Danny Boyle presenting his selection for 2022 November 11

By Danny Boyle Ahead of next week’s G20 summit, Volodymyr Zelensky is being advised to drop his refusal to talk to Russia – as he and Rishi Sunak, above, discussed how to confront Russian officials.

Sunak and Zelensky discuss how to confront Russia

As world leaders prepare for a showdown with Vladimir Putin at next week’s G20 summit, a diplomatic drive is under way. The United States is urging Ukraine to use a “window of opportunity” for peace talks with the Russian president to end the war. A US general said that a lull in fighting over winter might open the door to a negotiated settlement as White House officials hold talks with the Kremlin. The Biden administration has reportedly been privately telling Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, to drop his refusal to talk with Russia. Read more about diplomatic preparations for the G20 meeting, where Mr Putin may appear by video link, with his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov set to lead the Russian delegation. Rishi Sunak and Mr Zelensky yesterday discussed confronting Russia at the meeting. As Roland Oliphant reports, Mr Zelensky said that he and the Prime Minister “agreed common positions” for the summit, which opens in Bali on Tuesday. It comes as Russia started a withdrawal from Kherson, allowing Ukraine to advance on the only regional capital Moscow captured earlier this year. Reporting from Kryvyi Rih, Joe Barnes describes how Russian forces in southern Ukraine are on the brink of collapse, with soldiers abandoning wounded comrades as they made a hasty retreat. In his analysis, associate editor Dominic Nicholls explains why the withdrawal from Kherson leaves Russian troops exposed.

Kwarteng: I warned Truss she was going too fast Kwasi Kwarteng has blamed Liz Truss for going too fast with her economic agenda. The former chancellor said he told the ex-Prime Minister to “slow down” and take a “methodical and strategic approach” to growing the economy. He claimed Ms Truss rejected his pleas and that he was forced to warn her “you will have two months if you carry on like this”. She managed 44 days in Number 10. In his first interview since he was sacked, Mr Kwarteng said that Ms Truss – one of his closest friends and political allies – had been “distressed and emotional” when she dismissed him. It came as figures released at 7am showed that the UK economy shrank in the third quarter, marking the latest sign that Britain is heading into a recession. Follow the latest with James Warrington.

The true soft power of the old girls’ network Elite private girls’ schools have kept a reputation for academic excellence, rather than old boys’-style privilege – until now. After a survey yesterday showed that women who attended one of 12 particular private girls’ schools are 20 times more likely to feature in Who’s Who, Nicola Shulman looks back at her own education at one of the top institutions and lifts the lid on the truth about elite female schools.

Also in the news this day ‘Nip poppy-shaming in the bud’ | People should not be shamed into wearing poppies in the days leading up to Remembrance Sunday, the minister for the Armed Forces has said. James Heappey, a former officer in the Rifles who served in Afghanistan, said he would rather fewer people wore poppies if they understood what they symbolised than everyone was forced to wear one because “Twitter went nuts if you didn’t”. Listen to Mr Heappey on Chopper’s Politics podcast.

Cancelled operations | Union faces growing mutiny over strikes The nurses’ union is facing a growing mutiny among nursing staff over its strike threat, which was backed by less than half of acute trusts in England.On Thursday, NHS nurses urged the union to reconsider plans for industrial action, which could lead to thousands of operations being cancelled, along with treatment such as chemotherapy and dialysis… While all NHS organisations in Scotland and Northern Ireland backed strikes, along with all bar one in Wales, in England just 102 of 215 NHS acute trusts voted to back strike action, the data shows. In the Midlands, nurses at just one in five hospitals backed strikes, while in London the figure was less than one in three. Boris Johnson | Concern at bid to make ex-aide youngest life peer Boris Johnson’s nomination of his former aide to become the youngest ever life peer has raised serious concern in the House of Lords vetting committee … Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list includes Charlotte Owen, thought to be 27, who was a Downing Street special adviser from Feb 2021 until October this year. ‘I fell in love’ | Hancock defends Covid breach on I’m a Celebrity The MP for West Suffolk was forced to resign as health secretary in June 2021 after footage showed him kissing his aide, Gina Coladangelo, in his ministerial office in breach of Covid regulations. Mr Hancock later left his wife for her. Claim | Navy sailor says she was raped and told to have an abortion Dragonfire | British missile-killing laser is successfully tested

Around the world: Trump’s tirade against DeSantis

Donald Trump has effectively declared war on Republican rival Ron DeSantis, with a blistering broadside against the Florida governor that sets the stage for a destructive battle within a party already wounded from a poor showing in the midterm elections. Mr Trump, who has so far largely held his tongue on the rising star, accused him of “playing games” and manipulating the media against him. US correspondent Josie Ensor reports on Mr Trump’s 500-word email to supporters last night.

Donald Trump greets guests at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on election day. Credit: AP

Comment and analysis

Fraser Nelson | We don’t need mass migration to boost GDP Perhaps the main reason people voted for Brexit was a feeling that globalisation was in danger of taking a wrong turn, allowing employers (and politicians) to overlook entire chunks of the population. The NHS has been one of the worst: half of new nurses registered last year were from overseas. The fact that we don’t train enough nurses to staff our own National Health Service is almost the definition of short-sightedness. Would it have hurt so much to train more here? Too many employers have become addicted to importing, rather than training, workers. Or saving money on machines by using cheap humans instead (we’re one of the least automated G20 countries).Instead of doing the difficult job of hiring the long-term unemployed, British employers have been able to pick up the phone to an agency in Gdansk, which would then fly over whoever was needed for the warehouse shifts. Cheaper? Certainly. Did it make our clothes cost less? Probably. But good for the country? Absolutely not…. With enough imagination, there will be ways of helping people back to work. The economy needs them, and they need the economy. We will see next week if the Prime Minister is able to put them together. David Frost | Tory managerialism is wrecking conservatism It’s often said that the Conservative Party is about power, and staying in power above anything else. It has often achieved this by recognising and accepting broader social and political change rather than resisting it. Judith Woods | Nurses’ strike could mean the end of the NHS The NHS is flatlining. Vacancies are at record levels. Exhausted, demoralised nurses have voted for strike action over what is understood to be an eye-watering 17.6 per cent pay rise demand. Still there are those so blinkered by nostalgia they will not see this crisis for what it is – a watershed moment. Telegraph View | Why we honour the brave in act of remembrance Reader letters | Conditions must improve, but strikes regrettable

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Business briefing: Hunt plots stealth VAT raid Jeremy Hunt is plotting a stealth tax raid on small businesses that will force thousands more to pay VAT as he scrambles to balance the country’s books. The Chancellor is preparing to hold the threshold at which businesses must register to pay VAT at £85,000 of turnover until 2026, instead of raising it in line with inflation. Daniel Martin reports that the plans mean thousands more businesses will pay the tax for the first time as their turnover increases in line with rising prices.