Ukraine arms manufacturer charged with treason over bugged phone calls

Vyacheslav Boguslaev allegedly said he ‘completely understands’ why factory was bombed by Russia

Alleged recordings of the head of a major Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer accused of aiding the Russian military – saying he “completely understands” why a Russian missile was fired at his factory – have been released by Kyiv’s security services after his arrest at the weekend.

Vyacheslav Boguslaev, the president of Motor Sich, has been charged with treason after a raid at the weekend on his home in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. The manufacturing heavyweight is suspected of selling engines – before and after the invasion – for Russian attack helicopters that have been used extensively against Ukrainian troops.

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Swedish archaeologists find 17th-century warship

Maritime experts believe wreck is sister ship of Vasa, which sank off Stockholm in 1629

Swedish maritime archaeologists have discovered the long-lost sister ship of the 17th-century warship Vasa, which sank on its maiden voyage, the Swedish Museum of Wrecks has said.

Launched in 1629, Applet (Apple) was built by the same shipbuilder as the famed 69-metre Vasa, which was carrying 64 cannon when it went down in a strait off the island of Vaxholm, just outside the capital, Stockholm.

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Rishi Sunak urged to scrap ‘undemocratic’ proposals to axe 2,400 laws

Charities and trade unions among those calling on new PM to shelve bill that would scrap EU-era legislation protecting workers’ rights and the environment

Employers, trade unions, lawyers and environmentalists are calling on Rishi Sunak to scrap Jacob Rees-Mogg’s legislation that would sweep away 2,400 laws derived from the EU.

The retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill is due for its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday, which would scrap protections including the ban on animal testing for cosmetics, workers’ rights and environmental measures.

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Accept Brexit protocol talks and return to powersharing, DUP urged

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker also says new elections will be called if deadline to return to Stormont passes

The Northern Ireland minister, Steve Baker, has made a direct appeal to the Democratic Unionist party to accept EU-UK negotiations on the Brexit protocol and return to powersharing in Stormont.

He also warned that if the DUP did not return to Stormont by Friday’s deadline, the government would call fresh assembly elections .

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Tory backer says UK economy is ‘frankly doomed’ without Brexit renegotiation

Guy Hands says Conservatives are putting country ‘on a path to be sick man of Europe’

The billionaire businessman Guy Hands has accused the Conservatives of putting the UK “on a path to be the sick man of Europe”, as he issued a series of stark predictions about what could lie ahead for the post-Brexit economy, including higher taxes and interest rates and fewer social services.

The founder and chair of the private equity firm Terra Firma, a longtime Tory supporter, called for the government to renegotiate Brexit, stating that otherwise the British economy was “frankly doomed”.

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Richard Harris archive donated to Cork University

Late Irish actor’s poems, photos, plaques and even his wedding list among items handed over by family

Richard Harris blazed through life as an actor, singer, boozer and womaniser but few knew he was also a hoarder.

Poems, photos, letters, script notes, artefacts, documents, rugby plaques, his wedding guest list – he kept it all. After his death in 2002, the trove spanning 50 years of cinema and theatre gathered dust in a lock-up in Oxford, known only to his family.

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Terror to elation: Ukrainian woman’s journey from Azovstal to PoW to freedom

Exclusive: Guardian hears of ordeal in first major interview given by any of the women freed in last week’s prisoner swap

It was like something from the cold war. After five months in the most notorious jail in occupied Ukraine, Alina Panina, 25, had found herself, without explanation, at the foot of a bridge over a river in no man’s land with 107 fellow female Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Behind Panina lay Russian-occupied territory and her experiences of the siege of Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks, the subsequent surrender and then captivity in Olenivka prison in Donetsk. There she was witness to the aftermath of an explosion that killed 53 male prisoners, a blast said by Kyiv to have been engineered by Moscow to silence the victims of torture.

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No indication Russia has decided to use nuclear weapon in Ukraine, says senior US official – as it happened

US says Russia keeping lines of communication open after meeting between defense secretary Lloyd Austin and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu. This live blog is now closed

Some recent images to come through our newswires today show the situation currently unfolding in Ukraine.

Ukraine is facing more power outages after Russian strikes continue to target energy facilities.

We should consume electricity very consciously. Please remember to limit the use of unnecessary and energy-consuming appliances,” he said in his latest national address on Sunday night.

It is necessary to be really frugal with energy consumption in public space.”

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US dismisses ‘transparently false’ Russian claims of Ukraine plan to use ‘dirty bomb’

Antony Blinken joins Ukraine and UK in dismissing Moscow’s claim, saying the world will ‘see through’ any attempt to escalate conflict

The US has rejected as “transparently false” Russia’s evidence-free claim that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb” on its own territory as part of an escalation of Vladimir Putin’s war.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken told his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, on Sunday “the world would see through any attempt by Russia to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation”, and vowed to continue supporting Kyiv for as long as necessary.

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Russia’s grip on Kherson slips as civilians flee Ukraine counteroffensive

Evacuation of city ordered amid fears Russian forces may blow up hydroelectric dam at Nova Kakhovka

Russia’s grip on the city of Kherson appeared increasingly fragile after a weekend in which all civilians were ordered to evacuate immediately in the face of the advancing Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The occupied city’s Russian administration told residents to take “documents, money, valuables and clothes” due to “the tense situation on the front” and reported on Sunday that there had been “a sharp increase” in the number of civilians trying to flee.

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Climate activists throw mashed potatoes at Monet work in Germany

Two protesters pelt painting with potatoes and glue their hands to wall at Museum Barberini in Potsdam

Claude Monet has become the latest artist to be the focus of food-related climate protests, after members of a German environmental group threw mashed potatoes over one of his paintings in a Potsdam museum on Sunday.

Nine days after Just Stop Oil emptied tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London, two activists from Letzte Generation (Last Generation) entered the Museum Barberini and doused Monet’s Les Meules (Haystacks) with potato before glueing their hands to the wall.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: UK defence secretary dismisses Russia’s claims Ukraine plans to escalate conflict – as it happened

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, makes calls with UK, US, French and Turkish counterparts on Sunday

Two civilians have been killed in Russian strikes on the eastern region of Donetsk, according to the local governor.

Posting on Telegram on Sunday, Pavlo Kyrylenko said the deaths had occurred in the villages of Klishchiivka and Torskyi.

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Russian fighter jet crashes in Siberia, killing two crew members

Incident is second such fatal crash in Russian residential area in six days involving a Sukhoi jet

A Russian warplane has crashed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, killing both crew members – the second such fatal incident in a Russian residential area in six days involving a Sukhoi fighter plane.

The crashes appear to reflect the growing strain that the fighting in Ukraine has put on the Russian air force. The Irkutsk governor, Igor Kobzev, said the Su-30 fighter jet came down on a private, two-storey building housing two families. There were no casualties on the ground.

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Pope prays for ‘unity and peace in Italy’ as Giorgia Meloni takes power

Country’s first female prime minister leads the most rightwing government since the second world war

Pope Francis offered prayers for “unity and peace in Italy” as Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, took the helm of the country’s most rightwing government since the second world war.

Meloni, the leader of Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, met the outgoing prime minister, Mario Draghi, for a formal handover ceremony on Sunday. “I did not expect this welcome,” Meloni, 45, said as she was greeted by Draghi, referring to the ceremonial guard. “It’s an emotionally impacting thing.”

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‘Nobody forced us’: the Greek builder who saved 80 Afghans from the sea

On Monday, 66-year-old is to be honoured in Athens for his actions on night both tragic and awe-inspiring

Michalis Protopsaltis does not see himself as a hero. When the news of the shipwreck came through, he did, he says, what any man in his position would do. The construction company owner dispatched a crane to the Kythira clifftop and, one by one, began saving the 80 Afghan immigrants scrambling for dear life in the waters below.

Three hours elapsed before the last refugee – originally bound for Italy on a yacht that had set sail from the Turkish town of İzmir – was winched to the top.

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Pilgrims to Mussolini’s birthplace pray that new PM will resurrect a far-right Italy

In Predappio, supporters celebrate victory of their first female prime minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of a party with neo-fascist origins

Dressed in a black sweater, with “Propaganda” written in bold white letters across the back, Marco, 32, and his two friends had travelled to Predappio from their home in the Marche region to pay their respects at the grave of Benito Mussolini before the impending 100th anniversary of the fascist dictator’s march on Rome.

The ornate Mussolini family crypt, located in the tiny San Cassiano cemetery of the Emilia Romagna town, has attracted thousands of admirers since it reopened on an all-year-round basis in March, with the daily flow increasingly more consistent since the late September general election victory for a coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, which was sworn into government on Saturday.

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Ukraine faces power outages after ‘massive’ Russian strikes target energy facilities

Russian attacks on energy plants across Ukraine left more than a million households without electricity, officials said on Saturday

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched a “massive attack” on Ukraine, with some strikes reported on energy infrastructure that resulted in power outages across the country.

More than a dozen Russian missiles pounded energy facilities and other infrastructure across Ukraine on Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said, with strikes causing blackouts in parts of different regions.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: what we know on day 242 of the invasion

Blackouts across Ukraine after Russian missile attacks on energy facilities and other infrastructure

Russian-installed authorities have ordered all residents of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson to leave “immediately” ahead of an expected advance by Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive to recapture it. The regional pro-Kremlin administration called on civilians to use boat crossings over a major river to move deeper into Russian-held territory, citing a tense situation on the front and the threat of shelling and alleged “terror attacks” by Kyiv, Associated Press reported. On Friday, Ukrainian forces bombarded Russian positions across the region, targeting resupply routes.

More than a dozen Russian missiles pounded energy facilities and other infrastructure across Ukraine on Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said, with strikes causing blackouts in parts of different regions. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Russian attacks had struck on a “very wide” scale, Reuters reported. He pledged that his military would improve on an already good record of downing missiles with help from its partners.

Russian military forces targeted energy facilities in western Ukraine, the country’s power grid operator said on Saturday. Ukrenergo said on Telegram that the “scale of damage is comparable or may exceed the consequences of the attack on October 10-12”. It said repair crews were starting to repair the facilities after the rocket attack, but that restrictions were in place as they tried to restore the electricity supply.

Hundreds of thousands of people in central and western Ukraine have woken up to power outages and periodic bursts of gunfire, as Ukrainian air defence tried to shoot down drones and incoming missiles. Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said 1.5 million people were without electricity after Russian strikes against power stations on Saturday.

Ukraine’s prime minister said that Russia has plunged Ukraine into a humanitarian catastrophe by attacking its energy infrastructure. Denys Shmyhal told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine that Russia wanted to condemn Ukraine to “a cold winter when many people could literally freeze to death”.

Ukrainian forces have pushed Russians out of the Charivne and Chkalove settlements in the Kherson region, the Ukrainian forces’ general staff said on Saturday.

Iran’s foreign ministry has strongly condemned a call by France, Germany and Britain for the UN to investigate accusations that Russia has used drones from Iran to attack Ukraine. Ukraine says Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones. If true, the allegations would mark a breach of UN security council resolution 2231.

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Thousands of London protesters call for UK to rejoin EU

Anti-Brexit rally sees crowds from across UK waving EU flags and blaming Britain’s crises on departure from union

Thousands of protesters have marched through central London calling for the UK to rejoin the EU.

The national rejoin march on Saturday saw large crowds of people walk from Park Lane to Parliament Square. Marchers from across the UK travelled for hours to attend.

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