Month: October 2023

The president’s comments came after his spokesman rejected a New York Times report that testing of the weapon, known as the Burevestnik, was imminent.

The experimental weapon, first announced in 2018, has been hailed as having a potentially unlimited range.

It is said to be powered by a nuclear reactor and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

But little is officially known of its capabilities and there are reports that previous tests have failed.

President Putin’s account has not been independently confirmed and there has been no word so far from the Russian defence ministry.

However, satellite images circulated last month indicated that Russia had recently built new facilities at a remote Arctic island location where Soviet nuclear tests were previously conducted.

The images showed construction work on Novaya Zemlya, an island archipelago in the northern Barents Sea.

“We have now virtually finished work on modern types of strategic weaponry about which I have spoken and which I announced a few years ago,” Mr Putin told a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday which was broadcast live on state television.

He added: “A final successful test has been held of Burevestnik – a global-range nuclear-powered cruise missile.”

The missile, code-named Skyfall by Nato, is said to be powered by a nuclear reactor, which is supposed to activate after solid fuel rocket boosters have launched it into the air.

But the New York Times quoted an arms control campaign group, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, as saying that the previous known 13 tests of the system between 2017 and 2019 were all unsuccessful.

Mr Putin also told his audience that work was almost complete on an intercontinental ballistic missile, called Sarmat.

Despite Mr Putin’s apparent disclosure, he said Russia had no plans to change its nuclear doctrine – the policy that sets out the circumstances in which its forces might use nuclear weapons.

He added that the existence of the Russian state was not under threat and “no person of sound mind and clear memory” would contemplate a nuclear strike against it.

But he did indicate that Russia could theoretically withdraw its ratification of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty. He argued that as the US had signed but never ratified it, it was possible for Russia to act in the same way.

During the same meeting in Sochi, Mr Putin said the plane crash that killed Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in August was not caused by “outside interference” such as a missile attack.

He said the mercenary chief and others who died in the crash had been found to have “hand grenade fragments” in their bodies, adding: “The head of the Investigations Committee reported this to me just the other day.”

The president did not explain how a grenade could have exploded on board, but said he thought investigators should have carried out alcohol and drug tests on the bodies of the crash victims.

No official report on the cause of the crash has yet been published.

The explosive-laden drones targeted a graduation ceremony attended by cadets’ families, and women and children were among the dead.

The army blamed “terrorist groups backed by known international forces”.

There was no immediate claim from the rebels and jihadists battling the government in the country’s civil war.

The drone attack is believed to have been launched from opposition-held areas north-west of Homs.

Later, first responders from the White Helmets reported that five civilians had been killed in intense government artillery and missile strikes on several cities, towns and villages in the opposition stronghold of Idlib province.

Syria’s state news agency, Sana, quoted a statement from the General Command of the Armed Forces as saying that several drones carrying explosives targeted the Homs military academy just after the afternoon graduation ceremony had ended.

The statement said the armed forces “considers this act an unprecedented criminal one, and affirms that it will respond with full force and determination to these terrorist groups wherever they are”.

In a later report the agency quoted Health Minister Hassan al-Gabbash saying the strike had injured more than 200 people and that six women and six children were among the dead.

A man who had earlier helped set up decorations at the site said: “After the ceremony, people went down to the courtyard and the explosives hit. We don’t know where it came from, and corpses littered the ground.”

A graphic video of the aftermath of the attack showed dozens of casualties and their relatives screaming for help inside a large, walled parade ground. Gunfire can also be heard in the background.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that Syria’s defence minister attended the graduation ceremony but left minutes before the attack.

More than half a million people have been killed by the civil war that erupted after President Bashar al-Assad cracked down violently on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011.

Some 6.8 million people are internally displaced, while another 6 million are refugees or asylum-seekers abroad.

The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, described the attack on the academy as “horrific” and called on all parties to the conflict to “exercise the utmost restraint”.

“All sides must respect their obligations under international law and ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure,” he said

“Today’s developments further highlight that the status quo in Syria is unsustainable and that, in the absence of a meaningful political path… I fear we will only see further deterioration, including in the security situation.”

In a separate development in Syria on Thursday, at least 10 people were reportedly killed in Turkish drone strikes in a Kurdish-controlled region of north-eastern Syria that were prompted by a bomb attack in Ankara claimed by Kurdish militants.

The SOHR said 17 sites were targeted, including facilities affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed, Kurdish-led militia alliance, as well as a power station in Qamishli, a water station near Hassakeh and an oil field.

The US military also shot down an armed Turkish drone that was operating near its troops in Syria, a US official told Reuters.

The party’s candidate, Michael Shanks, took the Westminster seat with 17,845 votes – more than double the number polled by the SNP’s Katy Loudon.

The result was a swing of 20.4% from the SNP to Labour.

The by-election was called after former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier was ousted by her constituents for breaking Covid rules.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “seismic” night and that people in Rutherglen and Hamilton West had sent “a clear message”.

He added: “I have always said that winning back the trust of people in Scotland is essential. Tonight’s victory is the culmination of three-and-a -half years of hard work and humility on that journey.”

SNP candidate Katy Loudon received 8,399 votes in the by-election, which was the first major electoral test for the SNP since Humza Yousaf succeeded Nicola Sturgeon as leader.

The first minister described it as a “disappointing” night for his party.

Mr Yousaf said the circumstances “were always very difficult for us” and that Labour had benefitted from a collapse in the Conservative vote.

“We lost this seat in 2017, and like 2019 we can win this seat back. However, we will reflect on what we have to do to regain the trust of the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West,” he said.

The winning candidate, Mr Shanks, said it was “the honour of my life to be elected to serve to people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West”.

He said his campaign offered a “fresh start”, breaking away from the divisiveness of the SNP and Conservative governments.

Turnout for the vote was 37.19%, a dramatic fall from the 66.5% recorded at the last general election.

Labour’s vote was up 24.1% from the 2019 general election.

Conservative support fell by 11% with candidate Thomas Kerr, who lost his electoral deposit, saying tactical voting had “squeezed” him out.

Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said it was a “remarkably good result” for Labour.

“It’s well above the kinds of swings we’ve seen in the opinion polls in Scotland. The Labour vote is up to nearly 59%, that’s 24 points.

“That means the Labour vote in the constituency is almost as high as it was in 2010 before the tsunami that swept the Labour Party from virtually every constituency in Scotland.”

The constituency in South Lanarkshire was created for the 2005 general election. It has changed hands between the SNP and Labour at each of the past three general elections.

It was considered a Labour stronghold until 2015, when Margaret Ferrier first won it for the SNP with a majority of 10,000 votes.

In 2017, it was reclaimed by Labour by less than 300 votes. Ferrier then retook the seat in 2019.

The 5,230 majority had made it one of the party’s most vulnerable Westminster seats.

Almost 12,000 constituents had signed a recall petition against Ferrier, who was given 270 hours of community service after being convicted of breaching Covid regulations in 2020.

The by-election was the first time new voter ID rules were used in Scotland.

This result is clearly not what the new leader would have wanted, especially given the SNP’s run of electoral dominance under his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon.

Indeed, Ms Sturgeon may have set the bar impossibly high in that regard, having seen her party through a run of elections where the Conservatives were dominant UK-wide, and where Brexit and constitutional clashes provided key fodder for anti-establishment campaigns.

Mr Yousaf, meanwhile, has come in the door at the moment where it’s Labour who are able to pitch themselves as the force of insurgent change at Westminster – at the same time as his SNP are finding it increasingly hard not to be seen as the long-standing establishment at Holyrood.

The SNP will always have independence to fall back on, and argue that is the “real change” that only they can offer.

But if the electorate buys 2024 as a contest about who forms the next UK government, it could leave them in an awkward position.

This result may not have been entirely unexpected, given the general drift of the polls, but it will put pressure on Mr Yousaf to cement a strategy which can deliver better results at the national election.

The prime minister said there was “no safe level of smoking” when asked about restricting people’s right to choose.

His plan seeks to raise the legal age of smoking every year by a year so that eventually no-one can buy tobacco.

Tory MPs will be allowed a free vote while Labour indicated it would back the policy.

But some critics of the policy say it could lead to the creation of a “black market”.

Making the announcement in his keynote speech at the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Sunak said he believed it was the right step to tackle the leading cause of preventable ill-health.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Sunak was challenged on why he was taking measures to ban the future sale of cigarettes but in June pushed back part of the government’s anti-obesity strategy, saying he believed in “people’s right to choose”.

Originally scheduled for this month, plans to ban two-for-one junk food deals have been delayed by the government for another two years.

But Mr Sunak told the BBC smoking cigarettes was not the same as eating crisps or a piece of cake because it could not be part of a balanced diet and there was no safe level of smoking.

“Smoking is unequivocally the single biggest preventable cause of death, disability and illness in our society,” he said.

“Everyone recognises this measure will be the single biggest intervention in public health in a generation.”

He said measures to restrict choice were “never easy” but nobody would want their children or grandchildren to grow up to smoke.

Smoking increases the risk of strokes, heart disease, dementia and stillbirth as well as causing one in four deaths from cancer.Smoking rates have been falling since the 1970s. But there are still more than five million smokers in England and six million across the UK.Currently, one in nine 18 to 24-year-olds smokes, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The idea of gradually increasing the smoking age was put forward last year by Javed Khan, the former Barnardo’s chief executive, who was asked by ministers to consider new approaches to tackling smoking.

At the time, the government, which was led by Boris Johnson, said such a move was unlikely.

But Mr Sunak has decided to throw his backing behind it as a way of meeting the government’s ambition for England to be smokefree by 2030 – defined as less than 5% of the population smoking.

Labour said it would “not play politics with public health” and would lend the prime minister the votes to get the law passed – but the plan is likely to meet opposition from the libertarian wing of the Conservative Party.

Earlier this week, former prime minister Liz Truss said the party needed to “stop banning things”. It is understood she will not vote in favour of the policy.

Christopher Snowdon, head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, told the BBC the policy if implemented would lead to “massive black markets”.

“You’re going to have, almost certainly, a fairly large, informal market of smokers who are old enough to buy cigarettes selling cigarettes to people who are not old enough.

“The problem with prohibition isn’t that it doesn’t have any effect whatsoever on consumption, the problem with prohibition is it leads to massive black markets and a lot of tax revenues gone.”

Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ rights group Forest, accused the prime minister of “dumbing down” by treating future generations of adults like children.

He added that Mr Sunak had taken a “wrecking ball to the principles of choice and personal responsibility”.

But Cancer Research UK’s Michelle Mitchell said the announcement on the smoking age was a “critical step”.

“If implemented, the prime minister will deserve great credit for putting the health of UK citizens ahead of the interests of the tobacco lobby.”

Deborah Arnott, from campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said what had been announced was an “unprecedented” set of measures which would hasten the day smoking is obsolete.

Also in his interview with the Today programme, Mr Sunak:

While Mr Sunak undoubtedly hopes his plans to phase out smoking will be a legacy of his time in office, his first conference as PM was overshadowed by his decision, and the speculation in the days leading up to it, to axe the northern leg of the HS2 rail project.

While critics reacted with anger to the decision, the PM insisted investments would instead be made in transport projects across the country.