Morning Briefing: Friday 25 September 2026
- Energy bills: The Bank of England expects the price cap to rise by as much as 24% in the new year. The Treasury says it is working “at pace” on support but has ruled out the blanket subsidies of 2022.
- Your mortgage and taxes: A bond sell-off has wiped out more than half the £24bn of Budget headroom, with the ten-year gilt at 5.38%. Two Bank deputies now say policy is “increasingly likely” to need tightening.
- A&E: Emergency departments are running at 175% occupancy, and a study across 134 of them links overcrowding to hundreds of deaths a week — researchers put it at about 550, though the range is wide.
Dozens Walk Out as Netanyahu Calls His Critics 'Moral Cowards'
Israel’s prime minister addressed a half-empty General Assembly as dozens of delegates walked out, jeering, and his own delegation stood chanting in Hebrew. “If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t left this hall, please do so now…
Taiwan Rejects Xi's White House Remarks as a 'Distortion of the Facts'
Taipei hit back this morning after Mr Xi told Mr Trump that China’s position on national reunification is clear and urged Washington to oppose Taiwanese independence. Taiwan’s foreign ministry called China the “true disruptor” of regional…
Saudi Arabia Invokes Its Defence Pact With Turkey and Pakistan
The three countries’ foreign ministers met under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which holds that an attack on one is an attack on all, and are arranging an urgent meeting of their chiefs of staff after Houthi missiles were fired toward…
Russian Drone Kills a 14-Year-Old in Central Kyiv
A drone struck a sixteen-storey residential block in Kyiv’s Pechersk district this morning, killing a fourteen-year-old boy and injuring at least seven people. In Odesa, the regional governor Oleh Kiper said one person was killed and anoth…
Carney Says Canada Has Prepared for the 'Extreme Tail Risk' of US Action
Canada’s prime minister told the New York Times his government has examined and prepared for the remote possibility of American military action against his country. “I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail…
A&E Overcrowding Linked to Hundreds of Deaths a Week
A study of more than 19,000 patients across 134 emergency departments — about seven in ten in England, Wales and Northern Ireland — found that every 10% rise in occupancy raised a patient’s chance of dying within 28 days by 1%. The departm…
Burnham's First Conference as Prime Minister Opens on Sunday
Labour gathers in Liverpool from Sunday under the slogan “Hope Again”, with the Chancellor speaking on Monday and the Prime Minister on Tuesday. Party figures say removing VAT from electricity bills is “just the start” of cost-of-living he…
Oil and Bond Sell-off Wipe Out Half the Chancellor's Budget Buffer
Brent rose almost 5% to $108 on Thursday and the ten-year gilt yield reached 5.39%, close to last week’s nineteen-year high, with the American ten-year at 5.17% and its highest since 2007. Analysts say the move has erased more than half of…
Ministers Prepare to Reopen Chagos Talks With Mauritius
Senior government figures are said to be under no illusion that the treaty signed under Sir Keir Starmer can be revived after Mr Trump restated his opposition to the Prime Minister’s face on Tuesday, and officials are preparing to return t…
Glasgow to Dismiss and Re-engage 23,000 Staff on New Contracts
Glasgow City Council has issued dismissal letters to all 23,000 of its non-teaching staff, who will be re-engaged on new contracts from New Year’s Day after equal-pay talks with three unions collapsed. Individual notices follow next week.…