Good evening. Ukrainian officials have said that “unidentified floating objects” were to blame for an attack that blew a large hole in the side of a Russian warship in its home port in the Black Sea on Friday.
“In Moscow, there are unidentified flying objects. Here we have unidentified floating objects that have obviously damaged this landing ship,” Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency, told Ukrainian television, in a tongue-in-cheek comment on the incident. The Olenegorsky Gornyak, a 360-foot-long landing vessel, reportedly suffered a “serious breach” from a Ukrainian naval drone strike. You can follow the latest updates on the strike by reading our live blog. Meanwhile, in the latest episode of Defence in Depth, Dominic Nicholls explains Nato’s new battle plan and why threats from Asia and Africa may shape the alliance’s future policy beyond Putin’s Russia.
A Russian court has convicted imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny of extremism charges and sentenced him to 19 years in prison. Mr Navalny is already serving a nine-year term on a variety of charges that he says were politically motivated. The new charges against the politician relate to the activities of Mr Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. Meanwhile, Nataliya Vasilyeva reports that Russia has doubled its defence budget for 2023, with its military spending now accounting for a third of all government outlay amid the war in Ukraine.
The Environment Secretary has ceased all engagement by her department with Greenpeace after activists staged a stunt at Rishi Sunak’s home. Thérèse Coffey told officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to cancel any planned meetings with the charity and cease future engagement. Protesters climbed on Mr Sunak’s grade II-listed manor house on Thursday and draped oil-black fabric over the property while the Prime Minister and his family were on holiday. Brendan O’Neill writes that the stunt has shown Greenpeace’s true colours.
Jeremy Vine | The BBC is right to be ageist towards older presenters, Jeremy Vine has said. The 58-year-old said BBC veterans “have to accept” being replaced by new talent and cannot claim it is unfair because they have “done it for so long”.
Andrew Tate has been released from house arrest where he is awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, a Bucharest court ruled on Friday.
I quit retirement to become a delivery driver for Tesco – and I loved it
After retiring at 54 I had grand plans to play lots of golf, but I soon became bored, so this was the perfect solution
Retired civil servants are in line for an income boost of nearly 7pc next year – as inflation and worker wages are predicted to fall. The rate of inflation is set to drop from 7.9pc to only to 6.9pc by September, the Bank of England has estimated, with this figure being the measure used to set increases for public sector pensions and the state pension.
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