Evening Briefing: Wednesday 23 September 2026
- Fuel: This morning’s relief is gone. Brent surged 3.5% back above $102 after the New York talks produced no concessions and American sanctions grounding Iranian aircraft took effect — with diesel already at record forecourt prices.
- Chagos: Payments to Mauritius of at least £120m a year have been paused. The Defence Secretary says the handover “can’t go ahead without American support”, so the treaty is now being rewritten rather than ratified.
- Your Budget: The OECD cut Britain’s growth forecast for next year and the IMF warned on debt costs — and gilt yields jumped towards 5.36%, which means the Chancellor starts next month’s Budget with a bigger bill.
'We Will Never Bow': Pezeshkian Answers Trump, and Oil Jumps 3.5%
Iran’s president told the General Assembly his country would not surrender but still believes in diplomacy, a day after Mr Trump threatened from the same podium to annihilate the Islamic Republic. He held up photographs of the assassinated…
Rubio: Russia and Ukraine Both Want a 'Limited Ceasefire' on Grain and Energy
After meeting Sergei Lavrov in New York, the American secretary of state said both sides had shown interest in a narrow truce: “I think both sides have expressed an interest in some limited ceasefire that involve grain and energy. Obviousl…
Kyiv Pounded for Hours: Two Killed, Thirty Hurt, Petrol Stations Ablaze
Russia struck the Ukrainian capital with jet-powered drones from morning into early afternoon — one of the heaviest attacks since the faster, high-flying drones appeared — hitting railway infrastructure, warehouses and two petrol stations.…
Ethiopia's Tigray War Restarts: Forces Seize Airports, Peace Deal Shattered
Tigrayan forces launched a major offensive against Ethiopia’s federal government, a senior official said, breaking the four-year-old Pretoria agreement. Tigray’s leaders said they had entered a “defensive” war; residents told the BBC local…
Xi Lands in Washington for Three Days of Pomp and Low Expectations
Mr Trump will greet Xi Jinping and his wife on the tarmac at the Maryland base that hosts Air Force One this evening, opening the Chinese leader’s first American visit in nearly three years. The choreography runs to a military ceremony wit…
Chagos Payments Paused: Deal 'Can't Go Ahead Without American Support'
Twenty-four hours after Mr Trump called the treaty “terrible” to the Prime Minister’s face, the Defence Secretary confirmed the handover is being reworked and the money has stopped. Wes Streeting said payments worth at least £120m a year w…
Kremlin Hits Back at Burnham: Britain Is Fostering 'Total Russophobia'
Moscow answered the Prime Minister’s United Nations speech within hours. Dmitry Peskov said Mr Burnham “said nothing new”, then went further: “stoking anti-Russian sentiment and fostering an atmosphere of total Russophobia is what Britain…
Two Boats Land Undetected in Kent; Home Secretary Orders Urgent Review
Shabana Mahmood has told Border Security Command to investigate how two small boats reached Kent beaches without being intercepted — twenty-one people detained at Samphire Hoe on Tuesday, five near Folkestone on Monday. Such landings are e…
OECD Cuts Growth and the IMF Warns on Debt, Five Weeks From the Budget
Britain was among the economies marked down by the OECD today, which now expects 1% growth next year rather than 1.1%, though it upgraded this year to 1.1%. The IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva told the BBC that global shocks had been “pushing d…
Scottish Drug Deaths Rise 11% to 1,133, Still the Worst in Europe
Deaths related to illicit drugs rose by 116 last year to 1,133, National Records of Scotland reported, taking the decade’s toll beyond 11,000 and leaving Scotland with Europe’s worst rate at 214 per million people. Synthetic opioids drove…