International

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that there is no need for massive new strikes on Ukraine and that Russia is not looking to destroy the country. He told a news conference at the end of a summit in Kazakhstan that his call-up of Russian reservists would be over within two weeks and there are no plans for a further mobilisation. Putin also repeated the Kremlin position that Russia is willing to hold talks, although he said they would require international mediation if Ukraine is prepared to take part. Taken together, his comments appeared to suggest a slight softening of his tone as the war nears the end of its eighth month, after weeks of Ukrainian advances and significant Russian defeats. Wall Street shares opened higher as traders interpreted them as easing geopolitical tensions. However, Putin – who has said that he would be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia’s “territorial integrity” – also warned of a “global catastrophe” in the event of a direct clash of Nato troops with Russia. He was speaking after a week when Russia has staged its heaviest missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities since the start of its invasion of February 24 – an action that Putin has said was retaliation for an attack that damaged a Russian bridge to unilaterally annexed Crimea. “We do not set ourselves the task of destroying Ukraine. No, of course not,” the president said. He said that there is “no need for massive strikes” now because most designated targets had been hit. Russia’s faltering invasion has confronted Putin with the deepest crisis of his 22 years as Russia’s paramount leader, as even loyal Kremlin allies have attacked his generals’ failings and the chaotic nature of the mobilisation. However, he answered “No” when asked if he had any regrets, saying that failure to act in Ukraine would have been even worse. “I want it to be clear: what is happening today is unpleasant, to put it mildly, but we would have got the same thing a little later, only in worse conditions for us, that’s all. So we are acting correctly and in a timely manner.” Meanwhile a United Nations envoy alleged that Russian forces are using rape as a weapon. UN envoy Pramila Patten told AFP in an interview that rapes and sexual assaults attributed to Moscow’s forces in Ukraine were part of a Russian “military strategy” and a “deliberate tactic to dehumanise the victims”. “When you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it’s clearly a military strategy,” the UN special representative on sexual violence said on Thursday. “It is clearly a deliberate tactic to dehumanise the victims.” In Kyiv yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed, during events marking the country’s first Defender’s Day celebrations, that Ukrainian troops would be victorious over Russian forces. He also laid a wreath at a memorial for soldiers killed since 2014, when Kremlin-backed separatists wrested control of parts of two eastern regions. In February this year, the separatists appealed for Russia to intervene. “The world is with us, more than ever. This makes us stronger than ever in history,” Zelensky added in reference to unprecedented Western aid.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has fired her finance minister after prolonged market turmoil, but restive Conservatives plotted the new leader’s own demise as her right-wing economic agenda imploded. Kwasi Kwarteng became Britain’s shortest serving finance minister, except for a predecessor who died suddenly in office in 1970, paying the price after Truss’s crash programme of unfunded tax cuts terrified the financial markets. “You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted,” he wrote in his resignation letter to Truss. The prime minister did little to reassure investors and the UK electorate at a brief news conference – her first since succeeding Boris Johnson on September 6. She insisted that she had acted “decisively” to bring about “economic stability” – but the pound resumed its slide on currency markets, falling under $1.12. “We will get through this storm,” she said, taking only four questions, looking nervously around the room and delivering terse replies. “I want to deliver a low-tax, high-wage, high-growth economy. That mission remains.” Kwarteng, who had rushed back early from international meetings in Washington, was replaced by the centrist former foreign secretary and Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt as Britain’s fourth chancellor this year. Financial upheaval sparked by the new government’s September 23 plan to slash taxes – financed via billions in more borrowing – had subsided somewhat since the Bank of England (BoE) intervened in bond markets. However, the central bank was adamant that it would end its bond-buying spree yesterday, and market analysts said only a bigger climbdown by Truss following Kwarteng’s disastrous budget announcement last month would avert fresh panic. She duly delivered the U-turn by announcing that she would retain the Johnson government’s plan to raise profits tax on companies – having already changed her mind about cutting income tax for the highest earners. The promised tax reforms were the centrepiece of Truss’s successful pitch to Tory party members that she, rather than moderate rival Rishi Sunak, was the best candidate to replace Johnson. “This marks the first time in decades – since at least the 90s – that the financial markets have forced the government of a big developed economy with its own central bank to capitulate on core fiscal ambitions,” Evercore analysts said. A new YouGov poll for The Times newspaper said 43% of Conservative voters want a new prime minister in Downing Street. Other polls show a mammoth lead up opening up for the main opposition Labour party, threatening electoral meltdown for the Tories. Labour leader Keir Starmer said that ditching Kwarteng would not “undo the damage made in Downing Street”. “Liz Truss’s reckless approach has crashed the economy, causing mortgages to skyrocket and has undermined Britain’s standing on the world stage,” he said. Tony Travers, from the London School of Economics, told AFP that Kwarteng had been made “the fall guy for the government’s mistakes” – but that the sacking had not taken the pressure off Truss or calmed the Tories. “It’s very hard to see them coming back from this” by the next election, he added. Kwarteng had been due to stay in Washington this weekend to conclude annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, after having earned a rebuke from IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva on the need for “coherent and consistent” policies. Commenting on the tax U-turn, senior IMF official Alfred Kammer paid credit to the UK’s “strong institutions”, such as the BoE and the Office for Budget Responsibility – both of which were undermined by Truss and Kwarteng. Also speaking in Washington, European Union economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said the upheaval in Britain showed “how prudent we should be also with our fiscal and monetary mix”. In the US capital on Thursday, Kwarteng had insisted that his job was safe. “I’m not going anywhere.” However, UK broadcasters showed live footage of Kwarteng’s British Airways plane landing at London’s Heathrow airport a day early, after Truss held hurried meetings with her own financial advisors in his absence. Multiple reports said that senior Tory MPs were plotting to unseat Truss by installing a new leadership team under Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, who also ran to succeed Johnson. Party grandees could move next week, senior BBC journalist Nick Watt tweeted. “They said not tenable for PM to remain after sacking @KwasiKwarteng who was implementing the programme that won her the Tory leadership,” he wrote. However, Bernard Jenkin, a senior voice on the Tory right, called for “calm” after Hunt’s appointment. “Rash talk of ditching the PM, or calls for a general election, will not calm the financial markets,” he tweeted. IN: New Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt.   OUT: Former finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to leaders of the Group of Seven nations for more air defence capabilities, and the G7 vowed to support Kyiv for “as long as it takes” while warning Russia against any use of nuclear weapons. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) said that it is closely monitoring Russia’s nuclear forces following a string of Russian battlefield defeats in Ukraine and that the allies were also boosting security around key infrastructure after recent attacks on Baltic Sea gas pipelines. Russian missiles again hit Ukrainian cities but with less intensity than on Monday, when dozens of strikes killed 19 people, wounded more than 100 and knocked out power supplies across the country in Moscow’s biggest aerial offensive since the start of its invasion on February 24. More missile strikes killed at least one person in the southeastern Ukrainian town of Zaporizhzhia and left part of the western city of Lviv without power, local officials said. Air raid sirens earlier wailed across Ukraine for a second day. “When Ukraine receives a sufficient quantity of modern and effective air defence systems, the key element of Russia’s terror, rocket strikes, will cease to work,” Zelensky told G7 leaders at a virtual meeting where he again ruled out peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yesterday Ukraine received the first of four IRIS-T air defence systems Germany promised to supply, a German defence ministry source said. Kyiv also expects to receive state-of-the-art US air defence systems. Ukraine’s Western allies have pumped aid and heavy weapons to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion began. Zelensky’s government has mixed gratitude with pleas for more powerful weapons and faster deliveries. The G7 – which groups the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Britain, Italy and Canada – pledged continued “financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support ... for as long as it takes” to Ukraine, it said in a statement. Moscow, which calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to eliminate dangerous nationalists and protect Russian-speakers, has accused the West of escalating and prolonging the conflict by supporting Kyiv. “We warn and hope that they realise the danger of uncontrolled escalation in Washington and other Western capitals,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by RIA news agency yesterday. Kyiv and the West accuse Russia of an unprovoked imperialist land grab in neighbouring Ukraine. Putin, under domestic pressure to ramp up the war as his forces have lost ground since early September, said he ordered the strikes as revenge for an explosion that damaged Russia’s bridge to annexed Crimea last weekend. In recent weeks, Moscow has annexed new tracts of Ukraine, mobilised hundreds of thousands of Russians to fight and repeatedly threatened to use nuclear arms, stoking alarm in the West. Nato has not noticed any change in Russia’s nuclear posture following the threats, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels yesterday. Stoltenberg also said Nato allies would meet any attacks on critical infrastructure with a “united and determined response”. It remains unclear who was behind explosions last month affecting gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea. Moscow has denied any involvement and pointed the finger at the United States. The alliance will proceed with its annual nuclear preparedness exercise “Steadfast Noon” next week – in which Nato air forces practice the use of US nuclear bombs based in Europe with training flights – without live weapons. Meanwhile, Zelensky officially requested that Unesco add the historic port city of Odessa to its World Heritage List in a bid to protect it from Russian air strikes. “We must provide a clear signal that the world will not turn a blind eye to the destruction of our common history, our common culture, our common heritage,” he told the 58 member states of the UN’s cultural watchdog in a pre-recorded video yesterday. “One of the steps for this should be the preservation of the historical centre of Odessa – a beautiful city, an important port of the Black Sea and a source of culture for millions of people in different countries,” he said. Known as the pearl of the Black Sea, Odessa blossomed after empress Catherine the Great decreed in the late 18th century that it would be Russia’s modern maritime gateway. Tsar Alexander named as governor France’s Duc de Richelieu, who oversaw its construction and whose statue still stands atop its iconic Potemkin stairs. However, since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Ukrainians have rushed to try to protect its monuments and buildings with sandbags and barricades. “Odessa, like all other cities of Ukraine, is a target for Russian strikes,” Zelensky said. “Please support Odessa! Show at the level of Unesco precisely that Russian terror must end.” The UN cultural agency said Ukraine’s request would be reviewed during the next World Heritage Committee meeting, without giving a date. The last session was supposed to be held in Russia in July, but was postponed due to the war in Ukraine. The committee chairperson is currently Russian.

British Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng, under pressure to rebuild shattered investor confidence in the new government’s economic agenda, yesterday brought forward the publication date for fiscal plans and economic forecasts to October 31. The plan had previously only been due out on November 23 - two months after Kwarteng triggered a rout in British bonds by announcing a “mini-budget” that included £45bn ($50bn) of tax cuts but no details on how they would be funded. The new publication date will also allow the Bank of England to understand the government’s tax and spending plans before it announces its next interest rate decision on November 3. Earlier yesterday, the central bank enlarged its emergency support for the shaky government bond market, ahead of the expiry date for that support on Friday of this week. Kwarteng said the new date for his medium-term fiscal statement would allow the independent Office For Budget Responsibility (OBR) enough time to assess updates to official data and for a full forecast process to take place. He and Prime Minister Liz Truss are hoping that the OBR will back their claims that the combination of tax cuts and reforms to areas such as planning rules and immigration will boost Britain’s economic growth prospects. Asked why the medium term fiscal plan was brought forward, a spokesman for Truss told reporters: “We want to provide the full economic and fiscal outlook quickly, we recognise the importance of that.” “We believe the 31st is the right time to do that.” Last month the International Monetary Fund said the government’s push for economic growth and the Bank of England’s attempts to control inflation were working against each other. Kwarteng is due to attend the IMF’s semi-annual meeting of global policymakers in Washington this week. Kwarteng has previously said the OBR would not have had enough time to produce satisfactory forecasts for his September 23 announcement, although the OBR has contradicted this. Junior Treasury minister Andrew Griffith said market practitioners he had spoken to received news of the new date for the fiscal statement warmly. British government bonds and the pound showed scant reaction, with both in decline yesterday. The government also announced the appointment of veteran civil servant James Bowler as permanent secretary to the Treasury. He replaces Tom Scholar, whose ousting by Kwarteng last month added to investor unease around the government. The new date for the fiscal plan leaves Kwarteng and Truss with little more than two weeks to settle divisions in her Cabinet over cuts to government spending.

President Vladimir Putin has threatened more “severe” attacks against Ukraine after Russian missiles rained down on the capital Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in what Washington branded “utter brutality”. Missiles tore into intersections, parks and tourist sites in the capital Kyiv and explosions were reported in Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr in western Ukraine, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in the centre, Zaporizhzhia in the south and Kharkiv in the east. Ukrainian officials said at least 11 people were killed and scores injured, with swathes of the country left without power. Thousands of residents raced to bomb shelters as air raid sirens rang out through the day. The barrage of dozens of cruise missiles fired from air, land and sea was the biggest wave of air strikes to hit locations away from the front line, at least since the initial volleys on the war’s first day, February 24. The air strikes across Ukraine were in retaliation for an explosion this weekend that damaged a key bridge linking Russia to the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula. “Let there be no doubt,” Putin said in televised comments addressed to his security council, “if attempts at terrorist attacks continue, the response from Russia will be severe”. Kyiv said that Russian forces had fired more than 80 missiles on cities across the country and that Russia had also used Iranian drones launched from neighbouring Belarus, spurring panic and damaging energy facilities throughout Ukraine. Putin’s predecessor Dmitry Medvedev warned that the strikes were only “the first episode” of a response to explosion on the Kerch bridge. However, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the salvo showed that Moscow is increasingly panicked about recent battlefield losses seven months into its invasion. And his country’s closest allies slammed Russia, with US President Joe Biden saying that the strikes “demonstrate the utter brutality” of Putin’s “illegal war”. Ksenia Ryazantseva, a 39-year-old language teacher, told AFP that she was awoken by the blasts. “We saw the smoke, then the cars, and then we realised we didn’t have a window anymore,” she added. “There’s no military target or anything like that here. They’re just killing civilians.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes aimed to take down Ukrainian energy infrastructure and regional officials across the country confirmed widespread disruptions. Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile confirmed that it had targeted Ukrainian energy, military command and communications facilities, claiming that the strikes had been a success and “achieved their aims”. Kuleba said the attacks had not been “provoked” and that the onslaught was Moscow’s response to a series of embarrassing military losses in eastern Ukraine. “Putin is desperate because of battlefield defeats and uses missile terror to try to change the pace of war in his favour,” the minister wrote on social media. Zelensky said he had spoken with the leaders of France and Germany and urged them to “increase pressure” on Russia. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken weighed in on Twitter, writing: “We will continue to provide unwavering economic, humanitarian, and security assistance so Ukraine can defend itself and take care of its people.” Ukrainian officials said the central Shevchenkivsky district of the city was hit and that a university, museums and the philharmonic building had been damaged. An AFP journalist in Kyiv said a projectile landed near a playground and saw smoke rising from a large crater at the impact site. Trees and benches were charred by the blast and a number of ambulances were at the scene. In the western city of Lviv, mayor Andriy Sadovyi said there were disruptions to electricity and hot water services after bombardments targeted critical infrastructure. AFP photographers there saw plumes of black smoke rising above the town’s skyline. Moldova, west of Ukraine, said several Russian cruise missiles targeting Ukraine had crossed its airspace, and that it had summoned Moscow’s envoy to demand an explanation. The former Soviet country, which is a candidate to join the European Union, has a small breakaway region, Transnistria, which is armed and supported by Russia. Within Russia, the strikes were cheered by hawks. Ramzan Kadyrov, the staunchly pro-Kremlin leader of Russia’s Chechnya region who had recently demanded that military commanders be sacked, wrote: “Now I am 100% satisfied with how the special military operation is being conducted.” “We warned you Zelensky, that Russia hasn’t even got started yet, so stop complaining...  and run! Run away without looking back to the West.” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin’s, meanwhile claimed yesterday that Ukraine is preparing an attack on his country’s territory. He said Russia and Belarus would “deploy” troops together, without specifying where. The autocratic leader also accused Ukraine, alongside neighbouring Poland and Lithuania, of training Belarusian militants to carrying out attacks at home. The strikes across Ukraine came a day after Moscow blamed Kyiv for the blast that damaged a bridge linking Crimea to Russia, leaving three people dead. The blast that hit the bridge – a symbol of the Kremlin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea – sparked celebrations by Ukrainians and others on social media. However, Zelensky on Saturday did not directly mention the incident and officials in Kyiv have made no direct claim of responsibility. The 19km (12-mile) bridge is also a vital supply link between Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula.

French Authorities announced the rescue of more than 360 migrants while attempting to cross between the north coast of France and the south coast of England, in small boats. The Department of Maritime Operations in the English Channel and the North Sea said in a statement that the monitoring and rescue operations centre sent a group of boats, after it spotted several boats facing difficulty in the Pas de Calais Strait, in order to help them, adding that the migrants were transferred to several French ports, where there were ambulance teams and border police are waiting for them. Increasing numbers of migrants seeking to reach England are trying to cross the Channel in dilapidated boats after the authorities imposed more security measures in the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel. Since the beginning of the year, a record 33,500 people have crossed the perilous Channel, yet this sea is one of the busiest sea routes in the world.

At least 12 people were killed and 49 hospitalised, including six children, as a result of shelling in Ukraine's southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the region's governor said on Sunday. A nine-storey building was partially destroyed overnight, five other residential buildings levelled and many more damaged in 12 Russian missile attacks, said Oleksandr Starukh, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region. "There may be more people under the rubble," Starukh said on the Telegram messaging app. "A rescue operation is underway at the scene. Eight people have already been rescued." City official Anatoliy Kurtev had said earlier at least 17 people were killed when missiles hit a high-rise apartment complex and buildings. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. The city is about 125 km from a Russian-held nuclear power plant that is Europe's largest. Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for shelling at the Ukrainian-operated facility, which has damaged buildings and threatens a catastrophic nuclear accident.

Traffic resumed Saturday over a key bridge linking Russia with Crimea -- seen as a symbol of the Kremlin's annexation of the peninsula -- after it was partially destroyed by an explosion Moscow blamed on a truck bomb. The Kremlin announced on the same day the appointment of a new general to lead its Ukraine offensive following a series of battlefield setbacks that triggered unprecedented criticism of its army at home. The 19-kilometre bridge was hit by a blast around dawn on Saturday, killing three people, setting several oil tankers ablaze and collapsing two car lanes, Russian investigators said. The explosion drew celebrations from Ukrainians and others on social media, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made no direct mention of it in his nightly address and officials made no claim of responsibility. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin told reporters "traffic has been fully restored" on the bridge's railway, according to state news agency Ria Novosti, without specifying when operations resumed. Khusnullin had confirmed the resumption is for "both freight and passenger traffic" in an earlier post on Telegram, and said one of the destroyed lanes would be restored "in the near future". Local officials had said earlier in the day that the bridge had been reopened to motor traffic with vehicles subject to stringent screening, while rail operator Grand Service Express said the first trains had left the peninsula for Moscow and St Petersburg. Dramatic social media footage posted less than 24 hours before Moscow's statements showed the bridge on fire with parts plunging into the water. Following the blast, the bodies of an unidentified man and a woman were pulled out of the water, likely passengers in a car driving near the exploded truck, Moscow said. Authorities had identified the owner of the truck as a resident of Russia's southern Krasnodar region, saying his home was being searched. The bridge is logistically crucial for Moscow, a vital transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. It is also hugely symbolic. President Vladimir Putin personally inaugurated the bridge in 2018 -- even driving a truck across it -- and Moscow had maintained the crossing was safe despite the fighting. While some in Moscow hinted at Ukrainian "terrorism", state media continued to call it an "emergency situation." In his address, Zelensky spoke of a "sunny" future for Ukrainians -- one without occupiers, "in particular in the Crimea". While he made no mention of the strategic bridge, his adviser Mykhailo Podolyak earlier posted a picture on Twitter of a long section of the bridge half-submerged. "Crimea, the bridge, the beginning," he wrote. "Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled." But in a later statement, he appeared to suggest that Moscow had a hand in the blast. "It is worth noting that the truck that detonated, according to all indications, entered the bridge from the Russian side. So the answers should be sought in Russia," he said. The Ukrainian post office announced it was preparing to print stamps showing the "Crimean bridge -- or more precisely, what remains of it". The Kremlin's spokesman said Putin had ordered a commission to be set up to look into the blast. Officials in Moscow stopped short of blaming Kyiv, but a Russian-installed official in Crimea pointed the finger at "Ukrainian vandals." Some officials in Moscow and in Russian-occupied Ukraine called for retaliation. "There is an undisguised terrorist war against us," Russian ruling party deputy Oleg Morozov told the RIA Novosti news agency. A Russian-installed official in the occupied Ukrainian Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, said: "Everyone is waiting for a retaliatory strike and it is likely to come." Military analysts said the blast could have a major impact if Moscow saw the need to shift already hard-pressed troops to the Crimea from other regions or if it prompted a rush by residents to leave. Mick Ryan, a retired Australian major general now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that even if Ukrainians were not behind the blast, it constituted "a massive influence operation win for Ukraine." "It is a demonstration to Russians, and the rest of the world, that Russia's military cannot protect any of the provinces it recently annexed," he said on Twitter. Authorities in Crimea tried to calm fears of food and fuel shortages in Crimea, dependent on the Russian mainland since Moscow annexed it in 2014. The blasts come after Ukraine's recent lightning territorial gains in the east and south that have undermined the Kremlin's claim that it annexed Donetsk, neighbouring Lugansk and the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. After weeks of military setbacks, Moscow on Saturday announced that a new general -- Sergei Surovikin -- would take over its forces in Ukraine. Surovikin previously led Russia's forces in southern Ukraine. He has combat experience in the 1990s conflicts in Tajikistan and Chechnya, as well as, more recently, in Syria. The decision, which -- unusually -- was made public, comes after growing discontent among the elite over the army's leadership. Also on Saturday, the governor of Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said Kyiv's forces had fired at a Russian border village, injuring a teenage girl.

After three years of planning, five expeditions and a two-week trek through dense jungle, scientists have reached the tallest tree ever found in the Amazon rainforest, a towering specimen the size of a 25-storey building. The giant tree, whose top juts out high above the canopy in the Iratapuru River Nature Reserve in northern Brazil, is an angelim vermelho (scientific name Dinizia excelsa) measuring 88.5m (290’) tall and 9.9m (32’) around – the biggest ever identified in the Amazon, scientists say. Researchers first spotted the enormous tree in satellite images in 2019 as part of a 3D mapping project. A team of academics, environmentalists and local guides mounted an expedition to try to reach it later that year. However, after a 10-day trek through difficult terrain, exhausted, low on supplies and with a team member falling ill, they had to turn back. Three more expeditions to the reserve’s remote Jari Valley region, which sits at the border between the states of Amapa and Para, reached several other gigantic trees, including the tallest Brazil nut tree ever recorded in the Amazon – 66m. However, the enormous angelim vermelho remained elusive until the September 12-25 expedition, when researchers travelled 250km (155 miles) by boat up rivers with treacherous rapids, plus another 20km on foot across mountainous jungle terrain to reach it. One person on the 19-member expedition was bitten by what the team doctor believes was a poisonous spider. However, it was worth it, says forest engineer Diego Armando Silva of Amapa Federal University, who helped organise the trip. “It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Just divine,” Silva, 33, told AFP. After camping under the massive tree, the group collected leaves, soil and other samples, which will now be analysed to study questions including how old the tree is – at least 400-600 years, Silva estimates – why the region has so many giant trees, and how much carbon they store. Around half of the weight of the region’s giant trees is carbon absorbed from the atmosphere – fundamental in helping curb climate change, says Silva. However, despite its remoteness, the region’s giants are under threat. Angelim vermelho wood is prized by loggers, and the Iratapuru reserve is being invaded by illegal gold miners infamous for bringing ecological destruction, says Jakeline Pereira of environmental group Imazon, which helped to organise the expedition.

A number of Easter Island’s iconic “Moai” stone statues suffered irreparable damage after a wildfire swept through the island earlier this week, the island’s mayor told Reuters on Friday. “It’s unquantifiable, unmeasurable, the damage there is, it’s irrecoverable,” said Pedro Edmunds, mayor of Easter Island, a territory of Chile. “Because what the fire does is heat the rock and the rock cracks.” He said scientists are going to visit the island alongside park administrators to evaluate the extent of the damage and determine what can be done. “I don’t know if there’s a solution for this,” Edmunds said. A preliminary report released by Chile’s culture, arts and heritage ministry stated that a wildfire that started on Tuesday swept through more than 60 hectares (148.26 acres) and damaged an unknown number of the sacred Moai statues. The report did not state a cause for the wildfire and said there would be further investigations into the fire and the damage it caused. The Rano Raraku volcanic crater, which is in the Unesco World Heritage Site of the Rapa Nui National Park and where several statues are located, was severely damaged by the fire. “For us it’s super painful to see how the Moai burned,” said Francisco Haoa, a representative of the Rapa Nui people, adding that the statues already face slow damage from rain, sun and wind. “And the fire accelerates that damage to the Moais.” Easter Island, over 2,000 miles (3,219km) from the coast of Chile, recently reopened to tourists on August 1 after closing its borders for more than two years due to the coronavirus pandemic. Carolina Perez, sub-secretary of Chile’s culture, arts and heritage ministry, said on Twitter that the government is offering its support to the mayor, but Edmunds blamed a lack of government support for the damage. “The solution is in the hands of an absent state, that has been absent and is still absent,” Edmunds said. “And doesn’t want to listen to the island that’s planned to prevent these problems.” – Reuters

A powerful blast damaged Russia’s road-and-rail bridge to Crimea yesterday, hitting a prestigious symbol of Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula and the key supply route to forces battling to hold territory captured in southern Ukraine. The early morning explosion on the bridge over the Kerch Strait, for which Russia did not immediately assign blame, prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials but no claim of responsibility. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree instructing tighter security for the bridge as well as the infrastructure supplying electricity and natural gas to the peninsula. He also ordered a commission be set up to investigate. Russian officials said three people had been killed, probably the occupants of a car travelling near a truck that blew up. Seven fuel tanker wagons on a train heading for the peninsula on the bridge’s upper level also caught fire. Dramatic social media footage showed the bridge on fire with parts plunging into the water. Two bodies – a man and a woman – were pulled out of the water after the bridge had partially collapsed. Their identities were still to be established, but they were likely passengers in a car driving near the exploded truck, Moscow said. The authorities also said they had identified the owner of the truck as a resident of Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, saying his home was being searched. Limited road traffic resumed about 10 hours later, and the transport ministry cleared rail traffic to restart shortly afterwards. The bridge is hugely symbolic. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the 19km (12-mile) Crimean Bridge linking it to Russia’s transport network was opened with great fanfare four years later by Putin personally, and Moscow had maintained the crossing was safe despite the fighting. It is a major artery for Russian forces who control most of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, and for the Russian naval port of Sevastopol, whose governor told locals: “Keep calm. Don’t panic.” It was not yet clear if the blast was a deliberate attack, but the damage to such high-profile infrastructure came as Russia has suffered several battlefield defeats and could further cloud Kremlin messages of reassurance that the conflict is going to plan. Russian Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov told Tass that quick-thinking railway workers had uncoupled the seven fuel wagons after they caught fire, preventing the blaze from spreading to the remaining 52 wagons. The blast took place a day after Putin’s 70th birthday, and coincided with the naming of Air Force General Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s third senior military appointment in the space of a week, to take charge of the invasion effort. The head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council posted a video of the bridge on social media alongside a video of Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy birthday, Mr President”. Since the war started on February 24, Ukrainian officials have regularly suggested they want to destroy the bridge, seen in Ukraine as a symbol of Russia’s occupation of Crimea. Ukraine’s postal service said it would print a special stamp to commemorate the blast. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the fact the truck was travelling from Russia showed the blast had been arranged by Russian operators. “Undoubtedly, we are witnessing the beginning of large-scale negative processes in Russia,” he said in a commentary, blaming infighting among Putin’s inner circle. Earlier, he tweeted that incident was just “the beginning”. Russia’s defence ministry said forces in Ukraine could be “fully supplied” through existing land and sea routes. The transport ministry said road traffic for light vehicles and buses had resumed in alternating directions on the intact half of the roadway. Goods vehicles were being referred to a ferry service. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Kyiv’s reaction to the destruction of civilian infrastructure “testifies to its terrorist nature”. The Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said a freight truck had blown up on the bridge’s roadway at 6.07am (0307 GMT). It said two spans of road bridge had partially collapsed, but that the arch spanning the channel through which ships travel between the Black Sea and Azov Sea was not damaged. Images showed one half of the roadway blown away, and the other half still attached. Moscow has presented largely Russian-speaking Crimea as a historic and cherished part of Russia and, especially this year, one where its citizens could holiday in large numbers. Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy administrator of the Kherson region, said the blast “will not affect army supply very much”. “But there will be problems with logistics for Crimea,” he added in a social media post. Mykola Bielieskov of the Ukrainian Institute of Strategic Studies, which advises the presidency in Kyiv, said the bridge was irreplaceable for Russia’s forces. Although Russian troops have seized a stretch of coastal Ukraine linking the Kherson region and Crimea to Russia, Bielieskov said transport connections were poor, and that Russia preferred to send reinforcements to Kherson along the more circuitous route of the bridge. James Nixey, Russia expert at the British-based Chatham House think tank, said: “Conceivably the Russians can rebuild it, but they can’t defend it while losing a war.” In a video message, Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian governor of Crimea, said: “We have more than a month’s worth of fuel, and more than two months’ worth of food.”

Ten people including a schoolgirl were killed in an explosion at a petrol station in Ireland’s northwest, police said yesterday suggesting a “tragic accident” may have been to blame.  The blast occurred at around 3:20pm on Friday in the County Donegal village of Creeslough, Ireland’s police, the Garda Siochana, said in a media conference yesterday. “There are 10 fatalities as a result of that explosion. “The 10 casualties are four men, three women, two teenagers – a boy and a girl – and a younger girl,” said police, adding that all the victims appeared to be locals. Based on current information, it is not expected that there will be any further casualties and there are no outstanding reports of unaccounted for persons, said the force. Police are treating the incident with an “open mind”, but said that “our information at this moment in time is pointing towards a tragic accident.” Focus will turn to the causes of the incident once the search and recovery operation is completed. Rescue efforts by Ireland’s emergency services went on through the night after the blast ripped through a petrol station forecourt and a nearby apartment complex. An aerial photograph taken after the explosion showed the petrol station building destroyed. Two two-storey residential buildings behind had collapsed, while the facade of a similar adjacent building was blown off. Resident Kieran Gallagher, whose house is about 150m from the scene, said the blast sounded like a “bomb”. “I was in my house at the time and heard the explosion. Instantly I knew it was something – it was like a bomb going off,” he told the BBC. At a service at the local church yesterday morning, Father John Joe Duffy said the community had been hit by “a tsunami of grief”. Many emergency services vehicles remained at the scene overnight, including fire services from both sides of the border with British-run Northern Ireland. Gardai and civil defence were also involved, and a coastguard helicopter airlifted some of the injured from Letterkenny University Hospital to the capital Dublin. The university hospital, some 15miles (24km) from the explosion, was placed on an emergency footing to deal with “multiple injuries”, it said in a statement. Ireland’s premier Micheal Martin called it a “very dark day” as he spoke to the media briefly before heading to the scene. “The scale and enormity of it, it’s such a small community, it means that almost everybody will know on a friendly basis people who’ve lost their lives,” he said. “It’s a very dark day for the people of Donegal and for Ireland.” Martin earlier thanked members of the emergency services who were working non-stop “in extremely traumatic circumstances”. Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue, who represents northeast Donegal in the Irish parliament, compared the scenes to events during the decades-long sectarian conflict on the island of Ireland over British rule in Northern Ireland. “People are shocked and numbed,” McConalogue told Irish broadcaster RTE. “The scenes from the event are reminiscent of the images from The Troubles years ago, in terms of the scene on the ground and the damage and the debris.” Creeslough is around 30 miles (50km) from the border with Northern Ireland and has a population of about 400 people. The Applegreen service station is on the N56 road, which loops around the northern tip of the Irish republic. Applegreen tweeted that the news was “devastating”. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the deceased, those who have been injured, and the wider Creeslough community,” said the company. Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins expressed his “shock” in an official statement. “This tragedy is a terrible blow to a community that is closely knit and where every loss and injury will be felt by every member of the community and far beyond,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday ordered his government to take control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, as the UN nuclear watchdog warned that power supply to the site was “extremely fragile”. However, the boss of Ukraine’s state energy agency announced he was taking over the plant, which has become a focus of international concern due to the possibility of a nuclear disaster after shelling in the area for which Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other. Russia captured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in March shortly after invading Ukraine, but Ukrainian staff have continued to operate it. The plant is located in the southern Ukrainian region also called Zaporizhzhia, one of four regions that President Vladimir Putin formally incorporated into Russia yesterday in a move condemned by Kyiv as an illegal land grab. “The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is now on the territory of the Russian Federation and, accordingly, should be operated under the supervision of our relevant agencies,” RIA news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying. Putin later signed a decree that designated the ZNPP “federal property”. Russia’s nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom said it would conduct an assessment of how to repair damage to the plant’s infrastructure and would transfer all the existing Ukrainian employees to a new Russian-owned organisation. “The new operating organisation is designed to ensure the safe operation of the nuclear power plant and the professional activities of the existing plant personnel,” it said in a statement. Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company said he was taking charge of the ZNPP and he urged workers there not to sign any documents with its Russian occupiers. “All further decisions regarding the operation of the station will be made directly at the central office of Energoatom,” Petro Kotin said in a video address posted on the Telegram messaging app. “We will continue to work under Ukrainian law, within the Ukrainian energy system, within Energoatom,” Kotin said. His comments followed the brief detention by Russian forces last weekend of the ZNPP’s Ukrainian director Ihor Murashev. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) later said that Murashev had been released but would not return to his old job. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi is currently in Ukraine for further consultations on “agreeing and implementing a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the ZNPP as soon as possible”, the UN agency said. Grossi yesterday reiterated his concerns about the power supply to the plant. “The situation with regards to external power continues to be extremely precarious. We do have at the moment external power but it is, I would say fragile. There is one line feeding the plant,” he told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London via telephone link. Grossi is also due to visit Moscow this week, and Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency said he might also visit the ZNPP after travelling there last month with a team to inspect damage caused by shelling in the vicinity. Before Russia’s invasion, the plant produced about one-fifth of Ukraine’s electricity and nearly half the energy generated by the country’s nuclear power facilities. Russia acted to annex Zaporizhzhia and three other regions after holding what it called referendums — votes denounced by Kyiv and Western governments as illegal and coercive.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss triggered a new row in her party yesterday by suggesting she could limit increases in benefit payments to less than soaring inflation as she seeks ways to fund her tax-cutting growth plan. Britain’s new leader has endured a tumultuous time since she came to power on September 6, first leading national mourning for Queen Elizabeth before releasing an economic package that sent international investors bolting for the exits. Lawmakers from the governing Conservatives — even some Cabinet ministers — bickered over the direction of the party as it held its annual conference, with opinion polls pointing to electoral collapse rather than a honeymoon period for Truss. Seeking to snap Britain out of more than 10 years of economic stagnation, Truss and her Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng set out £45bn of unfunded tax cuts on September 23 alongside promises to deregulate the economy to stoke growth. On Monday, they bowed to pressure to scrap the most divisive policy — eliminating the top rate of income tax for the highest earners — and are now working urgently to set out how they can afford other tax cuts without leaving a black hole in the country’s public finances. “We have to look at these issues in the round. We have to be fiscally responsible,” Truss told BBC Radio when asked whether benefit payments would rise in line with record-high inflation to prevent the poorest in society from becoming poorer. Immediately lawmakers in Truss’s Conservative Party - some who helped force the top tax rate reversal - opposed any move to reduce the increases in benefits at a time when millions are struggling with higher costs of food and energy. Penny Mordaunt, who is in Truss’s cabinet of senior ministers, said benefits should rise in line with inflation. Damian Green, part of the party’s centrist faction, said he doubted any real-terms cut would pass a parliamentary vote. Victoria Prentis, a minister in the department for work and pensions, said the government had to go through the numbers before it could take a final decision on benefits. Interior Minister Suella Braverman accused sections of the party of staging “a coup effectively” over the top tax rate cut. “I am very disappointed to say the least about how some of my colleagues have behaved,” she said at the party’s annual conference. Braverman added that she supported the cut to the top rate of tax that has now been scrapped. Another Cabinet Minister, Simon Clarke, said Braverman talked sense, suggesting that unity among her top Cabinet team of ministers was breaking down. Gallows humour broke out among some Conservative lawmakers. “There’s a difference to being a joke party and a dead party. If we remove (Truss) this quickly, we’re a joke, but are we a dead party already?” one said. Investors are still waiting for more details about the government’s tax and spending plans. Kwarteng reiterated yesterday that the next fiscal statement would be on November 23, but a government source said the government was considering bringing that date forward. Truss became Britain’s fourth leader in six years last month, promising to reignite the economy and bring some political stability after the chaotic leadership of Boris Johnson. Chosen by her party’s members, not the broader electorate, she was not the most popular candidate among the more than 350 Conservative members of parliament and her decision to stake out a tax cut plan and then concede defeat has left lawmakers and investors questioning her judgement and authority.

* Winners opened the way to powerful new quantum technologies * Findings enabled work on quantum computers, encryption * Winners' research is based on 'mind-boggling' insight * Zeilinger 'shocked but very positive' on hearing the news * Scientists shone light on behaviour of subatomic particles Scientists Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for experiments in quantum mechanics that laid the groundwork for rapidly-developing new applications in computing and cryptography. "Their results have cleared the way for new technology based upon quantum information," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said of the laureates -- Aspect, who is French, Clauser, an American and Zeilinger, an Austrian. The scientists all conducted experiments into quantum entanglement, where two particles are linked regardless of the space between them, a field that unsettled Albert Einstein himself, who once referred to it in a letter as "spooky action at a distance". "I'm very happy ... I first started this work back in 1969 and I'm happy to still be alive to be able get the prize," Clauser, 79, told Reuters by phone from his home in Walnut Creek, California. Clauser, who worked at institutions such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, during his career, said he had witnessed his initial work snowball into much larger experiments. China's Micius satellite, part of a quantum physics research project, was constructed in part on his findings, he said. "The configuration of the satellite and the ground station is almost identical to my original experiment. Mine was about 30 feet long, theirs is thousands of kilometers for quantum communication." Asked to explain his work in layman's terms, he joked he does not understand it himself but added that the interactions it describes permeate almost everything. "Probably every particle in the universe is entangled with every other particle," Clauser said, chuckling. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted his congratulations to the winners, adding "Einstein himself did not believe in quantum entanglement! Today, the promises of quantum computing are based on this phenomenon." Aspect, professor at Universite Paris-Saclay and Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, near Paris, said he was happy his work had contributed to settling the debate between Einstein, who was sceptical about quantum physics, and Niels Bohr, one of the field's fathers. Both won Nobel physics prizes. "Quantum physics, which has been fantastic field that has been on the agenda for more than a century, still offers a lot of mysteries to discover," Aspect, 75, told reporters. "This prize today anticipates what will be one day be quantum technologies." Zeilinger, 77, professor emeritus at the University of Vienna, told a news conference by phone after hearing the news that he was "shocked, but very positive." In an interview after being awarded an honorary doctorate earlier this year, Zeilinger said that protected quantum communication over potentially thousands of kilometres via cables or satellite would soon be on the cards. "It is quite clear that in the near future we will have quantum communication all over the world," he said at the time. Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at a subatomic level involving the smallest building blocks of nature, a realm governed by laws jarring with those of the classical Newtonian physics used in areas such as the motions of celestial objects. In background material explaining the prize, the academy said the laureates' work involved "the mind-boggling insight that quantum mechanics allows a single quantum system to be divided up into parts that are separated from each other but which still act as a single unit." "This goes against all the usual ideas about cause and effect and the nature of reality." The laureates explored in ground-breaking experiments how two or more photons, or particles of light, that are "entangled" because they come from the same laser beam, interact even when they are separated far apart from each other. Sean Carroll, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and author of books on topics such as quantum mechanics, told Reuters the prize for the trio was long overdue. "Even though the ... experimental techniques that these folks pioneered might not be directly applicable, they're laying the ground work for using quantum entanglement as a technological resource," he said. The more than century-old prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($902,315), is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week after Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo won the prize for Physiology or Medicine on Monday. The physics prize has often taken centre stage among the awards, featuring household names of science such as Einstein, Bohr and Max Planck, and rewarding breakthroughs that have reshaped how we see the world.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday urged the world to act at the upcoming pre-COP27 climate talks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) against what he called “a life-or-death struggle for our own safety today and our survival tomorrow”. Humanity has experience “immense” climate impacts across the world this summer, he told media at the UN headquarters in New York ahead of the Kinshasa talks, which pave the way for COP27 – the UN’s 27th summit-level gathering on climate change, due to take place in Egypt next month. “A third of Pakistan flooded. Europe’s hottest summer in 500 years. The Philippines hammered. The whole of Cuba in black-out,” he said. “And here, in the United States, Hurricane Ian has delivered a brutal reminder that no country and no economy is immune from the climate crisis.” “We know people and nations are suffering now ... failure to act on loss and damage will lead to more loss of trust and more climate damage,” the UN chief continued. “This is a moral imperative that cannot be ignored and COP27 must be the place for action on loss and damage.” Delegates from over 50 countries are attending the two-day informal talks in Kinshasa, including US climate envoy John Kerry. The event winds up tomorrow with side discussions. No formal announcements are expected in what is billed as a ground-clearing exercise ahead of the next month’s conference, taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh from November 6-18. Greater support from wealthier countries, historically the world’s biggest carbon polluters, to their poorer counterparts is expected to dominate the talks. The United Nations meanwhile revised up its humanitarian appeal for Pakistan five-fold to $816mn from $160mn as it seeks to control a surge in water-borne diseases following the country’s worst floods in decades, an official said yesterday. Nearly 1,700 people have been killed in floods caused by heavy monsoon rains and melting glaciers in a crisis that the government and the UN have blamed on climate change. “We are now entering a second wave of death and destruction” Julien Harneis, UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Pakistan said at a Geneva briefing. “There will be an increase in child morbidity and it will be pretty terrible unless we act rapidly to support the government in increasing the provision of health, nutrition and water and sanitation services across the affected areas,” he said.

• Right-wing wins in Brazil’s Congress show staying power of ‘Bolsonarismo’ Brazil entered the final stretch of a deeply polarised presidential race yesterday after an inconclusive first voting round put far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in an unexpectedly strong position. Bolsonaro, 67, garnered 43% of Sunday’s first-round votes compared to 48% for leftist frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – a five-point difference that polls had predicted would be a much larger gap of 14 points. Former president Lula, 76, had appeared to be within arm’s reach of taking the election in the first round with more than 50% of the vote – but the presidential race now heads to a October 30 run-off. Not only Bolsonaro surpassed expectations: many allies of his “God, country and family” brand of conservative politics also performed better than poll predictions in congressional and gubernatorial races. It signalled enthusiasm for the far-right leader and his policies despite Bolsonaro’s controversial four-year tenure, marked by a shocking pandemic death toll blamed in part on his coronavirus (Covid-19)-sceptic approach, surging destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and a sharp rise in Brazilians living in hunger. The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange welcomed the first-round results in Latin America’s largest economy with a rise of more than 4% yesterday morning. Both men declared themselves ready for the final campaign to attract the vote of some 9mn Brazilians who cast their ballot for minority candidates – none of whom managed to break through 5mn of support – and 31mn others who did not vote at all. Lula, who wasted no time convening his campaign team for a strategy meeting yesterday, said: “We will have to convince Brazilian society of what we are proposing.” Addressing dumbstruck supporters in Sao Paulo on Sunday, the leftist icon said he would start campaigning without delay, with more meetings with voters. Lula said he looked forward to debating Bolsonaro head-to-head “to see if he’s going to keep telling lies” and promised supporters: “The fight continues until the final victory!” For his part, Bolsonaro tweeted: “We had more votes in the first round than in 2018 (when he won the presidency) – nearly 2mn.” He added: “By the grace of God I have never lost an election and I know that we will not lose this time.” Analysts say Bolsonaro’s performance bodes for a stressful and divisive four weeks before the vote. The incumbent has repeatedly sought to cast doubt on Brazil’s electronic voting system and questioned the validity of opinion polls placing him a distant second. Now, he can argue that Sunday’s results bear out his claims. Bolsonaro’s rhetoric has raised fears that he could trigger a Brazilian version of the riots last year at the US Capitol after former president Donald Trump refused to accept his election defeat. Bolsonaro “will be very emboldened” by Sunday’s electoral performance, said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank. “He’s beaten the expectations ... he will play on that the experts were wrong: ‘I’ve got the momentum and I’ll defy expectations again in the second round’.” Passions will be high on both sides. Bolsonaro now has “an extra month to cause turmoil in the streets”, political scientist Guilherme Casaroes of the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s (FGV) Sao Paulo School of Business Administration told AFP. “Any kind of doubt that he casts upon the electoral system will work in his favour ... demobilising voters not to go vote for Lula” – who left office after two terms in 2010 with an unprecedented 87% approval rating and is credited with helping lift 30mn people out of poverty. Bolsonaro will continue hammering on Lula’s flaws, including his conviction for corruption – since overturned in court, but not in the court of public opinion, analysts say. “Lula’s chances of being elected seem considerably slighter,” said Casaroes. As for Bolsonaro, it now appeared he “could make this a contest”, said Shifter. “Instead of the great comeback (for Lula) it could be the great upset.” Voter Mateus Alcantara, a 26-year-old publicist, said in Rio de Janeiro his country was living a moment of “enormous polarisation”. “Bolsonarism is growing more and more, and this is a reflection of a very conservative country,” he told AFP. Bolsonaro’s party meanwhile won the most seats in both chambers of Congress, highlighting the enduring strength of his conservative movement. His right-wing Liberal Party (PL), won 99 seats in the 513-member lower house, up from 77, and right-leaning parties allied with Bolsonaro now control half the chamber. The bigger surprise in Sunday’s voting was in the Senate where Bolsonaro’s party won 13 of the 27 seats up for grabs, with two more possible in second-round run-offs, a party spokesman said. Bolsonaro helped elect allies to the Senate who had trailed in opinion polls, such as former ministers Damares Alves and Paulo Pontes. Alves, an evangelical ally, defeated the Senate candidate from Bolsonaro’s own party. The strong right-wing showing in legislative and gubernatorial races, especially in more affluent southeast Brazil, made Bolsonaro the election’s big winner. Lula’s Workers Party won 10 more seats in the lower house of Congress, where it remains the second-largest party with 68 representatives. Bolsonaro’s allies also made advances in state politics, including races for governor. His former Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio Freitas, who took part in motorcycle rallies with Bolsonaro, won the most votes for governor of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest state, and will face Lula ally Fernando Haddad in an October 30 run-off. Bolsonaro boasted of helping to get eight governors elected outright, with hopes of electing eight more in the second round.

Brazilians voted yesterday in the first round of their country’s most polarised election in decades, with leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expected to beat right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Most opinion polls have shown Lula with a solid lead for months, but Bolsonaro has signalled he may refuse to accept defeat, stoking fears of institutional crisis or post-election violence. Most surveys favour Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, by 10-15 percentage points. If he wins more than 50% of valid votes, which several pollsters show within reach, he would clinch an outright victory, foregoing a second-round vote. Wearing a “Get Out Bozo” shirt, Rio de Janeiro resident Anna Luisa, 70, said she is voting for Lula for the first time. “I have to take down Bolsonaro,” she said, citing his stance over Brazil’s 1964-85 military dictatorship, which Bolsonaro has long supported. Casting her vote in the capital, Brasilia, housewife Aldeyze dos Santos, 40, told AFP that she supports Bolsonaro because “I’m a Christian, I only vote for candidates who are for what’s in the Bible”. Beloved by his fans, Lula is also loathed by many Brazilians for his graft conviction. Bolsonaro often refers to him as “the inmate”. The leftist was jailed during the last election, serving time for a conviction later overturned by the Supreme Court, allowing him to face his rival Bolsonaro this year. Voting in São Bernardo do Campo, Lula acknowledged the dramatic turnaround in his fortunes after a conviction that he says was politically motivated. “It’s an important day for me,” he said. “Four years ago I couldn’t vote because I was the victim of a lie ... I want to try to help my country to return to normal.” Bolsonaro voted in Rio, and said he expected to win the election in yesterday’s first round, despite his poor showing in surveys. The former army captain does not trust the pollsters, saying that their results do not correspond with the support at his campaign events. “If we have clean elections, we will win today with at least 60% of the votes,” Bolsonaro said in a social media video. “All the evidence we have is favourable to us.” If no candidate wins over half of the votes, excluding blank and spoiled ballots, the top two go to an October 30 run-off. Bolsonaro has threatened to contest the result of the vote, after making baseless allegations of fraud, accusing electoral authorities of plotting against him and suggesting that the military should conduct a parallel tally, which they declined to do. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, currently head of the federal electoral court, said he expected a peaceful day with “tranquil” results. Moraes – who has been one of Bolsonaro’s main foes, leading investigations into him and his allies – tweeted that the electoral court “continues to work so that we all have a peaceful and calm Sunday”. A decisive victory by Lula could reduce the odds of a tumultuous transition. Bolsonaro’s attacks on the voting system have raised fears of a Brazilian version of the riots at the US Capitol last year after his political role model, former president Donald Trump, refused to accept his election loss. On Saturday Trump gave Bolsonaro a glowing endorsement, calling him a “fantastic leader” in a video posted on social media. Brazilians were also voting yesterday for all 513 members of the lower chamber of Congress, a third of the 81 members of the Senate and state governors and legislatures. Though Lula leads the presidential race, Bolsonaro’s conservative coalition is expected to hold a majority in both chambers of Congress. That could present challenges for the leftist to govern a country with rising hunger, high unemployment and an uneven recovery from the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Lula and Bolsonaro have both promised more generous welfare spending next year, adding to pressure on the federal budget. As in past elections, Brazil’s military has been mobilised to heighten security at some 477,000 polling stations, using electronic voting machines that allow for swift tabulation of results by the national electoral authority (TSE). Following Bolsonaro’s criticisms of Brazil’s voting systems, the TSE invited a record number of foreign election observers, including first-time missions from US observers at the Carter Centre and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Political analyst Adriano Laureno said it is likely Bolsonaro will try to contest the result if he loses. “But that doesn’t mean he’ll succeed,” added Laureno, of consulting firm Prospectiva. “The international community will recognise the result quickly ... there might be some kind of turmoil and uncertainty around the transition, but there’s no risk of a democratic rupture.”

Protesters rallied in London and elsewhere around Britain yesterday over the cost-of-living crisis, as the ruling Conservatives geared up for their annual conference insisting their debt-fuelled tax-slashing plans were “credible”. Thousands of demonstrators aligned with various causes and organisations – including environmentalists Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil as well as inflation-focused group “Don’t Pay UK” – blocked roads and bridges in London. People chanting “can’t pay, won’t pay” burned mock energy statements, as huge price increases to electricity and gas bills came into effect at midnight on Friday. The government has capped the rise at roughly 27% for the next two years – meaning the average household will pay annual bills of around £2,500 ($2,792) – following several previous dramatic spikes over the last year. However, that could still prove unaffordable for many, and comes amid decades-high inflation that has pushed up the cost of petrol, food and numerous other everyday essentials. “Enough is enough. It’s time to funnel our collective rage into something active and productive,” Lily Holder, 29, from London, said as she joined the protests. “The people want and desperately need change – and they need it soon.” Demonstrators demanding more action to tackle the climate emergency also attended, with the “Just Stop Oil” group demanding the UK government stop all new oil and gas extraction. Meanwhile, protesters turned out in Birmingam to rally against the handling of the situation by the ruling Tories, who kick off their annual conference in the central English city today. Following a week of turmoil on financial markets prompted by their September 23 mini-budget, under-fire Prime Minister Liz Truss and her Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng arrive on the defensive over the economic package. The tax-slashing plans, which will dramatically increase government borrowing, went further than many expected, abolishing the top rate of income tax and lifting a cap on bankers’ bonuses. It prompted the pound to drop to its lowest ever level against the dollar. The turmoil forced the Bank of England to make an emergency intervention to stabilise the situation, amid fears of a collapse in UK pension funds. After nearly a week of silence, Truss faced a gruelling round of BBC radio and regional television interviews on Thursday, before penning an article in The Sun published overnight. In it, she conceded for the first time that the plans had prompted “short-term disruption”, but vowed to press on with them and handle public money with “an iron grip”. Meanwhile, in his own piece in the Daily Telegraph, Kwarteng said his ministry will next month unveil a “medium-term fiscal plan” that will set out a path to reducing borrowing, alongside “new fiscal rules and a commitment to spending discipline”. The finance minister unveiled a string of lower taxes last week that were, unusually, not accompanied by forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Sterling fell to a record low against the US dollar and the sell-off led the Bank of England to intervene with emergency bond-buying to protect pension funds from partial collapse. Kwarteng noted that a full forecast from the OBR, the country’s fiscal watchdog, would also accompany the plan on November 23. The lack of an OBR forecast has been cited as one of the reasons for the market tumult that followed the September 23 release of the mini-budget, which cut taxes for the wealthiest amid a cost-of-living crisis. Opposition politicians, independent analysts and even some Tory lawmakers have assailed the plans as reckless and counter-productive. However, Kwarteng has insisted the package is essential to return the UK, which is tipped to fall into recession imminently, to economic growth. “Not all the measures we announced last week will be universally popular. But we had to do something different. We had no other choice,” he reiterated in the Telegraph. However, Britons and economic analysts appear unconvinced. A poll on Friday found just over half think both Truss and Kwarteng should resign – less than four weeks after they took office. Support for the mini-budget has been in the single digits in some surveys. Also on Friday, the S&P ratings agency said it had revised its outlook for the UK from “stable” to “negative” following the fallout from the mini-budget. It cited the risk that “the UK’s economic growth turns out weaker due to further deterioration of the economic environment, or if the government’s borrowing costs increase more than expected”. It comes days after rival ratings agency Moody’s warned that Kwarteng’s fiscal strategy was “credit negative” and could “permanently weaken the UK’s debt affordability”.

Brazilian leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintains a solid lead going into today’s presidential race against far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro and is within sight of an outright victory, a fresh poll showed yesterday. Brazil’s most polarised election in decades will decide whether to return to power a former president who spent time in jail on corruption convictions or a right-wing populist who has attacked the voting system and threatened to contest defeat. A CNT/MDA poll published yesterday said that Lula would win 48.3% of the valid votes, putting him statistically within reach of taking half of the votes, which would avoid a bruising run-off. The poll has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points. If no one among the 11 candidates gets more than 50% of votes, excluding blank and spoiled ballots, the two front-runners – almost certainly Lula and Bolsonaro – would go to second round vote on October 30. The MDA poll commissioned by the national transport lobby CNT shows Bolsonaro has chipped away at half of Lula’s lead, which is now down to 7.9 percentage points point (44.2% for Lula and 36.3% for Bolsonaro). Two other major pollsters Datafolha and IPEC have projected Lula winning outright. Bolsonaro, a former army captain who spent 28 years as a Congressman, was swept into office in 2018 on a wave of conservative sentiment and opposition to Lula’s Workers Party. Yesterday he closed his re-election campaign with two rallies by motorbike supporters in Sao Paulo and Joinville, Santa Catarina state. Lula’s Workers Party, meanwhile, booked space on Sao Paulo’s main Paulista Avenue on Sunday night to celebrate victory by the 77-year-former union leader and party founder. Yesterday’s final campaign rallies saw supporters just kilometres apart. Bolsonaro led one of his trademark motorcycle rallies from the north side of Sao Paulo to the city’s Ibirapuera park, grinning and waving at the head of a battalion of bikers decked out in black leather and the yellow and green of the flag. About 5km from there, Lula held his own rally on the economic capital’s main avenue, Avenida Paulista, gathering a sea of red-clad supporters waving banners. Brazil’s electronic voting system, which Bolsonaro has repeatedly criticised as vulnerable to fraud without providing evidence, allows the national electoral authority, the TSE, to quickly tally results within hours after polls close at 5pm (2000 GMT). The head of the TSE, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, called on Brazilians by Twitter to celebrate the country’s democracy by turning out to vote “in peace, security and harmony, respect and freedom”. Due to Bolsonaro’s attacks on the voting system and the prospect of conflict, the TSE has invited an unprecedented number of international observers to this year’s election. Bolsonaro has repeatedly signalled he could challenge an election loss, saying “only God” can remove him from office and alleging, without evidence, rampant fraud in Brazil’s electronic voting system. Bolsonaro greets supporters during a motorcade on the eve of the presidential election in Sao Paulo.