Evening Briefing: Friday 25 September 2026
- Fuel: Iran has put a seven-day timetable to Washington for reopening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the blockade. Brent fell 3.1% to $103.30. It is the first concrete sequence for ending the price shock behind your fuel and energy bills.
- Your mortgage: Andrew Bailey said high energy prices make it harder to leave rates on hold, and markets now price roughly an 80% chance of a Bank rise in November. The Budget follows on 28 October with at least half the Chancellor’s headroom already gone.
- Your medical records: Every NHS trust in England has been ordered to suspend immediately any member of staff suspected of looking at patient records without reason. At least 214 have already lost their jobs over five years.
Iran Sets Out a Seven-Day Timetable to Reopen the Strait
Tehran has put a sequence to Washington, its foreign minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed: fighting stops on every front including Lebanon, America lifts the naval blockade and oil sanctions and releases frozen assets, and after seven days th…
Xi Leaves Washington With Pageantry, a Two-Month Truce and Two Pandas
The state visit closed with tea in the Red Room and a tour of the National Archives, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution laid out for both leaders and their wives. Asked what had been accomplished, Mr Trump said “everythin…
Washington Proposes Three-Way Ukraine Talks; EU Frees $7.5bn
Kyiv and Moscow both confirmed an American proposal to relaunch trilateral negotiations, with the United Arab Emirates floated as host. “We are awaiting a proposal from the United States regarding the date,” Mr Zelensky said. He also said…
Tigray Goes Dark as Ethiopia's Army Claims 436 Enemy Dead
Internet and telephone networks were cut across Tigray on Friday, confirmed by the monitoring service NetBlocks. Four people with knowledge of the decision, including a diplomatic source, said the Tigray People’s Liberation Front ordered t…
Washington Goes to an EU Court to Defend Musk Against a €120m Fine
The American justice department has applied to intervene in the European Union’s General Court in support of X and Elon Musk, against the €120m penalty the Commission imposed in December over paid blue ticks. Assistant Attorney General Bre…
'I Can Knock That Dead': Burnham Rules Out an Early Election
Two days before his first conference as Prime Minister, Mr Burnham closed down the speculation in a round of regional interviews. Asked whether the next election would be in 2029, he said: “Well, yes, that’s when the next election will be.…
Healey Hires Labour's Manifesto Author a Month Before the Budget
Ravinder Athwal, who wrote the 2024 manifesto and devised the five missions, joins the Chancellor next week as his senior special adviser, a month before the Budget on 28 October. Inflation and borrowing costs are expected to have wiped ou…
Glasgow Pauses Its Plan to Dismiss and Re-engage 23,000 Staff
The council has agreed to pause the fire-and-rehire scheme it confirmed this morning, the BBC has been told, after online talks with the GMB, Unison and Unite chaired by the Deputy First Minister, Jenny Gilruth. Dismissal letters due to re…
NHS Staff Face Immediate Suspension for Snooping on Patient Records
Sir Jim Mackey has written to every trust in England ordering that anyone suspected of improperly accessing patient records be suspended at once and locked out of NHS systems, including from home. “We have seen too many cases of people abu…
Activist Denies Slashing a Channel Dinghy; Bail Refused
Daniel Thomas, 37, known as Danny Tommo, pleaded not guilty at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court to criminal damage and to failing to disclose his phone code, and was refused bail. The court heard the alleged slashing of an adrift inflatable…