A British national has reportedly been captured by Russia’s forces in the Kursk region while fighting for Ukraine.

In a video posted on pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a man wearing combat fatigues identifies himself as 22-year-old James Scott Rhys Anderson from the UK.

The man, speaking with an English accent, says that he served as a signalman in the British army until 2023 before joining the International Legion in Ukraine to fight against Russia.

In the footage, which has not been verified, the captured man appears with his hands tied. It is unclear when the clip was recorded.

Since the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, issued a call in February 2022 for foreigners to join the fight, thousands of people from around the world have travelled to Ukraine. Many have joined units such as the International Legion, known as the most selective of the foreign groups and operating as part of a military unit within the Ukrainian ground forces.

Yuri Podolyaka, a popular pro-Kremlin military blogger, wrote on Telegram that Anderson was captured near the village of Plekhovo in Russia’s Kursk region.

Russia usually claims that the foreign fighters it has captured are mercenaries and are not entitled to protection as prisoners of war under international law.

The UK Foreign Office said it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention”.

The Ministry of Defence has declined to comment at this stage.

Russian forces have been battling Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region since 6 August, when Kyiv surprised Moscow with the biggest foreign attack on Russian soil since the second world war and subsequently seized 100 villages over an area of more than 1,300 sq km.

On Sunday, Reuters reported that Ukraine had lost more than 40% of the territory it initially captured in the Kursk region after Russian forces, bolstered by 11,000 North Korean troops, launched a wave of counter-offensives.

In the summer of 2022, two Britons captured while fighting in Mariupol as members of Ukraine’s marines were sentenced to death following a show trial in a court in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

The men were later released as part of a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine that was brokered by Saudi Arabia.

It was plainly too good to be true. Or to last. There were 82 seconds on the stadium clock when the Ruben Amorim era at Manchester United was jumpstarted. The new manager had put his faith in Marcus Rashford in the No 9 role and it was United’s great enigma who put them in front. Rashford charged about in the early running, a point to prove.

And yet it was the prompt for a slow retreat by United for the remainder of the first half. The structure was different, United set up in Amorim’s trademark 3-4-2-1, but the players were the same, along with plenty of the frustrations and faultlines from Erik ten Hag’s tenure. Control proved elusive. As it did so often under Ten Hag.

Ipswich were the better team before the interval and the excellent Omari Hutchinson got the goal they deserved before the end of it with a shot from distance that took a deflection off Noussair Mazraoui. Ipswich had won for the first time this season at Tottenham before the international break. This was in point-gained territory for them.

Not so for United. After all of the talking and, goodness gracious, there has been some talking, Amorim’s arrival feeling like the coming of the messiah, it was time for United to fire some optimism. They could not do it. They were a bit better in the second period but not hugely and it looked as though the players had too much to process in terms of instructions. It all became stilted. Then again, as everyone knows, least of all Amorim, it will take time. He has only had two training sessions with the full squad.

United had risen one place in the table on Saturday without playing – evidence, the club’s support hoped, of Amorim’s magic – and there was always going to be a spotlight on his first starting XI. Amorim talked on Friday about the need to “adapt some players” because he did not have the right profiles for his three-at-the-back system and there were a few square pegs in round holes, especially the left-footed attacking midfielder Amad Diallo at right wing-back.

Amorim did not have three fit specialist centre-halves – there were four out with injuries – and so it was the full-back, Mazraoui, on the right of the back three. Casemiro and Christian Eriksen in central midfield did not scream revolution. Or pace and intensity.

Talk about the dream start, an element of vindication, because it was Diallo who made the goal. He moved smartly through the gears up the right wing and, having slipped a tackle from Jens Cajuste, his low cross was made to measure for Rashford. The travelling United fans had chorused Amorim’s name after 30 seconds. They belted it out on loop for the next couple of minutes.

Ipswich stabilised. It was clear that Hutchinson had the beating of Casemiro and Jonny Evans, who played on the left of United’s back three. Hutchinson, in the right-sided No 10 role, was sharp with his turns and very quick.

Amorim was a presence at the edge of his technical area. This is what coaching on the hoof looks like and it had to alarm him that United sank deeper. They looked to hurt Ipswich with long diagonal passes but it was the home team that took a grip on the midfield.

The equaliser had been advertised, André Onana busy in the United goal. He had pushed away a first-time hit from Sammie Szmodics in the 11th minute but the big save came in the countdown to half-time. Leif Davis stepped inside Diallo and he waited for the move of Liam Delap, putting the ball on a plate for him. Eight yards out, Delap put his foot through it only for Onana to throw out a big right hand, Peter Schmeichel-style, to block.

United’s reprieve did not last long. Inevitably, it was Hutchinson, checking away from Casemiro on the right-hand edge of the area, quick feet to the fore. His curler flicked off Mazraoui’s head to deceive Onana on its way in.

United pressed more on to the front foot after the restart, although they might have conceded when Delap tricked away from Matthijs de Ligt and surged through the middle. De Ligt looked awfully slow. Delap went right to Wes Burns and sprinted to meet the cross, his spectacular flick kept out by Onana.

Alejandro Garnacho had worked Arijanet Muric from a tight angle at the start of the second half. And there was the moment on 54 minutes when he led a break with Rashford available inside for the pass, Cajuste the only Ipswich defender. Garnacho looked for Rashford; Cajuste made the crucial interception.

Amorim searched for the solution. He got Luke Shaw on at left centre-half for his first football of the season, ordering him to stay close to Hutchinson. Manuel Ugarte replaced Casemiro. It was Rasmus Højlund for Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee was introduced in the right-sided No 10 role, Bruno Fernandes dropping back into midfield. There was a late sighting of Mason Mount, who came on for Garnacho.

United could not make it happen. Fernandes curled a free-kick inches wide and it might have been worse for them if the Ipswich substitute, Conor Chaplin, had shot either side of Onana from a cross by another replacement, Jack Clarke. Not for the first time, Onana stood tall.

For a moment, Mohamed Salah’s shirt was gone with the wind, resting somewhere on the edge of the Southampton box. He had whipped it off, bearing his lean, cartoonish torso in filthy conditions as he celebrated his second goal, from the penalty spot, to open up an eight-point lead at the summit of the Premier League, in front of the visiting Liverpool supporters going berserk in a pocket of this stadium. Then Luis Díaz retrieved Salah’s No 11.

On the face of it, at kick-off this was a mismatch between the teams top and bottom of the division but Liverpool, who opened the scoring through Dominik Szoboszlai, trailed to goals by Adam Armstrong and the impressive Mateus Fernandes. But Salah restored parity, struck the winner and then hit a post late on to leave Arne Slot’s side admiring the view. Slot’s businesslike thumbs up to the away end at the final whistle was the crowning moment, though they will have to improve when Real Madrid come to town on Wednesday.

There were plenty of positives for Russell Martin but ultimately this was another dispiriting defeat, an encouraging performance undone by individual errors. The Southampton manager has been wrestling to find a winning formula to avert an immediate return to the Championship and made five changes, handing the 6ft 7in striker Paul Onuachu his first league start in 18 months, since Saints were relegated last year, while Ryan Fraser was given the daunting task of shackling Salah from left wing-back. Alex McCarthy had a nervy game after replacing the injured Aaron Ramsdale in goal. The accusation levelled at Martin since he began life in the dugout at MK Dons in League One has been his teams’ tendency to overplay and the slapstick if not comical manner of Liverpool’s goal on the half-hour only served to add another log to the raging fire of debate.

Martin does not wish for Saints to self-sabotage. McCarthy rolled the ball to Fernandes and pointed upfield, seemingly not accounting for the traffic on the midfielder’s radar. Fernandes, hounded by Curtis Jones, passed the ball to Flynn Downes, standing on his goalline. He panicked in possession and hurried a half-baked clearance straight to Szoboszlai, who took a touch to compose himself before lining up a majestic finish. Martin shook his head and winced after Szoboszlai caressed an unerring left-foot shot in off a post. Downes almost immediately made amends, drawing a fine save from Caoimhín Kelleher.

“I ask them to play quickly so I take responsibility for that,” Martin said. “I think the players who were in the Premier League [with Southampton] last time feel very differently about this season. We have to eradicate those moments to give ourselves a chance.”

Onuachu had been a handful, earning olés from the home support, and Liverpool will have welcomed his premature exit with a hamstring problem after colliding with Cody Gakpo six minutes into the second half. The only problem for Liverpool was that Southampton still had Tyler Dibling on the pitch. The 18-year-old, who made his England Under-21 debut last week, has been Saints’ beacon of light during a draining few months. Dibling excelled on his Premier League debut against Manchester United in September, his direct running causing havoc and he won a penalty which Cameron Archer failed to convert.

Dibling won another spot-kick here, haring forward after seizing on a rare lapse by Virgil van Dijk and drawing a crunch from Andy Robertson. The referee, Samuel Barrett, pointed to the spot. This time, after the VAR, Michael Oliver, in a hoodie at Stockley Park, concluded the foul occurred on the edge of the 18-yard box – some angles appeared to show first contact happened just outside the area – Armstrong stepped up. His penalty was poor and allowed Kelleher, diving to his right, to repel his effort, but the striker sent the rebound through the goalkeeper’s legs to level.

Dibling was at the forefront of every Saints attack and the catalyst for the superb counter that culminated in Kelleher fishing the ball out of his net 11 minutes after the interval. A move that inadvertently began with McCarthy fumbling a Liverpool corner ended with Fernandes neatly side-footing home Armstrong’s cross. Fraser had released Dibling, who on the touchline exquisitely checked back to eliminate Szoboszlai. Dibling then freed Armstrong, who lured Robertson, Ibrahima Konaté – who struggled all game – and Conor Bradley with him, then kept his cool to locate Fernandes, who calmly did the rest. The Portuguese has been another big plus.

However Southampton, enterprising going forward but vulnerable at the back, have a habit of leaking points. Liverpool’s equaliser was another sickener. Ryan Gravenberch sent a routine pass down the right channel, over the top of Kyle Walker-Peters, and McCarthy rushed from his goal to meet it. By the time it dawned on McCarthy that it may not have been the best move, it was too late as Salah cutely zipped the ball past him and into a gaping net.

McCarthy, to his credit, helped Southampton survive a few more hairy episodes but then the substitute Yuki Sugawara gifted the visitors another chance, handling Salah’s cross at the back post. The man himself buried his spot-kick.

The climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 is a “travesty of justice” that should not have been adopted, some countries’ negotiators have said.

The climate conference came to a dramatic close early on Sunday morning when negotiators struck an agreement to triple the flow of climate finance to poorer countries.

Developing nations had called on rich countries to provide them with $1.3tn (£1.08tn) a year to help them decarbonise their economies and cope with the effects of the climate crisis. But the final deal sets a pledge of just $300bn annually, with $1.3tn only a target.

The number is an increase from a previous $100bn promise, but Chandni Raina, a negotiator for India, said it was “abysmally poor” compared with what was needed.

“This, in our opinion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face,” she said on the negotiation floor moments after the deal was gavelled through.

For Raina, who is an adviser to India’s department of economic affairs, it was not only the goal itself that caused anger but also the process by which it was finalised.

Hours before the conclusion of Cop29, when a deal seemed elusive, delegates from the US, Colombia and several African nations were seen poring over documents in a huddle. Drafts were circulated before they were shared with the public, and throughout the conference centre rumours circulated about last-minute backroom deals being made.

Raina said the UN’s framework convention on climate change, which convenes the annual Cop summits, was meant to make decisions by consensus. India had been planning to make a dissenting statement before the decision was adopted but was not given the opportunity to do so, she said.

Rain said the $300bn pledge was “stage-managed”. “This document is little more than an optical illusion,” she said.

In an interview with the Guardian shortly after her statement, Raina called the goal’s adoption “outrageous”. “This was completely a travesty of justice,” she said.

The Cop29 presidency did not adopt another key negotiating item, known as the UAE dialogue, Raina said. The document – a follow-on from a commitment to “transitioning away from fossil fuels” made last year at Cop28 – was rejected when countries said it was too weak.

Raina said the climate finance item should have been treated the same way. “It’s unclear what the legalities here are,” she said.

Catherine Pettengell, an advocate with the NGO Climate Action Network UK, said the procedural choices could erode trust in UN climate processes.

“Developing countries have been forced to accept half-measures, Cop after Cop, but at Cop29 these half-measures push the costs of climate change on to the people least responsible but suffering the worst consequences,” she said.

The goal left a bitter taste in other negotiators’ mouths. “That the developed countries are saying that they are taking the lead with $300bn by 2035 is a joke,” a delegate from Nigeria said after the document’s adoption. “We do not accept this.”

She said developing countries such as Nigeria, which is a major oil producer, would need far more assistance to cut their emissions.

Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, Panama’s special representative for climate change, also questioned the process of the goal’s adoption.

“The gavel was hit way too fast and our heart goes out to all those nations that feel like they were walked over,” he said. “Developed nations always throw text at us at the last minute, shove it down our throat, and then, for the sake of multilateralism, we always have to accept it, otherwise the climate mechanisms will go into a horrible downward spiral, and no one needs that.”

Hours before the text was adopted, delegations from small island states and the least developed nations walked out of one meeting, saying their climate finance interests were being ignored.

The least developed countries (LDC) negotiating bloc, which represents 45 nations and 1.1 billion people, said Sunday’s deal destroyed three years of negotiations on the climate finance goal.

“This has been casually dismissed,” an LDC statement said. “Despite exhaustive efforts to collaborate with key players, our pleas were met with indifference. This outright dismissal erodes the fragile trust that underpins these negotiations and mocks the spirit of global solidarity.”

Sunday’s deal does not allocate specific sums to “particularly vulnerable” LDCs or low-lying islands. But the groups did win a mention in the text.

Avinash Persaud, an expert on climate finance at the Inter-American Development Bank, who has served as an adviser to Barbados prime minister, Mia Mottley, said: “It was hard fought over, but at $300bn per year led by developed to developing countries, we have arrived at the boundary between what is politically achievable today in developed countries and what would make a difference in developing countries.

Raina said the text did not include adequate protections for other developing nations. “All developing countries need finance,” she said, adding that India’s per-capita emissions were far lower than those of developed nations.

Prof Ottmar Edenhofer, a climate economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said the most important part of the Cop29 finance deal was that it existed at all. The multilateral system of international cooperation had not collapsed as had seemed possible at times, he said.

“The climate summit in Baku was not a success but at best the avoidance of a diplomatic disaster,” he said. But different ways to tackle the climate crisis were now needed, he added, such as cooperation between smaller groups of nations.

Others took a less rosy view. Tracy Carty, of Greenpeace International, said fossil fuel companies – which have made $1tn a year in profit annually for half a century – should have been forced to pay into the finance pool.

Nafkote Dabi, the climate policy lead at Oxfam International, called the agreement a “global Ponzi scheme”. “The destruction of our planet is avoidable, but not with this shabby and dishonourable deal,” she said.

In the American heartland, they’re excited. Finally, say voters who put Donald Trump into the White House for a second time, they are about to get the president they wanted all along.

Even as leading Democrats decry Trump’s cabinet nominations as “agents of his contempt, rage and vengeance”, the former and future president’s supporters are interpreting the selections as evidence that he has finally broken free of the Washington establishment.

Democrats are fuming that Trump wants to put a vaccine denier in charge of health, former Fox News presenters at the helm of the Pentagon and transportation department, and at the prospect of Elon Musk slashing and burning his way through the sprawling federal bureaucracy.

Even senior Republicans have been less than enthusiastic about some of Trump’s choices. The tapping of the former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz to be the US attorney general ran into the sand after just a few days over allegations of sex with a minor.

But many of those who voted for Trump are weighing other priorities.

Neil Shaffer, chair of the Republican party in Howard county, Iowa, which twice voted for Barack Obama but has swung ever more to Trump with each passing election, has never been an enthusiast for the former president even if he voted for him three times.

“This time around I was still a little lukewarm on the whole thing but I’m very impressed with the people he’s surrounded himself with, especially Tulsi Gabbard and Bobby Kennedy and Elon Musk. With each one of these people there’s a big, big part of their appointment that is reforming and streamlining,” said Shaffer, who works in water conservation for the state.

“I like the idea of bringing people from outside government to look at this with eyes from the real world not Washington DC. Washington DC is not the real world. It’s a made-up puppet regime of dark shadows. You’ve got the military-industrial complex, big pharma, big agriculture pulling all the levers. They want all that money. It’s why we got the way we are with our food. I’m actually mystified that he’s this well organised, that all these names are coming out so quickly.”

Shaffer offers a frequently heard view among Trump supporters that the former president was ill-prepared for his unexpected victory in 2016, and was then captured by big business and the Republican establishment in making cabinet appointments. That, he said, held back Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp”.

“He was inundated with all these lobbyists and corporate interests and individuals who really were there more to perpetuate the system instead of reform the system,” he said.

This time, said Shaffer, Trump has the experience to put in place officials who will represent his ambitions.

Among the most contentious nominations, and popular with the next president’s supporters, is the choice of Robert F Kennedy, scion of the US’s most famous Democratic political family, as secretary of health and human services. His liberal critics see a crank who rejected Covid vaccinations and promoted false claims over links between immunisation and autism.

But more than a few Trump supporters are focused on Kennedy’s longstanding criticisms of the power of the food and agricultural industry over what Americans farm and eat, and the prescription drug makers’ influence on healthcare.

Corporate lobbyists helped ensure that the US government spent more than $100bn subsidising the growing of corn over the past 30 years. Some of that ends up as high-fructose corn syrup now found in most processed foods in the US, from breakfast cereals to salad dressings and soft drinks, and is a major contributor to some of the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the world.

A meme about the unhealthy ingredients in Heinz tomato ketchup made in the US, including corn syrup, compared with the UK version is doing the rounds among Trump supporters enthusiastic about Kennedy’s appointment. As Shafer sees it, corporations are getting taxpayers to subsidise an industry that is killing them.

“It’s like I heard Bobby Kennedy say the other day, when you go back to the 1960s and what our health was then to where it is now, our DNA didn’t change, our diet changed. And what spurred our diet to change?” said Shaffer.

“The food thing is huge. I’m so happy that he’s going to have a cabinet position.”

Bo Copley, a former miner in West Virginia who now works as a salesman, said he was disappointed that Trump did not behave with more dignity during his first term. He’s not confident that will change but thinks the former president has learned from other mistakes, principally in who he appoints to positions of power.

“Opponents would consider them radical but for the people who support him, he’s putting people in place who will help him get the job done. There are people that would shake up the establishment in Washington DC. We’re not looking for lobbyists to be in these positions. We’re not looking at people from big pharma to be in these positions,” he said.

Copley named Kennedy and Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman who switched to the Republicans earlier this year and is nominated as director of national intelligence, as among the choices he most liked.

Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador who challenged Trump in the Republican primaries, on Thursday criticised Gabbard as “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathiser”. But Copley is not alone in welcoming Gabbard’s scepticism about Washington’s escalating military support for Ukraine, including the Biden administration’s decision this week to supply landmines and permit the firing of US-made missiles into Russia.

“One of the biggest talking points the first time Donald Trump went into office was he’s going to start world war three and he actually de-escalated conflicts. Now we’ve sent Ukraine billions and billions of dollars when we have people in North Carolina who went through humongous disaster, the hurricane, and we offer them $750 apiece when their entire lives have been wiped out. It’s completely asinine to me,” he said

Then there is Elon Musk. Even before he was nominated to head the new “Department of Government Efficiency”, some were questioning how long the egotistical billionaire would remain in Trump’s favour. But Shaffer is particularly keen on Musk carrying through his promise of deep cuts to government spending after the national debt rose by more than $2tn over the past year.

“I was in DC this summer. I walked past this ginormous education department building every time I left my hotel. I thought there’s no reason for this to be here. If that money was spent in our local communities, the quality of education would skyrocket,” he said.

Copley, too, is enthused at the prospect of Musk “cutting down the wasteful spending that happens in Washington”. He acknowledges that West Virginia, one of the poorest states in the US, is heavily reliant on federal aid to fund education, transport and social services. A relatively high proportion of people on low incomes in the state receive welfare payments and healthcare coverage.

“I know that a lot of West Virginians receive money and receive those kind of payments, but I’m all for revamping those so that people don’t game the system and use them as lifelong crutches,” he said.

For Ed Bisch the desire to tear down parts of the system is deeply personal. He lost his 18-year-old son Eddie to a prescription opioid overdose in 2001, an early victim of an epidemic that has claimed close to 900,000 lives. Bisch voted solidly Democratic all the way up to supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 in the belief that the party would take on the big pharma interests that caused the opioid epidemic. But little changed.

Then Bisch saw Trump in office and decided he was the president most likely to challenge the drug industry and what he sees as its corruption of American medicine and health regulation.

Bisch is enthusiastic about Kennedy, who is a former heroin addict, and JD Vance as vice-president after he wrote a bestseller, Hillbilly Elegy, about growing up in a region blighted by drugs.

He is also pleased by the nomination of Pam Bondi to be the US attorney general after Gaetz dropped out. As Florida’s attorney general, Bondi shut down the “pill mills” churning out opioid prescriptions at a time when more oxycodone pills were sold in Florida than all other US states combined.

Bisch wants to see Bondi prosecute the Sackler family which owned the company that kicked off the opioid epidemic with the powerful narcotic OxyContin. He’s also counting on Kennedy to follow through on a pledge to “close the revolving door” between the drug industry and its regulators at the Food and Drug Administration which has been accused of allowing the epidemic to take off because of lax oversight and too close a relationship with the drug makers.

Kennedy has repeatedly criticised the FDA for conflicts of interest, accusing it of putting the interests of the pharmaceutical industry ahead of the nation’s health.

Then there is Trump’s promise to finish building the wall on the border with Mexico. That is primarily about immigration but Bisch said it would also help stem the flow of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is responsible for most overdose deaths these days.

“I’m excited. Let’s finish the border wall. I agree when people say most of the fentanyl gets in through ports of entry not the open border but once we get the wall built and secure the border, then you can put more resources at the ports of entry. The bottom line is, you’ll never be able to stop it but reducing the supply is a proven way to reduce deaths,” he said.

How the desire to see Trump take on a system that has increasingly come to resemble a corporate oligarchy will square with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s authoritarian plan to impose rightwing control across the entire US government that would also enlarge the power of big business, remains to be seen. Trump has distanced himself from the plan even though members of his first administration were influential in its creation.

Shaffer is no fan of Project 2025. He takes Trump assurances at face value and believes the next president will see that his supporters want to see the corporate grip on government broken.

“The Democrats have leftwing crazies. We’ve got some wackos out there on the far right and they concocted this list of their priorities. There’s probably some good things in there but there’s a lot of screwball things. I don’t see those people coming to the table,” he said.

“I think Trump is going to have enough free-thinkers and people that have already explicitly criticised a lot of the stuff that’s been going on out there. That will be his guiding force.”

The world will be “unable to cope” with the sheer volume of plastic waste a decade from now unless countries agree to curbs on production, the co-chair of a coalition of key countries has warned ahead of crunch talks on curbing global plastic pollution.

Speaking before the final, critical round of UN talks on the first global treaty to end plastic waste, in Busan, South Korea, this week, Norway’s minister for international development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, acknowledged the split that had developed between plastic-producing countries and others. She represents more than 60 “high ambition” nations, led by Rwanda and Norway, who want plastic pollution tackled over its full life cycle. Crucially, this means clamping down heavily on production.

While a “perfect treaty” may not be possible due to the strength of opposition, mainly from oil-producing countries, she hoped a deal could be reached that could be strengthened over time.

“We are not going to land a perfect treaty. But we need to get further. And I think we will. I choose to be hopeful,” Tvinnereim said. “With high-ambition coalition countries, we will continue to demonstrate that there is a big group of countries that sticks to its ambitions. The world desperately needs some leadership now, and some good news.”

This year, various researchers found microplastics in every sample of placenta they tested; in human arteries, where plastics are linked to heart attacks and strokes; in human testes and semen, adding to evidence of the ubiquity of plastics and concern over health risks. The plastics crisis is widely recognised as a threat to human health, biodiversity and the climate.

Two years after a historic agreement by 175 countries to adopt a mandate on negotiations for a global, legally binding treaty to address the whole life cycle of plastics, delegates remain widely divided on what to do – and a deadline is looming. Progress has stalled over a row about the need for cuts to the $712bn plastics industry. The last talks, in April, failed to get an agreement to put production targets – seen as key to curbing plastic waste – at the treaty’s centre.

The final round of talks, which starts on Monday and is due to end on 1 December, is critical.

“We need increased recycling and waste management, of course, but if we don’t reduce production and consumption we will be unable to cope with the volume of plastic in the system 10 years from now,” said Tvinnereim.

Use of plastic could triple globally by 2060, with the largest increases expected in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Plastic waste is also projected to triple by 2060, with half ending up in landfill and less than a fifth recycled.

An agreement on a “phase out” of a list of single use plastic products globally, as well as bans on poisonous chemicals in plastic – including for food contact plastic and children’s toys – was a “no-brainer”, said Tvinnereim. Many countries already have unilateral single-use plastics bans.

Fractious negotiations have seen divergent views, and countries with large fossil fuel industries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran, dubbed the “like-minded” group, have eschewed production cuts and emphasised waste management as the main solution to the crisis. Developing nations, which bear the consequences of plastic overproduction overwhelming their inadequate waste systems, are calling for global cuts.

The uncertainty dogging the talks has been exacerbated by the US position. One of the largest plastic producers, the US recently signalled it would support a treaty calling for curbs on production. But the impending return of Donald Trump, a fossil fuel advocate, as US president in January, has led to doubts.

The US would be “very welcome” to join the coalition, Tvinnereim said. There was also opportunity for China and others to show leadership.

A negotiator for one of the “high ambition” countries said: “If we can see China stepping up, as we have seen them do elsewhere and domestically, we have a good chance of creating an effective instrument. If we don’t, it is going to be very difficult.”

Max Verstappen claimed his fourth consecutive Formula One world championship with a solid fifth place for Red Bull at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which was won in dominant fashion and with consummate control from the front of the grid by Mercedes’ George Russell.

Verstappen delivered strongly to do exactly what was needed in beating his title rival McLaren’s Lando Norris, who came in sixth. Lewis Hamilton gave a superb comeback drive to claim second place from 10th on the grid. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were in third and fourth.

The Dutch driver now stands alongside an elite group of drivers, matching the world championship tally of Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel. Only Juan Manuel Fangio with five and Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton on seven apiece have more. Verstappen is still only 27 years old and on the form he has demonstrated this season further titles are surely within his grasp.

While a win was not really on the cards for Verstappen given the speed of Mercedes and that Red Bull has struggled for pace in Las Vegas, he did enough to close out the title.He leads by 63 points with a maximum of 60 left available at the final two meetings in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

It is no little achievement by Verstappen, the hardest-fought of his four world championships. He has been outperformed by McLaren for almost all of the second half of the season, and struggled with a car that lacked balance. Verstappen had described it as “a monster”. But to grind out the results he required to maintain his early-season lead and hold his nerve to seal the title was an enormously impressive demonstration of determination and resilience.

Moreover, to do so during a season when the team endured no little turmoil and controversy, was indicative of Verstappen’s maturity and his ability to focus on the job at hand despite the overwhelming noise that was being generated around him. Not least when team principal Christian Horner was accused of inappropriate behaviour by a female employee, a complaint he denied and that was dismissed by an independent enquiry; then his father Jos calling for Horner to be removed as principal and the decision by designer Adrian Newey to leave the team.

As the whirlwind raged around Red Bull and their car was stalled with developments that robbed it of pace rather than making improvements, Verstappen repeatedly turned up and out-drove the machinery, with preternatural calm in the eye of the storm. His drive in Vegas, a controlled piece of execution to do exactly what was required, was a case in point.

For Russell this was a remarkable moment of redemption after the heartbreak of having his victory at the Belgian Grand Prix annulled when his car was found to be overweight. The 26-year-old took the decision in Spa with good grace and displayed enormous maturity to move on from what was a painful moment and has come back with such a strong drive.

It is Russell’s first win in Las Vegas and Mercedes’ first here. The team continue to be somewhat perplexed as to just what sort of performance their car will offer on any given weekend, depending on the circuit and track conditions. Certainly on the streets of Las Vegas, in cool temperatures it had very much found its window and Russell displayed great control and focus to seal a hard-fought race.

Russell held his lead through turn one as Leclerc jumped into second place, while Verstappen crucially also just clung on in front of Norris from fifth and sixth on the grid. It remained tight at the front for the opening laps Russell closely followed by Leclerc, while Verstappen finally made a pass on Pierre Gasly’s Alpine for fourth on lap four.

Norris moved to fifth as Russell began to consolidate as his tyres came to him and the Mercedes demonstrated the pace it had shown all weekend. Leclerc and Norris pitted on lap 10, with the tyre wear clearly an issue. Sainz too was suffering and he pitted a lap later but noticeably Verstappen’s rubber was holding up better, as was that of Russell and Hamilton, with all three drivers staying out.

Verstappen came in on lap 12 to take the hard tyres and emerged still in front of Norris and both Ferraris. With Hamilton and Russell finally both pitting, Russell maintained his lead but now with Verstappen in second and Hamilton in front of Norris. Hamilton set off after Leclerc as Russell maintained a full ten second advantage out front.

Verstappen took his second stop on lap 28 as did Hamilton for new hard tyres. Norris followed on lap 31 while Hamilton on a charge caught Verstappen who, aware of the bigger picture, did not resist and let the British driver ease past on lap 32. When the second stops worked through Russell was still in control out front and Hamilton in second, but with Norris in sixth, the game all but up.

Hamilton had nine second-deficit to Russell but was haring after his teammatewith 13 laps to go. But Russell upped his pace and once more stabilised his lead at seven seconds.

Ferrari enjoyed the better pace over the Red Bull at the close and Sainz and Leclerc both passed Verstappen, the world champion choosing not to take any chances defending too vigorously.