Russia-Ukraine war: UK sanctions Iran over drones used in Russian attacks in Ukraine; Kyiv restricts power use – as it happened

UK implements new sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with drones; Ukrainians prepare for hours-long power outages. This live blog is now closed

Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, has posted a status update for Thursday which says that yesterday two people died and four more were injured when “a car with employees of the state emergency service was blown up by a mine” in the Izium district.

He also said “a 78-year-old resident of Izium district was hospitalised with injuries during the day”.

It is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

It likely indicates that the Russian authorities are seriously considering a major withdrawal of their forces from the area west of the Dnipro river.

A key challenge of any Russian withdrawal operation would be extracting troops and their equipment across the 1000m wide river in good order.

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Trade from UK to EU 16% lower than if Brexit had not happened, report finds

Economic and Social Research Institute analysis found ‘substantial reduction in number of products traded’

Trade from the UK to the EU is down 16% on the levels anticipated had Brexit not happened, a new report has found.

Meanwhile trade from the EU to the UK has dropped even further, by 20%, relative to a scenario in which Brexit had not occurred, according to research published on Wednesday by the Economic and Social Research Institute.

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Ukrainian people win European parliament’s Sakharov prize

Annual prize awarded to Ukraine’s citizens to honour their fight against Russia’s invasion

The European parliament has awarded the people of Ukraine its annual Sakharov prize for freedom of thought to honour their fight against Russia’s invasion.

“They are standing up for what they believe in. Fighting for our values. Protecting democracy, freedom and rule of law. Risking their lives for us,” the European parliament president, Roberta Metsola, said when she announced the winner.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: hundreds of thousands without water or power; Russia warns of battle for Kherson in ‘very near future’

Russian president says four Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia will be put under martial law

If you look hard enough, you’ll spot faded yellow signs proclaiming “fallout shelter” around New York City. They are remnants of a cold war programme that signalled spaces within ordinary buildings – from schools to banks to the Brooklyn Bridge – with adequate supplies and walls thick enough for riding out a nuclear blast safely.

Many of these windowless shelters housed little more than rats and sewage before the practice was terminated in 1979. In 2017, the city’s department of education ordered the “misleading” signs removed from its buildings, but many others remain – vestiges of nuclear fears that never materialised.

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French government to use constitutional powers to force through budget

President accused of authoritarianism as PM puts end to days of heated parliamentary debate

The French government is to use special constitutional powers to force through its 2023 budget without a parliamentary vote, sparking accusations of “authoritarianism” from the opposition and underlining President Emmanuel Macron’s weakened domestic position since his centrist grouping lost its absolute majority in elections last spring.

“It is our responsibility to make sure our country has a budget”, the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, told parliament as she put an end to several days of heated debate over the government’s pro-business budget, which ministers said would protect people from the cost of living crisis while avoiding tax increases.

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Slimmed down Boris Becker reportedly teaching yoga in prison

Former Wimbledon champion trains at Huntercombe prison where he is serving time for hiding assets, German tabloid reports

Boris Becker is reported to have lost weight and won friends in the UK prison where he is serving a sentence related to his 2017 bankruptcy, according to a German newspaper.

The former Wimbledon champion was transferred from Wandsworth prison to Huntercombe prison near Nuffield, Oxfordshire, in May. In April he was jailed for two and a half years for concealing £2.5m of assets to avoid paying money he owed after his bankruptcy.

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Finland’s main parties back plans to build Russia border fence

Structure would protect areas identified as posing potential risk of large-scale migration from Russia

Finland’s main political parties have backed building a fence along parts of the country’s border with Russia, with work on a short pilot section expected to start as soon as funds have been allocated, Finnish media have reported.

Neighbouring Norway, which also shares a border with Russia in the far north, on Wednesday said it had arrested a seventh Russian national suspected of illegally flying drones or taking photographs in restricted areas in recent days.

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Italian senator renews anti-abortion foetus rights proposal

Maurizio Gasparri has higher chance of success this time after rightwing coalition’s election victory

An Italian senator has submitted a proposal for an amendment to Italy’s civil code that would recognise a foetus as a human being, which if passed into law could enable pregnancy terminations to be classified as murder.

Maurizio Gasparri, a politician with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, which is part of the government led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy – a party with neofascist origins – expected to be sworn in next week, unleashed a barrage of criticism from members of the opposition when he presented his “rights of the unborn child” proposal to the senate.

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Swedish government scraps country’s pioneering ‘feminist foreign policy’

New rightwing government said label could be counter-productive for Sweden’s international agenda

Sweden’s new rightwing government has announced it is ditching the country’s pioneering “feminist foreign policy”, launched by the leftwing administration in 2014, saying the label could be counter-productive.

The foreign minister, Tobias Billström, announced the move just moments after the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, presented his new government, backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats for the first time.

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Russia’s new Ukraine commander signals civilian evacuation from ‘tense’ Kherson

Sergei Surovikin says Russia’s defence of occupied southern city ‘not easy’ as Ukraine introduces local news blackout

The new commander of Moscow’s army in Ukraine has announced that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation as “tense”.

“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Sergei Surovikin said in his first televised interview since being appointed earlier this month, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson.

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Berlusconi said he received vodka from Putin for birthday, reports say

La Presse agency publishes audio suggesting 20 bottles arrived for 86th birthday after pair ‘re-establish’ ties

Silvio Berlusconi has allegedly said Vladimir Putin gave him 20 bottles of vodka for his birthday after he “re-established” relations with the Russian president.

Berlusconi turned 86 on 29 September, four days after a coalition including his Forza Italia party won the general election.

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Coffins left hanging in air after second Naples cemetery collapse this year

Critics blame poor management of cemeteries in Italian city as collapse at Poggioreale cemetery exposes at least a dozen coffins

At least a dozen coffins have been left dangling in the air after the collapse of a four-storey building containing burial niches at the oldest cemetery in Naples.

It is the second such incident at the site this year, with critics blaming the poor management of cemeteries in the southern Italian city.

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Iran agrees to supply missiles as well as drones to Russia

Defence secretary Ben Wallace flies to Washington to discuss dangerous new phase in invasion of Ukraine

Iran has deepened its commitment to supplying arms for Russia’s assault on Ukraine by agreeing to provide a batch of medium-range missiles, as well as large numbers of cheap but effective drones, according to US and Iranian security officials.

The surface-to-surface missiles are designed to supplement the severely run-down stock of Russian missiles, as part of a bid to systematically destroy Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure ahead of a brutal winter.

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Iran protesters need same western support as Ukraine, say exiles

Iranian opposition sign open letter calling for tougher measures over regime’s actions against protesters

A prominent group of Iranians in exile, human rights activists and families of dual-national political prisoners has called on the west to do more to help Iranians’ demands for freedom.

The EU, US and UK have imposed largely symbolic travel bans and asset freezes on a dozen security officials linked to a crackdown on people protesting in Iran after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in mid-September. The west has not broken off talks with the Iranian regime over the 2015 nuclear deal or downgraded diplomatic relations.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia evacuating citizens from Kherson as commander describes ‘tense’ situation

Sergei Surovikin says Ukraine forces ‘continually’ trying to take positions of Russian troops, particularly in Kupiansk, Lyman and Mykolaiv

A Russian missile struck an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian port city Mykolaiv, in one of three explosions heard there in the early hours of Tuesday, a Reuters witness said.

The missile completely destroyed one wing of the building in the downtown area, leaving a massive crater. A fire crew pulled the dead body of a man from the rubble, the witness said.

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What are European countries doing to cut power consumption?

Governments across the continent have announced a range of measures to tackle any energy shortages this winter

Paris is switching off the Eiffel Tower lights an hour early, Milan has turned off public fountains, and Hanover is offering gym users cold rather than hot showers in an effort to combat potential energy shortages this winter.

At the same time, the public are being encouraged to do their bit by avoiding using household appliances between 4pm and 7pm, stock up on blankets and slow down their driving.

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At least 13 reported dead in Russia after military plane hits building

Residential building in Yeysk, near the Ukraine border, hit by Su-34 fighter-bomber, says defence ministry

A Russian military jet has crashed into a residential building shortly after taking off near the border with Ukraine, sparking a major fire that has reportedly left at least 13 people dead, according to Russian news agency Interfax, citing a senior official.

Video and photographs uploaded to social media on Monday showed a residential building engulfed in flames in Yeysk, a port and resort town in Russia located just south of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol across the Sea of Azov.

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Belarus jails opposition activists on charges of terrorism and treason

Nikolai Avtukhovich, leader of group, sentenced to 25 years, says human rights NGO Viasna

A Belarus court has handed down prison sentences ranging from two-and-a-half to 25 years to a dozen opposition activists accused of terrorism and treason, the human rights NGO Viasna has said.

Nikolai Avtukhovich, the leader of the activist group, had been sentenced to 25 years, Viasna said on Telegram, in one of the heaviest sentences handed down recently in the reclusive country.

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Fighter jet crashes in Russian city near Ukraine; Kyiv says 108 women freed in prisoner swap – as it happened

Fighter plane hits residential building in southern Russian city of Yeysk; Ukraine says it is first all-female exchange with Moscow. This blog is now closed

A large fire has broken out at an energy plant in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth largest city, following strikes early on Monday morning, Reuters reports, citing the Dnipro mayor.

The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh is sheltering in an underpass at Kyiv station, near to where this morning’s attacks occurred:

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy publishes collection of war speeches as ‘battle cry for the world’

A Message from Ukraine includes 16 speeches selected by the president as well as an introduction setting out what he has learned since the start of the war with Russia

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is to publish a collection of his war speeches, which his publisher has described as “a battle cry for the world to speak out and fight for liberty”.

A Message from Ukraine will include 16 speeches personally selected by Zelenskiy, which will “explore Ukraine’s journey since 2019”, said publisher Penguin Random House.

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