Russia is set to dramatically increase the amount of money it spends on defence as the country prepares for “multiple years” of war in Ukraine, according UK intelligence.
The Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update on the war said documents apparently leaked from the Russian finance ministry shows its military spending will reach 30% of all public expenditure in 2024.
“The ministry proposes a defence budget of 10.8 trillion roubles (£91.7 billion), equivalent to approximately 6 per cent of GDP and a 68 per cent increase over 2023,” the MoD said.
To put that in context, the UK spends around 2% of its GDP on defence. In 2021/22, that worked out at around £45bn.
The MoD said Russia’s military spending splurge will come “at the expense of the wider economy”.
“Full details on Russian defence spending are always classified, but these figures suggests that Russia is preparing for multiple further years of fighting in Ukraine,” they said.
“This follows public comments by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on 27 September 2023, suggesting he was prepared for the conflict to continue into 2025.”
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in a “special military operation” that Vladimir Putin believed would be over in days.
With hours left to go on the eve of a government shutdown, Congress passed a stopgap bill to keep federal agencies funded and workers at their desks through mid-November.
The price? About $6 billion in aid to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian invaders and new worries Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will be encouraged to continue the full-scale invasion he started in February 2022.
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On Saturday afternoon, the House voted 335 to 91 for a temporary funding bill to keep the government operating through Nov. 16 and also fund disaster assistance. Two hundred and nine Democrats joined 126 Republicans in voting for the package.
Later that night, the Senate passed it 88 to 9, though only after some last-minute public misgivings by a few Democratic senators, including a brief hold on floor action by Democratic Senator Michael Bennet over the Ukraine aid.
The bill will now go to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature.
The deal will avoid the worst case politically that both parties feared ― being blamed for the first government shutdown since 2019 ― but leaves several issues unaddressed, like the future of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Putting the bill on the floor was a stark turnaround for McCarthy, who has spent all year trying to placate far-right members of his conference — something that has proved almost impossible. On Friday, he moved a bill that would have kept the government open with severe spending cuts and 21 hard-line Republicans still voted no, dooming it.
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Republicans such as Representative Matt Gaetz have said they would force a no-confidence vote in McCarthy if the House passed a funding bill with Democratic support.
But pulling his party back from the brink of a shutdown may have boosted his stock with the more moderate wing of his party. “If we have folks in the conference that don’t like his leadership, that want to put a motion to vacate forward, that’s on them to do that and explain to the American people why,” said Republican Representative Mike Lawler.
And McCarthy remained defiant.
“If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it. There has to be an adult in the room,” he said.
Another open question is what happens when the stopgap bill expires. While lawmakers have a few more weeks to work on spending bills, it’s unclear that they will get them finished by then. And the near-shutdown this time could merely be a dress rehearsal for an actual one later in the year.
Democrats initially balked at the bill, saying they had not been given enough time to read its 71 pages. But faced with the political reality that they could be blamed for a shutdown by insisting on aid to war-torn Ukraine, many decided to embrace the bill.
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Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, however, read a letter from Mike McCord, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for defense, who warned that European allies would be unlikely to keep up their support for Ukraine without U.S. leadership.
“From the very beginning of the war, Putin has bet that America is weak, unreliable, and that his desire to rebuild the Soviet Empire was greater than our will to oppose him,” said Scott Cullinane, director of government affairs at Razom for Ukraine, a pro-Ukraine advocacy group. “Our unwillingness to give Ukraine the weapons it needs to win and Congress’ delay in funding threaten to prove Putin right.”
McCarthy has said there is enough Ukraine aid still in the pipeline for another 45 days. Aid could be attached to another bill later on, but would probably have to be more than the $6 billion that was at issue here and it’s unclear what bill it would have to be attached to in order to pass.
Representative Jim McGovern said the stopgap was a win for Democrats, especially compared with what House Republicans had been proposing earlier in the week. He also said he thought Ukraine aid would eventually be passed.
“Talk to me in a few weeks,” he said.
“We have to deal with these issues again in 45 days but, for today, I’ve got a little bounce in my step.”
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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly included the word “all” when referring to the 126 Republicans who voted for the House bill. There are currently 221 Republicans in the House.
Voters associate Rishi Sunak with wealth, money and greed, according to a survey carried out for the BBC.
The multi-millionaire prime minister was presented with the public’s brutal verdict during a live interview as the Tory Party conference kicks off in Manchester.
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Appearing on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the PM was shown a so-called “word cloud” outlining the answers voters gave to the More in Common think-tank when asked their opinion of him.
It showed the most common was “rich people”, followed by “money” and “himself”.
Other answers included “greed”, “elite” “wealth”, “upper class” and “prosperity”.
However, some people answered “fairness”, “equality”, “stability” and “leader”.
The word cloud setting out how people view the prime minister.
During the ill-tempered interview, Kuenssberg told him: “You can see there, rightly or wrongly, what many people associate with you is your personal wealth.
“What does that make you think? Does that worry you if people might think you’re out of touch?
“Or perhaps, you are very wealthy, you could be living on a beach not working at all. A lot of people might think you’ve got all this wealth, you could be living on a beach, not working at all.
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“A lot of people might think you’ve got all this wealth, you could do anything at all, good on you for being in public service. What goes through your mind when you see that?”
A clearly-annoyed Sunak said : “My job is to deliver for people. We’ve been talking a lot about this net zero decision …”
Kuenssberg replied : “Hold on, I think people would like to know what your response is.”
But the PM said: “But this is a great example of it. That was a decision motivated by me wanting to ease the burden on families.”
Russian media just put out more supposed evidence that an admiral Ukraine claims to have killed is actually alive – but experts still don’t know what to believe.
On Monday, Ukraine alleged that Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, died along with 33 other officers following a missile strike on Moscow’s naval headquarters in Crimea last Friday.
But, on Tuesday, Russia’s defence ministry released a video on Telegram – supposedly filmed the day before – which apparently showed the admiral remotely attending a large military conference with the defence minister.
While the BBC used facial recognition software to confirm the man in the clip was indeed Sokolov, the broadcasters were not able to pinpoint when it was filmed.
The clip prompted Ukraine’s military to clarify their statement, saying: “According to available sources, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet is among the dead. Many have not yet been identified due to the fragmentation of body parts.”
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However, it’s also not clear how Kyiv would be able to look at the area it struck because it took place in Russian occupied land.
The following day, the Russian state media started to issue more unverified videos of the admiral – and this time, he could be heard speaking to journalists.
An undated clip posted on the Russian state-run TV network, Zvezda, seemed to show Sokolov saying the Black Sea Fleet has been “fulfilling goals that are set by command”.
Another video posted by a local news outlet showed Sokolov responding to a question about the impacts about a Ukrainian strike, saying: “What happened to us? Nothing happened to us. Life goes on.”
This turn of events – the latest in the ongoing information war between the two countries – have left experts quite bewildered.
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The US think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said in its daily update that it is “unprepared at this time to make an assessment about the authenticity of the footage or the date of the filming”.
It added: “The Kremlin and Russian Ministry of Defence have been notably silent on the matter and have not directly confirmed that Sokolov is alive.”
Russia also has a reputation for obscuring narratives which might cause embarrassment for the Kremlin.
While Sokolov’s fate is still unknown, clips on social media suggest the attack last Friday did take place in one form or another.
Russia also claimed at the time that it had shot down five incoming missiles and only one serviceman had died in the incident, though it admitted its headquarters were damaged.
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Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said at a briefing that the West were to blame for the strike.
She said: “There is no doubt that the attack had been planned in advance using Western intelligence means, NATO satellite assets and reconnaissance planes and was implemented upon the advice of American and British security agencies and in close co-ordination with them.”
The Black Sea has become the new focal point of the war, with Kyiv attacking Russian warships to stop any advances towards the Ukrainian mainland, deter cruise missiles and disrupt Moscow’s blockade on Ukraine’s ports.
Ukraine is also determined to liberate Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
UK ministers have been accused of “cultural appropriation” after appearing to suggest that Dennis the Menace was “created in London”.
SNP MP Chris Law reacted angrily after the comic book character and his dog Gnasher were used in a government advert.
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The billboard, for the GREAT campaign, shows the pair standing on a man’s shoulder beside the message: “Created in London, unleashed in more than 100 countries.”
That is despite the fact that Dennis the Menace was in fact created in Dundee by George Moonie, the then editor of The Beano.
Law, who is the MP for Dundee West, said the advert was “utter garbage”.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter), he said: “Dundee city created Dennis the Menace and Gnasher through the publishers DC Thomson. Cultural appropriation is a desperate measure to claim credibility.”
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A government spokesperson said: “The Dennis and Gnasher animated series was created in London, based on the brilliant Beano cartoon that originated in Dundee.
“In this way it is the perfect representation of the ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ campaign, which seeks to highlight success stories from across our great union of nations.
“We work closely with businesses like Beano to tell their start-up story, demonstrating the support the UK government provides to help companies grow and export around the world.”
Justin Trudeau has spoken up after the Canadian parliament gave a Ukrainian man who fought for the Nazis in World War 2 a standing ovation.
Yaroslav Hunka was declared a hero by the Canadian House of Commons speaker, Anthony Rota, on Friday, while the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was visiting.
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Rota pointed to Hunka when he was sitting in the gallery, calling him a “Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero”, adding: “We thank him for all his service.”
However, the 98-year-old veteran’s connections to the Nazis have since been uncovered.
He actually served in a voluntary unit primarily made up of ethnic Ukrainians under Nazi command. The unit has been accused of killing Polish and Jewish civilians, but has not been found guilty of war crimes.
It was renamed the First Ukrainian Division before its surrender in 1945.
The speaker of the House, who had invited Hunka, said in a statement on Sunday that he only became aware of such information after the veteran’s visit, and now “regrets” his decision.
“No one, including fellow parliamentarians and the Ukraine delegation, was aware of my intention or of my remarks before I delivered them,” Rota said.
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He added: “This initiative was entirely my own, the individual in question being from my [district] and having been brought to my attention.”
He extended his “deepest apologies” to the Jewish communities around the world, and accepted full responsibility for the incident.
He apologised again in person on Monday from the house.
Opposition politicians have called on him to stand down.
But, Trudeau has not echoed these calls, even though they belong to the same Liberal party.
He told reporters on Monday that it was “extremely upsetting that this happened”, while denying he had a private meeting with Hunka or had a hand in choosing to invite the veteran.
He added: “This is something that is deeply embarrassing to the parliament of Canada and by extension to all Canadians.”
The speaker of Canada’s House of Commons apologised for praising a Nazi military veteran who fought in World War II. 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka was given a standing ovation twice after he was introduced as a ‘Ukrainian and Canadian hero’
Ukrainians fought both for Germany and the Soviet Red Army during World War 2.
Some of those who joined the Nazis reportedly aimed to achieve independence from the Soviet Union.
The Canadian Jewish group, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said it appreciated the apology, but called for ”proper vetting” to prevent “such an unacceptable incident” happening again.
Poland’s ambassador to Canada has expressed anger too, saying he wants an apology.
This is an especially unfortunate turn of events because the Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly claimed Kyiv is operated by neo-Nazis – and claiming his invasion of Ukraine will be a “de-nazification”.
These claims are baseless – Zelenskyy is Jewish, and had relatives who died in the Holocaust. He was also democratically elected in 2019.
Trudeau noted on Monday that the incident in the Canadian parliament would help reinforce that rhetoric.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has already waded into the saga, claiming inviting Hunka was an “outrageous” act.
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He said: “Many Western countries, including Canada, have raised a young generation that does not know who fought whom or what happened during the Second World War.
“And they know nothing about the threat of fascism.”
A row has erupted over the Metropolitan police after some officers turned in their firearm permits, meaning soldiers will now be drafted in to fill in the gaps.
The move – carried out by more than 100 of the 2,500 armed officers in the force – came after an officer was recently charged with the murder of Chris Kaba, an unarmed 24-year-old who died last September.
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The debate has now escalated to include home secretary Suella Braverman, too.
Here’s what you need to know.
Why have officers handed in their firearm permits?
Later reports revealed Kaba was driving an Audi which did not belong to him, and which had been connected to a gun incident the day before.
The police officer involved was suspended from duty, charged with murder and granted bail last week. Their details have been kept anonymous.
A plea and trial preparation hearing is listed for December 1, with a possible trial date to take place next September.
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Some officers in the Met are now worried about how the charging of their colleague might impact them which is why they’ve decided to hand in their gun permits, according to the country’s largest police force.
The Met said: “A number of officers have taken the decision to step back from armed duties while they consider their position.”
In an update on Monday, it added that some officers returned to duties in the last 24 hours.
We are aware of media reporting suggesting that all Met firearms officers have stepped back from armed duties.
This is not correct. There are armed Met officers, including counterterrorism officers, on duty across London.
For context, the London Assembly said that in April, there were 2,595 authorised firearm officers in the Met, down from 2,841 in 2018.
Home Office stats say between March 2022 and March 2023, the Met Police took part in 18,257 firearm operations – that’s a third of all firearm operations recorded in the UK.
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However, only 10 of these incidents included an officer opening fire at a person.
What has this got to do with the Army?
The Ministry of Defence received a Military Aid to the Civil Authorities request from the Home Office to send in Army personnel to fill in the gaps.
This is not unprecedented – soldiers stepped in to help with civil missions at the height of the Covid pandemic, and during paramedics’ strikes last year.
The Home Office asked the MoD to provide “routine counter-terrorism contingency support to the Metropolitan Police, should it be needed”.
The Met explained: “To ensure that we can continue to keep the public safe and respond to any eventualities, from Saturday evening Met firearms officers will be supported by a limited number of armed officers from other UK forces.”
What has Suella Braverman said?
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has spoken up in support of the police officers.
Lucy North – PA Images via Getty Images
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Home secretary Suella Braverman spoke out about the case on Sunday, saying there would be a review into armed policing, and that the officers have her “full backing”.
“They mustn’t fear ending up in the dock for carrying out their duties,” she claimed. “Officers risking their lives to keep us safe have my full backing and I will do everything in my power to support them. I will do everything in my power to support them.”
However, this statement, issued on X (formerly Twitter) has been controversial, because this is a comment on an active murder trial.
Doughty Street Chambers’ barrister, Adam Wagner, reposted her comment and said: “I think this series of tweets is inappropriate in the context of a live criminal case where an officer has been charged.
“It gives the clear impression, given the image in the linked article, that the Home Secretary is expressing an opinion on the Chris Kaba case.”
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The i’s Ian Dunt told Sky News that he was “startled” by Braverman’s intervention, too.
He said journalists are told to be really careful when there’s live court proceedings, never mind cabinet ministers.
He claimed: “That’s a completely unjustifiable intervention by the home secretary and something we should be a little more alarmed about.”
#KayBurley – Suella Braverman tweeted about police officers laying down their guns
Ian Dunt(The i) – I’m startled about what Braverman wrote.. journalists are told to be really careful when there’s live court proceedings… that’s a completely unjustifiable intervention by her pic.twitter.com/83TVwjrL7e
Braverman’s review has been welcomed by Met chief commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
He said while it was correct they were held to the “highest standards”, the current system undermines his officers, as they end up being investigated for “safely pursuing suspects” and they therefore needed more legal protection.
He said he would make “no comment” on any ongoing legal matter but said these issues “go back further” than the Kaba case.
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He said: “Officers need sufficient legal protection to enable them to do their job and keep the public safe, and the confidence that it will be applied consistently and without fear or favour.”
However, he acknowledged that when officers act improperly, the system “needs to move swiftly” rather than “tying itself in knots pursuing good officers through multiple legal processes”.
Rowley has promised repeatedly to reform the force since getting into the role, and has vowed to robustly remove rogue officers in the Met.
It comes after years of scrutiny towards the force. A review released only in March this year called for immediate change or for the force to be broken up, claiming it was institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
Andy Burnham has accused ministers of treating people in the north of England “like second class citizens” amid mounting speculation that the next phase of HS2 will be scrapped.
The Manchester mayor launched a furious attack on the government as Rishi Sunak ponders whether to axe the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the rail project.
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His comments came after former transport secretary Grant Shapps repeatedly refused to confirm that the high-speed line will be completed in full.
Speaking on Sky News, Burnham furiously said: “Why is it that people in the north are always forced to choose – you can have this or you can have that, but you can’t have everything?
“London never has to choose between a north-south line or an east-west line and good public transport within the city.
“Why are we always treated as second-class citizens when it comes to transport?
“This is the parliament who said they would level us up. If they leave a situation where the southern half of the country is connected by modern high speed lines and the north of England is left with Victorian infrastructure, that is a recipe for the north-south divide to become a north-south chasm.”
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Burnham said the abandonment of the HS2 leg would be the “desperate act of a dying government”.
Around £20 billion of taxpayers money has already been spent on the project, which was meant to cost £33 billion in total.
However, repeated delays and soaring inflation mean there are fears the final bill could be more than £100 billion.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned that the cost of the project is at risk of getting “totally out of control”, fuelling speculation that plans to extend it to Manchester will be scrapped.
However, Boris Johnson has said that would leave a “mutilated” rail line and has urged the government to commit to the project.
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Andy Street, the Tory mayor of the West Midlands, has also called on Sunak to complete the project, while business leaders have insisted scrapping it would be disastrous for the economy.
The defence secretary repeatedly failed to say whether the next phase of the multi-billion pound project will go ahead.
Speculation is mounting that the government will axe plans to extend the rail line from Manchester to Birmingham.
Appearing on Sky News this morning, Shapps was asked whether or not he had promised businesses HS2 would go ahead as planned while he was transport secretary.
Phillips said: “Did you personally encourage people to invest on the basis that it was to run from central London to Manchester?”
Shapps began to say: “We’ve invested…”
But Phillips told him: “You’re answering a different question.
“I’m asking you when you talked to businesses as transport secretary, did you say to them, ’look, it’s worth investing in the north in this way because there will be HS2. Did you?”
But Shapps failed to answer and instead repeated that “the government is committed to improving rail infrastructure, particularly in the north”.
He added: “Forgive me, Trevor. I think your viewers understand that I’m not here today to deliver the budget on your excellent programme.
“I’m here to talk about actually things that I can inform you about which is for example, in my role as defence secretary and our work in Ukraine.”
On Friday, the president announced the creation of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention within the White House and later tweeted that “it’s time to again ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”
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He added: “If members of Congress refuse to act, then we need to elect new members of Congress who will act.”
It’s time to again ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
And let me be very clear:
If members of Congress refuse to act, then we need to elect new members of Congress who will act.
That post apparently had Greene seeing red and she responded by tweeting back, “Whatever you old fart. We are electing a new President. Turning 45 into 47.”
Greene may have thought the “old fart” comment was a truth bomb, but many users of X, formerly known as Twitter, raised a stink, especially since she’s been griping recently about the lack of “society’s standards that set etiquette and respect for our institutions.”
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As a result, she was thoroughly mocked.
Folks…this is a sitting member of Congress. @GOP will make a fuss about dress code but allow this shit to go on…hell, even encourage it.
This is despicable and childish.
This poor excuse for a human needs to be removed from office or censured at a minimum. https://t.co/Wk49cQRpnX
Back in May, Greene found out how much her Democratic colleagues respect her desire for decorum when they raucously laughed at her after she told them, “Members are reminded to abide by decorum of the House,” she said, only to spark raucous laughter.
