WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Missile diplomacy, the first private spacewalk, and a 'vaccine' for bees

 
today's international story

Russia could end war now, says Starmer

What happened 
Russia "started" the conflict in Ukraine and can end it "straight away”, said Sir Keir Starmer after Vladimir Putin warned that any use of long-range Western missiles in Russia would put Nato at war with his country.

Who said what
The US and UK appear to be "on the verge of clearing the way for Ukraine to launch long-range Western weapons into Russian territory", said The New York Times. Doing so "would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict", Putin responded yesterday, and would put Nato and Russia "at war".

"This is all about taking us close to the end of the war," a Ukrainian military source told The Times. That may be so, but there are "no shortage of risks" involved in the plan, said Dan Sabbagh in The Guardian. Missile diplomacy may not have been so significant "since the time of the Cold War".

The biggest danger with changing the Western policy position on long-range weapons is "the fear that President Putin could use tactical nuclear weapons inside Ukraine", which is considered a red line for Nato, said The Times. It is unclear what Nato would do in response,  but "the risk of a Third World War would be ever greater".

What next? 
On a plane to Washington D.C., Starmer said he would not comment on the potential use of British-made long-range missiles directly, but reiterated that "Ukraine has the right to self-defence". The prime minister and Joe Biden are scheduled to hold a special foreign policy summit this afternoon.

 
 
today's us election story

Trump rules out second presidential debate

What happened
Donald Trump has turned down a second debate with Kamala Harris, arguing that as the country's sitting vice president his Democratic rival should spend the last months of her term focusing on containing illegal migration and reducing inflation.

Who said what
The former president is "running scared after getting trounced" in the debate on Tuesday, said Nikki McCann Ramirez in Rolling Stone. Trump has insisted that polls showed he won, but it is "unclear what polls the former president is consulting". Instant polls from CNN and YouGov "favoured Harris by a landslide".

It isn't as straightforward as that, said Jesse Watters on Fox News. "All the memorable lines were from Donald Trump" and most people watching wouldn't think "any of these people won".

What next?
Dennis Lennox, a veteran Republican strategist, welcomed Trump's decision not to have a second debate, telling The Telegraph that returning to the stage with Harris could worsen Trump's polling numbers with swing state voters. "There is too much risk," said Lennox. "Another debate would only serve to help Ms Harris."

 
 
Today's space story

SpaceX astronauts complete first private space walk

What happened
A billionaire and his three crewmates have made history as the first private citizens to participate in a spacewalk as part of the Polaris Dawn mission.

Jared Isaacman, 41, a billionaire businessman, and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, became the first non-government individuals to exit a spacecraft during a mission, stepping out of the Crew Dragon capsule as it orbited Earth at 25,500 mph to set "a dramatic new record for commercial space travel", said The Times.

Who said what
"Back at home we all have a lot of work to do. But from here Earth sure looks like a perfect world," said Isaacman as he exited the spacecraft yesterday.

What next?
The crew is on a five-day mission to "test new technologies and conduct scientific research essential to future crewed missions beyond Earth, including the Moon and Mars", said The Times. Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions under the Polaris program, which is funded by Isaacman and operated by SpaceX.

 
 

It's not all bad

Scientists have developed a "vaccine" for bees that helps protect them from harmful pesticides. The study, published in Nature Sustainability, found that feeding bees hydrogel microparticles in sugar water boosted their survival rates by 30% when exposed to lethal doses of neonicotinoid, a class of pesticide that damages bees' nervous systems. The treatment binds to and neutralises the pesticide, allowing it to pass through the bees without causing harm. This could help mitigate the impact of pesticides on bees, which are "crucial for crop pollination and agriculture and food security", said the study's lead author Julia Caserto.

 
 
under the radar

Why Russia is purging its scientists

Russia has arrested a group of leading physicists involved in its hypersonic missile development in a wave of repression experts believe reflects an increasingly "paranoid" regime.

Alexander Shipliouk, the former director of the Siberia-based Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM), was found guilty by a Moscow court last week of sharing "classified information" at a conference in China in 2017. He maintains that the data he presented was already public, but the closed-door trial sentenced him to 15 years in a high-security prison.

Powerful hypersonic missiles can travel at up to 10 times the speed of sound and are capable of evading air defence systems.

Vladimir Putin "frequently boasts" that Russia possesses such weapons and is leading the world in their development, said the BBC. The president claims Russia has used two types of hypersonic missiles in its war against Ukraine.

But since 2015 the Russian security service, the FSB, has also arrested at least 12 physicists associated with hypersonic technology and charged them with high treason in what rights groups describe as an "overzealous crackdown".

In a "rare open letter", ITAM colleagues of Shipliouk and two other scientists who have recently been found guilty of treason protested the men's innocence, saying the arrests were having a "chilling effect on Russian academia and making it impossible for scientists to do their jobs", said Al Jazeera.

"We just don't understand how to continue doing our job," said the letter, published last year. "What we are rewarded for today … tomorrow becomes the reason for criminal prosecution."

 
 
on this day

13 September 1993

Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the first Oslo Accord, a landmark agreement granting limited Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Many hoped it would lead to peace – its architects Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize – but Israel eventually expanded its occupation of the West Bank and the controversial deal has broken down.

 
 
Today's newspapers

Vladimir Putin has warned the UK and US will be "at war" with Russia if they allow Ukraine to use their long-range missiles across the border, says The Times. But the Foreign Secretary tells The Telegraph that the allies must give Ukraine the weapons it needs. The FT focuses on the state of the UK's finances, after the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that the UK's national debt is on an "unsustainable" upward path. Meanwhile, the i paper leads on the news that TV junk food adverts are going to be banned before 9pm. 

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

A toe-tally unusual sport

In 1974 a group of men in Derbyshire involved in a "booze-fuelled brainstorm" invented a sport known as toe-wrestling, said The Independent. Now their small town of Ashbourne is the toe-wrestling capital of the world, welcoming enthusiasts who travel from as far away as India to cheer on competitors. Ben Woodroffe, three-time world champion, has even had his toenails removed to boost his chances. "Pain is temporary," said Woodroffe. He is known as "Toe-tal Destruction".

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Jamie Timson, Sorcha Bradley and Chas Newkey-Burden.

Image credits, from top: Stefan Rousseau / WPA Pool / Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images; Gregg Newton / AFP via Getty Images; Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP via Getty Images.