UN, Nato, EU and US call on Russia to resume Ukrainian grain deal

Risk of soaring food prices and global food crisis after Moscow’s decision to end export corridor following drone attack on its fleet

The United Nations, Nato, European Union and US have all urged Russia to reverse its decision to pull out of a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea, amid fears of a global food crisis.

Moscow announced it was suspending the UN-brokered arrangement in response to a dramatic attack in the early hours of Saturday by Ukrainian airborne and underwater drones on its naval base of Sevastopol in Crimea.

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Russia’s Black Sea flagship damaged in Crimea drone attack, video suggests

Admiral Makarov possibly disabled by Ukraine as investigators say frigate one of three Russian ships to be hit in Sevastopol

Russia’s Black Sea flagship vessel, the Admiral Makarov, was damaged and possibly disabled during an audacious Ukrainian drone attack over the weekend on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, according to an examination of video footage.

Open-source investigators said the frigate was one of three Russian ships to have been hit on Saturday. A swarm of drones – some flying in the air, others skimming rapidly along the water – struck Russia’s navy at 4.20 am. Video from one of the sea drones shows the unmanned vehicle weaving between enemy boats.

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Ukrainian refugees in UK face homelessness crisis as councils struggle to find hosts

Many Ukrainians are ending six-month stays and finding there is nowhere for them to go, local authorities say

Ministers need to act urgently to prevent a looming homelessness crisis among Ukrainian refugees, council leaders have warned.

More than 100,000 people have become guests of British families under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, but many are coming to the end of their six-month stays and finding there is nowhere for them to go.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 249 of the invasion

International condemnation after Russia suspends grain deal; Russia claims it has identified the drones used to attack its Black Sea fleet

There has been international condemnation of Russia’s decision to suspend the UN brokered Black Sea Grain initiative, a move described by US president Joe Biden as “purely outrageous” and which would increase starvation.

US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Russia was weaponising food.

The European Union called on Russia to reverse its decision. “Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea deal puts at risk the main export route of much needed grain and fertilisers to address the global food crisis caused by its war against Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Twitter.

UN secretary-general António Guterres is “deeply concerned” about the Black Sea grain deal and has delayed his travel to Algiers for the Arab League summit by a day to focus on the issue. a spokesperson said.

Nato called on Moscow to urgently renew the deal. Nato spokesperson, Oana Lungescu, said: “President Putin must stop weaponising food and end his illegal war on Ukraine.”

Turkey’s defence minister is in talks with counterparts in Moscow and Kyiv to try to revive the UN- brokered deal for exports of Ukrainian grain, the ministry said on Sunday.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had recovered and analysed the wreckage of drones used to attack ships from Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea on Saturday. It claims that the drones were equipped with Canadian-made navigation.

The ministry has said Ukraine attacked the Black Sea fleet near Sevastopol with 16 drones early on Saturday, and that British navy “specialists” had helped coordinate what it called a terrorist attack, a claim Britain has denied.

Ukrainian officials have suggested that Russia itself may have been responsible for the explosions, which it has used as a pretext to pull out of the grain deal.

Poland said that together with its European Union partners it is ready to provide Ukraine with further help in the transportation of essential goods after Russia pulled out of the grain deal.

The Russian army repelled attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Luhansk regions, Russian news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying on Sunday.

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific airways will resume using Russian airspace on some flights, the airline said on Sunday, restarting flights it had stopped after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February. Cathay Pacific will begin flying from New York to Hong Kong using the popular “polar route” from Tuesday.

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Russia suspends Ukraine grain deal after attack on Sevastopol naval base

Move comes after assault by airborne and underwater drones in which flagship may be been damaged

Russia has said it will pull out of a UN-brokered grain export deal after a dramatic attack by Ukrainian airborne and underwater drones on its Black Sea naval base of Sevastopol in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Social media showed footage of explosions both near and in the Crimean harbour, and Russia’s defence ministry said there had been an attack by “nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous sea drones” that began at 4.20am.

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Brexit red tape puts brakes on UK innovation and EU sales

Many new products now need multiple safety test facilities for home and abroad, say entrepreneurs

British inventions are being brought to market overseas because new Brexit safety certification rules mean they can’t be sold in the UK.

Trade bodies and entrepreneurs have blamed the government’s decision to stop accepting the European Union’s CE mark and instead create a new UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) mark showing that a product is safe.

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Ukrainians use phone app to spot deadly Russian drone attacks

Citizen-spotters can report missiles at the push of a button with ePPO on their mobiles

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

A simple mobile phone app has been developed by Ukrainian volunteers to allow civilians to report sightings of incoming Russian drones and missiles – and, it is hoped, increase the proportion shot down before they hit the ground.

The app, ePPO, relies on a phone’s GPS and compass, and a user only has to point their device in the direction of the incoming object and press a single button for it to send a location report to the country’s military.

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Russia suspends participation in deal on Ukraine grain exports – as it happened

Moscow plans expedited Kherson withdrawal, says MoD; Guterres calls for west to help remove blocks to Russian grain exports

Speaking during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said 82,000 conscripts had already been sent to Ukraine.

Shoigu added that Russia was no longer recruiting people for its armed forces, saying that “citizen notification has been discontinued”.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 248 of the invasion

Russia says mobilisation of reserves is over; power cuts hit 4 million Ukrainians; Ukraine demands Iran stop arming Russia with drones

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has said the partial mobilisation of reservists announced in September “has been completed” and “no further measures are planned”. Speaking at a meeting with Vladimir Putin broadcast on state television, Shoigu said 82,000 mobilised recruits were in the conflict zone and a further 218,000 in training in barracks. His statement reflects what the west called a desperate effort to halt Kyiv’s counteroffensive with poorly trained troops.

About 4 million people across Ukraine are being hit by power cuts from rolling blackouts due to Russia’s bombing campaign, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. Agence Frence-Presse quoted energy company DTEK, the operator for the Kyiv region, as saying it would have to introduce “unprecedented” power cuts to prevent a complete blackout.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he had received a phone call from his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Friday and had demanded Tehran stop sending weapons to Russia. Ukraine and western allies accuse Iran of sending “kamikaze” drones to Russia that have been used to devastating effect against Ukrainian infrastructure. Iran denies the charge.

At least four people were killed and 10 wounded when several towns neighbouring the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia power plant were hit by shelling, a statement from the Ukrainian presidential office said.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces had repelled attempted Ukrainian advances in the east and had destroyed a Ukrainian military factory near the town of Pavlograd.

The US will provide $275m in additional military assistance to Ukraine, including arms, munitions and equipment from US defence department inventories, the secretary of state has said. “We are also working to provide Ukraine with the air defence capabilities it needs with the two initial US-provided Nasams ready for delivery to Ukraine next month,” Antony Blinken said. “And we are working with allies and partners to enable delivery of their own air defence systems to Ukraine.”

Assets belonging to Russian and Belarusian individuals seized by Ukraine could be used for the huge postwar reconstruction effort, the Ukrainian finance minister, Serhiy Marchenko, has been quoted as saying. The government has frozen Russian and Belarusian assets in Ukraine worth about 44 billion hryvnias ($1.21bn) since the start of Moscow’s invasion, according to the Economic Security Bureau, a state agency.

The European Union has appointed a Polish general, Piotr Trytek, to lead a new training operation with Ukrainian troops. Trytek, 51, was chosen as part of the EU’s pledge to step up military support for Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin’s first deputy chief of staff has visited the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Kherson. Sergei Kiriyenko stopped at a ferry port where hundreds of people were being removed by order of Russian authorities.

A Russian official’s threat to strike western satellites aiding Ukraine has raised concerns among space lawyers and industry executives about the safety of objects in orbit. No country has carried out a missile strike against an enemy’s satellite.

UN nuclear inspectors are expected to reach a conclusion soon on Russia’s claims of the possible production of a “dirty bomb”. Investigators are being sent to two locations in Ukraine where Russia alleged the activities were taking place.

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Russia says 82,000 conscripts from emergency draft already in Ukraine

Ministry of Defence says Russia relying on ‘poorly trained force’ as Kremlin seeks to consolidate gains

Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Russia’s defence minister said 82,000 conscripts had already been sent to Ukraine, reflecting what the west called a desperate effort to halt Kyiv’s counter offensive with poorly trained troops.

Sergei Shoigu told president, Vladimir Putin, that a further 218,000 were being trained in barracks, and that the controversial “partial mobilisation” had concluded, although it was not possible to verify the figures cited.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia has fired 4,500 missiles on Ukraine since invasion, says Zelenskiy; more than 300 drones ‘shot down’ – as it happened

Ukraine president says there were 8,000 air strikes; air force spokesman says Ukraine has shot down hundreds of Iranian-made drones

Russia has probably bolstered its troops with “mobilised reservists” west of the Dnieper River, the UK’s ministry of defence has said.

The region encompasses most of Kherson, a strategically important Russian-held city braced for a counter-offensive from Ukrainian troops.

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Twitter takeover: fears raised over disinformation and hate speech

EU commissioner says Elon Musk’s platform must ‘fly by our rules’ as UK minister raises concerns over content moderation

Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition has been polarizing, sparking reactions from politicians, regulators and non-profits across different continents.

Some have expressed concerns about potential changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies now that it’s in the hands of the Tesla billionaire, while others celebrated how they expect the platform’s newly minted leader will handle content and speech on Twitter.

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‘It’s a therapeutic genre for me’: Iceland’s PM releases debut crime novel

Katrín Jakobsdóttir joins long list of fiction-writing politicians with book that came together during Covid pandemic

For 30 years, the disappearance of teenager Lára Marteinsdóttir from the windswept island of Víðey, off the coast of Iceland’s capital, tormented the nation. Until 1986, when Valur, a rookie reporter on a local newspaper, decided to investigate …

So far, so Nordic noir. But Reykjavík, published to promising reviews in Iceland this week, is a crime novel with a difference – it was written by the prime minister, albeit with the help of one of the country’s international bestselling authors.

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Vegan activist takes Switzerland to human rights court over prison diet

Man says state prison failed to provide adequate diet, in appeal joined by former psychiatric patient

Switzerland has been challenged at the European court of human rights over a failure to provide adequate vegan diets to a prisoner and a patient at the psychiatric ward of a hospital, in a case that could lead to veganism being interpreted as a protected characteristic under the right of freedom of conscience across geographic Europe.

The court, which is part of the Council of Europe and not the EU, this week formally asked its member state Switzerland to respond to the two complaints that Swiss state institutions had failed to provide a totally vegan diet to two applicants while they were in prison and in a hospital psychiatric unit respectively.

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Mondrian painting has been hanging upside down for 75 years

Despite the discovery, the work, titled New York City I, will continue to be displayed the wrong way up to avoid damaging it

A painting by abstract Dutch artist Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside down in various museums since it was first put on display 75 years ago, an art historian has found, but warned it could disintegrate if it was hung the right side up now.

The 1941 picture, a complex interlacing lattice of red, yellow, black and blue adhesive tapes titled New York City I, was first put on display at New York’s MoMA in 1945 but has hung at the art collection of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf since 1980.

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Rishi Sunak reportedly seeking deal with France to curb Channel crossings

Draft deal includes targets and staff bonuses for tackling the number of asylum seekers in the UK

Rishi Sunak is aiming to reach an agreement with France to address the unprecedented number of Channel crossings by asylum seekers which could include new targets and bonuses, according to reports.

Ministers and officials are expected to review a draft deal that was previously close to being signed with France, which encompasses targets for how many boats are stopped from reaching the UK and a minimum number of French officers patrolling the beaches at any one time, sources told the Times.

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Italian neofascists display banner celebrating Mussolini’s march on Rome

Picture of dictator along with text exalting in his seizure of power 100 years ago reportedly placed by far-right militants

Neofascist militants have hung a banner from a bridge near the Colosseum in the Italian capital to celebrate Friday’s 100th anniversary of Benito Mussolini’s march on Rome.

The banner, which features a large picture of the fascist dictator wearing military uniform alongside the words “100 years after, the march continues”, appeared on the Ponte degli Annibaldi, a small elevated bridge close to Italy’s most visited cultural monument, on Thursday night.

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Kyiv facing ‘sharp deterioration’ in electric supply after Russian strikes

Supplier tells people living in and around city that blackouts could last ‘a lot longer’ than previously planned

Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Ukrainians living in and around Kyiv have been told of a “sharp deterioration” in the region’s electricity supply after a fresh wave of Russian strikes aimed at sapping public morale as the country’s cold winter approaches.

A local energy supplier, Yasno, warned that existing blackouts could last a lot longer than a previously planned schedule of four-hour outages and that the capital already faced an electricity deficit of about 30% or more.

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Albanians arriving in UK could get ‘bespoke route’ for immigration cases to be heard

Government considering proposals so that officials could ‘quickly’ remove migrants from country if they are unsuccessful

Albanians could be given a “bespoke route” to have their immigration cases heard upon arrival in Britain so officials can “quickly” remove them from the country if they are unsuccessful, MPs have been told.

Government figures circulated earlier this year claimed about 60% of migrants making Channel crossings every day were from Albania, although officials noted the numbers fluctuate.

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Climate crisis fuelling unseasonably warm October in UK and Europe, say experts

Temperatures expected to hit 20C in UK, Germany and France this weekend

Three months ago, Britain experienced its hottest day on record. Records were similarly broken in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands as an extreme heatwave swept across much of Europe.

Now, with much of western Europe experiencing unusually mild autumnal temperatures caused by the jet stream – strong winds blowing from west to east – figures are expected to reach 20C this weekend in parts of Britain, Germany, France and elsewhere, according to national weather services.

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