In the headlines
American security officials are urging Ukraine to seize the “window of opportunity” for peace talks, following Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson. Ukrainian soldiers are wary of re-entering the city, says The Wall Street Journal, amid claims Putin’s forces have “booby-trapped” key buildings. The UK economy shrank by 0.2% between July and September, making a recession likely by the end of the year. The contraction adds to Britain’s “new winter of discontent”, says the I newspaper: 100,000 civil servants are planning strikes in the coming months, alongside nurses, train drivers, postal workers, binmen, midwives, and potentially teachers. The art collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has sold at auction for a record-breaking $1.5bn. The priciest work, Seurat’s 1888 pointillist masterpiece Les Poseuses (below), fetched $149.2m.