World

Russia arranged to supply Iran with 90 launchers for advanced guided missiles, the Guardian reported on Thursday, citing leaked defence industry documents. Dallas Analytics, a Ukrainian private intelligence firm, obtained the files and shared them with the newspaper. The launchers are for the LMUR, a guided missile fired from attack helicopters. Russian forces have used it heavily against Ukrainian targets since the full-scale invasion in 2022. Vympel, a leading Russian designer of missiles and launch systems, drew up a production schedule in May 2024. It lists an order for 90 launchers under an export contract called "K-10". Deliveries were planned between late 2024 and December 2025. Separate internal paperwork explicitly identifies K-10 as Iran. The records do not prove the launchers reached Iran. However, another schedule in the files lists six Yak-130 jet trainers for Iran in 2023. According to the Guardian, that matches publicly reported deliveries of the aircraft. The May 2024 letter also reveals strain in Russia's arms industry. Vympel warned that late deliveries of key components threatened launcher assembly and Russian state defence contracts. The leak comes as Washington weighs its next steps in its war against Iran after the US midterm elections. President Donald Trump has repeatedly played down Moscow's support for Tehran.…

Russell Brand has been convicted of rape and three sexual assaults. The Guardian reported that the verdicts came on Thursday at Southwark crown court in London, after a four-week trial. AFP also reported the convictions. The four offences targeted four women over five years of Brand's showbusiness career. Brand, 51, had pleaded not guilty to seven charges involving six women. They covered three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault, spanning 10 years from 1999. The jury of four women and eight men deliberated for eight hours and 30 minutes. It cleared him of two rape counts and the attempted indecent assault charge. According to the Guardian, the jury found that Brand raped a young fan at his London townhouse in early 2009. He had picked her out of the crowd after a gig at the Hammersmith Apollo. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting an MTV worker at a party in Soho in 2004. Another conviction involved a woman working at radio station Choice FM in 2004 or 2005. The fourth involved a Channel 4 worker during a filming project in 2009. The judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, told Brand that a rape…

The Bank of England raised interest rates on Thursday for the first time since August 2023. The base rate rose by a quarter point, from 3.75% to 4%. The Bank said the move aims to curb inflation driven mainly by the Iran war's impact on oil prices, the BBC reported. According to the Guardian, the conflict has kept oil prices above $100 a barrel for months. Hopes of a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz have faded. The Bank now expects UK inflation to peak at 4.9% in mid-2027, up from 3.2% in its July forecast. Inflation reached 3.5% in September. The BBC reported that inflation could hit 6.2% in 2027 in an "adverse scenario" in which the war escalates. The Bank does not expect inflation to return to its 2% target until 2028. Eight of the nine members of the monetary policy committee voted for the quarter-point rise. The ninth, Catherine Mann, wanted a half-point increase to 4.25%. The minutes reveal splits over what comes next. Alan Taylor called the move a "one-for-now" insurance hike. Megan Greene said more hikes might follow, depending on wages, prices…

Democrats won a sweeping victory in the US midterm elections. According to Semafor, the result could weaken President Donald Trump's leverage over allies who have previously gone along with his demands. A European diplomat told Semafor that "everybody is now obliged to look toward the post-Trump era." Max Bergmann of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said Europeans did "a lot of bending the knee" in the first two years of Trump's presidency. He predicted that this deference could fade. Allies, he said, feel they no longer need to accept such treatment. Trade deals could also be at risk, said Richard Fontaine,…

South Korea plans to move its anti-piracy naval unit closer to the Strait of Hormuz, The Guardian reported, citing the defence ministry. The government will ask parliament to widen the Cheonghae unit's area of operation. Under the plan, the unit would operate in waters near the port of Duqm in Oman. According to…

Parents in the Saudi capital have no date for their children's return to class. A plan to reopen schools in Riyadh collapsed after three days, Semafor reported on Wednesday. Officials then sent students back online. The education ministry had split Riyadh into 10 zones. Under the plan, schools would reopen one neighbourhood at a time. After the reversal, officials set no new date. Each school now decides for itself, and most have chosen to stay online, according to Semafor. Houthi strikes on the city have gone on for almost a month, the outlet reported. They have not slowed. Missile alerts still ring several times a week, sometimes more than once a night. Business has slowed too. The King Abdullah Financial District, Riyadh's business hub, is largely empty. Office towers above 10 floors are still closed. Semafor said many businesses have sent staff home. It compared…

Ukraine's national police released bodycam video on Wednesday. They say it shows the moments between two powerful Russian bomb strikes on the southern village of Kamyshuvakha. The camera belonged to one of the police officers killed in the attack. According to the BBC, the strikes killed at least 40 people at an aid centre and a shelter. Ukraine said nine glide bombs, some weighing 3,000kg, hit the village in the Zaporizhzhia region on Monday. People had gathered near a local school to collect humanitarian aid. The video shows heavy destruction after the first strike, as shocked residents stare at the rubble. A military official's voice then comes over a two-way radio. The official warns police that more glide bombs are heading towards the village. "Quickly [go] to the shelter!" one officer tells residents. They walk into a shelter at least two floors underground. Soon after, a blast is heard and flames appear as the shelter is hit. BBC Verify confirmed the video was filmed in the same place as footage from Ukraine's state emergencies service, DSNS, showing the aftermath. DSNS also posted a video of a huge crater left by the attack. President Volodymyr Zelensky said…

US District Judge Leo Sorokin on Wednesday granted prosecutors' request to dismiss all charges against Kseniia Petrova. He did not hold a hearing, The Guardian reported. Petrova, 31, is a Russian scientist who brought frog embryos into the US for cancer research at Harvard Medical School. Petrova was arrested in March 2025 at Boston's Logan International Airport. She was returning from a holiday in France, where she had visited a laboratory that cuts extremely thin sections of frog embryos. There she picked up a package of samples for her research in the US. Customs officials questioned her about the samples. She was later charged with smuggling, concealing facts and making false statements to government officials. The case began to unravel when a federal judge ruled that a customs officer had improperly cancelled her visa. Petrova had feared deportation to Russia, where she could face prison. She had fled Russia after being arrested for protesting against the invasion of Ukraine. A judge ordered her release in May 2025. On Tuesday night, US Attorney Leah Foley filed a motion to drop the case. She cited "developments in this case and an assessment of the office's…

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned those who continue to support the Iranian government, BBC Swahili reported. The warning came after Washington announced new sanctions on what it called a large criminal network. The US says the network helps run Iran's "shadow fleet" of oil tankers, which trade in secret. Bessent said the sanctions are part of an economic operation…