A political ally of Vladimir Putin who declared poverty to a London divorce court had £217m-worth of property and land in London and Moscow as well as £21m in investments and a £4m art collection, a judge has found. David Allison, the solicitor representing Alona Sloutsker, said: “Unfortunately, Mr Sloutsker’s obstructive behaviour continued after trial until his death in late September. The couple had “spent millions of pounds on redecorating and renovating that large property”, the judge said. The family home in London was valued at £45m although Sloutsker had failed to pay about £27m or £28m in mortgage payments over the last 12 months. He had £4m in REYL bank in Switzerland and a family home in Moscow valued at £22m.

The problem is the politics’View image in fullscreen A man sits in a polluted river in Belem, Brazil. “The climate crisis is a slow-motion disaster,” Natalie said, “but the news agenda thrives on quick, new, fast, ever-changing stories. Photograph: HandoutThe Guardian will be providing comprehensive coverage of the conference, with a significant team out in Brazil. “This isn’t just some sort of theoretical discussion in a conference room at a UN Climate Summit. “Trump row BBC boss: I quit” – that’s the Daily Mirror, while the Mail engages maximum castigation protocols: “BBC bosses quit in disgrace”.

Veterans of the second world war were applauded as they arrived at the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, before being joined by royals and senior politicians to honour those who have died in conflict. King Charles laid the first wreath in recognition of those killed in wars and conflicts dating back to the first world war. View image in fullscreen Veterans lay wreaths at the Stone of Remembrance outside the City Chambers in Edinburgh. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PAAs well as royals and political leaders, 10,000 members of the armed forces participated in the Royal British Legion’s annual march past, including about three D-day veterans among the 20 second world war veterans marking 80 years since the conflict ended in 1945. Sid Machin, one of six 101-year-olds registered to march, is one of the last surviving Chindit special forces soldiers the second world war’s Burma (now Myanmar) campaign.

A car explosion outside the historic Red Fort monument in Delhi has killed at least eight people and started a fire in the surrounding area, according to police. Police said a slow-moving car had stopped at a red light just outside the Red Fort metro station before the blast. “An explosion happened in that vehicle, and due to the explosion, nearby vehicles were also damaged,” said the Delhi police commissioner, Satish Golcha. “Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the blast in Delhi earlier this evening. About a dozen people were killed in a briefcase explosion outside the Delhi high court in 2011 – the last such major incident in the city.

Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has held talks with Donald Trump at the White House, the first such official visit by a Syrian leader since national independence in 1946. Trump met the Syrian leader for the first time last May in Riyadh on the sidelines of a Gulf Cooperation Council summit. In September the ex-jihadist, who had been previously affiliated with al-Qaida, became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN general assembly in New York. The interior ministry said Syrian security forces carried out 61 raids, with 71 people arrested and explosives and weapons seized. While Israel and Syria remain formally in a state of war, with Israel still occupying Syria’s Golan Heights, Trump has expressed hope that the two countries can normalise relations.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy arriving at his residence in Paris, France. View image in fullscreen Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy arriving at his residence in Paris, France. Photograph: Jumeau Alexis/ABACA/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Jean Sarkozy and Pierre Sarkozy, sons of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, are seen in Paris. View image in fullscreen Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy seen arriving at his flat in west Paris after leaving La Sante Prison earlier today. View image in fullscreen Vehicles believed to be carrying former French President Nicolas Sarkozy leave the Sante prison in Paris, France.

Queensland will roll out shark-spotting drones to more beaches, after a major study found drones detected more than double the number of sharks caught in adjacent nets. Shark nets had a substantially higher environmental impact, with 123 non-target animals (not including non-target sharks) caught in nets across 10 beaches during the trial period. In May, the Crisafulli government announced it would expand the use of shark nets, a position it has maintained despite more than a dozen whales becoming entangled in recent months. The state now deploys 27 nets and 383 drum lines designed to catch and kill seven target species of shark. “While drones are a good augmentation of the program, they cannot replace core program gear such as drum lines and nets at this time,” the spokesperson said.

The $2m (£1.5m), 206-player World Cup taking place in Goa, India, has a brutal format designed to maximise the chance of shock results. The major incentive besides the prize money is three places in the 2026 Candidates, the pathway to the world title. After losing to the little-known Indian Diptayan Ghosh, Nepomniachtchi posted a laconic message: “There’s nothing to say about the chess part. Niemann was outplayed by Italy’s Lorenzo ­Lodici, so will have to postpone his ­ambition to become the first US world ­champion since Bobby Fischer until at least 2028. View image in fullscreen 3997: GM Levon Aronian (US) v IM Aronyak Ghosh (India), World Cup, Goa 2025.

A Ukrainian court has sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison after finding him guilty of killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war – the first time Ukraine has jailed a suspect on such charges. The court in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia found Dmitry Kurashov, 27, guilty of shooting dead Vitalii Hodniuk, a Ukrainian soldier who had surrendered in January 2024 when his dugout was captured by Russian forces. Kurashov, who was taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces along with other Russian troops soon after and pleaded guilty in court, although he later told reporters he was innocent and wanted to be exchanged in a prisoner swap. Sweden and Ukraine said they had signed a letter of intent to establish a hub in Ukraine to develop new weapons technologies. The plans would see Swedish personnel working on site in Ukraine, said the Swedish defence minister, Pal Jonson.

For a long time now it has been obvious the climate crisis is reducing snowfall across much of northern Europe. Snow-making machines are keeping the industry alive. For the first time the Swiss have been able to quantify their snow loss. The height of Swiss ski resorts in between those extremes varies enormously. These figures spell potential future economic disaster for those lower down, since snow-making machines are expensive to operate – sometimes as much as 50% of a resort’s energy costs.

View image in fullscreen Juan Carlos said he regretted his affair with the Danish-German socialite Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, saying it had harmed his reputation. He was summoned aged 10 to Spain by Franco, who trained him to be his successor. “I respected him enormously, appreciated his intelligence and political sense,” Juan Carlos said of Franco. “He took my hand and said, as if it was his last breath: ‘Your highness, I ask you just one thing: keep the country united,’” Juan Carlos recalled. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter.

The Florentine diamond, a 137-carat pear-shaped stone that glimmers with a “fine citron” hue, adorned European royalty for centuries. View image in fullscreen A glass replica of the Florentine diamond. Another theory is that the diamond was cut by a European – the famed Flemish jeweller Lodewyk van Bercken – into a pyramidal shape. Briefly, the Shah of Persia, a 99-carat stone recut from larger diamond, was believed to part of the missing Florentine. But the stone unearthed in Canada is most certainly “the genuine, historical ‘Florentine Diamond’”, said Christoph Köchert of AE Köchert, once Austria’s imperial court jewellers.

In early September, Kate Courtney lined up at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships for the 12th time in her career, but the first time targeting the marathon distance. He proposed she try the Leadville 100, America’s most prestigious long distance mountain bike race. I was putting a lot in but not getting as much out.”“My dad always says you’re remembered for your best days,” said Courtney, who fell in love with mountain biking by riding a tandem mountain bike with her dad as a kid. “The thing that kept me in the sport when I wasn’t performing well was paying it forward and trying to be a role model for young girls,” said Courtney. “My goal wasn’t about developing the next top level mountain bike racer, but more to use the sport to equip young girls for the real world.

Journalists at Hungary’s most-read newspaper have expressed shock after a media group seen as close to nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán’s party, Fidesz, bought the tabloid from its previous Swiss owners. Over the past 15 years Orbán has been able to use a sprawling pro-government media landscape to boost his image and polls. He has criticised the Ringier Hungary deal, saying it represents another attempt by Orbán to cement his control over Hungary’s media outlets. Donald Trump and his allies have long praised Orbán’s Hungary even as it plunges in press freedom rankings. In 2022, Orbán told a conference of US conservatives, CPAC, that the path to power required “having their own media”.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said his government will seek an independent investigation into what he called a “disastrous” police “massacre” that left at least 121 people dead. The dead included a 14-year-old and a 19-year-old who was decapitated and had his head exhibited on a tree. Police say 19 of those killed during Tuesday’s operation were from Pará state of which Belém is capital. Lula said he wanted to see federal police forensic investigators involved in an inquiry into the killings. The massacre has overshadowed the start of Brazil’s climate summit and a visit Prince William is making to Rio ahead of those talks.