At least 72 people are feared to have died after torrential rains hit southern and eastern Spain on Tuesday, bringing flash floods that raged through towns and cut off roads and railway lines.

As the search continued for the missing, people were urged to stay off the roads and away from swollen rivers amid warnings that the severe weather was not over and that the number of fatalities could still rise.

The Valencian government’s emergency coordination centre said its multiple victims protocol had been activated and that the latest number of known fatalities in the region was 70.

The central government delegation in the central Castilla-La Mancha region reported two deaths, including that of an 88-year-old woman in the city of Cuenca.

Valencia’s regional president said on Wednesday morning it was too early to provide a comprehensive death toll. “These are very difficult hours for relatives and for the disappeared,” Carlos Mazón said. “We will confirm the number of victims over the coming hours but right now it’s impossible to offer a precise figure. We’re in shock.”

The regional government urged people to stay off flooded or cut-off roads, saying the emergency services needed access and that more flood water could accumulate.

More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas, and the ministry of defence offered mobile morgues if needed.

Images on Spanish TV showed turbulent, muddy water surging through the town of Letur in the eastern province of Albacete on Tuesday, dragging cars through its streets.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told the national broadcaster RTVE. He said several people were missing in his town. “We were trapped like rats. Cars and rubbish containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 metres,” he said.

One elderly couple was rescued from the upper storey of their house by a military unit using a bulldozer, with three soldiers accompanying them in the huge shovel.

Television reports ran videos from members of the public showing waters flooding into the ground floors of flats, streams overflowing their banks and at least one bridge giving way.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years but nothing has compared to the devastation over the past two days.

A high-speed train with nearly 300 people onboard derailed near Málaga, although rail authorities said no one was hurt. The high-speed rail service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, as were several commuter lines.

Spain’s central government has set up a crisis committee to help coordinate rescue efforts.

In a televised statement on Wednesday morning, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called for unity, solidarity and vigilance. “We mustn’t let our guard down because the weather front is still wreaking havoc and we can’t say that this devastating episode is over,” he said.

“There are still weather warnings in Andalucía, Valencia, Aragón, Castilla y León, in Cataluña, in Extremadura, in Navarra, in La Rioja and in Ceuta. That’s why I’m asking people in those areas to take special care: to stay off the roads; to avoid travelling close to ravines, riverbanks and riverbeds, and to heed the advice of the emergency services and of the police. No one should be putting their life at risk.”

The prime minister said Spain had had more than its fair share of natural and health emergencies in recent years, mentioning the Covid pandemic, Storm Filomena in January 2021, and the volcanic eruptions in the Canary Islands that year. He said such adversity brought out the best in the country.

“We’re going to lend a hand and help those who can’t get into their homes or who are looking for relatives or friends or loved ones,” he said. “But most of all right now, we’re going to stand with those who are suffering the loss of their loved ones.”

Three days of national mourning were declared and Spain’s congress held a minute’s silence on Wednesday to commemorate the dead.

King Felipe offered his support to the families of the dead and missing, saying he was heartbroken by the news of the flooding and its fatalities. “I’m sending strength, encouragement and all the necessary support to all those affected,” he said. “We recognise and appreciate all the local and regional authorities and the emergency and security services as they continue with the titanic task they have been carrying out since the very first moment.”

By 10am on Wednesday, the rains in Valencia had subsided. But Spain’s national weather service forecast more storms through Thursday, with the rains moving to the north-east of the Iberian peninsula.

The intense rain has been attributed to a phenomenon known as the gota fría, or “cold drop”, which occurs when cold air moves over the warm waters of the Mediterranean. This creates atmospheric instability, causing warm, saturated air to rise rapidly, leading to the formation of towering cumulonimbus clouds in a matter of hours and dumping heavy rain across eastern parts of Spain.

Scientists say extreme weather events such as heatwaves and storms are becoming more intense because of the climate crisis.

At least 72 people are feared to have died after torrential rains hit southern and eastern Spain on Tuesday, bringing flash floods that raged through towns and cut off roads and railway lines.

As the search continued for the missing, people were urged to stay off the roads and away from swollen rivers amid warnings that the severe weather was not over and that the number of fatalities could still rise.

The Valencian government’s emergency coordination centre said its multiple victims protocol had been activated and that the latest number of known fatalities in the region was 70.

The central government delegation in the central Castilla-La Mancha region reported two deaths, including that of an 88-year-old woman in the city of Cuenca.

Valencia’s regional president said on Wednesday morning it was too early to provide a comprehensive death toll. “These are very difficult hours for relatives and for the disappeared,” Carlos Mazón said. “We will confirm the number of victims over the coming hours but right now it’s impossible to offer a precise figure. We’re in shock.”

The regional government urged people to stay off flooded or cut-off roads, saying the emergency services needed access and that more flood water could accumulate.

More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas, and the ministry of defence offered mobile morgues if needed.

Images on Spanish TV showed turbulent, muddy water surging through the town of Letur in the eastern province of Albacete on Tuesday, dragging cars through its streets.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told the national broadcaster RTVE. He said several people were missing in his town. “We were trapped like rats. Cars and rubbish containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 metres,” he said.

One elderly couple was rescued from the upper storey of their house by a military unit using a bulldozer, with three soldiers accompanying them in the huge shovel.

Television reports ran videos from members of the public showing waters flooding into the ground floors of flats, streams overflowing their banks and at least one bridge giving way.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years but nothing has compared to the devastation over the past two days.

A high-speed train with nearly 300 people onboard derailed near Málaga, although rail authorities said no one was hurt. The high-speed rail service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, as were several commuter lines.

Spain’s central government has set up a crisis committee to help coordinate rescue efforts.

In a televised statement on Wednesday morning, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called for unity, solidarity and vigilance. “We mustn’t let our guard down because the weather front is still wreaking havoc and we can’t say that this devastating episode is over,” he said.

“There are still weather warnings in Andalucía, Valencia, Aragón, Castilla y León, in Cataluña, in Extremadura, in Navarra, in La Rioja and in Ceuta. That’s why I’m asking people in those areas to take special care: to stay off the roads; to avoid travelling close to ravines, riverbanks and riverbeds, and to heed the advice of the emergency services and of the police. No one should be putting their life at risk.”

The prime minister said Spain had had more than its fair share of natural and health emergencies in recent years, mentioning the Covid pandemic, Storm Filomena in January 2021, and the volcanic eruptions in the Canary Islands that year. He said such adversity brought out the best in the country.

“We’re going to lend a hand and help those who can’t get into their homes or who are looking for relatives or friends or loved ones,” he said. “But most of all right now, we’re going to stand with those who are suffering the loss of their loved ones.”

Three days of national mourning were declared and Spain’s congress held a minute’s silence on Wednesday to commemorate the dead.

King Felipe offered his support to the families of the dead and missing, saying he was heartbroken by the news of the flooding and its fatalities. “I’m sending strength, encouragement and all the necessary support to all those affected,” he said. “We recognise and appreciate all the local and regional authorities and the emergency and security services as they continue with the titanic task they have been carrying out since the very first moment.”

By 10am on Wednesday, the rains in Valencia had subsided. But Spain’s national weather service forecast more storms through Thursday, with the rains moving to the north-east of the Iberian peninsula.

The intense rain has been attributed to a phenomenon known as the gota fría, or “cold drop”, which occurs when cold air moves over the warm waters of the Mediterranean. This creates atmospheric instability, causing warm, saturated air to rise rapidly, leading to the formation of towering cumulonimbus clouds in a matter of hours and dumping heavy rain across eastern parts of Spain.

Scientists say extreme weather events such as heatwaves and storms are becoming more intense because of the climate crisis.

Reeves’s opening remarks

Rachel Reeves says the UK voted for change, and the Labour government has a mandate for a decade of “national renewal”.

Reeves pledges “more pounds in people’s pockets” and improved living standards. The only way to drive economic growth is to “invest, invest, invest”, she says.

The government must “restore economic stability and turn the page on 14 years” of Conservative government, Reeves says. The Labour party has rebuilt the UK economy before, and will “rebuild Britain once again”.

Reeves says this budget will raise taxes by £40bn.

She adds that she is “deeply proud to be Britain’s first ever female chancellor of the exchequer’.

Peter Walker, senior political correspondent: Reeves sets out the political challenge – and the very big one – at the centre of her budget, and indeed the whole government: making people feel they are better off, and with better public services. And this requires investment, she says, adding some inevitable Tory-bashing for good measure, plus noting her status as the first-ever female chancellor.

National insurance

• Employees will not pay more directly, Reeves says, but she will raise employers’ national insurance contributions by 1.2 percentage points to 15% from April 2025.

• The government will also reduce a secondary threshold when contributions are due from £9,100 to £5,000.

• Those measures will raise £25bn a year by the end of the forecast period, the biggest single tax raising measure in the budget.

PW: This is the big fiscal hitter of the budget – £25bn a year by the end of the parliament – and probably the most politically perilous choice Reeves will make. There is no doubt that public services need the extra money, and voters want better public services. But it will be portrayed as tax on jobs, and as something that could hit growth, even with the new allowances for smaller businesses.

Income tax

• Reeves says the government will increase personal tax thresholds on income tax and national insurance in line with inflation from 2028-29.

PW: If not a fully fledged rabbit yanked from a hat, then we do perhaps have a glimpse of a nose and some whiskers. The surprise move allows Reeves to argue she has kept Labour’s manifesto promise to not increase taxes on working people – even if it does only start in 2028/29.

Capital gains and inheritance tax

• Capital gains tax will be increased. The lower rate will be raised from 10% to 18%, and the higher rate from 20% to 24%. There will, however, be no increase on the 24% capital gains rate imposed on second properties.

• The government will extend a freeze on the threshold for inheritance tax, allowing £325,000 to be inherited tax free.

• There will be tax raises worth £2bn from reforming reliefs for business and agricultural assets. After £1m, those assets will attract inheritance tax of 20%.

PW: A rise in capital gains tax was very much baked in with budget expectations, and the increases are not huge. As Reeves says, they will keep UK rates relatively low by international standards. And it will raise a relatively modest £2.5bn by the end of the parliament. On inheritance tax, she has largely closed loopholes connected to farms, but even this and other tweaks will raise an eventual £2bn a year. None of this is likely to be hugely contentious.

The minimum wage

• Reeves confirms that the “national living wage”, the legal minimum for over-21s, will increase by 6.7% to £12.21, equivalent to £1,400 a year for an eligible full-time worker.

• There will be a single-adult rate phased in over time to eventually equalise pay for under-21s.

PW: The most recent of dozens of announcements to be briefed in advance of the budget. Paying people more is usually seen as a vote-winner, but ministers will also be wary of business voices warning about the impact this could have on job creation.

Tobacco and alcohol

• The government will implement a levy on vapes, which will be increased in line with tobacco.

• Tobacco taxes will rise by 2% above retail prices index (RPI) measure of inflation for the rest of this parliament, and tax on hand-rolling tobacco will increase by 10%.

• Taxes on alcohol will rise in line with the RPI, but Reeves announces a cut in draught duty by 1.7%, which she says is a penny off a pint in the pub.

PW: On what we are obliged to call sin taxes, Reeves has, as expected, further taxed tobacco and vapes. In another sign of how this government is less worried about what might be termed nanny-state measures, it is also toughening the levy on sugary soft drinks. As a sop to the tabloids, she did cut 1p off the duty of a pint of draught beer.

Fuel duty

• Reeves says increasing fuel duty next year would be wrong, so she extends the freeze for a year and maintains the last government’s 5p cut.

• Fuel duty was frozen between 2011 and 2022, and cut by 5p in March 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

PW: A continued freeze to fuel duty was one of the most politically tricky decisions Reeves faced. On the one hand, as she said, the £3bn cost is a lot. But the anti-fuel duty rise lobby is very powerful, and increasing it could (and would) be portrayed as a tax rise for working people.

Private school fees

• VAT will be brought in on private school fees in January 2025.

PW: Not in the least a surprise, and if you believe the polling, one of the more popular policies in both the Labour manifesto and the budget. Will it see a rush of private school students into the state sector? Time will tell, but ministers are fairly relaxed.

Schools and education

• Reeves says the Department for Education will receive £6.7bn, a 19% real-terms increase. That includes £1.4bn to rebuild schools in the greatest need.

• The schools budget will increase by £2.3bn to support the hiring of teachers.

• There will be £2.1bn for school maintenance, a £300m increase.

• Reeves announces a £1bn increase in funding for special needs.

• There will be another £300m for higher education.

PW: One of the most visible and enduring legacies of the last Labour government was the many new and renovated schools it delivered. Reeves has set out her ambition to copy this. The 19% real-terms increase in investment is an instant lesson on what you can do with the changed fiscal rules.

NHS

• Reeves promises a 10-year plan for the NHS in the spring, targeting 2% productivity growth next year.

• She announces a £22.6bn increase in the day-to-day health budget, and £3.1bn increase in the capital budget. That includes £1bn for repairs and upgrades, and £1.5bn for new beds in hospitals and testing capacity.

PW: At risk of endlessly repeating a theme, the state of the NHS is one of the biggest factors on which Labour won the election, and on which it will be judged five years later. Will a £22.6bn increase in everyday spending be enough? Not without parallel structural changes. But it’s fair to say that without it, waiting lists would surely rise again. And the voters would notice.

Housing

• The government will spend £5bn on housing investment in 2025-26, including increasing the supply of affordable housing.

• The government will reduce right-to-buy discounts, and local governments will retain the earnings from council housing sales to allow them to reinvest.

• The government will hire “hundreds of new planning officers” to accelerate housebuilding.

PW: All the figures and new policies on housing were briefed in advance, and for good political reason. One of the key metrics the Starmer government has set itself is to build 1.5m new homes – and the voters are watching.

Transport

• Reeves commits to the Transpennine Route Upgrade, improving capacity at Manchester Victoria and electrifying the Wigan to Bolton route. She also promises to support east-west rail links between Oxford and Cambridge.

• Reeves confirms the government will fund tunnelling of HS2 to London Euston.

• There will be a £500m increase in the roads budget next year to target potholes.

PW: No, it’s not full HS2, but the ragbag of mainly northern rail routes, and confirmation that the Manchester-London route will end in Euston are something. And as every councillor will tell you, at length, voters are very, very interested in potholes.

Energy

• Reeves announces £3.4bn for the warm homes plan to upgrade buildings, lowering energy bills.

• The government will fund Great British Energy, a new body to be based in Aberdeen.

Public spending

• There will be a 1.5% increase in real spending on government departments, and 1.7% when including capital spending.

Defence

• Reeves announces a £2.9bn increase in military spending next year, as well as funding for second world war commemorations next year.

Local government

• There will be £1.3bn for additional grant funding for local government, including £600m for social care.

• Greater Manchester and the West Midlands will get integrated settlements next year, allowing them to take more control of their spending.

PW: This is something which bore the brunt of austerity, and the sector often most keenly felt by voters. Is it enough? Of course not. But is it a start? Yes.

Public investment

• Reeves says more public investment is needed in the UK. A new rule will target debt falling as a share of the economy. She confirms that debt will be measured as public sector net financial liabilities, recognising benefits from investments.

• The rule will apply in 2029-30, and then net financial debt will fall by the third year of every forecast.

• There will be regular reports on government investments from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

• She says the government will invest £1bn in aerospace, £2bn in automotive to support electric vehicles, and £500m for life sciences.

• Government research and development spending will reach £20.4bn in 2025-26, including £6.1bn in sectors such as engineering, biotechnology and medical science.

PW: Politically, albeit most likely in the longer term, this could be the most significant change in the budget. To very obviously make the link between low investment and the state of public services, Reeves lists the problems of crumbling infrastructure in various sectors to a series of cries of “shame!” from Labour MPs.

Planes and private jets

• Air passenger duty will increase by up to £2 for each economy short-haul flight, Reeves says.

• Private jets will attract an extra 50% air passenger duty, up to £450 per passenger for a flight.

PW: This is a largely politically-risk free change, and one which allowed the chancellor to make a few well-aimed jokes in the direction of Rishi Sunak, saying the levy would be applied on flights going to “say … California?” It wins plenty of laughs.

Business taxes and non-doms

• The government will introduce permanently lower business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses from 2026-27. Until then they will receive 40% relief on business rates up to a cap of £110,000.

• Employment allowance will be increased from £5,000 to £10,500, reducing national insurance for smaller businesses.

• Taxes on carried interest, generally paid by private equity managers, will rise from 28% to 32% from April.

• Reeves confirms the oil profits levy will be increased to 38% and extended.

• The concept of non-domicile residents will be abolished from April.

Compensation schemes

• Reeves says the government will compensate victims of the infected blood scandal with £11.8bn, and there will be another £1.8bn for victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.

PW: Even Tory MPs will find it hard to argue with this. Reeves’s words that the last government apologised for the infected blood scandal but failed to budget at all for compensation payments is a powerful argument.

Other measures

• Reeves says the government will raise £6.5bn through targeting tax avoidance, including by umbrella companies.

OBR

• Reeves says Labour inherited a £22bn “black hole” with allegedly unfunded pledges by the Conservative government.

• The OBR, the government’s budget watchdog, has published a review saying that the previous government did not disclose details of spending. Those details would have made forecasts materially different, Reeves says.

• Reeves says the government will implement 10 recommendations from the OBR’s review.

PW: This is very nakedly partisan and in some ways familiar, not least the idea of the £22bn fiscal black hole. But the idea of the OBR saying it was effectively misled by the Conservatives is very strong political cover for the coming tax rises and limited increases to public budgets. It will enrage Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, all the more.

Inflation and growth forecasts

• The chancellor will maintain the Bank of England’s 2% target for inflation.

• Inflation will average 2.5% in 2024, rising to 2.6% in 2025, before gradually dropping to 2% in 2029, according to OBR forecasts. Inflation was at 1.7% in September, below the Bank of England’s 2% target, and down from 11% in October 2022.

• The OBR slightly upgrades its growth forecast for this year, but adjusts them down in later years. GDP growth is forecast to be 1.1% in 2024, then 2%, 1.8%, 1.5%, 1.5%, and 1.6% in 2030, Reeves says. At the spring budget under the then Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt the OBR had forecast 0.8% growth this year, 1.9% in 2025, and 2% in 2026.

PW: The OBR’s inflation and growth predictions are hardly stellar, with inflation not expeted to fall to the 2% target before 2029. But in truth, as long as it stays in the 2% range, Reeves would take it. She will, however, very much hope that the growth figures – the stated central task of the Keir Starmer government – pick up.

Government borrowing

• Reeves announces new rules to not borrow for day-to-day spending. The current budget will be balanced within three years of forecasts.

• The government will run a deficit of £26.2bn in 2026, but will achieve a surplus of £10.9bn in 2027-28, £9.3bn in 2028-29 and £9.9bn in 2029-30.

• Public sector net debt will fall from £127bn in 2024-25, falling gradually to £70.6bn by 2029-20.

PW: Expect the forecasts of reduced borrowing and an eventual surplus to be much mentioned by ministers in the coming days and weeks, as they try to push back against the Conservatives’ charges of fiscal incompetence. The tougher rules on day-to-day spending will be seen as a balance to the relaxation of their equivalent on investment, as already announced.

Closing remarks

• Reeves says it is a moment of “fundamental choice” for the UK.

• She says the government will protect the NHS, protect working people and rebuild Britain.

• She says the Conservatives must say what choices they would make if they disagree with her decisions. They would have to cut schools and hospitals if they disagree with any tax increases.

PW: Reeves’s final words are an open challenge to the Conservatives, and an attempt to pre-empt their accusations of broken promises: ‘what would you do instead?” It is a fair question, even if as an opposition you sometimes get a free pass on such scrutiny.

Virginia does not have to restore the registrations of 1,600 voters, some of whom appear to have been wrongly removed, ahead of next week’s election, the US supreme court said on Wednesday.

The court made the decision on its emergency docket and did not give a rationale for its decision, which is customary for rulings on an expedited basis. All three liberal justices on the court – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – said they would not have halted a lower-court ruling earlier in October ordering the state to restore the voter registrations.

The legal dispute centers on a 7 August executive order by the Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, directing the state to run its voter registration rolls against DMV data on a daily basis to check for non-citizens. The justice department and civil rights groups sued, saying that the state was violating a federal law that prohibits systematic removals of voters within 90 days of a federal election.

The US district judge Patricia Giles granted an injunction request last week to restore the voters.

Voting experts have long warned that comparing voting rolls to DMV data is not a reliable way to find non-citizens on the rolls because there may be paperwork errors and people can become naturalized after getting their driver’s license. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they had identified several people who were in fact citizens but had their registrations wrongly canceled.

“We know this program removes eligible voters,” said Protect Democracy, a non-profit that sued Virginia over the removals, in a statement. “Virginia has not presented any evidence of noncitizens participating in elections. Because there is none. And it’s actually eligible VA voters that have been caught in the middle of this election-subversion scheme.”

Donald Trump and allies had distorted the removals, saying that the lower court decision meant that non-citizens were going to be placed back on the voter rolls. But the state had not provided conclusive evidence that many of those removed were non-citizens.

The Virginia attorney general, Jason Miyares, a Republican, praised the supreme court’s action on Wednesday, saying it would “keep non-citizens off our voter rolls”.

Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s Republican governor, called the supreme court’s order a “victory for commonsense and election fairness”.

“I am grateful for the work of Attorney General Jason Miyares on this critical fight to protect the fundamental rights of US citizens,” he said in a statement. “Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections.”

The decision is the latest of rulings by the US supreme court in voting disputes that side with Republicans.

Virginia, which is predicted to vote for Kamala Harris this fall, provides same-day voter registration, allowing anyone who was wrongfully removed to re-register at the polls.

Police in Russian-annexed Crimea have charged a woman with child neglect after her 10-year-old daughter allegedly posted a video online that “discredited” the Russian army, authorities said on Wednesday.

The video, shared on Russian Telegram channels, showed a girl choosing between Russian and Ukrainian flags, with an angry-face emoji next to the Russian flag and a heart emoji next to the Ukrainian one.

Police identified the girl as a 10-year-old schoolgirl from the western Crimean city of Saky. “Taking into account the age of the schoolgirl, her 38-year-old mother will be held administratively liable,” the local branch of the interior ministry said.

Police have charged her with “failure to fulfil obligations for the maintenance and upbringing” of a child and will hand materials related to the case to child protection services, the ministry said. The charge carries a fine of up to 500 rubles (£4) or a warning.

Russia has jailed, fined and arrested thousands of people for breaking strict censorship laws that ban criticism of the army since the Ukraine conflict began, a crackdown that rights groups say is reminiscent of the Soviet period.

In March 2023, a Russian man, Alexei Moskalyov, was sentenced to two years in prison after his young daughter drew Russian missiles raining down on a Ukrainian mother and child in an art class.

Moskalyov was released earlier this month and alleged he had been subjected to dire conditions in prison, including being kept in an isolation cell for two months with “huge rats” crawling around.

Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 but is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.

Police in Russian-annexed Crimea have charged a woman with child neglect after her 10-year-old daughter allegedly posted a video online that “discredited” the Russian army, authorities said on Wednesday.

The video, shared on Russian Telegram channels, showed a girl choosing between Russian and Ukrainian flags, with an angry-face emoji next to the Russian flag and a heart emoji next to the Ukrainian one.

Police identified the girl as a 10-year-old schoolgirl from the western Crimean city of Saky. “Taking into account the age of the schoolgirl, her 38-year-old mother will be held administratively liable,” the local branch of the interior ministry said.

Police have charged her with “failure to fulfil obligations for the maintenance and upbringing” of a child and will hand materials related to the case to child protection services, the ministry said. The charge carries a fine of up to 500 rubles (£4) or a warning.

Russia has jailed, fined and arrested thousands of people for breaking strict censorship laws that ban criticism of the army since the Ukraine conflict began, a crackdown that rights groups say is reminiscent of the Soviet period.

In March 2023, a Russian man, Alexei Moskalyov, was sentenced to two years in prison after his young daughter drew Russian missiles raining down on a Ukrainian mother and child in an art class.

Moskalyov was released earlier this month and alleged he had been subjected to dire conditions in prison, including being kept in an isolation cell for two months with “huge rats” crawling around.

Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 but is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.

The Canadian government has publicly alleged that India’s home affairs minister, Amit Shah, the prime minister, Narendra Modi’s, closest political ally, was behind a recent series of plots to murder and intimidate Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.

Testifying before a parliamentary committee, the Canadian deputy foreign affairs minister, David Morrison, acknowledged he had leaked information to the Washington Post about Shah’s alleged role in a campaign of violence and threats against the Sikh diaspora over the last few years.

Morrison confirmed he had given the information to the newspaper, which then published a story last month naming Shah. “The journalist called me and asked if it [Shah] was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” he said. He gave no further details on how Canadian officials had linked Shah to the investigation.

The Indian government has not responded to the specific naming of Shah, who is number two in the Modi government, but has previously dismissed Canada’s allegations as baseless, absurd and politically motivated. It has also accused Canada of harbouring terrorists who are a threat to India.

The allegation follows an explosive press conference last month, where senior Canadian police officials accused India’s ambassador to Canada, as well as several senior diplomats and consular staff, of involvement in “criminal” activities in Canada, including homicides, extortion, intimidation and harassment. They alleged that the threats were primarily against members of the Indian Sikh diaspora community living in Canada.

Senior police officials have also accused Indian diplomats of involvement in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist activist who was gunned down outside a gurdwara in a suburb of Vancouver last year.

Canada expelled the Indian diplomats in response. India followed suit, with the senior Canadian diplomats told to leave Delhi within the week, as relations between the two countries hit historic lows.

Canada claims to have presented India with intelligence linking Indian government officials to illegal activities, including assassinations, that have taken place in Canada. India claims it has not seen any compelling evidence and has refused to cooperate with the Canadian investigation.

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said Canada had attempted to use backroom discussions with India to discuss and resolve the issue but had met denials. At a parliamentary hearing last month, Trudeau said Canada had clear intelligence linking Indian diplomats to “drive-by shootings, home invasions, violent extortion and even murder in and across Canada”.

India is facing wider allegations of carrying out a campaign of transnational repression, including assassinations, of Sikhs living abroad associated with the separatist Khalistan movement. While the movement is banned in India and has little domestic support, it remains active among the large Sikh diaspora living in North America and the UK. Indian officials have said they fear vocal Sikh activists will stir up violence in the north Indian state of Punjab.

In the US, a justice of department indictment made public last year has accused an Indian government agent of attempting to orchestrate the murder-for-hire of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist leader and lawyer who lives in the US. Investigators have charged the former Indian agent Vikash Yadav – who was working for Indian intelligence at the time he was allegedly formulating the plot – and his Indian associate, and described the case as a “grave example” of transnational repression.

So far, Canada has arrested three Indian citizens it alleges were part of the hit squad that shot and killed Nijjar. However, they have yet to press charges against any Indian government employees and say their investigation is continuing.

The accusations have tested Washington and Ottawa’s relations with India, a country often viewed by the west as a counterbalance to China and a growing economic powerhouse.

The first UK case of a potentially deadly variant of the mpox virus has been detected in London.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the risk to the UK population from the Clade Ib mpox variant “remains low”.

The person involved had been on holiday in Africa and travelled back to the UK on an overnight flight on 21 October.

They developed flu-like symptoms more than 24 hours later and, on 24 October started to develop a rash, which worsened in the following days.

The person attended an emergency department in London on 27 October, where they were swabbed, tested and sent home to isolate while waiting for the results.

They have now been transferred to the Royal Free hospital high consequence infectious diseases unit for treatment.

Fewer than 10 people thought to have come into contact with the patient were initially being traced, the UKHSA said.

These are household contacts, although the UKHSA is “still working” on the number of people it may have to trace.

Mpox spreads between people only when there is close contact.

More than 1,000 figures from the literary and entertainment industry – including several Nobel laureates, Pulitzer prize, and Booker prize winners – have signed an open letter against “illiberal and dangerous” cultural boycotts.

The letter was released by the nonprofit body Creative Community For Peace [CCFP], which campaigns against cultural boycotts of Israel, after more than 1,000 book industry figures pledged to boycott Israeli cultural institutions that “are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians”.

Among the signatories of the CCFP letter are Lee Child (creator of the Jack Reacher novels), Booker winner Howard Jacobson, Pulitzer winner David Mamet, Nobel winners Herta Müller and Elfriede Jelinek, historians Simon Schama and Simon Sebag Montefiore, and entertainers Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne and Debra Messing.

The letter states: “We reject the calls to boycott Israeli and Jewish writers, publishers, authors, book festivals and literary agencies, along with those who support, work with, or platform them.

“We continue to be shocked and disappointed to see members of the literary community harass and ostracise their colleagues because they don’t share a one-sided narrative in response to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

“Israel is fighting existential wars against Hamas and Hezbollah, both US, UK, and European Union-designated terrorist groups. The exclusion of anyone who doesn’t unilaterally condemn Israel is an inversion of morality and an obfuscation of reality.”

The signatories said history was “full of examples of self-righteous sects, movements and cults who have used short-lived moments of power to enforce their vision of purity, to persecute, exclude, boycott and intimidate those with whom they disagreed, who made lists of people with ‘bad’ views, who burned ‘sinful’ books (and sometimes ‘sinful’ people).”

They pointed to various incidents over the past year, including the cancellation of “planned bookstore appearances by Jewish authors” and the publication of “lists of ‘Zionist’ authors to harass” as being “directly in opposition to the liberal values most writers hold sacred. Boycotts against authors and those who work with them is [sic] illiberal and dangerous.”

They said they believed writers, books and festivals “bring people together, transcend boundaries, broaden awareness, open dialogue, and can affect positive change … Regardless of one’s views on the current conflict, boycotts of creatives and creative institutions simply create more divisiveness and foment further hatred.”

Sally Rooney, Arundhati Roy, Rachel Kushner and Percival Everett were among the authors who this week said they would not work with any institution “complicit in violating Palestinian rights”, including operating “discriminatory policies and practices” or “whitewashing and justifying Israel’s occupation, apartheid or genocide”.

They said: “We publish this letter as we face the most profound moral, political and cultural crisis of the 21st century”, adding that Israel had killed “at the very least 43,362” Palestinians in Gaza since last October, and that this followed “75 years of displacement, ethnic cleansing and apartheid”.

The signatories added that culture “has played an integral role in normalising these injustices” and that Israeli cultural institutions, “often working directly with the state, have been crucial in obfuscating, disguising and art-washing the dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decades”.

Sweden and Norway are backpedalling on plans for cashless societies over fears that fully digital payment systems would leave them vulnerable to Russian security threats, and concern for those unable to use them.

A combination of good high-speed internet coverage, high digital literacy rates, large rural populations and fast-growing fintech industries had put the Nordic neighbours on a fast track to a future without cash.

Swish, a mobile payment system that six banks launched in 2012, is ubiquitous in Sweden, from market stalls to coffee shops and clothes stores. The Norwegian equivalent, Vipps, which merged with Danish MobilePay in 2022 to form Vipps MobilePay, is also very popular. Last month, it also launched in Sweden.

The former deputy governor of Sweden’s central bank predicted in 2018 that Sweden would probably be cashless by 2025.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and a subsequent rise in cross-border hybrid warfare and cyber-attacks blamed on pro-Russia groups have prompted a rethink.

The Swedish government has since completely overhauled its defence and preparedness strategy, joining Nato, starting a new form of national service and reactivating its psychological defence agency to combat disinformation from Russia and other adversaries. Norway has tightened controls on its previously porous border with Russia.

The security rethink extends to the fundamentals of how people pay for goods and services.

In a brochure with the title If Crisis or War Comes that will be sent to every home in Sweden next month, the defence ministry advises people to use cash regularly and keep at least a week’s supply in various denominations as well as access to other forms of payment such as bank cards and digital payment services. “If you can pay in several different ways, you strengthen your preparedness,” it says.

The government is also considering legislation to protect the ability to pay in cash for certain goods. Cash is legal tender in Sweden, but shops and restaurants can effectively make themselves cashless as long as they display a notice setting out their restrictions on payment methods.

Norwegian retail customers have always had the right to pay in cash, but it has not been enforced and in recent years increasing numbers of retailers have gone cashless, locking out about 600,000 people who do not have access to digital services. The government acted over the summer, bringing in legislation under which retailers can be fined or sanctioned if they do not accept cash payments from 1 October.

The justice and public security ministry said it “recommends everyone keep some cash on hand due to the vulnerabilities of digital payment solutions to cyber-attacks”. It said the government took preparedness seriously “given the increasing global instability with war, digital threats, and climate change. As a result, they’ve ensured that the right to pay with cash is strengthened”.

The country’s justice and emergencies minister, Emilie Enger Mehl, said earlier this year: “If no one pays with cash and no one accepts cash, cash will no longer be a real emergency solution once the crisis is upon us.” Prolonged power cuts, system failures or digital attacks on payment systems and banks could leave cash as “the only alternative that is easily available”, she said.

Max Brimberg, a researcher at Sweden’s central bank, said the move away from cash had been driven largely by the private sector. Many of the country’s banks abolished cash in local branches some time ago, which made digital payment services easy to roll out to a very willing public.

The percentage of cash purchases in physical shops has fallen from almost 40% in 2012 to about 10% in recent years, and Brimberg said there was growing concern about cash becoming obsolete.

“That’s something that we as a central bank and also the central government see as a potential risk, especially for the people who still haven’t adopted the digital economy and also for preparedness if there were to be a weaponised attack or armed attack against Sweden or a close country,” he said. “So cash fills a very specific role in the payment system, both because it’s issued by the state but also because it’s the only form of payment that we can use if the systems for electricity or communications networks don’t work as they usually do.”

Because all Swedish payment systems were part of one ecosystem, an attack could bring society to a standstill, he said.

“Pretty much any function that you do in society you have to use some sort of payment or verification analysis, either by electronic ID or electronic payment,” he said. “All of those would be at risk of undermining the functionality of the entire system in Sweden if it were to fail.”

The central bank is looking into creating and issuing an “e-krona” that would act as a “digital complement to cash”, but implementation would require a political mandate.

Hans Liwång, a professor of systems science for defence and security at the Swedish Defence University, said there was a lack of evidence about whether cash was better than digital payments in the face of modern threats. Pointing to Ukraine, where digital systems have proved vital to its resilience, he said: “Ukraine is a very good example of moving into the future when there is war rather than backwards.”

Whether it’s a friend jumping out from behind a bush or accidentally walking into a web of fake cobwebs, most of us will have fallen victim to a scare prank at some point.

Now scientists have come up with a theory for why “jump scares” are so often followed by laughter – with insights for pranksters hoping to concoct Halloween tricks that tickle rather than terrify.

A popular explanation for why certain jokes or situations provoke laughter is that humour is all about surprise: successful jokes tend to set up an expectation that is overturned by the punchline.

“The problem with that theory is that we find all sorts of things funny that aren’t surprising, and there are lots of surprises that we don’t find funny,” said Marc Hye-Knudsen, a PhD fellow and humour researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark, who led the research.

Another recent theory is that humour requires both a violation in our sense of how the world “ought” to be, and the almost simultaneous assessment that this breach is harmless or benign. Such violations can take many different forms, from the violations of linguistic norms in puns and wordplay, to the social norm violations of embarrassment humour.

Hye-Knudsen and his colleagues suspect that something similar may explain why the initial shock of a jump scare is often quickly followed by laughter.

To explore this, they examined evidence from various experimental and real-world situations, from toddlers’ experiences of peekaboo – a game that most initially find upsetting, until they learn that it is benign and it becomes hilarious – to a field study conducted at a haunted-house attraction, which found that guests smiled or laughed after jump scares three-quarters of the time.

“Haunted house attractions and horror films both deliberately immerse audiences in their make-believe worlds to increase their general state of fear, which makes their startle responses to the jump scare bigger. But that startle also immediately pulls them out of that narrative world, so they can reappraise it as benign,” said Hye-Knudsen.

The team also examined data from 100 online scare prank videos, finding that successful pranksters tended to intensify the stimulus their victims were exposed to – by, for example, targeting common phobias, which perhaps compensates for viewers’ psychological distance from these events.

“Seeing a video of a complete stranger being the victim of a scare prank may not register as much of a violation, because you’re not socially close to them, so online pranksters must spice up their pranks to get a bigger response,” Hye-Knudsen said. The research was published in Evolutionary Psychology.

Hye-Knudsen believes his findings could have implications for pranksters plotting Halloween scares this week. “The main lesson would be, know your audience and tailor your Halloween scares accordingly,” he said. “Don’t dress up like a serial killer and hide in your grandmother’s closet, but don’t just walk up to your friend and say: ‘boo’, either: you need to anticipate what level of scary is going to violate your target’s expectations, but they’re also going to be able to laugh at afterwards.

“Also, when you laugh, invite them to laugh along with you, so that they don’t feel they’re being laughed at, and the situation really is benign.”

Dr Coltan Scrivner, a behavioural scientist at Aarhus University’s recreational fear lab, who was not involved in the study, said its conclusions fitted with his own research on the psychology of scary play. This showed that fearful experiences such as haunted houses are only perceived as playful if the fear is at the right level.

“Many people, including scare actors, think that more fear is always better for the person being scared. However, research suggests this is not the case. Instead, people seek out a sweet spot of fear, where fun is maximised,” Scrivner said. “This paper suggests that humour may be one tool a scare actor can use or promote, in order to help people achieve [that] sweet spot.

“Just keep in mind that one scare doesn’t fit all,” he added. “Everyone’s sweet spot of fear is a little different.”