The Kremlin has denied reports that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, spoke to the US president-elect, Donald Trump, calling the media reports “pure fiction”.

The Washington Post first reported that a call had taken place, citing unidentified sources, and said that Trump had told Putin that he should not escalate the Ukraine war. Reuters also reported on a call.

“It is completely untrue. It is pure fiction; it is simply false information,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said when asked about the call. “There was no conversation.”

“This is the most obvious example of the quality of the information that is being published now, sometimes even in fairly reputable publications,” Peskov said.

Peskov added that Putin had no specific plans to speak to Trump at present.

According to the Washington Post, Trump reminded Putin of “Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe”. It added that Trump expressed interest in follow-up conversations on “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon”.

The reported call took place after Putin on Thursday congratulated Trump on his election win and expressed admiration for the way Trump reacted to an assassination attempt during the campaign.

Peskov has a history of dismissing media reports that later prove to be true; most recently, he labelled reports of North Korean soldiers arriving in Russia as “fake news”, despite credible audio and visual evidence confirming their presence. Still, the Kremlin’s swift denial of the phone call with Trump is likely to raise eyebrows, especially given that both leaders have previously expressed openness to dialogue.

Peskov on Monday also accused European leaders of continuing to seek a “strategic defeat” of Russia. Peskov was responding to a question about the possibility that Britain would allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow long-range missile systems to hit targets inside Russia.

The Kremlin repeatedly said Putin was ready to discuss Ukraine with the west but that it did not mean he was willing to alter Moscow’s demands.

On 14 June, Putin staked out a maximalist position for an end to the war: Ukraine would have to drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw all its troops from all the territory of four regions claimed by Russia.

During the election campaign, Trump said he would find a solution to end the war “within a day”, but did not explain how he would do so. Trump also spoke to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Wednesday, according to media reports.

Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of US military and economic aid to Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, funding that Trump has repeatedly criticised and railed against with other Republican lawmakers.

The US president, Joe Biden, will host Trump for a traditional post-election meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, where the current US leader is expected to try to convince the president-elect not to pull support from Ukraine when he takes office.

The meeting will take place against the backdrop of reports that Russia, with support from North Korean soldiers, is planning a significant assault to drive Ukrainian forces out of its western Kursk region.

On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Moscow had assembled a force of 50,000 troops, including North Koreans, in the region bordering Ukraine for an attack. According to US intelligence, 10,000 North Korean soldiers have arrived in Russia, a figure that Ukraine’s military intelligence chief says includes 500 officers and three generals.

In August, Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region, capturing settlements within Russian territory in what was widely seen as a major embarrassment for Putin. However, Russia has gradually recaptured some of this territory and also made steady advances across much of eastern Ukraine.

Businesses in the private sector must stump up cash for the developing world to invest in a low-carbon economy or face the consequences of climate breakdown, the president of the UN climate summit has said.

Mukhtar Babayev, the environment minister of Azerbaijan, the host of this year’s climate conference, wrote in Monday’s Guardian: “The onus cannot fall entirely on government purses. Unleashing private finance for developing countries’ transition has long been an ambition of climate talks.

“Without the private sector, there is no climate solution. The world needs more funds and it needs them faster. History shows we can mobilise the resources required; it’s now a matter of political will.”

His words come as scores of heads of state and high-ranking officials from nearly 200 countries gathered in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, for the UN Cop29 climate summit, which opened on Monday.

The meeting has been overshadowed by the re-election of Donald Trump, who has vowed to remove the US from the Paris climate agreement and scrap commitments to cut carbon emissions. Scientists have said the world is likely to exceed key temperature limits as a result.

At Cop29, countries will try to forge a new global framework for providing the funds that developing nations need to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of worsening extreme weather. Poor countries want climate finance to ramp up from about $100bn a year today to at least $1tn every year by 2035.

Without the US, developed countries are likely to find targets on climate finance harder to meet. They may seek to reduce the component of publicly sourced money – from overseas aid budgets, and through institutions such as the World Bank – making up the climate finance goal.

That could mean an increased role for the private sector in making up the $1tn target. But that is controversial. Private sector cash comes with strings attached and can drive countries further into debt. It is also harder to access for the poorest countries that need it most, particularly in order to help them cope with the impacts of extreme weather, an activity that few private sector companies have been prepared to fund to date.

In a statement that some parties will find controversial, Babayev wrote: “With competing priorities, there simply isn’t enough money in the world to fund developing countries’ transition to clean energy solely through grants or concessional financing – let alone cover adaptation and loss and damage.”

Many civil society groups are wary of an expanded role for the private sector. Mariana Paoli, the global advocacy lead at Christian Aid, said: “Government finance is so much better than private finance when it comes to tackling climate change. Governments are the only ones able to provide finance in the form of grants, which are the only way to address the growing needs of developing countries to address the climate crisis. Private finance is guided by profits and is almost always loans, therefore worsening the debt crisis that many developing countries are facing.”

She argued that it should not be counted towards the sums developing countries are demanding, known as the “new collective quantified goal” (NCQG) in UN jargon. “Private companies are not accountable to the Paris agreement. Any climate change-related investment they make is welcome but it’s separate from what should be discussed at the talks in Baku,” she said.

However, many developing countries accept that private finance must play a role. A spokesperson for the Alliance of Small Island States said: “At the core of the NCQG is developed countries fulfilling their commitments under the Paris agreement. A key focus is the provision of public finance from developed to developing countries. An additional pillar is the mobilisation of substantive private financing, by specific public interventions of developed countries. The onus must be on the public efforts to advance enhanced finance.”

Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, told the opening session of the conference on Monday that inflation would result from a continued reliance on fossil fuels and that tackling the climate crisis would also help to tackle economic problems.

“If at least two-thirds of the world’s nations cannot afford to cut emissions quickly, then every nation pays a brutal price. If nations can’t build resilience into supply chains, the entire global economy will be brought to its knees. No country is immune,” he said.

In a veiled but pointed reference to the new presidency in the US, he warned that all countries must play a role. “Let’s dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity. An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every nation, including the largest and wealthiest,” he said.

Nationals leader David Littleproud, shadow transport minister Bridget McKenzie and Senate Liberal leader Simon Birmingham have all rejected a backbench push to use Donald Trump’s election in the US to abandon support for net zero by 2050.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has said he is completely committed to the target, attempting to fight the next election on the Coalition’s vague taxpayer-funded nuclear plan that will likely extend the use of coal and gas rather than the 2050 target.

But after Trump’s win, several Nationals backbenchers suggested the policy should be reconsidered, with Senator Matt Canavan calling to withdraw from the Paris agreement and MP Keith Pitt praising Trump’s “bold positions” including on climate change.

Asked if the Coalition should rethink its support for net zero, Littleproud told Sky News: “No.”

He said: “And while President Trump’s made some soundings about that, you have got to understand your place in the world.

“They are 330 million people, we’re 27 million people, we’re a trading nation. The only people that will hurt out of that will be our farmers and our mining sector.”

Littleproud warned that attempting to “lead the world” out of the Paris agreement “will get a tariff whacked on our commodity”, in reference to carbon tariffs, such as the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism.

Littleproud took aim at the Albanese government for its 2030 emissions reduction target, arguing that Australia could reach net zero by “[taking] our time to it and [doing] it properly, so that there isn’t an impact on the economy”.

A consensus of scientists have repeatedly said delaying climate action is worsening catastrophic global heating, including the potential for decades-long megadroughts in Australia.

Littleproud noted that he was “the first leader to be able to get the Coalition to agree to nuclear energy being part of that grid, to have that complement and supplement with gas and coal, with [carbon capture and storage] and having some renewables”, implicitly comparing himself with former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.

“We will have a balance, we’ll do it properly, we’ll do it sensibly. But I think we should just take a deep breath on trying to be Trump-esque here in Australia, because there are unintended consequences, and they are farmers and miners.”

McKenzie said that “the Coalition is absolutely committed to net zero by 2050”.

“In fact it is a fundamental pillar of our drive for net zero with nuclear, which will set us up for energy security into the next century,” she told Guardian Australia.

“The National party has consistently raised issues with the method and aggressive rate of emission reduction and who pays for that … we’ve always said net zero would never be net zero cost, that our industries and our communities would be the most significantly impacted.”

McKenzie specified that she was referring to targets set by state governments and the federal Labor government for 43% emissions reduction by 2030. She said this was impacting regional communities through the renewable rollout and resulting in “aggressive” EV targets.

Birmingham, the opposition foreign affairs spokesperson and leader of moderate Liberals, said the Coalition’s position under Dutton “is solid in both the commitment to net zero and taking difficult decisions to get there, such as zero emissions nuclear technology”.

Ahead of Trump’s election the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, noted earlier in November that the Albanese government and the Biden administration had been “closely aligned in policy and personal terms” and “obviously, having a United States administration with a very forward-leaning climate policy is a good thing”.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, Bowen suggested a second Trump administration would be unlikely to live up to the former president’s anti-climate rhetoric on the climate crisis.

Thousands of oysters released into the Firth of Forth appear to be thriving again after a century-long absence from the Scottish estuary since they were lost to overfishing.

Marine experts from Heriot-Watt University who have helped reintroduce about 30,000 European flat oysters to the estuary said divers and underwater cameras showed they were doing well.

The Firth of Forth was once home to one of the largest native European oyster reefs in the north-east Atlantic, yielding up to 30 million oysters a year during the 1800s, but by the beginning of the 1900s they had been fished to local extinction.

Those reintroduced through the Restoration Forth project, which is also planting 4 hectares of seagrass, have so far had an 85% survival rate.

Naomi Arnold, the Restoration Forth project manager from WWF Scotland, said they were “delighted by the early signs of success”.

“This is down to the hard work of not only the staff involved but the hundreds of volunteers who have turned out in all weathers to help us prepare the oysters for deployment and to physically put them in the water,” she said. “This is a key milestone in our project. With this success and the amount we have learned, things are looking very positive for future restoration in the area.”

Since September last year, about 30,000 oysters have been reintroduced at four sites that are being monitored regularly. Edinburgh Shoreline, Fife Coast and Countryside Trust, the Marine Conservation Society, Project Seagrass and the WWF are among those involved in the project.

It has been 100 years since oysters were last present in the estuary. Oysters from the Forth were once transported across the UK and Europe, both for consumption and to restock beds elsewhere. But the pressure of this activity led to the complete collapse of the reefs in the estuary, and the oysters disappeared.

Naomi Kennon, a Heriot-Watt research associate for the project, said: “Over the next year we hope to see these oysters continue to thrive and to start to enhance the biodiversity on the seabed. Oysters enhance water quality through filter feeding, store carbon and enhance biodiversity by creating a complex habitat providing homes and shelter for countless other organisms.”

Those involved hailed the mammoth community effort that had gone into getting the oysters released, with a community engagement and citizen science scheme helping to educate people about their importance.

Anna Inman, a shellfish engagement officer at the Marine Conservation Society, said: “The community support for oyster restoration has been incredible. This achievement is a testament to the dedication of all the volunteers who have generously given their time.

“The project not only aims to revive marine life but also highlights the cultural heritage of oysters and emphasises our collective responsibility to restore and protect our seas for future generations.”

Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Vladimir Putin on Thursday and discussed the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The US president-elect advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of “Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe”, the Post reported.

It added that Trump expressed interest in follow-up conversations on “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon”.

During the election campaign, Trump said he would find a solution to end the war “within a day”, but did not explain how he would do so.

According to one former US official who was familiar with the call and spoke to the Washington Post, Trump likely does not want to begin his second presidential term with an escalation in the Ukraine war, “giving him incentive to want to keep the war from worsening”.

In a statement to the outlet, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said: “President Trump won a historic election decisively and leaders from around the world know America will return to prominence on the world stage. That is why leaders have begun the process of developing stronger relationships with the 45th and 47th president because he represents global peace and stability.”

Trump had also spoken to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, according to media reports.

Biden has invited Trump to come to the Oval Office on Wednesday, and on Sunday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Biden’s top message will be his commitment to ensure a peaceful transfer of power. He will also talk to Trump about what’s happening in Europe, in Asia and the Middle East.

“President Biden will have the opportunity over the next 70 days to make the case to the Congress and to the incoming administration that the United States should not walk away from Ukraine, that walking away from Ukraine means more instability in Europe,” Sullivan told CBS.

Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of US military and economic aid to Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, funding that Trump has repeatedly criticised and rallied against with other Republican lawmakers.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry disputed a claim in the Washington Post article that Kyiv was informed of the call and did not object to the conversation taking place. “Reports that the Ukrainian side was informed in advance of the alleged call are false. Subsequently, Ukraine could not have endorsed or opposed the call,” foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told Reuters.

On Friday, the Kremlin said Putin was ready to discuss Ukraine with Trump but that it did not mean that he was willing to alter Moscow’s demands.

On 14 June, Putin set out his terms for an end to the war: Ukraine would have to drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw all its troops from all the territory of four regions claimed by Russia.

Ukraine rejected that, saying it would be tantamount to capitulation, and that Zelenskyy has put forward a “victory plan” that includes requests for additional military support from the west.

Also on Sunday, Trump spoke to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “The chancellor emphasised the German government’s willingness to continue the decades of successful cooperation between the two countries’ governments. They also agreed to work together towards a return to peace in Europe,” a German government spokesperson said.

In a call last week with South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, Trump said the US was interested in working with Seoul in the shipbuilding industry, particularly in naval shipbuilding, as well as “promoting genuine peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region,”, the South Korean leader said.

Trump’s call with Putin comes just a day after Bryan Lanza, a senior political adviser to Trump, told the BBC that Ukraine should focus on achieving peace instead of “a vision for winning”.

“When Zelenskyy says we will only stop this fighting, there will only be peace, once Crimea is returned, we’ve got news for President Zelenskyy: Crimea is gone,” Lanza told the BBC.

After his comments, a Trump spokesperson said Lanza “was a contractor for the campaign” and that he “does not work for President Trump and does not speak for him”.

One person was killed and 16 others were injured when gunfire erupted at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Sunday, the fourth reported shooting at homecoming events across the US within the last three weeks.

The Tuskegee shooting occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning. The person who was killed was not affiliated with the university, and their parents have been notified, according to the university.

No arrests were immediately announced.

Twelve people were wounded by gunfire, and four others sustained injuries not related to the gunshots, the Alabama law enforcement agency said in a Sunday afternoon update.

“The parents of this individual have been notified. Several others including Tuskegee University students were injured and are receiving treatment at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery,” the university said in a statement.

An autopsy on the person killed, who is male, was planned at the state’s forensic center in Montgomery, the Macon county coroner Hal Bentley told the Associated Press on Sunday. The city’s police chief, Patrick Mardis, said the injured included a female student who was shot in the stomach and a male student who was shot in the arm.

University officials added that several other students were injured and are currently receiving treatment at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery.

The Alabama bureau of investigations said it is conducting an investigation into the shooting.

“The university is in the process of completing student accountability and notifying parents. Further updates will be provided as more information becomes available,” the statement from Tuskegee University said.

On 19 October one person was killed and four were injured by by gunfire at Albany State University in Georgia during its homecoming weekend festivities. A suspect has since been arrested, according to the Georgia bureau of investigation.

That same day, three people were killed and eight were injured in a shooting at a homecoming event on the outskirts of Lexington, Mississippi.

On 12 October, a mass shooting during a Tennessee State University homecoming parade in Nashville left one person dead and nine injured. Two suspects were arrested days later on murder charges, ABC reports.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

There were people on the pitch, Chelsea substitutes to be precise, the joy of everyone connected to the club overflowing. Pedro Neto had produced the equaliser with a vicious low drive from distance and if it did not turn out to be the statement victory that Enzo Maresca and his players wanted – a first against a so-called Big Six rival – they could see the merit in a battling draw.

For Arsenal, this was a better performance than some of those of late and yet it was not the result that Mikel Arteta had called for, the one to silence the noise that has built around his club. It was another example of them losing the lead in a big game – after the draws against Manchester City and Liverpool – and it meant they have not won in four Premier League games, a sequence that has yielded two points. They are now nine behind the leaders, Liverpool. Is it too much to recover?

At least they stopped the rot away from home after the losses at Bournemouth and Newcastle; in the Champions League at Inter on Wednesday night, too – all matches lost to nil.

Arteta had claimed his team were playing better than they did during their difficult four-week period last season which started in early December. But, as he added, for it “to be clear and relevant we have to win … especially to answer certain questions”.

Gabriel Martinelli gave them the promise of something glorious, ­finishing with power after a pass from Martin Ødegaard, who returned to the starting XI in impressive style. The captain’s fitness was something; he pushed and probed until the very last. Neto, though, would snatch it all away.

Chelsea have been all about consistency of selection in the league under Maresca, although he had a decision to make at left-back. He went for Marc Cucurella over the club captain, Reece James, sticking with Malo Gusto at right-back. Maresca is no respecter of reputation.

Cucurella versus Bukayo Saka was box office; it would end with him catching the Arsenal man with a late tackle in the 79th minute to force him off. Cucurella was booked. More broadly, he was a symbol of Chelsea’s tenacity, emerging with honours.

It was a fight for the right to play, full-blooded challenges throughout, including a scything Levi Colwill foul on Saka in the 21st minute, which sparked angry words between the benches. Colwill was booked. Moisés Caicedo had a “welcome back” barge for Ødegaard. Ben White got a yellow card for an off-the-ball swipe at Neto.

Cole Palmer was a mixed bag but he pulled off one of his trademark moves on two occasions in the first half, allowing the ball to run across his body and flicking on the afterburners. He did it to Ødegaard at the outset before extending David Raya with a dipping shot. He did it to Thomas Partey before releasing Neto, whose cross was headed high by Noni Madueke.

Chelsea’s big chance of the first half came on 24 minutes when Neto went one way and then the other against White, making the room to cross. Gusto got in front of Martinelli but he could not direct the header.

Arsenal, back to 4-3-3 after mainly being 4-4-2 without Ødegaard, had their moments before the interval – two huge ones, the first leaving Arteta beside himself with frustration. Saka forced the high turnover, blocking a Colwill pass out of defence. It was Ødegaard back to Saka and when his shot was blocked, the ball broke ­perfectly for Martinelli. He had to score – only to sidefoot weakly at Robert Sánchez.

The fine margins were against Arsenal in the 33rd minute. Declan Rice spotted Kai Havertz in yards of space as he addressed a free-kick and so he took it quickly, fizzing the pass up to him. Havertz manoeuvred himself in front of Caicedo and prodded home only for the video assistant referee to see he was fractionally offside.

Havertz had been patched up after the head cut he suffered against Inter and he needed more repairs early in the second half, the wound open again. He was booked for failing to leave the field quickly enough for them but he was back on for the breakthrough goal, Martinelli atoning for his earlier miss.

Ødegaard made it happen, crossing deep to the far post whereupon Martinelli came back inside to widen the angle before banging the shot inside Sánchez’s near post. It was not a good look for the goalkeeper or the Chelsea offside trap, Colwill too deep and playing Martinelli on.

Wesley Fofana had looped a volley off target in the 53rd minute but, with Jurriën Timber shooting just wide, Chelsea needed to dust themselves down. Maresca introduced Enzo Fernández for Roméo Lavia and Mykhailo Mudryk for Madueke, who headed straight down the tunnel.

Fernández was involved in the equaliser, rolling a pass up and across for Neto, but really it was all about the winger’s desire to seize the moment. His touch allowed him to lengthen his stride and he was too quick for Timber and Gabriel Magalhães, who tried to get out. The shot had too much on it for Raya.

The closing stages were frantic, chances at both ends. Arsenal thought they had snatched victory only for the substitute Leandro Trossard to blast high; the offside flag was up. At the very last, Trossard touched wide from a William Saliba cross, taking the ball away from Havertz, who was there for the tap-in behind him. Arteta fell to the ground in anguish. Again, the offside flag had been raised. It was awfully tight.

Nine boats carrying 572 people have been intercepted while attempting to cross the Channel, according to the Home Office.

The latest crossings come after Keir Starmer announced plans to tackle what he described as the “national security threat” of people smugglers, pledging an extra £75m and a new team of detectives.

The arrivals on Saturday brought the total number of people who had made small boat crossings this year to 32,691. The figure is up 22% on the same time last year (26,699) but 18% less than had been recorded by November 2022 (39,929).

There have also been more deaths in the Channel, with four bodies discovered off the coast of Calais on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the French coastguard.

Excluding the latest deaths, which are still being investigated, there are believed to have been 60 fatalities among people attempting to cross the Channel, five times more than last year.

Kent police also said the body of a man was pulled from the Channel on Tuesday as officers were called to Dover lifeboat station.

The prime minister said during a speech at the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow last Monday that the government would double funding to £150m for the border security command, the enforcement agency launched by the government in the summer.

On Thursday Starmer announced deals to boost intelligence sharing, expertise and cooperation with Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo at a meeting of the European Political Community in Budapest, Hungary.

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, a UK charity, said the government’s “smash the gangs” slogan would not work and appealed for an orderly and fair asylum system to support refugee integration.

Writing in the Guardian, Solomon said: “Smugglers who exploit and endanger the lives of desperate people fleeing brutal wars or tyranny must be stopped and made to face justice. As enforcement tightens, they are cramming more people into boats and pushing off from more dangerous spots.”