US’s inexorable success. Sure, American productivity has zoomed ahead of that of its European peers. Only a handful of countries manage to produce more stuff per hour of work. And artificial intelligence now promises to put the United States that much further ahead.

Robert, who is in a sexless marriage, has become besotted with Rita – and their sexual chemistry is incredible. But how long can they go on like this?

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

What makes the sex incredible is our chemistry, and the complete lack of judgment and pressure

Did the talks succeed or fail? The verdict must take account of the geopolitical minefield they took place in

Cop30 in Belém wrapped up on Saturday night more than 24 hours later than planned, and with an Amazonian rainstorm thundering down on the conference centre. The United Nations structure just about held, as it has done these past three weeks despite fire, savage tropical heat and blistering political attacks on the multilateral system of global environmental governance.

Dozens of agreements were gavelled through on the final day, as the most collective form of humanity worked to resolve the most complex and dangerous challenge that our species has ever faced. It was chaotic. The process very nearly collapsed and had to be rescued by last-ditch talks that lasted into the early morning. Veteran observers told me the Paris agreement was on life-support.

Musical sequel Wicked: For Good, enchanting audiences across the world, arrives as the 1939 fantasy continues to dominate pop culture

Most of the biggest streaming services are notoriously neglectful of any movie released before the 1990s (and in some cases, before the turn of the millennium). Even the big theatrical nostalgia screenings are starting to creep into the 21st century, as movies that, to the older among us, don’t seem ready for a multi-decade anniversary. (Did Batman Begins really just turn 20?! Is Mean Girls seriously old enough to drink?) So it’s all the more impressive that one of the hottest properties of the past few years has been ... The Wizard of Oz, a movie far closer to its 100th anniversary than its 25th.

Of course, The Wizard of Oz as (shudder) intellectual property dates well before the 1939 release of the beloved MGM musical. L Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at the turn of the previous century, in 1900. It spawned 13 increasingly eccentric sequels, which Baum wrote with what seemed like some reluctance right up until his death in 1919. His final Oz book was published posthumously, and the series continued on without him.

When my quest to make a cliche-free film about one of America’s most notorious cold cases fell apart, I ended up investigating something entirely different – our own morbid curiosity

If you think true crime is inescapable when you’re browsing Netflix or making small talk with your co-workers, try working in the documentary industry. As you traipse from one commissioning meeting to the next, pitching your passion project on the history of mime or the secret life of snails, you can almost hear the words before they’re spoken: “Got any other ideas?” Preferably something with a body count.

I had just begun making documentaries in 2015, when the double whammy of HBO’s The Jinx and Netflix’s Making a Murderer brought true crime back to the dead centre of popular culture. Positioned as social justice projects as much as murder mysteries, those shows seemed to herald a new beginning for the genre. Soon enough, though, they gave way to a steady stream of interchangeable offerings, many of them organised into reproducible formats such as Netflix’s Conversations With a Killer franchise, each season of which is built round a long-lost interview with a notorious serial killer, unearthed to order.

Court papers show the island cautiously welcomed the oligarch – with London’s approval – before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

For decades the Channel Islands tax haven of Jersey has played a big role in moving fortunes made in some of the world’s most despotic countries into the west, attracting overseas oligarchs with a mix of low tax and high levels of financial secrecy.

It is a secrecy that extends to Jersey’s relationship with the UK government. As a crown dependency, Jersey has its own parliament, but belongs to the king. The relationship between the two jurisdictions remains something of a black box, with very little public information on how the big decisions are made, or to what extent Westminster is consulted.

Why was the US president so pleased to hang with the democratic socialist? Perhaps we’ll never know

Zohran and Donald. Donald and Zohran. Not since Turner met Hooch has a couple so captivated the American psyche. This might be the meet-cute of the decade, unless you count RFK Jr and Olivia Nuzzi. Which was actually not cute at all, when I think about it.

Why can’t we all stop talking about the New York City mayor-elect and his No 1 fan in the White House? Probably because absolutely none of this makes even a tiny bit of sense. From almost the beginning of his rise, Zohran Mamdani positioned himself as an anti-Trump democratic socialist who would use the bully pulpit of Gracie Mansion to battle Maga attacks on the city. Trump, sensing an opportunity to create yet another punching bag, called Mamdani a communist and questioned his American citizenship. He even went to the trouble of endorsing Mamdani’s opponent, Andrew Cuomo, in the mayoral election.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

UK energy secretary says UN climate talks must find way to keep proposals alive despite significant resistance

Supporters of a global phaseout of fossil fuels must find “creative” ways to keep the proposal alive, including making it voluntary rather than binding, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has said in the closing stages of the UN climate talks.

As the Cop30 summit in Brazil carried on past the Friday night deadline, the prospect of countries agreeing on the need for a roadmap to a global “transition away from fossil fuels” looked increasingly dim. A first draft of the potential outcome text from the summit had contained the formulation, but in the updated draft text produced on Friday by the Brazilian presidency it had been excised.

⚽ News, discussion and previews before day’s action
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Sunday’s key fixtures

Premier League

Leeds v Aston Villa, 2pm

Arsenal v Tottenham, 4.30pm

Championship

Sheffield Wednesday v Sheffield United, 12pm

Scottish Premiership

Aberdeen v Hearts, 3pm

La Liga

Elche v Real Madrid, 8pm

Serie A

Inter v Milan, 7.45pm

The soul star and Prince collaborator could hardly reach the counter when she bought her first record, but which Busta Rhymes song gets her moving?

The first song I fell in love with
God Will Open Doors by Walter Hawkins. I grew up on the Hawkins gospel family. They were my teachers. I was raised by my grandparents, and my auntie fell in love with the gospel sound and imported records from America – although my grandparents thought it was a bit too secular, even though it was gospel.

The song I inexplicably know every lyric to For some reason, out of all his songs, Adore by Prince always speaks to me.

• Max Verstappen now only 24 points behind Lando Norris

• Skid blocks on McLaren pair’s cars worn down too far

Max Verstappen swept to victory at the Las Vegas Grand Prix in dominant fashion, enough as he crossed the line to keep him just clinging on to hopes of retaining the world championship. But more than four hours after the race had concluded, the Dutchman found himself catapulted right back into the fight as the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified.

Norris had finished second and Piastri fourth, solid enough results to maintain an advantage over Verstappen, but two hours after the race the FIA announced it was investigating the wear on the skid blocks on their cars. They were found to be worn down beyond the limits of the regulations, leading to a double disqualification, as the rules around skid wear, which ensures the cars run at the prescribed height, are hard and fast and there are almost no mitigating circumstances.

Alison Gaffney believes her son’s rare leukaemia was caused by dumped toxic waste from the town’s steelworks

Alison Gaffney and Andy Hinde received the devastating news that their 17-month-old son, Fraser, had a rare type of leukaemia in 2018.

Two years of gruelling treatment followed, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, before a stem cell transplant. Fraser, then aged three, made a “miraculous recovery” from the surgery, before doctors declared the cancer in remission.

Cross-party coalition behind proposals hope eco-friendly scheme for million people could begin before end of decade

In the next few years, spades could be in the ground for a city made of wood, in the middle of the largest new nature reserve created in England in decades, with four-bedroom homes on sale for £350,000.

It sounds too good to be true, but a cross-party coalition of campaigners is trying to make a “forest city” to house a million people a reality, with construction commencing by the end of this parliament. It would be the first such project in England since the purpose-built new town of Milton Keynes in the 1960s.