moscowrussian leaders have been quick to welcome the outcome of the referendums that pave the way for occupied regions of ukraine to be incorporated in the russian federation escalating the conflict with kyiv and western governments which have dismissed the votes as a sham vyacheslav volodin speaker of the state duma wrote on telegram wednesday that the outcome would save millions of people from genocide  after results released tuesday evening claimed to show that russiancontrolled luhansk and areas of donetsk kherson and zaporizhzhia overwhelmingly supported becoming part of russia uk car manufacturing rose in august but still below 2019 levels uk car manufacturing rose in august for the fourth consecutive month but is still well below prepandemic levels according to data released thursday by an industry body the society of motor manufacturers and traders said that a total of 49901 cars drove off the production lines in august compared with 37246 in august 2021 and 92158 in august 2019 iran attacks northern iraq with missiles and drones killing at least 13 iran attacked northern iraq on wednesday with more than 40 ballistic missiles and armed drones one of which was shot down by a us warplane as it headed toward the city of erbil where american troops are based according to us and iraqi officials the strikes were by far the largest and most deadly in recent days by irans islamic revolutionary guard corps which has carried out repeated bombardments of kurdish areas in northern iraq since last week after publicly blaming iranian kurdish separatist groups based there for fomenting unrest that has swept across iran the protests that have erupted across iran in the past two weeks are rooted in anger at the countrys morality police an unpopular vestige of the 1979 revolution that represents a weak point for the government according to protesters and humanrights advocates the death of mahsa amini 22 on sept 16 while in the custody of the morality police has touched a nerve among many iranian families who have had their own humiliating experiences with officers tasked with enforcing the countrys strict islamic codes for clothing and behavior among those protesting are conservative women and men joining throngs of young secular people who say the enforcement of rules around hijab or headscarves for women is often capricious washingtonthe head of the world bank warned that developing nations face an extremely challenging nearterm outlook as the sharp slowdown in global growth raises the risks of a prolonged recession speaking wednesday at stanford university david malpass said the challenges for the developing world are shaped by higher food fertilizer and energy prices caused by the war in ukraine as well as rising interest rates currency depreciation and capital outflows which could result in a shortage of funds needed to support peoples lives and economic activities lithium demand from evs is strong shortages will keep prices high lithium prices have tripled in a year and the chemical element which is used in batteries for electric vehicles faces a longterm supply shortage the increase is largely due to increasing demand for electric vehicles and the inelastic nature of supplies says alec lucas research analyst at global x bringing new production capacity online can take three to five years or more for studies permitting capital raising and capital expenditure before any lithium is produced what the bank of englands emergency move meansand doesntfor the fed the bank of englands emergency move to buy uk government bonds begs the question is the resumption of quantitative easing in the uk idiosyncratic or does it foreshadow a us federal reserve that is close to backing down from its inflation fight on wednesday the boe said it would purchase the countrys longdated government bonds on whatever scale is necessary to stabilize its bond market after the uk government announced large tax cuts last week despite doubledigit inflation strategists say the central banks move implies that at least one large entity such as a pension fund or a financial institution was on the verge of failure amid a disorderly gilt market the biden administration on wednesday approved a temporary waiver to jones act shipping restrictions to allow a tanker to deliver diesel fuel to puerto rico needed to run generators following the devastation caused by hurricane fiona the waiver was granted after criticism from puerto ricos governor and other officials while the bp ship sat off the islands coast unable to unload 300000 barrels of diesel fuel because of the law that limits domestic us maritime shipments to usflagged vessels the bp vessel which picked up its fuel cargo in texas is flagged to the marshall islands write to us at newslettersdowjonescom we offer an enhanced version of this briefing that is optimized for viewing on mobile devices and sent directly to your email inbox if you would like to sign up please go to httpsnewspluswsjcomsubscriptions this article is a text version of a wall street journal newsletter published earlier today