Nothing will ever be the same for the disgraced royal or the other Windsors. He can still live in Royal Lodge, but it’s a terrible blow to his sense of entitlement

The saga of Andrew Windsor, the ex-Duke, who henceforth will be known as only plain old Prince, may have finally reached its end. At least the rest of the royal family will hope so. But even that is likely to depend on what may further emerge from any more releases of Epstein files, letters, records and emails in the US. His image, such as it remains, may yet be tarnished further.

It is the loss of titles that will certainly hurt him most. Andrew has not formally lost them – removal of his dukedom requires an act of parliament, which neither government nor Buckingham Palace will want, taking up as it would embarrassingly public lengths of time – and he can’t shed his princely tag since he indubitably is the son of a monarch.

Stephen Bates is a former royal correspondent of the Guardian

The security chief of SolarWinds reflects on the Russian hack that exposed US government agencies – and the heart attack he suffered in the aftermath

Tim Brown will remember 12 December 2020 for ever.

It was the day the software company SolarWinds was notified it had been hacked by Russia.

Only a genius like Boris Johnson’s former right-hand man would have had the wisdom to keep stumm until now

And … relax. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Super Dom! At a time of heightened worries about national security, who better than Dominic Cummings to shine a light on the murky world of spying?

The man who turned a drive to Barnard Castle into an advert for SpecSavers. The man who gave us Brexit. Which one of us didn’t vote for a 4% hit to GDP? The man who gave us Boris Johnson. Truly, Dom has enriched us all over the past 10 years.

A year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar. On Tuesday 2 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back with special guests at another extraordinary year, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here

Laid up with the flu? Suffering with a sore throat? From chicken bhuna to fire honey, this food should get you back on your feet

Hydrate with teas
For Dr Ricardo José, consultant in respiratory medicine, hydration is key: “It’s about taking frequent sips throughout the day to keep the mucous membranes moist.” Immunologist Dr Jenna Macciochi agrees, saying: “I often stir a spoonful of raw honey – nature’s soothing antimicrobial – into a cup of thyme tea (thyme steeped in water), which helps ease irritation and supports respiratory health. I also love marshmallow root tea, which is great for the mucous membranes.”

From brain-rotting videos to AI creep, every technological advance seems to make it harder to work, remember, think and function independently …

Step into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab in Cambridge, US, and the future feels a little closer. Glass cabinets display prototypes of weird and wonderful creations, from tiny desktop robots to a surrealist sculpture created by an AI model prompted to design a tea set made from body parts. In the lobby, an AI waste-sorting assistant named Oscar can tell you where to put your used coffee cup. Five floors up, research scientist Nataliya Kosmyna has been working on wearable brain-computer interfaces she hopes will one day enable people who cannot speak, due to neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, to communicate using their minds.

Kosmyna spends a lot of her time reading and analysing people’s brain states. Another project she is working on is a wearable device – one prototype looks like a pair of glasses – that can tell when someone is getting confused or losing focus. Around two years ago, she began receiving out-of-the blue emails from strangers who reported that they had started using large language models such as ChatGPT and felt their brain had changed as a result. Their memories didn’t seem as good – was that even possible, they asked her? Kosmyna herself had been struck by how quickly people had already begun to rely on generative AI. She noticed colleagues using ChatGPT at work, and the applications she received from researchers hoping to join her team started to look different. Their emails were longer and more formal and, sometimes, when she interviewed candidates on Zoom, she noticed they kept pausing before responding and looking off to the side – were they getting AI to help them, she wondered, shocked. And if they were using AI, how much did they even understand of the answers they were giving?

Manchester United’s striker is a topic of context-free condemnation as social media’s sluice of aggravation sinks us all

The first thing you need to do is find a photo of Rasmus Højlund looking happy in a Napoli shirt. There you are. Now you find a photo of Benjamin Sesko looking sad in a Manchester United shirt. Like he’s just missed an open goal. No, obviously you don’t need to find a photo of him missing an open goal. The less context here, the better. Now pop the photos side by side. Overlay the goal stats in big buffoonish font. Don’t forget the emojis. Post to all social media channels.

Will you mention that Højlund’s tally includes goals in the Champions League while Sesko is not competing in Europe at all? You will not. Nor will you mention that four of Højlund’s goals have come against Belarus and Greece, or the fact that Denmark are a much better team than Slovenia and create many more chances. You run socials for a big media brand, pure liquid engagement is what puts food on your table, United are the biggest meal of all, and as ever, context will be your sworn enemy.

Exclusive: Footage reveals Kent leader berating councillors amid rows over budgets and bullying claims

Bitter divisions in Reform UK’s flagship county council have been laid bare in a leaked video of a chaotic internal meeting where members were told to “fucking suck it up” if they did not agree with decisions.

Councillors can be seen complaining about “backbiting” and being ignored by their leader, Linden Kemkaran, who tells them they will be “screwed” and that Reform can forget about winning the general election if they don’t balance Kent’s budget.

Rachael Maskell says ‘a lot of clarity’ needed over how Prince Andrew funded settlement of sexual abuse case

• Why Prince Andrew is giving up his titles now – and what it means for the royal family

An MP has called on the royal family to explain how Prince Andrew funded a settlement in a sexual abuse case brought by Virginia Giuffre.

Rachael Maskell, who represents York Central, said “a lot of clarity” was needed regarding the reported £12m payment, made in 2022.

Crowds of Americans, many in costumes, aligned behind message that US is sliding into authoritarianism

• What to know about the anti-Trump protests attracting millions

• No Kings protests: in pictures

Americans across all 50 states marched in protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, aligning behind a message that the country is sliding into authoritarianism and there should be no kings in the US.

Millions of people turned out for the No Kings protests, the second iteration of a coalition that marched in June in one of the largest days of protest in US history.

Authorities urge UN to intervene ‘to protect unarmed civilian populations’ after attack on bus that killed 11

Gaza’s media office has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire with Hamas 47 times since the truce came into effect in early October, killing 38 Palestinians and wounding another 143.

“These violations have included crimes of direct gunfire against civilians, deliberate shelling and targeting, and the arrest of a number of civilians, reflecting the occupation’s continued policy of aggression despite the declared end of the war,” reads the statement.