Evening Briefing: Thursday 24 September 2026
- Your mortgage: Two Bank of England deputy governors who voted to hold rates last week signalled today that they are moving towards a rise. Markets now price a 75% chance of an increase in November, with a second fully priced by February.
- Fuel: Brent jumped 3.4% to $106.61 as Gulf states grounded Iranian airlines under American sanctions — with diesel already less than 2p below its all-time record. Reports of a phased deal to reopen Hormuz pulled the price off its high.
- Council tax: New analysis finds London underpays residential property tax by £3.1bn a year while most of the country overpays — and by 2030-31 six households in ten would be paying an average £430 too much.
Xi Presses Trump on Taiwan; Both Agree to Leave AI Alone
China’s leader used his White House bilateral to urge Washington to oppose Taiwanese independence, according to a Chinese readout issued afterwards; the White House published none of its own. On artificial intelligence the two found an eas…
Washington and Tehran Discussing a Phased Deal: Hormuz for the Blockade
The shape of an agreement has emerged, according to Reuters, citing two Iranian and two regional officials and two Western diplomats: Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz to navigation, America lifts its economic blockade, and Tehran may rega…
Gulf States Ground Iran's Airlines as American Sanctions Bite
The United Arab Emirates suspended all Iranian airline flights until further notice, and Iranian state media reported shutdowns to Oman, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Baghdad, after Washington’s deadline passed for global firms to stop dealing w…
Tigray Declares Full-Blown War as Its Own Commanders Are Detained
Armed men detained four veteran Tigrayan military leaders overnight, including the former commander-in-chief of the Tigray Defence Forces, Tadesse Werede — all of them men who had questioned the new offensive. Tigrayan forces have seized t…
Maternity Hospital Hit in Kyiv; Russian Drones Cross Into Moldova and Romania
Russia fired 282 drones along with ballistic and hypersonic missiles overnight, killing two and injuring eight in Kyiv, where a maternity hospital’s facade, windows and doors were damaged and one of the dead was found in its car park. No p…
Bank of England Turns Towards a Rate Rise: 'Sparks in the Tinderbox'
Two deputy governors who voted to hold rates at 3.75% last week signalled they are now considering a rise. Sarah Breeden put it in one image: “The more sparks we’re throwing in the tinderbox, the more likely we might have to turn the hose…
781 Cross the Channel in a Single Day, the Highest This Year
Ten boats carried 781 people on Wednesday, beating July’s 752 and setting the highest single-day total of 2026. That takes the year to 18,565 and the number since the Prime Minister took office to 6,096, with the annual total still down ab…
Council Tax Hands London a £3bn Subsidy, Resolution Foundation Finds
London underpaid residential property tax by £3.1bn in 2024-25, according to new analysis, with every region outside the south-east and east overpaying. On current course 61% of households would be overpaying by an average £430 a year by 2…
Crown Court Backlog Hits a Record as Ministers Rethink Jury Curbs
Ministry of Justice figures published today show 80,829 cases waiting in the crown courts at the end of June, a record and 3% up, with the median wait rising by a fifth to 203 days. Magistrates’ court cases rose 9% to 380,230. Nearly 24,00…
NHS Trust to Re-examine 4,500 More Breast Cancer Cases Back to 2015
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is extending its review of breast cancer care by a decade, adding up to 4,500 cases in work expected to take five years. Of 538 cases examined so far, 321 patients were found to have been h…