Trump says Opec should cut oil prices to starve Russia of war funding; Ukraine evacuating children from towns in Kharkiv region. What we know on day 1,066

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Russian crews were responding to an air attack in the Ryazan region south-east of Moscow over Thursday night. Social media channels posted videos of what appeared to be very large blazes in the city and said a major oil refinery and a power station had been hit by Ukrainian drones. The Ryazan governor, Pavel Markov, said air defence units destroyed drones. The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said air defences intercepted attacks by Ukrainian drones at four locations around Russia’s capital and more drones headed for the capital.

Donald Trump has told the Davos World Economic Forum conference that he wants to meet Vladimir Putin soon and “stop this ridiculous war”. Trump, who has threatened to impose punitive measures on Russia if no deal is reached, said: “I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon to get that war ended … And that’s not from the standpoint of economy or anything else. It’s from the standpoint of millions of lives are being wasted … It’s a carnage. And we really have to stop that war.”

Heather Stewart writes that in his online address to Davos, the US president accused the Opec global oil producers of prolonging the Ukraine war by failing to cut their prices, which, if they did, would hurt Russian oil revenues and “the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately”.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was nothing particularly new in Trump’s threats about ending the war but Moscow was following closely “all nuances” in rhetoric and remained open to dialogue. Peskov said Trump had often applied sanctions on Russia during his first term as president.

Trump’s comments have been welcomed by Ukraine. “We do really welcome such strong messages from President Trump and we believe that he will be the winner. And we believe that we have an additional chance to get new dynamic in diplomatic efforts to end this war,” said Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha.

Russia has rejected the idea of Nato countries sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire. Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said it could cause an “uncontrollable escalation”. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said on Tuesday that at least 200,000 European peacekeepers would be needed to prevent a new Russian attack after any ceasefire deal.

Ukraine announced evacuations of children from several towns in the north-eastern Kharkiv region threatened by Russian forces. The Kharkiv region governor, Oleg Synegubov, said “267 children and their families are to be evacuated from 16 settlements to safe places”. Synegubov said the towns and villages affected were near Kupiansk, a town Russia has tried to capture for months where fighting is raging around its outskirts. “The decision was made due to the intensified hostile shelling. We urge families with minors to save their lives and leave the dangerous areas,” Synegubov said.

Ukraine is in the final stages of drafting recruitment reforms to attract 18- to 25-year-olds who are currently exempt from mobilisation, the battlefield commander recently appointed to the president’s office said. Col Pavlo Palisa said the current drafting system inherited from Soviet times was hindering progress. Though Ukraine has already passed a mobilisation law lowering the age of conscription from 27 to 25, the measures have not had the impact needed to replenish its ranks or replace battlefield losses in its war with Russia.

One initiative is what Palisa described as an “honest contract” that includes financial incentives, clear guarantees for training, and measures to ensure dialogue between soldiers and their commanders. The plan would also target Ukrainians who have the right to deferment or were discharged after the mobilisation law was passed. “As of now, my view is that we need to start an open dialogue with society,” Palisa said. “Because the defence of the state is not only the responsibility of the armed forces. It is the duty of every Ukrainian citizen, and it is their obligation.”

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General Osama Najim was released on a technicality and repatriated by Italy without any prior consultation, says international criminal court

Italy’s interior minister said on Thursday a Libyan man detained under an international war crimes arrest warrant and then unexpectedly released had been swiftly repatriated because of his “social dangerousness“.

Osama Najim, also known as Almasri, was detained on Sunday in Turin under an arrest warrant issued by The Hague-based international criminal court (ICC).

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People warned to stay at home, avoid the coast and charge up devices as widespread damage and outages expected

Ireland is bracing for what has been described as one of the most dangerous storms ever seen, with the national weather centre warning of violent winds from 2am on Friday.

Emergency services were on high alert and the country was preparing for a virtual standstill on Friday, with airports, schools, parks and offices to close and public transport cancelled during the peak hours of Storm Éowyn.

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Dublin’s latest coalition has finally got parliamentary approval. But there are meteorological and political tempests coming across the Atlantic

The whole of Ireland was put on red alert on Thursday as Storm Éowyn barrelled in from the north Atlantic. Schools in the Irish republic are closed on Friday, all public transport has been stood down and pet owners have been told to keep animals stabled or indoors, with 80mph winds expected to leave trails of destruction before the storm moves on towards central Scotland.

The danger to life and property will be more than enough for most people in Ireland. But it is hard not to see this week’s tempestuous visitation as something of a metaphor for Irish politics , which have had an unusually storm-tossed week of their own as the republic buckles up for a tax-and-tariff battle with Donald Trump’s new administration in Washington.

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Fianna Fáil leader officially elected PM a day after chaotic scenes in Dáil, as thoughts turn to future and Trump

Ireland’s newly appointed prime minister, Micheál Martin, has vowed to protect Ireland “at a moment of real threat” just days after Donald Trump threatened to wipe out the country’s tax advantage and repatriate American jobs.

He was speaking moments as he was officially appointed as leader of the country, but 24 hours after chaotic scenes in the Dáil caused the cancellation of his formal appointment.

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The Brutalist is the next most favoured choice, with its mesmeric drama, currently neck-and-neck with the sugary charm of Wicked

• News: Emilia Pérez breaks record with 13 as The Brutalist and Wicked both trail with 10
• Oscars nominations 2025: the full list

So the strange process of Oscar-night groupthink consensus begins, and a certain film becomes mysteriously garlanded as the obvious choice to be preferred over the others as the big winner. Jacques Audiard’s baffling, amusing, preposterous and (to some) artlessly offensive Mexican trans crime musical Emilia Pérez leads the field with 13 nominations. But for me, Emilia Pérez is pretty much the weakest movie on the best picture list, certainly not as good as, say, Nickel Boys, which doesn’t get much of the conversation.

But Emilia Pérez could be heading for the same kind of tulip-fever acclamation that greeted the phantasmagoric Everything Everywhere All at Once from 2022 which cleaned up on Oscar night . Awards season connoisseurs know how, in the world of bland streaming content, films that are different, which get Oscar voters excitedly alerting each other to their unusualness – without being too unusual – can generate their own momentum. It’s certainly a remarkable success story for Audiard, a French director in the classic mould, entirely and magnificently unaware of liberal Anglo-Hollywood squeamishness over whether or not certain stories are “his to tell”. A French auteur’s prerogative covers everything.

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In leaked memo to culture minister, Laurence des Cars sounds alarm over state of Paris art gallery

Visiting the Louvre has become a “physical ordeal” as the throngs of tourists, leaks and substandard catering take a toll on the world’s most-visited museum, its director has said in a leaked memo.

The document, written by Laurence des Cars for the French culture minister, Rachida Dati, but leaked to the media on Thursday, sounded the alarm over the state of the Paris museum.

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Friedrich Merz says he will boost border controls if he wins power next month, as Afghan man arrested over killings

Germany’s opposition leader has pledged to strengthen border controls and step up deportations if he becomes chancellor after elections next month, a day after an Afghan man was arrested over a knife attack in which two people died.

Friedrich Merz, whose conservative CDU/CSU alliance is leading in polls, said he would not allow attacks like the one in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg on Wednesday to become a “normal affair”.

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Family complained food was ‘uneatable’ and room was dirty and smelly at four-star Club Med hotel in Provence

A British family who claimed they “went home miserable” from a luxury French hotel after they were given stale croissants and a smelly room have won thousands of pounds in damages.

Damen Bennion, 52, told his children “Daddy would get things sorted” when they arrived at their holiday in Provence and found the four-star hotel did not meet their expectations.

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