This week a huge, state-of-the art, nuclear-capable Russian missile emerged from the freezing-cold Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan, blazing into the dark sky.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence made no secret of the launch, on Wednesday uploading to social media a video complete with stirring music and a close-up of a finger pressing the “launch” button.
The MOD boasted that “the missile’s warheads successfully reached the designated area at the estimated time”: the Chizha test range at Cape Kanin on the eastern coast of the Kanin Peninsula in northern Russia, a few hundred miles from Norway and Finland. It did not say when the test occurred.
World news
Could Africa’s Ebola outbreak reach the UK?
One of Africa’s top health officials has warned that the “unprecedented” spread of Ebola across the continent means it could reach the UK and other countries.
What you need to know
Cases pass 10,000
The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the DR Congo has risen above 10,000, according to government data shown on Tuesday.
Fears for global spread
This coincides with fears the epidemic could spread to more African countries and around the world.
Second deadliest
This Ebola outbreak is the second-largest on record – only behind the 2014 outbreak.
‘We want all countries to know that they are not safe’
Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has compared the outbreak to the Covid pandemic.
“We want all countries to know that they are not safe if they don’t take appropriate measures,” reported him as saying.
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East, Central and West Africa have now been affected by Ebola, which Kaseya called “unprecedented”.
- DR Congo on 15 May said it had identified its 17th outbreak since Ebola was identified in 1976.
- Uganda reported 20 cases in May and June but has not recorded any since.
- Nigeria this week confirmed a case in the capital, Abuja. She has since been evacuated on a medical evacuation flight to Switzerland.
Case recorded outside of Africa
France is the only non-African country to have confirmed a case of Ebola so far – a doctor who had returned from DR Congo.
Kaseya said leaders around the world should realise that while cases are so far only ravaging Africa , the situation could change.
“We shouldn’t forget that at the beginning of Covid, many countries said there was zero risk of being affected, but a few months later, they became the hotspot,” he said.
“We don’t want to see the UK and other countries become the hotspot.
What is Ebola?
- Ebola is a highly contagious, severe, and often fatal illness spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, such as blood or vomit
- The Bundibugyo virus – the strand recoded in DR Congo – has no approved treatment, though vaccine trials are under way.
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How blood pressure pills could be dementia gamechanger
Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia and often gets overshadowed by Alzheimer’s, despite being responsible for up to 30 per cent of cases.
The latest research also suggests it is more common than is thought, often occurring alongside an Alzheimer’s diagnosis but going unrecognised.
Treatment breakthrough?
The good news is that there are several drugs already in use for other conditions that cut the odds of vascular dementia, including the humble blood pressure pill.
And there are further treatments around the corner that could be more potent still.
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What causes Vascular dementia?
- In about a third of those diagnosed with Vascular dementia, the cause is a stroke, a localised area of brain damage caused by a sudden blood clot or bleed.
- In the rest of the cases, the brain damage is spread out and has happened over many years.
- With ageing, blood vessels can become unable to widen to supply enough nutrients to the brain’s nerve cells and take away their waste.
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Drugs that could help
- Those diagnosed with vascular dementia are often told there are no treatments. This ignores the fact that, if caught early, there are known strategies for keeping blood vessels healthy.
- The most obvious step is to keep blood pressure under control, as high blood pressure further damages the brain’s small blood vessels. Blood pressure drugs were shown last year to cut dementia diagnoses.
- The Lancet Commission’s review of dementia prevention identified 14 risk factors that people could avoid, and many involved blood vessel health.
- They include standard lifestyle measures like stopping smoking, cutting alcohol, keeping fit and controlling cholesterol.
Key takeaways as Russell Brand gives evidence in rape trial
Russell Brand on Wednesday responded to allegations made by six women as he gave evidence at Southwark Crown Court, where he is on trial for accusations of rape and sexual assault.
Brand has denied all the allegations made against him.
What you need to know
Brand told the court that he had struggled
to find anyone to give evidence on his behalf, saying the consequences of the 2023 , and Channel 4 investigation into him were “devastating”.
His barrister Ian White asked Brand if anyone with relevant evidence would be willing to testify on his behalf or be “willing to touch [him] with a barge pole”, to which the comedian responded “no”.
‘My entire life has been consumed by these allegations’
Brand told the court that around the time of the Channel 4 documentary, which with and reported the allegations, his baby son had to have open heart surgery at the Great Ormond Street hospital in London.
- Brand told jurors that the hospital refused to let him stay with his son “due to the materials published”.
- The comedian said his “entire life has been consumed by these allegations”.
- “I have devoted myself to these matters,” he said.
Brand ‘misused’ fame for ‘reckless philandering’
Brand told the court he was “in a position of fame – a successful person” and said he “misused that commodity foolishly” and “consensually”.
He said he “was very comfortable allowing that to facilitate sexual access” and built his life around “reckless philandering”.
Brand denies allegations
Brand again denied the allegations against him. He told jurors that he believed consent was “fundamental, essential, necessary, and indeed, in many ways more important than sex itself”.
The trial will resume on Thursday with the defence’s case.
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The target is a common one for Russian missile tests but the timing of the announcement was curious: barely 24 hours after the president of Finland and prime minister of Norway held tense talks with Vladimir Putin calling for de-escalation in Ukraine – and soon after it was revealed that the UK has an unusual number of its nuclear deterrent submarines at sea.
But while Russia’s missile landed on Europe’s doorstep, experts said it was not just a message to Nato: Putin may also have wanted to put the USA, Korea and Japan on notice.
“The test may be routine, but it sends a signal to the West,” said defence analyst Malcolm Davis. “It can be interpreted as sabre rattling… demonstrating the capability to intimidate and deter.”
What is a Bulava missile?
The Bulava is a new Russian submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that, like the UK’s Trident missiles, is designed to be launched from underwater. It entered into official service in 2024 after two decades of tests.
About 12m long and 2m in diameter, it can fly more than 8,000km (the distance from London to Beijing, for comparison). Russia has claimed its maneuverability makes it “invulnerable” to anti-ballistic missile defence systems.
It can carry at least six nuclear warheads, which separate in flight to hit individual targets with an accuracy of a few hundred metres. Each warhead is reportedly more than 100kt, or more than six times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
There have been 35 documented test launches of unarmed Bulava missiles – before this week, the most recent was in October 2024, and the one before that was in November 2023. The last ten tests, since June 2017, were judged successful in hitting their targets. Russia reportedly has more than 120 Bulavas deployed on eight submarines.
What is a Borei-A class submarine?
Russia reportedly has more than 120 Bulavas deployed on eight submarines. The K-553 Generalissimo Suvorov, which launched this week’s test missile, is the country’s third of its Borei-A class submarines, commissioned just under four years ago.
They are replacing Soviet-era submarines as the core of Russia’s nuclear deterrent. Designed in St Petersburg, the subs have featured prominently in recent navy exercises.
Each Borei-A submarine carries 16 Bulava missiles, Tass reported.
Most of Russia’s Borei-A submarines are based with its Pacific Fleet, which is considered a “key strategic deterrent” in the Asia-Pacific, Alexander Stepanov, a military expert at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, told the Russian Tass news agency in August.
“[They] project security capabilities not only to our borderlands and nearby waters, but also de facto provide a strategic umbrella for our closest regional allies – North Korea and China – providing strategic capabilities for jointly deterring US aggression,” Stepanov said.
He noted the recent expansion of offensive weapons capabilities in Korea and Japan.
“The Eastern region is becoming just as significant a strategic concern for Russia as the West.”
Russia’s Northern Fleet also has three Borei-A subs. Over the last month the Northern Fleet staged drills it said were aimed at becoming “masters of the Arctic”, as retreating Arctic ice makes it an increasingly important military and economic corridor.
“Such launches serve several functions: training crews, verifying weapon systems and demonstrating the credibility of deterrent capabilities,” he said.
Nuclear deterrence includes the concept of “second strike”: the capability to hit an opponent with devastating force even if they hit you first.
He pointed out that France launched an unarmed nuclear-capable M5 missile from its submarine Le Vigilant earlier in October.
“Regular demonstrations of nuclear capabilities contribute to the strategic credibility of nuclear-armed states,” he said. “In Russia’s case, this political dimension carries particular weight because of the war in Ukraine and continuing tensions with European Nato members.
“Since the beginning of the conflict, Moscow has repeatedly referred to its nuclear arsenal in its strategic communications, particularly to discourage direct Western military intervention and influence decisions concerning assistance to Kyiv.”
The launch from the Sea of Okhotsk demostrated that Russia can pose a threat to its enemies from the other side of the world, he said.
The test came amid growing tensions between Nato and Russia, with sabre-rattling on both sides.
On Tuesday a US B-52 bomber flew to northern Europe, escorted by British and Norwegian fighter jets, as part of America’s Global Thunder nuclear command and control exercise.
US Strategic Command said the annual exercise is aimed to “enhance nuclear readiness and ensure a safe, secure, effective and credible strategic deterrent force”.
StratCom added it was “not in response to actions by any nation… or current world events”. However the exercise reinforces the credibility of American security guarantees to its allies – coming at a time when US commitment to Nato’s mutual defence agreement is under question.
Last week Nato kicked off Neptune Strike, a series of drills including UK, Italian and Turkish naval groups that “reinforce Nato’s readiness to respond decisively to threats”, according to the official media release. It, too, involved action around the Norwegian Sea. and firing exercises in the Gulf of Finland.
Also on Tuesday Finland’s president Alexander Stubb and Norway’s prime minister Jonas Støre called Russian president Vladimir Putin, for a conversation they described afterwards as a “frank and substantive” discussion on ending the Ukraine war.
“We stressed the importance of de-escalation”, Støre said afterwards.
And the test coincided with an unusual situation for the UK: three of its four nuclear deterrent submarines were out at sea this week, according to The Times. Usually the UK can only manage two, due to the need for regular maintenance on the ageing Trident-armed Vanguard-class submarines. it is five years since three were at sea at once.
However experts told the paper this was not “anything to do with strategic messaging” but rather just a sign of improved maintenance operations.