Former general election candidate will oversee party’s administration and sit on governing executive committee

Anas Sarwar ’s chief of staff has been named as Scottish Labour’s new general secretary.

Kate Watson will be in charge of the party’s administration and sit on the governing Scottish executive committee.

Jamie Borthwick tackles an Argentine tango to the Arctic Monkeys, while JB Gill joins new partner Lauren Oakley to samba to Sergio Mendes. How much difference will Amy Dowden’s absence make?

We’ve passed the contest’s midway mark. Now another annual milestone looms. The Strictly charabanc’s annual jaunt up to Blackpool Tower Ballroom, the spiritual home of the show, is a trip that every couple wants to take.

With so much at stake, could the pressure get to our pro-celebrity pairings? We’ll get our first clues in half-an-hour …

The freedoms of many Americans are under threat from the president-elect

• You can order your own copy of this cartoon

The £106.8m star of the midweek thrashing of Noah will be on the bench when Chelsea host Arsenal

On Thursday night, Enzo Fernández caught the eye with a hat-trick of first-half assists during Chelsea’s 8-0 win over Armenia’s FC Noah in the Conference League. The midfielder delivered corners for Tosin Adarabioyo and Axel Disasi to score, produced the pass for the first of João Félix’s goals and generally looked entirely out of place in Europe’s third-tier competition, which is perhaps not a huge surprise given that Fernández is a World Cup winner and was briefly the most expensive player in England.

However, it remains to be seen whether Enzo Maresca was thinking about managing the Argentina international’s workload when he decided not to send him out for the second half against Noah. The likelier scenario is that Fernández, the £106.8m Thursday-night footballer, will be on the bench when Chelsea host Arsenal on Sunday. He has, after all, not started the past three league games and it is surely not a coincidence that Maresca’s side have had more balance with Roméo Lavia partnering Moisés Caicedo in central midfield.

The editor and author on completing the memoir by her late friend, Swedish writer Johanna Ekström, where she stands on the assisted dying bill and what she’s reading

Sigrid Rausing, 62, is a publisher and former editor of Granta magazine. When her best friend, the acclaimed Swedish writer Johanna Ekström, became terminally ill with cancer, Rausing promised to complete her last book. She edited the 13 handwritten notebooks, adding her own commentary. And the Walls Became the World All Around (Granta), which Rausing has now translated into English, is a brave and beautiful memoir of Ekström’s final two years, and a moving meditation on grief and friendship. It was a bestseller in Sweden, where it was first published last year. Ekström died in 2022, aged 51.

Did you have any reservations about agreeing to finish Ekström’s work?
I was in Stockholm helping to look after Johanna in the last few weeks of her life, and I didn’t know she was working on this book. She told me about the notebooks and asked me to finish it – and of course I said yes. These promises, they are not like anything else. They are like a vow. A binding obligation.

Progressives would do well to try to understand how millions of Americans turned to him because he offered real hope of prosperity, security and fewer wars

How can anyone vote for someone so… fill in the blank… racist, sexist, unconstitutional, hateful, unhinged? This is the question asked frequently in the UK and here in the States, where I have spent the past three weeks trying to understand the Trump phenomenon.

Behind the question is an implied superiority; that we, the clever people, have identified the monster that is Donald Trump, but the deluded masses are too stupid to see it. But what I have found at the Trump rallies I’ve been to is not stupidity, but frustration, pain and a longing for respect.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

Wars in Gaza and Lebanon set to intensify after Israeli PM’s position is reinforced by Trump’s victory and ousting of defence minister

Benjamin Netanyahu is set to stay in power in Israel until elections due in 2026 and possibly longer, analysts and officials now believe, after a tumultuous week in which the 75-year-old veteran politician successfully fired his defence minister and was boosted by the results of the US election.

Netanyahu’s newly reinforced position could lead to further intensification of Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, and prolong the conflict in Gaza, critics fear – although the incoming US president Donald Trump has said he wants to swiftly end both wars.

Trump refused to welcome Biden in 2021 after his defeat by the Democratic nominee, insisting he had won the election

• US elections 2024 – live updates

Joe Biden and Donald Trump will meet on Wednesday in the Oval Office, the White House announced on Saturday.

Trump will take office on 20 January to become the 47th president of the United States, winning the position back for the Republicans after soundly defeating his Democratic rival and the current US vice-president, Kamala Harris , in the 5 November election .

Trump wins the presidency – how did it happen?

With Trump re-elected, this is what’s at stake

Abortion ballot measure results by state

• Real beat Osasuna 4-0 but Éder Militão suffers ACL injury
• Jamal Musiala’s 30-yard drive earns 1-0 win at St Pauli

Vinícius Júnior scored a hat-trick to help Real Madrid snap a two-game winless run at the Bernabéu in all competitions with a commanding 4-0 victory over Osasuna .

After shock defeats by Barcelona and Milan, their first back-to-back home losses in over three years, Real suffered two major early blows against Osasuna as the forward Rodrygo and the defender Éder Militão were both forced off injured. The latter sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury and will require surgery, the club later revealed. He will miss several months.