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Russian forces retreat from stronghold of Lyman hours after Putin declares it Russia’s ‘for ever’; Germany minister visits Ukraine; Nord Stream pipeline leak halted

Military defeat in Donetsk comes hours after Moscow declared that the region was Russian territory ‘for ever’

No need to apply because £400 discount will ‘reach people automatically’, says Rees-MoggA scam alert has been issued by ministers encouraging people not to fall foul of fraudulent messages asking them to provide bank details as the energy price guarantee comes into force.From 1 October, a limit on the price households pay for a unit of gas and electricity they use will mean a typical energy bill should be £2,500 a year. The first instalment of a £400 discount for households will also appear on bills. Continue reading...

Aides Alice Robinson and Mac Chapwell paid by company run by Liz Truss’s new chief of staffTwo of the prime minister’s most senior advisers are being paid through her new chief of staff’s lobbying company, it has emerged, days after Downing Street said it would employ the latter directly.The government admitted last weekend that Liz Truss’s chief of staff, Mark Fullbrook, was being paid through his lobbying firm, a move that could have helped him avoid paying tax. Continue reading...

Russian defence ministry says troops have withdrawn amid ‘threat of encirclement’

Teargas and stun grenades used by security forces as unrest over poverty and corruption flares up in the capital and other citiesIraqi security forces have fired teargas and stun grenades to disperse stone-throwing protesters in clashes that wounded scores of people near Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, where hundreds marked the anniversary of anti-government unrest in 2019.At least 86 people were wounded on Saturday, about half of them members of the security forces, and 38 protesters were hit by rubber bullets. Continue reading...

London museum bows to years of pressure and removes signs bearing name of family associated with OxyContin crisisThe Victoria and Albert Museum has bowed to growing pressure to rename key areas of its Kensington site, the Observer has learned, as it drops controversial ties with the Sackler family, benefactors descended from the American makers of addictive opioid prescription drugs.This weekend the signs that directed V&A visitors to the Sackler Centre for Arts Education and to the £2m tiled “Sackler Courtyard” on Exhibition Road, have gone, as the museum finally jettisons its damaging association with the opioid drug market. Continue reading...

Prime minister’s net approval falls to minus 37, while just 12% say mini-budget was ‘good’Liz Truss’s personal popularity ratings are lower than those of Boris Johnson when his premiership came to an end, a new Observer poll has revealed.The latest Opinium poll shows a precipitous fall in Truss’s personal ratings after the fallout from her government’s mini-budget, and Labour surging ahead with voters across a whole range of issues. Continue reading...

Conservative MPs urge Liz Truss’s removal from No 10 after poll reveals British public’s fury over tax plansThree-quarters of UK voters, including a staggering 71% of those who backed the Conservatives at the last general election, believe the prime minister, Liz Truss, and the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, have “lost control” of the economy, according to a devastating poll for the Observer on the eve of the Tory conference.The survey by Opinium – which also reveals that Labour has extended its lead by a massive 14 percentage points in the last week alone, from 5 points to 19 points, and that Truss’s ratings are now lower than Boris Johnson’s at the height of the Partygate scandal – comes as some Tory MPs are beginning to demand the new prime minister’s removal from No 10 after less than a month in office. Continue reading...

Rio Tinto wants to fund rehabilitation but Ranger mine owner’s minority shareholders are pushing for further development

Clinton Fernandes argues in provocative new book the security pact will make it impossible to have an independent defence policy

As the major parties spar over health policies ahead of November’s election, Liberal MPs are questioning the Coalition’s strategy

Advocates say they are ‘gravely concerned’ by new figures which show available government housing for vulnerable people is going backwards

Thomas Cashman, 34, also charged with attempted murder of Olivia’s mother, Cheryl Korbel, and Joseph NeeA 34-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, the girl shot dead in her own home in Liverpool, along with the attempted murder of her mother.Thomas Cashman, from the west Derby area of the city, is accused of killing the nine-year-old, who was shot in the chest. Continue reading...

People, determined to defy violence by security forces and online blackout, are resorting to old-fashioned methods to organise unrestThe messages, printed on scraps of paper, were thrown on doorsteps across Iran overnight by protesters determined that an online crackdown would not stop their movement.“The Islamic Republic is falling. Join the people,” said one handed out in northern Rasht city. In southern Ahvaz organisers gave an address and time for protest, and a broader call to action. “If you cannot come, spread the message so other people come,” it urged readers. Continue reading...

Jingye Group understood to have told ministers that its blast furnaces are unviable without huge cash injectionThe owner of British Steel, the UK’s second-biggest steel producer, is understood to be seeking an urgent package of financial support from the government.Jingye Group, which bought the company out of insolvency just two years ago, has told ministers that its two blastfurnaces are unlikely to remain feasible unless the Scunthorpe-headquartered company is granted financial aid, Sky News has reported. Continue reading...

Rally by campaigners, who say Westminster government does not serve nation’s best interests, is second in a few monthsThousands of people have marched through Cardiff as part of a rally for Welsh independence.Campaigners at the event carried large flags and banners and paraded through the city centre led by a samba band. It was organised by All Under One Banner Cymru (AUOB) and Yes Cymru. It was the second pro-independence rally to take place in Wales this year, after a march attracted about 8,000 supporters in Wrexham in July. Continue reading...

Basic Oxygen Steelmaking, which shut seven years ago, blown up using 1.6 tonnes of explosivesA former steelworks in Redcar has been pulled down in what is believed to be one of the biggest explosive demolitions in the UK.In dramatic scenes – in which the structure disappeared in a cloud of dust and smoke with a blast that could reportedly be heard eight miles away – the 65-metre-high Basic Oxygen Steelmaking plant was blown up on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Brokers in Monaco told it is ‘strictly prohibited’ to advertise sale of MySky on print or the internet

Campaigners hit out after data reveals majority of successful appeals were due to Department for Work and Pensions mistakesCampaigners have accused the government of “unforgivable” failings after previously unreleased figures suggested that the majority of successful disability benefit appeals were because of errors by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).According to previously unpublished data held by the DWP, 59% of successful tribunal appeals by applicants for the personal independence payment (Pip) benefit since the start of 2021 were because the tribunal “reached a different conclusion on substantially the same facts”. Continue reading...

West African bloc said country’s second military coup in nine months was ‘inappropriate’Gunshots rang out in Burkina Faso’s capital amid signs of lingering tensions a day after a group of military officers overthrew the man who had seized power in a coup only nine months earlier.Roads remained blocked off in Ouagadougou, where a helicopter could be heard flying overhead. An internal security analysis for the EU seen by the Associated Press said there was “abnormal military movement” in the city. Continue reading...

Amid angry protests over the conscription of new recruits, a propaganda drive is seeking to deflect blame from Vladimir Putin

Protest group repeats call not to pay unless electricity and gas tariffs are made affordable, as 193,000 sign upMore than 193,000 people have pledged to “strike” from paying their energy bills if a million Britons commit to not paying.Originally, the Don’t Pay campaign had pledged not to pay from 1 October, the date regulator Ofgem’s price cap was due to rise, if a million people had signed up. The scale would “give safety in numbers” from repercussions, the anonymous organisers argued. Continue reading...

Russia is suspected to have carried out explosions to put pressure on western energy suppliesLiz Truss has said a series of explosions which severely damaged Russia’s undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines were an act of sabotage.In a joint report delivered to the United Nations last week, the Danish and Swedish governments have claimed that the leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which can carry gas to Germany, were caused by blasts equivalent to the power of “several hundred kilograms of explosive”. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest political coverage hereThe UK devolved governments have called for an urgent meeting with Kwasi Kwarteng and urged him to “reverse the damage” caused by his tax-cutting mini-budget.The joint letter from the finance ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, warns that the chancellor has taken a “huge gamble” on the health of the economy.We’re calling for this at a time of economic and political crises. We’ve seen economic chaos caused by a mini-budget that has been making our society more unequal.This is about trying to make our society more equal.We’ve got the leakiest homes in Europe - losing huge amounts of energy through badly sealed windows and poorly lined walls.We could be saving hundreds, thousands of pounds through insulation - reducing energy wastage, cutting bills and emissions. It really isn’t rocket science. The cheapest bill is the one you don’t have to pay. Continue reading...

Tory mayor of West Midlands Andy Street publicly rebukes Daniel Grainger for insulting the city

Before the prime minister appeared on the Leeds breakfast show, the host heard from people who were suffering as a result of government policies“Where’ve you been?” The Yorkshire-accented question by the BBC Radio Leeds breakfast show host Rima Ahmed to Liz Truss dominated national news and social media after a round of disastrous local radio interviews for the prime minister this week.This unexpected exposure came in part because, like Truss, some people were taken by surprise that local radio presenters were capable of handing out such a grilling. Continue reading...

Organisers describe gatherings as largest wave of simultaneous protests seen in Britain for yearsThousands have gathered in dozens of towns and cities across the UK to register their anger at the cost of living crisis in what organisers describe as the largest wave of simultaneous protests seen in Britain for years.From Eastbourne to Edinburgh, Newcastle to Norwich, “huge turnouts” were described throughout the UK at protests timed to coincide with the jump in gas and electricity unit prices that will cause bills to soar. Continue reading...

Fed up with stoned visitors and worried by hard-drug criminality, the mayor wants to clean up the city. But will it work?Strumming gently at a guitar, outside the “nicest” coffee shop in Amsterdam, French tourists Terry Novel and Manon Fouquet enjoy a quiet joint in the sun.They have no idea of the dark cloud around them and the cannabis sector in Amsterdam. The council has just spent a day debating whether to ban tourists from cafes such as Coffeeshop The Rookies – where the state currently turns a blind eye to foreigners smoking weed and taxes the profits. Continue reading...

Tabloid says sorry after chancellor tweeted: ‘That isn’t me’ above screenshot of online story

Demonstrations in string of major cities in solidarity with protests sparked by death of Mahsa Amini in police custodyWorldwide protests are being held in solidarity with the growing uprising in Iran demanding greater freedom and protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Iranian morality police.Demonstrations under the slogan “Women, life, liberty” are taking place in many major cities, including Rome, Zurich, Paris, London, Seoul, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Stockholm and New York. Continue reading...

Families voice fury as policemen at centre of high-profile cases remain on full dutiesOfficers involved in the high-profile deaths of two black men in London have yet to be interviewed under caution, prompting fury among their families.The family of Oladeji Omishore say it is “unacceptable” that the police officers who repeatedly Tasered the 41-year-old before he fell off Chelsea Bridge continue to be treated as witnesses four months after his death. Continue reading...

My heart is with Iran’s protesters, says British-Iranian man released alongside Nazanin Zaghari-RatcliffeAnoosheh Ashoori, a British-Iranian man who spent nearly five years in jail in Iran has said he will be running the London Marathon with “solidarity with the people of Iran and the women’s movement” on his mind.Ashoori, from Lewisham in south London, was freed in March alongside Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Continue reading...

General meeting was held to discuss failing children’s services after an inspection slated its social work as ‘inadequate’ in all areasCouncillors called for heads to roll at an extraordinary general meeting held to discuss Herefordshire’s failing children’s services after an Ofsted inspection slated its social work as “inadequate” in all areas.After a slew of damning high court judgments since 2018 that detailed how Herefordshire social workers had breached children’s human rights, the criticisms in a recent Ofsted report were described by councillors as “painful”, “extremely upsetting”, and “harrowing”. Continue reading...

Campaigners accuse force of ‘trying to prevent women from organising’ over childcare protest in LondonThe Metropolitan police are facing legal action after they refused to police a major protest by mothers against the cost of childcare in central London, weeks before it was scheduled to take place.Campaigners accused the Met of “again trying to prevent women from organising”, six months after a court found it breached the rights of women trying to organise following the murder of Sarah Everard. Continue reading...

Speaker after speaker – after wheeling out standard complaints about progressive politicians – poured scorn on the voice concept

‘I’m fine and dandy but I’ve lost a bit of my boom,’ says former Europe and North America editorThe former BBC presenter Mark Mardell has revealed he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.Mardell, 65, who was the BBC’s Europe and North America editor, said he was first alerted to the symptoms when he struggled to open Waitrose packaging. Continue reading...

Jack Burnell-Williams, who served with the Household Cavalry, was found unresponsive on WednesdayAn 18-year-old soldier has been found dead at an army barracks in London.Jack Burnell-Williams, 18, who served with the Household Cavalry, died on Wednesday after being found unresponsive at Hyde Park Barracks in Knightsbridge just before 4pm, the army said. Continue reading...

FitzSimons says a new generation is stepping up to lead republic campaign. This blog is now closed

Project marks 40th anniversary of British black arts movement and features emerging black talentEstablished and up and coming black artists are to be photographed together, marking the 40th anniversary of the start of the British black arts movement, as part of a series of events for Black History Month in October.The Black Cultural Archives, based in south London, will be commemorating the occasion by paying homage to the classic 1958 A Great Day in Harlem photograph by organising a group photograph featuring black artists who were part of the original movement alongside emerging talents. Continue reading...

Measures aim to preserve communities and keep more homes available for locals but critics say they are ‘anti-tourist’Mared Llywelyn Williams, a 29-year-old education officer at a heritage site on Pen Llŷn in north Wales would love to be able to afford her own home. “But there’s no chance,” she says. “A terraced house perfect for a first-time buyer goes for £300k, a one bedroom fisherman’s cottage, £250,000. That’s outside the price range for me and most young people here.”Llywelyn Williams left the Gwynedd village of Morfa Nefyn where she grew up for university, but after graduating wanted to return – and found she had no choice but to move back in with her family. Many of her contemporaries, even those with well-paid jobs – teachers, health professionals, lawyers – have left, squeezed out by second-home owners and property investors who have sent prices soaring. Continue reading...

The author and journalist says his exit will pave the way for younger, more diverse voices

Former Australian prime minister, senator Jacinta Price and former senator Amanda Stoker attack voice at conservative conference

In the Cañada Real, close to Madrid, residents adapt to survive, but there is fear as they look ahead to winterThe struggle to survive without electricity for two whole years has left its mark on the flesh and fabric of sector six of the Cañada Real. It is there in the second-degree burns on the leg of the little boy who got too close to a gas heater, and in the dry, cracked hands of the woman who does the family’s washing with a stone and a bar of soap.It is there in the solar panels that have appeared on the roofs of the luckier residents, and in the fires that burn in the cold, dark homes of the less fortunate. And it is there in the memories of the people of Europe’s largest shantytown, which lies half an hour’s drive from the centre of Madrid. Continue reading...

Launch follows joint military drills by South Korea, Japan and the US and visit by Kamala HarrisNorth Korea has fired two more ballistic missiles, South Korea’s military said, its fourth such launch this week as Seoul, Tokyo and Washington ramp up joint military drills.The launch early on Saturday came after the navies of South Korea, the United States and Japan staged trilateral anti-submarine exercises on Friday for the first time in five years, and the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, made a visit to the region this week. Continue reading...

Madolline Gourley says a special agent in the office of professional responsibility told her the questions she was asked were in line with Customs and Border Protection proceduresAn Australian woman says the US border agency told her that asking travellers about terminating a pregnancy is in line with their policies after she was detained at an airport and then deported.Madolline Gourley says she was asked whether she’d had an abortion while detained at Los Angeles airport in June. It came days after Roe v Wade – the landmark court case that legalised abortion – was overturned in the United States. Continue reading...

Putin signs ‘accession treaties’ illegally claiming parts of Ukraine; Zelenskiy applies for Ukraine to join Nato; Russians hit civilian convoy, killing dozens

Vladimir Putin signs illegal annexation of Ukrainian regions; Volodymyr Zelenskiy applies for Ukraine to join Nato; drafted Russians must flee or fightEvery week we wrap up the must-reads from our coverage of the Ukraine war, from news and features to analysis, visual guides and opinion. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy makes the announcement hours after Russia declares annexation of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. This blog is now closed

Army officer Captain Ibrahim Traore has overthrown Paul-Henri Damiba, eight months after he took powerMembers of Burkina Faso’s army have seized control of state television, declaring that they had ousted military leader Paul-Henri Damiba, dissolved the government and suspended the constitution and transitional charter.In a statement read on national television late on Friday, Captain Ibrahim Traore said a group of officers had decided to remove Damiba due to his inability to deal with a worsening Islamist insurgency. He announced that borders were closed indefinitely and that all political and civil society activities were suspended. Continue reading...