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Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, said on a podcast: ‘I asked the question coming to Downing Street, “Well, was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia?” I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.’ Sir Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, said during questions after an annual speech: ‘I’m a little bit worried that [if] we all stay in this debate for another few days, the Russian trolls who didn’t appear to do all that much at various points over the years, they’ll be delighted they are front-page news once again.’ The Prime Minister told the House of Commons that whatever happened at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, on 27 September was ‘almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard’. Ed Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, summoned the Iranian ambassador. About 4,700 people were evacuated in the City of London after a six-inch gas main ruptured in Old Broad Street.
Mr Burnham said it would be a ‘dereliction of duty’ not to secure a new deal with Brussels on youth mobility, food and drink, and energy. The by-election at Holborn and St Pancras, vacated by Sir Keir Starmer, was won by Sagal Abdi-Wali, for Labour, with 12,292 votes (45.2 per cent). Zack Polanski received 8,928 votes (32.8). Tom Darwood, with no description on the ballot paper, got seven votes. Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, announced an urgent, independent review of security arrangements for high-profile figures including politicians and royalty. Sir Chris Bryant, the Northern Ireland Secretary, decided to ban the Orange Order march from Drumcree into Portadown after the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland told him it carried ‘an unacceptable risk’. A man entered the enclosure of a tiger at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, and it killed him.
Boots was sold for £6.7 billion to the Canadian billionaire Weston family. Poundland sought a rescue deal. In the week ending 10 October, 1,484 migrants entered England by boat. About 650 more offenders were released early from jails. The aurora borealis was visible as far south as Kent.
Abroad
President Donald Trump, in an apparent attempt to woo voters in the midterm elections, said President Vladimir Putin of Russia had agreed to release 300,000 tons of diesel immediately ‘to the American and global marketplace’. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that ‘gifts to Putin will not work for peace’. Mr Trump then said of Ukraine: ‘I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal.’ Mr Burnham spoke with Mr Zelensky on the phone and arranged a meeting in London. Mr Trump announced an ‘energy ceasefire’ between Russia and Ukraine, which Mr Zelensky said was news to him, but welcome if Russia abided by it. The CHPP-4 power plant in Kyiv was then hit by a Russian ballistic missile on a night that left 600,000 without electricity. At least 30 people were killed in a Russian glide bomb attack on two civilian buses in Kramatorsk, and the next day 20 were killed by glide bombs in Zaporizhzhia. The tech giant Yandex, which runs Russia’s most popular search engine, said it was hard to maintain services after two of its five data centres were struck by Ukrainian drones in two days; a third was hit the next day. Rumen Radev, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, summoned the Russian ambassador after two merchant ships were struck by drones off the country’s Black Sea coast.
Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary, said that the public would be able to watch the execution by firing squad of a former US Army major, Nidal Hasan, who fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers in 2009. Christa Pike, 50, was discharged from hospital after her botched execution in Tennessee on 30 September, and was sent back to the prison where she has spent 30 years. The White House asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. from 2020 to 2024, to resign as ambassador to Greece.
Pope Leo XIV, 71, had the lower lobe of his right lung removed after adenocarcinoma, a form of cancer, was found. Yemen’s Houthi movement destroyed a Saudi Arabian aircraft in a missile strike on Riyadh’s main airport. Two days later 13 people were killed in another attack on the airport. A third strike came the next day, which killed one and injured 11. A boat carrying 305 migrants sank off Djibouti; 82 were rescued and 139 bodies were recovered; it had been bound for Yemen. Thieves stole 30,000 bottles of wine worth €5 million from the Marchesi Antinori company in Tuscany. CSH
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