Wednesday newspaper round-up: Local authorities, German car makers, Masdar

FBI agents tasked with investigating sanctions-busting have been dispatched to Cyprus as the global crackdown against Russian oligarchs, and the web of enablers who have helped hide their wealth, intensifies. The 24-strong team was expected to start “assisting Cypriot police” with immediate effect after arriving on the eastern Mediterranean island late Sunday. – Guardian

The financial crisis engulfing English local authorities will trigger an unprecedented increase in town hall bankruptcies in the coming months, local government leaders have warned, as they prepare to increase council tax bills and impose a fresh round of cuts to services. The grim forecast, endorsed by council leaders of all political colours, comes days after Labour-run Nottingham city council issued a Section 114 notice to become the fourth authority in the past 12 months – and the eighth in six years – to declare effective insolvency. – Guardian

German carmakers have been accused of supplying Vladimir Putin’s Russia through the back door as exports to Central Asia boom. Exports of cars and vehicle parts to Kyrgyzstan are reported to have surged by 5,500pc in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2019, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF). – Telegraph

The United Arab Emirates has snapped up a 49pc stake in one of the UK’s largest wind farms despite soaring costs throwing the industry’s future into doubt. Masdar, a company controlled by the Gulf state and chaired by the president of the Cop28 climate talks, has bought a minority stake in the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm from Spanish developer Iberdrola. – Telegraph

British car manufacturers are to be given a three-year reprieve from Brexit tariffs on electric vehicle exports to the EU, hours after new figures showed sales of battery-powered vehicles fell by almost a fifth last month. The European Commission signalled yesterday that it would delay imposing a 10 per cent tax on the exports of vehicles with batteries made outside the UK, even if the rest of the vehicle has been manufactured domestically. – The Times