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Venezuelan Nobel peace prize winner on way to Oslo but will miss ceremony

The Nobel peace prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is on her way to Oslo but will not take part in the award ceremony, the Norwegian Nobel Institute has said. After 24 hours of speculation over whether she would attend, hours before the ceremony on Wednesday was due to start organisers said that although Machado was “safe” and would be present in the Norwegian capital, she would not get there in time to take part in the event. Organisers said Machado’s daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, would accept the award at the ceremony, which is due to start at 1pm local time, on her behalf and read the speech her mother had planned to deliver in person. “The Nobel peace prize laureate, María Corina Machado, has done everything in her power to come to the ceremony today. A journey in a situation of extreme danger,” the Norwegian Nobel Institute said in a statement. “Although she will not be able to reach the ceremony and today’s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe and that she will be with us in Oslo.” Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, told the broadcaster NRK: “We have been confirmed that Machado will be coming to Oslo during the day. Unfortunately, she will not be in time to attend today’s ceremony or other events, but we will celebrate her when she arrives.” Machado, who been seen only once in public since going into hiding in August last year, had been expected to attend the ceremony to collect the award. She was also due to attend a press conference on Tuesday until it was postponed and later cancelled at the last minute, with organisers saying they were “in the dark” as to her whereabouts. Earlier on Wednesday morning, Harpviken had said it had been more difficult than expected to get Machado safely to Norway and that she had not made it to the country. “She simply lives with a death threat from the regime. It extends beyond Venezuela’s borders, from the regime and the regime’s friends around the world,” he said. “I don’t know where she is now, and there are good reasons for that. This is an oppressive regime that is willing to use absolutely all means against the opposition.” The presidents of Ecuador, Paraguay, Argentina and Panama are among those who have travelled to Oslo for the ceremony. Machado last appeared in public on 9 January at a demonstration in Caracas protesting against the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro for his third term as president. The press conference, traditionally held by the Nobel laureate on the eve of the award ceremony, had been expected to be the 58-year-old’s first public appearance in 11 months. Her family had already congregated in the Norwegian capital before the ceremony in anticipation of seeing her. After the postponement of the press conference, her mother, Corina Parisca de Machado, 84, who arrived in Oslo on Monday, said: “There are a lot of emotions now.” Earlier this month, Machado’s daughter said they had planned “to make the most of the time we have with each other”. “When we see each other, I’m sure there will be tears and joy and hugs,” Sosa told NRK earlier this month. “I miss hugging her. I miss smelling her and seeing her in person.” Machado was announced as the winner of this year’s peace prize in October for her dogged struggle to rescue Venezuela from its fate as a “brutal, authoritarian state”. But her selection for the prize has also drawn criticism among those who object to her close relationship with Donald Trump, the US president. A conservative often described as Venezuela’s Iron Lady, she dedicated the prize in a post on X to “the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!” The US president has ordered a major naval buildup off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast and threatened land strikes against suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers after a more than three-month military campaign against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. Machado’s location is not publicly known but some reports said on Tuesday that she had made it to Europe. There were also suggestions that she may have received help from the US to be smuggled out of Venezuela via Puerto Rico. Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, said last month that Machado had been accused of “acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, terrorism” and would be considered a “fugitive” if she travelled to Norway to accept the prize. “By being outside Venezuela and having numerous criminal investigations, she is considered a fugitive,” Saab told AFP. Maduro refused to accept he lost to Machado’s ally, Edmundo González, in a presidential election in July 2024 and launched a political crackdown that forced González into exile and Machado underground. The Norwegian Nobel Institute shared a video of the moment its director woke Machado with the news by phone that she had been awarded the peace prize. “Oh my God!” she said. “I have no words … But I hope you understand that … I am just one person, I certainly don’t deserve this.” The Nobel laureates in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics will receive their prizes at a separate ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on Wednesday.

Wednesday briefing: Why is AI becoming the go-to support for our children’s mental health?

Good morning. Today’s teenagers seeking mental health support are more likely to consult a chatbot than a professional website or a mental health app, according to a study published on Tuesday. One in four aged 13 to 17 have turned to an AI chatbot regarding mental health problems, the study says. Worryingly, that number climbs to 40% for young people affected by serious violence, whether as a victim or perpetrator. These are teenagers in really difficult situations, but the findings by the Youth Endowment Fund coincide with evidence that the average waiting time for a young person referred to a mental health service is 392 days – meaning warnings from youth leaders that children at risk need “a human, not a bot” may ring hollow. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Rob Booth, the Guardian’s UK technology editor, about what lies behind growing reliance on chatbots for mental health support, whether they actually help young people, and the rising concern over the dangers posed when children engage with them at length. First, the headlines. Five big stories Politics | Keir Starmer has called on European leaders to to “go further” in modernising the interpretation of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) to prevent asylum seekers using it to avoid deportation and see off the rise of the populist right. Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to hold a wartime election within the next three months, if Ukraine’s parliament and foreign allies will assist in making it secure, after Donald Trump accused him of clinging on to power. Gaza | Malnutrition continues to take a toll among Gaza’s young despite a ceasefire declared two months ago, with more than 9,000 children hospitalised for acute malnutrition in October alone, according to the latest UN figures. Technology | Australia has enacted a world-first ban on social media for users aged under 16, causing millions of children and teenagers to lose access to their accounts. Northern Ireland | Britain’s security services allowed a top agent inside the IRA known as Stakeknife to commit murders and then impeded a police investigation into the affair, according to a damning official report. In depth: ‘They’ve become ubiquitous’ The survey (pdf) of 11,000 children by the Youth Endowment Fund found that more than half (53%) of teenagers aged 13 to 17 used some sort of online or digital mental health support, underlining a widespread need. But at the very time when mental health is in decline, the services that would provide help are stretched to breaking point. “You’ve got this picture of two systems going in completely different directions,” says Rob Booth. “Human mental health services becoming increasingly unresponsive to children’s and teenagers’ needs, and chatbots that are becoming more responsive to whatever children are asking them to say.” In June, an NHS survey found sharp rises in rates of anxiety, depression and other disorders have led to one in four young people in England having a common mental health condition. Dr Sarah Hughes, the chief executive of Mind, said at the time: “The nation’s mental health is deteriorating and our current system is overwhelmed, underfunded and unequal to the scale of the challenge.” *** Young people need more rapid access to help Against this backdrop, says Rob, the availability of AI technology has increased enormously, and it has become far more user-friendly. “Every couple of months there’s an improvement in its speed of response, in its understanding of what you’ve said before, what they call the context. So they’re getting better and better at an extraordinary pace,” he explains. “And so you set the rapid advancement of the technology and its usability, against the NHS mental health system, which has long waiting lists, which are getting worse.” While the average waiting time for a young person who has been referred to mental health services was 392 days last year, more than 78,577 young people waited over a year to speak to someone, up 52% on the previous year. With almost a million young people (910,567) referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services last year, many had their cases closed without receiving any treatment at all. By contrast, Rob says, the chatbot is “24/7” – and you don’t need a referral to access one. “One of the girls I spoke to said: you can go again, you can go again, you can go again – there’s a sense of endless patience,” says Rob. Increasingly with AI technology able to remember more and more about what a user talked about before, and with its model favouring answers that are likely to please its users, this can leave teenagers feeling as though they are talking to someone who understands them. “To some extent, it does probably understand you, potentially better than a stranger, especially in the mental health system, especially if you’re being moved from pillar to post. What it might not do, of course, is push back and challenge anything you might say,” says Rob. *** Why are teenagers turning to AI chatbots? One teenager who spoke to Rob had lost two friends. After one was shot and another stabbed, she felt the chatbot was less intimidating and more available than a mental health professional when it came to dealing with the trauma. She began to see the chatbot as a friend. “The empathy that they feel from the chatbot can be far greater than what they feel from dealing with the bureaucracy of mental health services, being rejected, being told you’ve got to wait,” says Rob. The teenager has her phone set up so that she clicks twice and the chatbot is right there. “She can talk to it because [AI is now] very good at voice recognition. So it’s extremely accessible.” He adds that for many young people, AI is available on a number of platforms that they regularly interact with – it’s built into things like Instagram, WhatsApp and Google. “There are chatbots all over young people’s phones now, in the same way as social media. They’ve become ubiquitous as part of many teenagers’ digital lives.” Worryingly, because chatbots aren’t beholden to children’s safeguarding codes, or answerable to a headteacher, some children also feel as though their privacy will be more protected by them. Rob points to another young person he spoke to as an example, who had a negative experience speaking to a counsellor because he did not understand that a conversation they had was not going to remain confidential. “It was a situation that involved violence. He discovered that the other teachers had been informed about the situation and also parents.” Even although that course of action might have been in his best interest, “it was something that put him off repeating that process. He believed the chatbot offered anonymity,” says Rob. *** What are the dangers of using AI chatbots for mental health support? There have been growing concerns about the dangers of chatbots when children engage with them at length. OpenAI, the US company behind ChatGPT, is facing several lawsuits, including from families of young people who have killed themselves after long engagements. In the case of the California 16-year-old Adam Raine, who took his life in April, OpenAI has denied it was caused by the chatbot. It said it has been improving its technology “to recognise and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support”. As Rob reported in October, GPT-5, a version of ChatGPT, has been found to instruct users on everything from how to write a suicide note to providing detailed methods about how to hide an eating disorder, according to researchers. The earlier version refused both prompts and told the user to consider talking to a mental health professional. OpenAI has said that an updated version includes additional safeguards. As generative AI is trained to give answers based on probability, it rarely, if ever gives two answers that are the same. It’s part of what makes it so effective – the chatbot has idiosyncrasies in how it communicates with people, making them feel special – but it’s also what makes it hard to train. “Sometimes, a chatbot can be very free with its advice, other times, it can be quite censorious,” says Rob. *** What controls are there on chatbots in the UK? In the UK, controls under the Online Safety Act are “stricter than anything at a federal level in the US”, and some chatbots are covered. But in November, Liz Kendall, the technology minister, said she feared that the digital frontier might be outpacing regulators, with AI chatbots a particular concern. Referring to the Online Safety Act, Kendall said she would fill the gaps if it was discovered that chatbots were not properly covered. “If chatbots aren’t included or properly covered by the legislation, and we’re really working through that now, then they will have to be,” Kendall said. “People have got to feel their kids are safe.” What else we’ve been reading Yassin El-Moudden reports from the second year of London’s Armenian film festival, where he learns that a global diaspora sharing scarring memories of repression, displacement and genocide are finding a voice. Martin A “David Hockney” of the photographic world, who was funny, dry and “never lost a sense of wonder”. I enjoyed this tribute to late photographer Martin Parr, by friends, peers and collaborators. Karen I wrote in yesterday’s First Edition about the huge distances teams will cover in the 2026 Fifa World Cup. For ESPN Cesar Hernandez investigates how flying disrupts the recovery planning for elite athletes. Martin Their families may have been on opposite sides of near-nuclear war, but the descendants of US president John F Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, his Soviet counterpart, have teamed up for a “thrilling” podcast. Karen A lot of my peers complain people don’t make interesting weird music any more, which simply isn’t true, as Noel Gardner demonstrates with this best of 2025 New Weird Britain list – as much a mindset as a genre. Martin Sport Football | Dominik Szoboszlai scored an 88th-minute penalty to give Liverpool a much-needed boost with a 1-0 win at Inter in the Champions League. Football | Gianluca Scamacca and Charles De Ketelaere were on target in Atalanta’s 2-1 Champions League victory against Chelsea who took a first-half lead through João Pedro. Spurs – in front of the visiting Son Heung-min – beat Slavia Prague 3-0 with an own goal and two penalties and went ninth in the table. Cricket | England’s Ashes tour suffered another blow as fast bowler Mark Wood admitted “my knee just hasn’t held up” and dropped out of the series. The front pages The Guardian’s lead story is “PM urges Europe to curb human rights laws to halt rise of populism”. The i paper has “Fears UK and Europe can’t fight Russia alone as Trump turns on ‘decaying’ nations” while the Metro runs with “Trump lashes out at ‘weak’ Europe”. The Times says “Number of police forces cut to dozen under plan”. The Mirror reports on “The lost Covid billions … we will never get our cash back” and the faces accompanying that story are Rishi Sunak, Michelle Mone and Boris Johnson. The Daily Express’s quote headline, too long to reprint here, is about women and girls’ safety after two asylum seekers were jailed for rape. The Mail blasts out “Asylum fiasco without end”. “Bardella: I will stop the boats” says the Telegraph – that’s paraphrasing a French presidential candidate. To conclude, the Financial Times: “US gives Zelenskyy ‘days’ to respond to peace deal demanding loss of territory”. Today in Focus The social media ban for kids: Australia’s world-first experiment Today in Focus talks to three teenagers, and technology reporter Josh Taylor, about Australia’s world-first legislation: a social media ban for under-16s Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Forget elves in the north pole – Seiffen in Germany is home to Santa’s “real workshop”. The Toy Village (Spielzeugdorf) near the border of the Czech Republic is a literal Christmas wonderland. There are streets lined with fairy lights and candlelight, and shopfronts displaying thousands of tiny figurines, toy animals and colourful nutcracker characters, all made from wood. But how did this come about? For hundreds of years, Seiffen has been home to wood turners and carvers who create the classic wooden Christmas toys that are sold around the world. The village was built in the 1300s below the Ore Mountains, which was classified a Unesco world heritage site due to a rich silver and tin mining history. After the tin supply dwindled, miners were forced to find an alternative way to make a living, so they sourced timber, modified their machinery and began making wooden crockery before eventually turning to toys. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

Teacher in Hungary facing criminal charges for organising Pride event

A rights campaigner in Hungary has been placed under investigation and is facing potential criminal charges after organising a peaceful Pride march, in a case that campaigners have described as “unprecedented and dangerous” for the EU. In early October, thousands flocked to the southern city of Pécs to take part in Pride. It was the fifth year that the march was held – the only other annual Pride gathering in the country besides that of Budapest – and was becoming a showcase of the city’s commitment to freedom, diversity and the coexistence of minorities. This year, however, politics loomed large. In March the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his rightwing populist party had voted to ban Pride events and allow the authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify and potentially fine those in attendance, a move Amnesty International described as a “full-frontal attack” on LGBTQ+ people. Even so, in June tens of thousands of people defied the ban to march in Budapest after Pride was rebranded as a municipal cultural event. Months later, Pécs Pride also attracted record numbers, with as many as 8,000 people, including several members of the European parliament, taking part despite the police and the country’s highest court confirming that the event was banned. For the organiser Géza Buzás-Hábel the nightmare began soon after. “We decided to hold Pécs Pride, despite the ban, because Hungary must remain a European country,” the Romani LGBTQ+ activist said. “Freedom of assembly is a fundamental human right, and we cannot allow political decisions to limit our community’s visibility or self-expression.” Organised by the Diverse Youth Network, a group co-founded and led by Buzás-Hábel, the march had taken on wider meaning in recent years as the Hungarian authorities took aim at LGBTQ+ people through a series of discriminatory measures. “If we don’t stand up for ourselves here, then where?,” he said. “Pride is not just a march – it is a message: queer people exist even when others try to silence or ban us.” Days after the march, he was summoned by police for questioning. Soon after, his case was forwarded to the prosecutor’s office with a recommendation to press charges including organising and calling for participation in a prohibited assembly, he said. Prosecutors are deciding on the next steps; Buzás-Hábel said he could be facing a suspended prison sentence of up to three years. The consequences add to the persecution he said he had already faced as an LGBTQ+ activist. Last year he was dismissed from his state job as a teacher after almost a decade teaching Romani language and Roma culture. He was also dismissed from the music centre where he had worked as a mentor for five years. If charges are formally brought, he would be permanently barred from returning to teaching, he said. Campaigners in Hungary and beyond have sounded the alarm about the case. “This is the first known case in the European Union where a human rights defender faces criminal prosecution for organising a Pride march – a step until now only seen in Russia or Turkey,” four Hungarian human rights organisations noted in a joint statement in October. The case is a “dangerous shift” in Hungary’s long campaign against LGBTQ+ people and civil society, they said, as well as a “test for Europe”. They called on the European Commission to take action. “If a teacher in an EU member state can face prison for organising a Pride march, it is not only Hungarian democracy that is at stake, but the credibility of the European Union itself,” the statement noted. “A gay Roma teacher in southern Hungary should not have to risk going to prison to remind the EU what its values mean.” The sentiment was echoed by the European Roma Rights Centre. “Hungary’s case is unprecedented and dangerous,” it said. “No one should be criminalised for organising a peaceful Pride march. Not in Hungary. Not anywhere in Europe.” Others described the case as a glimpse of the vulnerability of activists and organisations in Hungary, with Buzás-Hábel’s persecution seen as a bid to scare off Hungarians from exercising their right to peaceful assembly and from standing up for the values that matter to them. The European Pride Organisers Association called on Hungary to drop the case. “Our message is simple: Pride is peaceful, legitimate, and protected,” it said in a statement. “Criminalising organisers is unacceptable.” Buzás-Hábel said it was part of a much wider process playing out across Hungary. “This is not really about me. In the eyes of those in power, I am just a speck of dust,” he said. “This is directed at my broader community, and the goal is to intimidate the people around me. They are using me as a tool to set an example for the entire country.” He spoke to the Guardian before a trip to Brussels, where, as a board member for Europe’s largest Roma youth network, he was set to take part in a ceremony recognising Roma youth-led projects. The visit would also afford him the chance to meet with EU decision-makers and politicians interested in his case and the situation in Hungary, he said. “The real question is whether the European Union is ready to stand up for the principles it claims to represent,” he said. “If, in an EU member state, someone can face criminal prosecution simply for organising a peaceful Pride march – and the EU does not respond firmly – it sends the message that European values only matter until defending them requires real political courage.” Despite the uncertainty that now plagued his life and career, he said he had no regrets. “I have already experienced the personal cost of this system: I lost all my jobs, I was placed under secret service surveillance, and I now face potential criminal charges,” he said. “But none of this changes the fact that I would organise Pride again in exactly the same way – and I will do so next year as well,” he added. “For me, it is not just an event, but a stand for all those who need visibility and courage in such a hostile environment. Freedom sometimes comes at a high price, but the only thing I would truly regret is failing to stand up for my community.” • This article was amended on 10 December 2025 to clarify that Géza Buzás-Hábel was dismissed from his job as a teacher in 2024, before he organised the Pécs Pride event.

Trump says he will make a call to end hostilities as Thailand and Cambodia ‘at it again’

US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will make a call regarding reignited hostilities on the Thai-Cambodia border, where fighting has resumed less than two months after a ceasefire he brokered between the two nations collapsed. Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania, the US president reiterated his global peacemaking skills, proclaiming that “in ten months I ended eight wars”, before listing hostilities between Kosovo and Serbia, Pakistan and India, and Israel and Iran. Acknowledging that clashes have again erupted in the disputed border region in south-east Asia, Trump suggested he would again step in to calm tensions. “I hate to say this one, named Cambodia-Thailand, and it started up today and tomorrow I’ll have to make a phone call,” he told the crowd. “Who else could say, ‘I’m going to make a phone call and stop a war of two very powerful countries, Thailand and Cambodia.’ They’re going at it again.” Fatal clashes escalated along the disputed border this week as both sides have sought to cast blame on the other for the fighting and vowed to defend their territories. More than 500,000 people have fled their homes to safety in Thailand and Cambodia since the start of the reignited conflict. Both sides have accused each other of violating a US-backed ceasefire deal brokered by Trump in July and signed in his presence six weeks ago. Tensions have simmered since Thailand suspended de-escalation measures in November after a Thai soldier was maimed by a landmine that Bangkok said was newly laid by Cambodia, a claim that Cambodia denies. In a sign that neither side was willing to back down, Thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday that Cambodia had not yet contacted Thailand about possible negotiations and the fighting would continue. “We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” he said. “The government will support all kinds of military operations as planned earlier.” Earlier this week he said that military action was necessary to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty and ensure public safety. In a statement posted to Facebook and Telegram, Cambodia’s senate president and former longtime prime minister Hun Sen claimed that his country had refrained from retaliating Monday, but overnight began to fire back at Thai forces. “Cambodia wants peace, but Cambodia is forced to fight back to defend its territory,” Hun Sen wrote. As of Tuesday night, Cambodia’s defence ministry said nine civilians had been killed since Monday and 20 seriously injured, while Thai officials said four soldiers had been killed and 68 had been injured. With Reuters and Associated Press

Ukraine war briefing: Pope defends Europe – and its role in peace talks – from Trump

Pope Leo XIV has insisted Europe must have a role in any Ukraine peace deal and criticised what he said was the Trump administration’s effort to “break apart” the US-European alliance. Leo spoke after meeting with Ukraine’s visiting president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Seeking a peace agreement without including Europe in the talks is unrealistic, given the war is in Europe,” said the pope. “Guarantees are also being sought for security today and in the future. Europe must be part of this, and unfortunately not everyone understands this, but I think there is a great opportunity for European leaders to unite and seek a solution together.” The Trump administration has released a US national security strategy that aggressively deprecates the US-European alliance. Leo said what he had read would “make a huge change in what was for many, many years a true alliance between Europe and the United States.” Additionally, some comments by Donald Trump suggest an effort “trying to break apart what I think needs to be an alliance today and in the future”. While some people in the US may agree with that effort, “I think many others would see things in a different way”, he said. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to hold a wartime election within the next three months if Ukraine’s parliament will allow it and foreign allies help, Shaun Walker writes from Kyiv. It comes after Donald Trump accused him of clinging on to power and flouting democracy. Ukraine’s constitution forbids elections during wartime, when martial law is necessarily in effect. Zelenskyy, clearly irritated by Trump’s intervention, said that “this is a question for the people of Ukraine, not people from other states, with all due respect to our partners”. Ukraine’s president continued, however, that “since this question is raised today by the president of the United States of America, our partners, I will answer very briefly: look, I am ready for elections. Moreover, I am asking … the United States to help me, possibly together with European colleagues, to ensure security for the elections, and then in the next 60 to 90 days Ukraine will be ready to hold the elections. I personally have the will and readiness for this.” Zelenskyy’s political opponents have shied away from the idea of holding elections in wartime. “It would only cause harm,” said Serhiy Rakhmanin, an MP from the opposition Holos party. “He’s the commander-in-chief, and the country is in a position where we don’t have that luxury, whatever issues we might have with him. It would only help the enemy.” Zelenskyy hoped to send an updated plan to end the war with Russia to Washington on Wednesday, after it was amended following talks with European allies. “We are working today [Tuesday] and will continue tomorrow [Wednesday]. I think we will hand it over tomorrow.” A member of the UK’s armed forces died on Tuesday morning after an accident in Ukraine, Dan Sabbagh writes from Kyiv, in what is believed to be the first time a serving member of the British military has been killed there since the invasion. “He was injured in a tragic accident whilst observing Ukrainian forces test a new defensive capability, away from the frontlines,” said the UK defence ministry. British military personnel are in Ukraine in small numbers in support of the country’s armed forces, and to guard the British embassy, though their presence has been acknowledged only in limited and careful disclosures. Ukrainian troops have been holding parts of the city of Pokrovsk since mid-November but some units were ordered to withdraw from impractical positions outside the city in the past week, Ukraine’s top commander, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, has been quoted as saying. The situation around Pokrovsk remained difficult with Russia massing 156,000 soldiers around it. Russia’s military last week said its forces had captured Pokrovsk, but Ukrainian officials denied its complete fall. Syrskyi, quoted by public broadcaster Suspilne, said Ukrainian forces had made gains from mid-November. “From November 15 as a result of offensive action, we secured about 13 square kilometres [five square miles]. We are continuing to hold the northern part of the city, approximately up to the rail line. In addition, to the west of Pokrovsk, we have cleared and control about 54 sq km … At the same time, I gave an order a few days ago to withdraw our troops from about 5-7 km (3-4 miles) from Pokrovsk, where they had remained,” he said. “Rotation was no longer possible and the enemy was slipping through. There was no point in keeping them there any longer.” Ukraine faces possibly its toughest winter since Russia invaded, the head of the country’s state-run gas operator has sad, accusing Moscow of being determined to cut off heating to civilians as temperatures plunge below zero. The Naftogaz CEO Sergiy Koretsky said: “The destruction and losses of Ukrainian gas production are significant. And the restoration of this production will be lengthy.” Ukraine’s national grid operator said on Tuesday that emergency power cuts had been introduced in most regions because of Russian attacks on the energy system. Roughly half of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv’s residents were experiencing power cuts, said the energy ministry: “The situation in Kyiv remains one of the most difficult.” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Ukraine was ready for an energy ceasefire if Russia agreed. An Armenian, a Ukrainian and a Russian went on trial in Frankfurt, Germany on Tuesday accused of tailing a former soldier for Ukraine on behalf of a Russian intelligence service for a possible assassination plot. Prosecutors charge that they tried to lure the Georgia-born former soldier for the Ukrainian army to a Frankfurt cafe last year, but the target became suspicious and contacted police. A Spanish court has wound down its probe into the killing of a Russian pilot who defected with his helicopter to Ukraine and was found shot dead in a garage on Spain’s Mediterranean coast in 2024. The court said on Tuesday it could not identify any perpetrators. Maxim Kuzminov flew to Ukraine with his Mi-8 helicopter in August 2023 and was found shot dead on 13 February 2024 in an underground garage in the south-eastern Spanish town of Villajoyosa. His body was riddled with bullets and he was carrying a Ukrainian passport under a suspected fake name. The case could be reopened if new evidence emerges.

What’s behind the Thailand-Cambodia clashes – explained in 30 seconds

Stretching across more than 817km (508 miles), the shared land border between Thailand and Cambodia has been marred by conflict for more than a century. Sovereignty has been contested since France, which occupied Cambodia until 1953, first mapped the border in 1907. However, tensions have worsened significantly in 2025. In May, clashes in the area that killed a Cambodian soldier sparked nationalist sentiment on both sides, and saw both governments retaliate. Thailand imposed harsh border restrictions, while Cambodia banned the broadcast of Thai films, and the import of Thai fruit, vegetables, gas and fuel. Then in July, the worst clashes in a decade erupted during five days of fighting after a Thai soldier stepped on a landmine in a disputed area. At least 48 people were killed and more than 300,000 forced to flee their homes. The clash was exacerbated by a fallout between two political former leaders of Cambodia and Thailand. The five-day war ended with a fragile peace deal brokered by US president Donald Trump, which was signed in Malaysia in October. But tensions have remained high. In November Thailand suspended the ceasefire when a border landmine blast injured another Thai solder. A clash occurred two days later that killed one and wounded three Cambodian civilians. Thailand has since launched airstrikes along the border, reigniting fighting that has spread along the border, with seven civilians killed and 20 wounded in Cambodia, and three Thai soldiers confirmed dead. Both sides accuse each other for breaking the ceasefire.

Zelenskyy ‘ready for elections’ after Trump questions Ukrainian democracy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to hold a wartime election within the next three months, if Ukraine’s parliament and foreign allies will allow it, after Donald Trump accused him of clinging on to power. Zelenskyy, clearly irritated by Trump’s intervention, said that “this is a question for the people of Ukraine, not people from other states, with all due respect to our partners”. However, he promised to explore avenues for holding a vote in the coming months. “Since this question is raised today by the president of the United States of America, our partners, I will answer very briefly: look, I am ready for elections,” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday evening. “Moreover, I am asking … the United States to help me, possibly together with European colleagues, to ensure security for the elections, and then in the next 60 to 90 days Ukraine will be ready to hold the elections. I personally have the will and readiness for this,” he added. Trump made the comments in a rambling interview with Politico published earlier on Tuesday. “They haven’t had an election in a long time,” said the US president. “You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy any more.” Zelenskyy’s five-year term expired in May last year, but the Ukrainian constitution prohibits elections in wartime, and even his political opponents have said repeatedly that the security and political considerations do not allow for holding an election during wartime. “It would only cause harm,” said Serhiy Rakhmanin, an MP from the opposition Holos party. “He’s the commander-in-chief, and the country is in a position where we don’t have that luxury, whatever issues we might have with him. It would only help the enemy,” he added. Zelenskyy said the two key questions to solve would be the logistical one of how soldiers, the millions of displaced people, and those living under occupation would be able to vote, and secondly, how to hold elections legally, given martial law is in effect. He asked for advice from allies regarding securing the elections, and from MPs on how to amend the law to allow for elections. “I am waiting for proposals from partners, I am waiting for proposals from our MPs, and I am ready to go to the elections,” said Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy was speaking while returning to Ukraine after a diplomatic tour of European capitals that has come as the White House has increased pressure on Kyiv to sign up to a peace deal. Responding to questions from reporters on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine would do whatever it can to organise a high-level meeting with the US within the next two weeks on a peace deal. He also said Kyiv was ready for an energy ceasefire if Russia agrees. Over the weekend, Trump’s son Donald Jr said at a conference in Doha that Zelenskyy was prolonging the war because he was worried he would otherwise lose power. He also suggested Trump might “walk away” from Ukraine if the war does not end soon. “It’s not correct. But it’s not exactly wrong,” said Trump, when asked about his son’s claim. The US has indicated that Ukraine should give up the Donbas region to achieve peace, a move which would be highly unpopular in Ukraine. There is also no sign that Russia is ready to agree to a deal, even one which would appear to be beneficial to Moscow.