Read the daily news to learn English

What do we know about the reported US-Russian plan to end the Ukraine war?

US and Russian officials have reportedly drafted a plan to end the war in Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Pentagon officials in Kyiv on Thursday for discussions. The full details are not clear but the key tenets of the 28-point deal – reported first by Axios, the FT and the New York Times – are believed to include a demand for Ukraine to cede the rest of the Russian-occupied eastern Donbas region, cut its armed forces by half and reduce or altogether abandon certain types of weaponry, particularly long-range missiles that could hit targets in Russia. That would mean Ukraine voluntarily handing over areas of its territory to Russia that Moscow has been unable to take by force. Kyiv would also be expected to agree to reducing or halting US military assistance. Any future deployment of western troops to Ukraine – as envisaged by the Franco-British-led ‘coalition of the willing’ – would also be banned. In cultural policies, the deal reportedly requires Ukraine to recognise Russian as an official state language and to grant formal status to the Russian Orthodox Church, prompting further concerns about creeping attempts to Russify the country. As part of the deal, Ukraine and Europe could get some US security guarantees against future Russian aggression, although no details were reported of what this could entail. The US was a signatory of the 1994 Budapest memorandum on Ukraine’s security, which was later violated by Russia and it is not immediately clear how the new proposal would safeguard against a similar scenario in the future. The plan appears to repeat Moscow’s maximalist demands and violate numerous Ukrainian red lines and would require a humiliating U-turn from President Zelenskyy, who has said giving up territory would be unacceptable. It would also probably be deemed unacceptable by Ukraine’s European allies, who have long insisted that they should be given a role in the peace talks given the broader implications of the settlement for the continent’s security, particularly on Nato’s eastern flank. The plan was reportedly drafted by Russian and US officials, including the influential head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, who has been involved in previous talks on Ukraine and is known to be in touch with US special envoy Steve Witkoff. Below a post from the Axios journalist who broke the story, Witkoff sent what appeared to be meant as a private message saying: “He must have got this from K.” It was quickly deleted. No US officials have formally confirmed the content of the plan, with White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, telling reporters he had no news or announcements to make on the topic. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, issued a cryptic response to frenzied speculation overnight, saying only that “ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas”. He said on X: “Achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

Zelenskyy to meet US army secretary after American and Russian officials draft plan to end war – Europe live

US and Russian officials have reportedly drafted a new plan to end the war in Ukraine and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with top Pentagon officials in Kyiv on Thursday. But what do the new proposals consist of? The full details are not clear, but the key tenets of the 28-point deal – reported first by Axios, the FT and the New York Times – are believed to include a demand for Ukraine to cede the rest of the Russian occupied eastern Donbas region to Russia, cut its armed forces by half, and reduce or altogether abandon certain types of weaponry, particularly long-range missiles that could hit targets in Russia. That would mean Ukraine voluntarily handing over areas of its territory to Russia that Moscow has been unable to take by force. Kyiv would also be expected to agree to reducing or halting US military assistance, particularly, and any future deployment of western troops to Ukraine – as envisaged by the Franco-British-led Coalition of the Willing – would also be banned. In cultural policies, the deal reportedly requires Ukraine to recognise Russian as an official state language and to grant formal status to the Russian Orthodox Church, prompting further concerns about creeping attempts to russify the country. As part of the deal, Ukraine and Europe could get some US security guarantees against future Russian aggression, although no details were reported of what they could entail. The US was a signatory of the 1994 Budapest memorandum on Ukraine’s security, which was later violated by Russia, and it is not immediately clear how the new proposal would safeguard against a similar scenario in the future. The proposal appears to repeat Moscow’s maximalist demands, violate numerous Ukrainian red lines and would require a humiliating U-turn from Zelenskyy, who previously made it clear that giving up territory would be unacceptable to his administration. It would also likely be deemed unacceptable to Ukraine’s European allies, who have long insisted that they should be given a role in the peace talks given the broader implications of the settlement for the continent’s security, particularly on Nato’s eastern flank. The plan was reportedly drafted by Russian and American officials, including the influential head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, who has been involved in previous talks on Ukraine and is known to be in touch with US special envoy Steve Witkoff. When the plan was first reported by Axios, Witkoff posted on X below a post from the journalist who broke the story, sending what appeared to be meant as a private message and was quickly deleted, saying: “He must have got this from K.” No US officials have formally confirmed the content of the plan so far, with White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, telling reporters he had no news or announcements to make on this topic. US state secretary Marco Rubio issued a cryptic response to frenzied speculations overnight, saying only that “ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas.” “Achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict,” he said on X.

Tell us: have you spotted or heard about escaped wallabies in your area?

Sightings of escaped wallabies in Britain are increasing, and don’t appear to be limited to a particular region. The most recent verified data indicates clusters in the Chiltern Hills, Cornwall and Wiltshire. There have also been reports from Cumbria, Yorkshire, Northumberland, Lancashire, north Wales, Kent, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, the Thames Valley, the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Man. Have you spotted or heard about wallabies in your area? Please provide details if possible - where, when, how many, how frequent, and what they were doing. If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

Jailhouse shock: Brazil coup monger Bolsonaro finally faces life behind bars

He fought the law and the law won. Two months after receiving a 27-year sentence for trying to “annihilate” Brazil’s democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally looks jail-bound. The convicted coup-monger – who has been living under house arrest in his mansion while a series of legal procedures and appeals play out – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the coming days, amid growing speculation that he will be sent to a notorious maximum security prison. During Bolsonaro’s four-decade political career, the far-right former paratrooper showed little compassion for Brazil’s prison population. “Why should we give those dirtbags a good life?” he once mused. “They should just get fucked, full-fucking-stop. That’s what I reckon.” On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to end up there, all you have to do is not rape, kidnap or rob.” But the prospect of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has appalled allies, four of whom this week visited the complex in an apparent attempt to dissuade the supreme court from banishing him there. Izalci Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party (PL) who was part of that quartet, said he expected the 70-year-old politician to be imprisoned in the next 10 days and feared his destination could be Papuda. Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe intestinal problems – the result of a near-fatal knife attack during the 2018 presidential campaign – meant it would be dangerous to keep the former president there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He won’t be able to handle it if they take him to Papuda … It would be awful,” said the senator, who also worried about overcrowded cells and the quality of prison meals. While visiting Papuda, Lucas recalled seeing cells holding 40 inmates: “That’s practically one square metre per prisoner. “We talked to the prisoners and they complain, of course, of the horrible food,” added the senator. Lucas is not the only voice speaking out ahead of the former president’s anticipated detention. Writing in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, another ally, the former communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “brutal” finale to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” political career and claimed Brazil was about to witness “the greatest political injustice in its history”. “It is an injustice that eats away the hearts of millions of Brazilians,” Wajngarten wrote. That may be true given the considerable support Bolsonaro retains on the Brazilian right. But his expected jailing has also warmed the hearts of millions of others who believe he should be incarcerated for plotting to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking power – and even conspiring to have him assassinated. Reimont Otoni, a congressman for Lula’s Workers’ party (PT), said: “Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be put in a dungeon. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be put in solitary confinement. Nobody wants Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We want him to receive dignified treatment – but dignified treatment in prison. He can’t carry on being his own prison warden for his whole life.” Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro allies, who have spent years celebrating the harsh treatment of prisoners, had suddenly woken up to their rights. “Only now has the extreme right – which has always claimed that human rights were not for criminals – decided to visit a prison to find out what conditions are really like,” he said. “Bolsonaro is a criminal,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, degrading treatment”. Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which currently houses about 14,000 inmates, his more likely destination appears to be a nearby penitentiary for police officers and other “special” prisoners known as Papudinha (Little Papuda). Its cells are far more comfortable than those in the main prison, although still a world away from the luxury Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the spectacular Oscar Niemeyer-designed presidential palace, Alvorada, about 12 miles away. According to the Estado de São Paulo newspaper, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – about the size of two parking spaces – and features a 12 sq metre bathroom with a shower and a 12 sq metre veranda. “Bolsonaro would be allowed to have a television and even a minibar in his room as long as they were donated by his family,” the newspaper reported. Senator Lucas condemned the rumoured plan to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a form of revenge” on the part of Alexandre de Moraes, the supreme court judge who oversaw Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will decide his fate in the coming days. Otoni described the jailing of a former president as a sad moment – but a necessary one that represented “an affirmation of Brazilian democracy” and the country’s laws. “The message to Brazil, and to the world, is that crime doesn’t pay,” Otoni said.

Raiders of the lobster pot: wily wolves learn to haul in Canadian crab traps

The clues read like something from mystery novel: crab traps, suspiciously hauled ashore by unseen hands, had been damaged by baffling teeth marks. The bait inside was missing. The question for researchers in the remote corner of British Columbia was: whodunnit? As with many crimes of opportunity in the modern era, the culprit was unmasked by a remote camera. Researchers have revealed that wily sea wolves had retrieved the traps, swimming to the depths to haul in the float, dragging the ropes ashore in a series of quick and deliberate tugs that underscored what ecologist Kyle Artelle described as “highly efficient and focused behaviour”. The startling discovery – and potential use of tools – broadens our understanding of wolf intelligence and gives a glimpse at the delightful surprises that emerge when predators coexist with humans. Artelle’s findings, published in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution alongside co-author Paul Paquet, come as the result of close collaboration with the Heiltusk First Nation in British Columbia. For more than a decade, the community of Bella Bella has battled European green crabs. Introduced to California more than three decades ago, the invasive and ruthless crustacean has been moving northward, devastating clam beds and eelgrass ecosystems, which are a key source of shelter for young fish. In the case of the Heiltusk, the legacy of a toxic diesel spill in the region has bolstered the ability for the opportunistic green crabs to thrive. As part of a monitoring programme to blunt the spread of the crustacean, Haíɫzaqv Guardians place specifically designed traps in the shallow intertidal zones. They also drop traps in deeper water, marking the location with brightly coloured floats. Beginning in 2023, however, the team noticed that a number of damaged traps with teeth marks. “We figured wolves or bears were getting to these traps because the traps were fairly accessible during low tide,” said Artelle. “But we just couldn’t figure out what was attacking the deeper traps.” Initially, otters or seals were thought the likeliest culprits. But when researchers positioned cameras near the traps, they made an astonishing discovery. Footage shows a wolf swimming ashore with a float clenched between her teeth. She drags it on to the beach in order to get a better angle on the rope, and pulls on the line until the crab trap emerges from the depth. Soon after, she accesses the bait cup, absconding with a snack – but leaving an answer to the year-long mystery. “We couldn’t believe our eyes. It was serendipity that we actually captured this behaviour. And it was, quite simply, inspiring,” said Artelle, adding that both scientists and the Heiltsuk have long known wolves are fiercely intelligent predators. “You can see the efficiency with which she moves through the traps. This isn’t genetic. This is an entirely learned behaviour, and learned very fast, and likely shared among the group.” The thief was a rare species of canine known as the coastal or sea wolf. These apex predators thrive in marine environments and have become adept at living off a diet of salmon, shellfish and seals. In most of the province, wolves are a nuisance predator – and hunted accordingly. But the Bella Bella community, through the Haíɫzaqv Wolf and Biodiversity Project, has a different relationship to wolves. They are not hunted. Instead, they live alongside humans. “There’s a pack living at the edge of town. They’ve lived with people for millennia, but they’ve forged a strikingly different relationship,” said Artelle, adding the rugged, thickly forested land and sea scape “is possibly one of the few places in the world where wolves can fully be wolves”. The implications from the video, he says, are profound. “This is a whole new dimension of their behaviour that we did not realise. When we see these new dimensions of human potential, it gives us a further appreciation of our own species and what it can mean to be human,” said Artelle. “This just gives us a new dimension of what it can mean to be a wolf and raises a larger question: what else can they do?”

Shelter and food in desperately short supply as Gaza braces for harsh winter

Everyone knew what was coming. But there was little the inhabitants of the tent cities that crowd the shore of southern Gaza could do as the storm approached. Sabah al-Breem, 62, was sitting with one of her daughters and several grandchildren in their current home – a makeshift construction of tarpaulins and salvaged wood – when the wind and the driving rain broke across Gaza last week. “Everything collapsed … We repaired our shelter but in the night it fell down again under the heavy rain. All our belongings were soaked. The day the winds blew was a black day for us,” said Breem, originally from Khan Younis but displaced multiple times since the start of the war in October 2023. This week the half million or so Palestinians living in al-Mawasi, a cramped coastal zone in southern Gaza, are bracing for a grim winter. For many it will be the third that they have faced after being displaced during the conflict. Last week’s storm revealed how more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, though they survived the two-year war, still face humanitarian crisis. Shelter is the most pressing need, aid agencies say. Most homes in Gaza have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by successive Israeli offensives, or lie east of the new “yellow line” that divides the territory into a zone under Israeli military control and one under de facto Hamas authority. There is nowhere for the displaced to go. In the aftermath of the storm, barefoot children splashed in muddy puddles as women made tea outside under dark clouds. Some tried to shelter in destroyed buildings, even those at risk of collapse, with gaping holes covered by pieces of plastic. Food comes a close second in terms of priorities for those in al-Mawasi. Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire deal called for “full aid” to be sent into Gaza, but though more has been reaching the devastated territory, residents and humanitarian officials say quantities are grossly insufficient. “Is it better? Yes … in the sense that people aren’t starving any more. Is it enough? Absolutely not. We have massive stockpiles of tents and tarpaulins and we can’t get them in. A lot is still waiting to clear all the hurdles the Israelis are still putting in our way … We could be handing out 10,000 tents a day,” said a senior official of a major international NGO last week. Israel has not yet allowed passage through the entry point into Gaza from Egypt at Rafah, though some other smaller crossings from Israel have been reopened. The majority of supplies entering the territory are trucked in by private commercial operators or donors, such as major Gulf countries, with officials from major United Nations agencies saying they still face daunting and opaque bureaucratic processes that slow or stop their distributions. Aid officials say many critical items, such as tent poles, are not permitted by Israel to enter Gaza because they are designated as potentially having a military use. COGAT, the Israeli Ministry of Defence agency that administers entry to Gaza, denies this and said that over the last few months it had facilitated the distribution of close to 140,000 tarpaulins in Gaza, though 19,000 tents brought by NGOs were designed only for summer conditions. The agency is supposed to be working closely with a new US-run centre to facilitate the supply of aid into Gaza, though few details have emerged of how this is working in practice. Prices in Gaza fluctuate wildly but those who have funds can buy a tent in markets for about $800. Few in al-Mawasi have any cash at all after two years of war and most Palestinians in the territory still cannot afford to buy food, medicine or scarce cooking gas. Community kitchens have stepped up operations, but cannot satisfy the acute need. Maher Abu Jerad, 29, from Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, said his family of four was living mainly on canned beans and peas. “Sometimes we receive one meal from the public kitchen every three days – usually lentils or rice. The food in the market remains completely unaffordable. Water is also a struggle. We have to bring it from a long distance, and it does not last the whole day. We only have three containers that we fill for daily use,” said Abu Jerad, a painter before the war. All in Gaza know last week’s storm was the first of many and temperatures will plummet in coming weeks. “With no basic infrastructure or proper drainage in the camps, rainwater is collecting around the tents. Overcrowding and the limited access to clean water are also making the sanitation situation much worse,” said Mohammed Madhoun, a community healthcare worker at a clinic run by Medical Aid for Palestinians in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The storm left tents scattered across street and beaches where surges of seawater engulfed many. “The sound of the waves prevents us from sleeping. We barely sleep an hour or less, and the seawater reaches the tents when the waves crash,” said Breem. “We lack all winter essentials: no blankets, no rugs, no bedding. Diseases have spread among us: colds, coughs, aches … and this is just at the start of winter.” The first stage of the ceasefire agreement, which called for an Israeli partial withdrawal and the return of hostages held by Hamas, is close to completion. The next stage, which received a boost following the endorsement of Trump’s plan by the UN security council on Monday, calls for the creation of a committee of Palestinian technocrats to run Gaza under the ultimate authority of the president and the deployment of an international stabilisation force. A major unanswered question is how, or if, Hamas will be disarmed. The conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. The Islamist organisation still holds the remains of three hostages. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 69,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and reduced much of the territory to rubble. Naama Arafat, who now lives on the shore in al-Mawasi, said she remembered a “beautiful life” before the war in her family’s “small, simple, warm house” east of Khan Younis. “We wore our warm clothes, and mattresses and blankets were plentiful … Now, we cannot even light a fire to cook food because of the strong winds and the lack of wood and supplies,” Arafat, 53, said. “I pray to God that all aspects of our lives will be eased and we can live in better conditions. I say a message to the world: to look at us with mercy and offer us help, for we have entered a very harsh winter season.”

Secret translation of Nauruan president’s interview on NZYQ deal with Australia to stay suppressed for decade

A top secret translation of the Nauruan president’s public commentary on the NZYQ deal will remain suppressed for a decade after the Albanese government considered its release “inappropriate”. Nauru declined to endorse an informal translation by Australia’s high commission of the 10-minute public interview uploaded to Facebook in February, nor did it provide its own translation, newly released documents reveal. The interview in Nauruan with the Pacific nation’s president, David Adeang, was posted online shortly after Australia’s home affairs minister, Tony Burke, announced Australia had struck a deal with Nauru to send the first of about 350 members of the so-called NZYQ cohort there after the 2023 high court ruling freed them from indefinite detention. Guardian Australia reported on Adeang’s comments at the time using an informal translation from a Nauruan speaker – of which there are fewer than 10,000 worldwide. Sign up: AU Breaking News email But the informal translation held by the Australian government has been subject to extreme secrecy, after it was deemed too harmful to publicly release and later subjected to a 10-year suppression order by the federal and high courts as part of one man’s challenge against his deportation to Nauru. Internal government correspondence tabled in the Senate on Thursday showed officials from the foreign affairs and home affairs departments had discussed Adeang’s comments in the weeks after. In March, a home affairs director said foreign affairs had advised them not to release the transcript of Adeang’s interview to a Senate estimates hearing. The foreign minister, Penny Wong, explained this week that the translation notes had been “taken hastily” by an official who was not an accredited translator and were “for internal purposes only”. “The government of Nauru has confirmed it will not provide any translation of the interview. I am informed the notes were taken hastily, for internal purposes only, by a staff member in the Australian high commission in Nauru who is not an accredited translator,” Wong said in a letter accompanying the release of correspondence. “The translation of Nauruan to English is the source of much debate in Nauru. As the government of Nauru has not provided its own translation, nor endorsed the above-mentioned notes as a true and accurate reflection of the interview, it would not be appropriate to release them and doing so would damage our bilateral relationship.” Australia’s deal with Nauru is expected to cost more than $400m in the deal’s first year, and about $2.5bn over the deal’s 30-year lifetime. One of the three men first announced for deportation – an Iranian refugee whose visa was cancelled after he was convicted of murdering his wife in the 1990s and who was placed in indefinite detention after serving his sentence – launched a challenge in the federal court against his removal. The man, known in the courts as TCXM, sought to avoid being offloaded to Nauru by arguing he had serious health conditions and was not afforded procedural fairness. The federal court judge dismissed the case and applied a suppression order over sensitive details of Australia’s arrangement with Nauru. The order includes the countries’ memorandum of understanding and the transcript of Adeang’s February interview in Nauru. TCXM’s appeal, which was moved to the high court, will be heard in December. But the transfer of other members of the NZYQ cohort remains opaque. Sources on Nauru say a number of people are being held in the RPC3 detention complex, but that they have not been sighted outside the centre. Successive Australian governments have imposed extreme secrecy around their offshore detention regime. The Howard government issued an edict that “no personalising or humanising images” should be taken of asylum seekers, while Scott Morrison, as immigration and prime minister, repeatedly told reporters “we don’t comment on on-water matters”. The Albanese government has repeatedly told the Senate it would not reveal the details of a multimillion-dollar “confidential bilateral agreement” it has signed with Papua New Guinea to hold asylum seekers and refugees formerly detained on Manus Island. “The release … could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the Australian government’s international relations,” the government said. This month, Adeang arrived in Canberra for a series of meetings with government ministers not previously declared by either government – as most visits by heads of state are – leading to speculation around a “secret” visit, amid controversy around Australia removing NZYQ members to Nauru, and Australia’s contracts on the island.

Thursday briefing: What fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school mean for Nigel Farage

Good morning. For more than 30 years, Nigel Farage has been one of the most disruptive figures in British politics, known for building a brand on outrage and polarisation. He presents himself as the everyman, cigarette hanging out of his mouth or a pint in hand. Now that several polls suggest he is a serious contender to be the next prime minister, it feels high time to ask: what’s the background of this supposed man of the people? The latest Guardian exclusive digs deep into just that question, where allegations from more than a dozen school contemporaries of Farage recount incidents of deeply offensive behaviour throughout his teenage years. This is not the whole picture. Others who knew Farage then remember he was bumptious, rude, provocative and enjoyed being the centre of attention, and do not recall the alleged behaviour. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to the Guardian’s chief reporter, Daniel Boffey, about why he took on this investigation, what he found, and why voters need “full transparency” about the claims against Farage. That’s after the headlines. Five big stories US news | Donald Trump has signed a bill directing the justice department to release files from the investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, surrendering in the face of joint pressure from Democratic opponents and the president’s conservative base. UK news | Up to 50,000 nurses could quit the UK over the government’s immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, research suggests. Middle East | Israel used widely banned cluster munitions in its recent 13-month war in Lebanon, photos of munition remnants in south Lebanon seen by the Guardian suggest. Ukraine | US and Russian officials have quietly drafted a new plan to end the war in Ukraine that would require Kyiv to surrender territory and severely limit the size of its military, according to reports. Health | The world’s largest study into key substances in the bloodstream has paved the way for a swathe of pinprick tests that can detect early signs of disease more than a decade before symptoms appear, researchers say. In depth: ‘What people were alleging was nasty. It seemed habitual’ Claims of racism against Farage as a schoolboy resurfaced in September after deputy prime minister David Lammy claimed in a BBC interview that Farage had “once flirted with Hitler Youth when he was younger”, but later clarified that Farage had denied these claims. Lammy was referring to claims first aired by Channel 4 News over a decade ago. Chloe Deakin, formerly an English teacher at Dulwich college in south-east London, which Farage attended, said that some members of staff had described the young man as a “fascist”, with one reporting that he had marched through a “quiet Sussex village very late at night shouting Hitler Youth songs”. At the time, Farage admitted saying “some ridiculous things … not necessarily racist things … it depends on how you define it”. Daniel Boffey decided to dig into the claims around Farage’s time at Dulwich, and to see whether Farage would respond in the same way now. “It looked like now he is getting closer to power he is trying to rewrite history and say ‘Nothing to see here’, so we thought we’d dig in and take a look.” That digging led Daniel to more than 30 people who had overlapped with Farage at Dulwich. “It was a case of trying to get in touch with as many contemporaries as possible,” says Daniel. Many claim to have vivid recollections of racist and rambunctious behaviour, but some said they just didn’t remember anything, or that what he was saying wasn’t seen as particularly out of line with the times. The people who did have strong memories painted a clear picture. “You could maybe fall for Farage the affable rogue, but what people were alleging was nasty. It seemed habitual. The consistency from the ages of 13 to 18 was remarkable,” says Daniel. Farage very much didn’t want this story told and tried “heavy-handed tactics” to stop us telling it, says Daniel. “Those tactics say a lot about him. I think a lot of people will be disturbed at how he appears to be trying to rewrite history, and threaten and bully journalists who are just trying to get to the truth.” *** ‘A profoundly, precociously racist teenager’ Key allegations came from Bafta- and Emmy-winning director and producer Peter Ettedgui, whose grandparents escaped from Nazi Germany. He was in a class with Farage when they were both about 13 years old. Farage would sidle up to Ettedgui and make comments such as “Hitler was right”, or “Gas them”, claims Ettedgui. He said he found Farage’s antisemitism “deeply shocking”. He also heard him calling other students “Paki” or “Wog”, and urging them to “go home”. Ettedgui said that from his experience “there’s no doubt in my mind that he was a profoundly, precociously racist teenager”. Initially, he spoke to Daniel off the record, but after the Manchester synagogue attack he changed his mind, and felt he had to speak out publicly. “What Farage is meant to have said clearly affected Ettedgui – he’d never experienced antisemitism before. When you accept it and normalise it, you end up in a dark place. I think not letting that happen was his motivation for going on the record,” says Daniel. Other students allege that they heard similar language from Farage in sixth form, when he was about 17 years old. One of those recalls Farage, on three occasions, asking where he was from, before pointing away and allegedly saying: “That’s the way back.” “Farage used to say things like ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas em’, you know, that sort of thing,” said former school friend Jean-Pierre Lihou. Another pupil claims Farage “regularly” performed the Nazi “Sieg heil” salute, strutting around the classroom, and saying things such as “Hitler was right”. “It was habitual, you know, it happened all the time,” claims Tim France, who was in the same year as Farage when they were 18 and spent a lot of time near him because the class sat in alphabetical order. Others who were at school with Farage do not recall this behaviour, and just say that he was rude, provocative and enjoyed being the centre of attention. *** Farage’s response In legal letters to the Guardian, Farage emphatically denied saying anything racist or antisemitic when he was a teenager, while also questioning the public interest in airing allegations that date back over 40 years. A spokesperson for Reform UK said the allegations are “entirely without foundation”. This marks a change from his response to separate claims made in previous years – when he minimised the sort of behaviour he may have engaged in at Dulwich college, without denying it outright. Keir Starmer has called on Farage to explain himself, while Starmer’s press secretary described the allegations as “disturbing”. Daniel says: “The testimonies are overwhelming, and it’s important how he deals with it now. If he were to say, ‘I did some horrible things and I regret it, and anyone who does that stuff is out of order and completely wrong’, I’d have respect for that, but he’s not done that. It appears that he’s tried to lie, and say, ‘Nothing to see here.’” *** Voters need ‘full transparency’ Daniel believes Farage has been economical with the truth in the past, pointing to his ambiguous claim that leaving the EU would channel £350m per week into the NHS and that migrants are “eating swans and carp” in UK parks. But in doing this investigative work, Daniel wanted to give the public a fuller idea of how Farage’s peers remember him, to see Farage’s response, and to be able to ask voters: “Are these claims about a character you are happy to put your cross against?” Some also see a line between the policies of the Farage of now, and things he allegedly said in his past. One former Dulwich pupil, Nick Gordon Brown, remembers Farage as having been a “loud and frequent” supporter of the repatriation of immigrants at school – which is part of Farage’s policy platform now. “I always remember his words – he used to refer to our ‘black and brown friends’ with that grin, with that tone of voice that anyone who sees him on the TV now will be so used to,” he said. “That was a constant narrative. I mean, arguably, it was his only narrative, and I think that remains his obsession to this day.” It’s hard to know what reaction voters will have. Those who aren’t put off by Farage’s talk of repatriation now, for example, may be no more interested in whether he may have thought the same as a boy. And for those who read these witness statements and find the detail disturbing, they still may reason that being a racist as an 18-year-old does not make you a racist at 61 years old. But if Farage wants to be prime minister, these things matter, says Daniel. “The live issue is his response to it, and that ties in to everything else – is he open and transparent about who he is and what people say he’s done? All that is important.” What else we’ve been reading Look anywhere on the left and you’ll find calls for a wealth tax. But Aditya Chakrabortty questions in this fascinating column whether any tax would actually be worth it. “This isn’t much of a policy, it’s a pantomime – a pantomime of pseudo-radicalism in which the villains are some wankers on yachts and the solution is one simple trick, just like those dodgy internet ads used to offer,” he writes. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team You may think of vast open rubbish tips as something you see in poorer countries, but Sandra Laville’s look into mountains of waste dumped in Oxfordshire tells another story, and points to large-scale corruption in UK waste management. Shocking, and likely to be widespread. Phoebe What exactly is Donald Trump’s deal with Venezuela? This video from Tom Phillips, Laure Boulinier and Sarah Bertram is a handy explainer of the US president’s “dubious” airstrikes against alleged drug traffickers, and deployment of the US navy in the Caribbean. Charlie This is the grim and remarkable story of Katrina Brownlee who was shot ten times by her fiance at the age of 22 and survived. She went on to work as a first-grade detective with 20 years’ working for the police. A gripping read. Phoebe For our Pushing Buttons newsletter, Keza MacDonald wrote about the (really very good) Arc Raiders, and the brewing controversy over the game’s use of generative AI for in-game character voices. It’s a preview of a forthcoming battle for the soul of the multibillion-dollar games industry, she thinks. Charlie Sport Football | Alessia Russo’s second-half double secured a 2-1 comeback victory for Arsenal against Real Madrid in the Women’s Champions League. Cricket | Ben Stokes said he wants to become one of the “lucky few” England captains to claim an away Ashes victory, as he called on his players to forget a 15-year barren spell in Australia and “create our own history”. Rugby union | Elliot Daly, Henry Slade, Ben Spencer and Asher Opoku-Fordjour have been named in a reshuffled England XV for their final autumn Test against Argentina on Sunday. Steve Borthwick has made six changes in total, with Ellis Genge and Luke Cowan-Dickie promoted from the bench. The front pages The Guardian leads with “Starmer calls on Farage to address racism claims”. The i has “10% council tax hike for millions to transfer money to North and Midlands”. The Mail asks “What percentage of Britons think the economy is in a great state under Labour? Zero”. The Telegraph reports on a “‘Cash for land’ deal to end war in Ukraine”. Following news of a Russian spy ship in UK waters, the Sun leads with “Ship hits the fan”. The Mirror goes with “We see you...We’re ready”. The Times reports “Trans guide to protect women left in limbo”. Finally the Financial Times says “Home investors pull £26bn from top London stocks despite blistering rally” Today in Focus Will the public sexual assault of the president mark a turning point for women in Mexico? What will it take to improve women’s safety in Mexico? With Estefanía Vela Barba and Ann Deslandes. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has revealed that he sent a letter of encouragement and solidarity to Dominic McLaughlin, the 11-year-old actor cast as the young wizard in HBO’s forthcoming television adaptation of the series. “I just wanted to write to say, ‘I hope you have the best time, and an even better time than I did – I had a great time, but I hope you have an even better time,’” Radcliffe said. “I just see these pictures of him and the other kids and I just want to hug them. They just seem so young. I do look at them and say, ‘Oh it’s crazy I was doing that.’ But it’s also incredibly sweet and I hope they’re having a great time.” Whether Radcliffe’s letter was delivered by owl or regular post is unconfirmed. 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. Martin Belam’s Thursday news quiz Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply