Harvard-educated head of Russia’s wealth fund has risen to key role despite having little diplomatic experience

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When relations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin soured this autumn, with the US president publicly accusing Moscow of blocking a path to a peace in Ukraine and announcing significant sanctions against Russia’s oil sector, one man saw an opening.

Kirill Dmitriev, the US-savvy, Harvard-educated head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, boarded a plane to Florida late October, where he met Steve Witkoff, the property developer serving as Trump’s freelance envoy on Ukraine.

The lifestyle guru’s advice on 1980s entertaining was absurd – but reminds us that hosting should always be fun

The celebrations were imminent and the greenhouse ready to accommodate – among the orchids, in unseasonable November warmth – an intimate Hawaiian luau. The table was set with giant clam shells for serving vessels and miniature hibachis for grilling Dungeness crab. Somebody had found a small, pink pineapple and secured it on the watermelon like a brooch. The hostess considered the merits of a hula dancer, but in the end settled on a more succinct spectacle: a 19lb suckling pig, enwreathed with sub-tropical flowers and caparisoned in bronze.

It was, and could only ever have been, a Martha Stewart affair. This was before the media empire, in more innocent days, when Stewart was a caterer in Connecticut. She was brilliant even then. It takes a spark of something dazzling, even dangerous, to notice a single detail – an orchid, say – and from this to extrapolate a 20-person luau. A while later, Stewart wrote about the party in Entertaining, her 1982 cookbook debut, lushly photographed and with step-by-step instructions for chicken wings with banana. “The pig wore a necklace of starfruit,” she explained. It speaks to Stewart’s generational talent for nonsense that this isn’t even in the top 10 wildest sentences in the book.

Ill-advised, in which 75-year-old actor doles out advice and his innermost secrets, is fast becoming cult podcast of the year

Bill Nighy is single. He has never read a self-help book, had no intention of becoming an actor and briefly went deaf after putting toilet paper in his ears to get to sleep. He has shutters, not curtains, in his bedroom, but has no idea what time he wakes up. If you invite him to a dinner party he will bring you exfoliating products, except don’t invite him, because he won’t come. He is good at making custard, but doesn’t cook because he lives alone “and it would be too sad”.

The Surrey-born actor is as renowned for his suits as he is his singular ability to inhabit a role while remaining recognisably himself throughout. But almost 50 years into his career, Nighy is finally playing himself. A new podcast called Ill-advised casts the 75-year-old as an agony uncle, doling out advice and his innermost secrets to listeners from Italy to Mongolia to Scotland. The actor describes it as a “refuge for the clumsy and awkward”. But it’s gently becoming the cult podcast of the year. In the most recent episode, Nighy has even threatened to make merch.

The sport is rooted in the culture of rugged individualism and has been slow to adopt modern techniques. That state of affairs is slowly changing

Boosted by cultural phenomena like the hit series Yellowstone and Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album and tour, rodeo and all things Western are enjoying a cultural resurgence. Attendance, broadcast and streaming viewership are at all time highs. So is the prize money, which is attracting more and more young athletes seeking a chance to make a name for themselves.

But while rodeo is booming, athlete development remains antiquated.

Whether it’s music boxes, glasses cases or mugs, footie coasters, F1 keyrings or pet portraits, adding a personal touch to a gift has never been easier

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Struggling to find a gift for your hard-to-buy-for mother-in-law? Perhaps you’ve ended up with your boss in the work secret Santa and are stuck for ideas? Or maybe you can’t think of what to buy a friend who already has everything?

Personalised gifts elevate a crowd-pleasing present to a meaningful one. From a wooden gaming stand to ceramic egg cups, we’ve found some of the best.

It is uncomfortable to watch royals appealing to the nation’s best instincts while an elected government feels compelled to chase our worst

Every child has the right to feel safe, loved and as if they belong.

Put like that, there is nothing remotely radical about what the Princess of Wales used her first public speech since recovering from cancer to say: that families need consistently nurturing environments to flourish; that the world could actually use a bit more tenderness; that we are all responsible for the culture in which future generations grow up; and that (as she told an audience of blue-chip employers) caring for others is work deserving of respect. It’s the reasons why those motherhood-and-apple-pie values don’t always prevail in real life, rather than the values themselves, that are generally too contentious for the carefully apolitical royals. Yet what were once safe, bland nothings are increasingly no longer so – and not just because of the awkward shadow now cast over any royal initiative involving childhood by the former prince Andrew’s infamous association with the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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Police say Nathan Gill received at least £40,000 while he was an MEP from Oleg Voloshyn, an alleged Russian asset

Reform UK’s former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, has been jailed at the Old Bailey for 10 and a half years for taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia when he was an MEP.

Gill, a member of the Ukip and Brexit party blocs led by Nigel Farage in the European parliament, had pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.

Germany says leaders welcomed US efforts to end war but current line of contact should be ‘starting point’ of negotiation

German Bild tabloid is also reporting that Merz is expected to hold a phone call not only with Zelenskyy, but also with the US president, Donald Trump.

Mind you: there’s been no official confirmation yet.

PM says Burnham doing ‘really good job’ as Manchester mayor and urges colleagues not to brief against each other

Keir Starmer has attempted to dampen the latest round of speculation about his leadership, insisting that one of his potential rivals, Andy Burnham, is doing a “really good job as mayor of Manchester” and warning colleagues not to waste their time briefing against each other.

The prime minister gave his backing to Burnham on Thursday night as he travelled to the G20 summit in Johannesburg, after the Manchester mayor repeatedly failed to rule out challenging Starmer for his party’s leadership during interviews on Thursday.

André Corrêa do Lago issues plea to preserve Paris agreement with countries far from reaching agreement on scheduled final day

An informal stocktake plenary is now underway [see live feed at the top of the blog]. Here the presidency will update parties on the state of the negotiations.

My colleague Damian Carrington will be keeping across the main developments.