First Thing: US senator criticises Republicans’ silence on Trump’s violent threats against Democrats

Good morning.

Senator Mark Kelly yesterday urged congressional Republicans to publicly reject Trump’s threats against him and five other Democratic lawmakers who have said that military personnel are not obligated to follow illegal commands.

“We’ve heard very little, basically crickets, from Republicans in the United States Congress about what the president has said about hanging members of Congress,” Kelly, of Arizona, said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Earlier in the week, Kelly and five other Democratic members of Congress released a video stating: “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.” Trump reacted on social media on Thursday.

Trump on Thursday accused the lawmakers, who had served in the military or in the intelligence community, of “seditious behavior” after they posted a video saying: “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.” In a post on his Trump Social platform he declared “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” and reposted a message saying “HANG THEM, GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!”

Kelly noted that both Donald Trump and Republican legislators had previously asked Democrats to moderate their language after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September, asking: “What happened to that?”

• What did Kelly say? “His words carry tremendous weight, more so than anybody else in the country, and he should be aware of that, and because of what he says, there is now increased threats against us,” Kelly said of Trump’s accusations.

US and Ukraine promise ‘updated’ peace framework after criticism of pro-Russian points in original plan

Ukraine’s Andriy Yermak and US secretary of state Marco Rubio after discussions in Geneva on a US-proposed peace plan. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war with Russia, hours after European countries proposed their own radical alternative that omitted some of the pro-Russia points made in an original US-backed document that was leaked last week.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, emerged from a meeting in Switzerland late on Sunday with a Ukrainian delegation led by Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, saying he was “very optimistic” about the progress of the talks. A joint statement between the two countries said that any eventual deal would “fully uphold” Ukraine’s sovereignty.

• What does the original plan say? The original 28-point US document leaked last week demands Ukraine hand over territory to Russia, limits the size of its army and agrees not to pursue the Kremlin for alleged war crimes.

• This is a developing story. Follow the liveblog here.

The new tool, called ‘About this account,’ is now available to users of the Elon Musk-owned platform. Photograph: Peter Kovac/Alamy

Many of the most influential personalities in the “Make America great again” (Maga) movement on X are based outside of the US, including Russia, Nigeria and India, a new transparency feature on the social media site has revealed.

The new tool, called “About this account”, became available on Friday to users of the Elon Musk-owned platform. It allows anyone to see where an account is located, when it joined the platform, how often its username has been changed, and how the X app was downloaded.

As soon as the update was rolled out, users found numerous Maga and rightwing influencers who presented themselves as patriotic Americans were operating from other countries.

• Why else is Musk in the news? The “department of government efficiency” (Doge) that Musk led has apparently been dissolved with eight months still remaining on its contract, ending a drawn-out campaign of invading federal agencies and firing thousands of federal workers.

In other news …

Donald Trump meets with New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office on Friday. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

• Zohran Mamdani has reiterated his view that Donald Trump is a “fascist” and a “despot” just days after the pair had a surprisingly cordial meeting at the White House.

• Immigration officers detained a student at a high school in Oregon during his lunch break on Friday, according to the student’s family. Christian Jimenez, a US citizen and McMinnville high school senior, faces possible obstruction charges after a traffic stop by immigration agents.

• A survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse has condemned Donald Trump for dismissing the victims’ fight for transparency as a “hoax”. Shortly after signing a bill to release the Epstein files, the US president posted a lengthy social media rant accusing Democrats of weaponising the scandal against him.

Stat of the day: DNA reveals stone age teenager as chewer of 10,500-year-old ‘gum’

Tartu in Estonia, where the prehistoric ‘gum’ was analysed. Photograph: Hilda Weges/Alamy

A piece of stone age “gum” chewed by a teenage girl 10,500 years ago has been discovered by archaeologists in Estonia. The Institute of History and Archaeology at the University of Tartu discovered the prehistoric birch tar had impressions of teeth marks and traces of saliva.

Don’t miss this: They’re doing to America what they did to Christianity

‘We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be.’ Illustration: Guardian Design

Trumpism’s most revealing moments came this autumn, when the president began tearing down the East Wing to build a gilded ballroom and then posted an AI video of himself as “King Trump” bombing US cities with human poop. He has done far worse, but nothing so clearly showed his ability to invert the idea that a president represents the people – with his party’s full consent.

… or this: The 36 best gift ideas for US teens in 2025 – picked by actual teens

We braved eye rolls and shrugs to extract holiday gift ideas from teens. Composite: Sandra Navarro/Guardian Design

If AirPods are “fire” and other brands are “mid”, does this mean they’re good? If a fab Lululemon jacket gives your kid “drip”, should you consult a doctor? Teenagers are already tough to decipher. Our team at the Filter braved eye rolls and shrugs to extract 36 gift ideas for teens from teens themselves.

Climate check: Another Cop wrecked by fossil fuel interests and our leaders’ cowardice – but there is another way

Cop30 president André Corrêa do Lago surrounded by advisers in Belém, Brazil, on Saturday Photograph: Pablo Porciúncula/AFP/Getty Images

“Cop30, the annual climate summit of all nations party to the UNFCCC, just ended,” Genevieve Guenther, the founding director of End Climate Silence writes. “Stakeholders are out in the media trying spin the outcome as a win. But let us be clear. The conference was a failure. Its outcome, the decision text known as the Global Mutirão or Global Collective Effort, is, in essence, a form of climate denial.”

Last Thing: Can’t tech a joke: AI does not understand puns, study finds

Researchers concluded that LLMs were able to spot the structure of a pun but did not really get the joke. Photograph: Sergio Azenha/Alamy

Comedians who rely on clever wordplay and writers of witty headlines can rest a little easier, for the moment at least, research on AI suggests. Experts from universities in the UK and Italy have been investigating whether large language models (LLMs) understand puns – and found them wanting.

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