Evening Briefing: Sunday 4 October 2026
- Filling up: The seven core OPEC+ producers kept November output targets unchanged on Sunday, and are still pumping well below quota. Brent closed Friday at $102.25, against about $73 before the war; the G7’s diesel release is frontloaded into the first 20 days.
- Childcare: Working parents in England lose their 30 funded hours, and tax-free childcare, once either earns more than £100,000. The Conservatives would scrap the limit at a cost of about £700m — a pledge for the next election, not a change now.
- Your pension: Kemi Badenoch says the Tories would keep the triple lock, under which the state pension rises by the highest of inflation, average wages or 2.5%. Andy Burnham has pledged to change it if Labour wins the next election.
Iran Says There Is No Military Solution as It Weighs Washington’s Reply
Abbas Araghchi told foreign ambassadors on Sunday that “there is no military solution, nor any solution based on new sanctions”, warning that any renewed attack would meet a response “stronger than before”. His deputy, Kazem Gharibabadi, s…
Yemen Declares an All-Out Offensive to Retake Houthi Territory
Yemen’s internationally recognised government has announced military operations to retake all territory held by the Iran-backed Houthis. “Today, I announce the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory of the republic,…
Merz Visits Kyiv as Russia Strikes Its Bridges for a Fourth Day
Friedrich Merz made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Sunday, shortly before a Russian drone struck the Northern Bridge, injuring two people — the fourth consecutive day of attacks on the capital’s Dnipro crossings. The German chancellor bro…
Brazil Votes as Lula Faces the Son of His Jailed Rival
About 160 million Brazilians were eligible to vote on Sunday in a presidential first round pitting Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 80 and seeking a fourth term, against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, son of the jailed former president. “What is…
France Shuts Up to 500 Schools as Student Protests Resume
Lessons will be totally or partly suspended at 400 to 500 French secondary schools on Monday because security conditions “have not been fulfilled”, the education minister, Édouard Geffray, said. Twenty-four schools have been burnt or ransa…
Badenoch Opens the Tory Conference With a Statement of First Principles
Kemi Badenoch opened the Conservative conference in Birmingham with The Right Way, a 100-page statement of principles that deliberately echoes Margaret Thatcher’s 1976 The Right Approach. Its central claim is that “business, not government…
Tories Pledge to Scrap the £100,000 Childcare Cliff Edge
A Conservative government would remove the £100,000 earnings limit on free childcare hours and tax-free childcare, Kemi Badenoch said. “What we want to see is that people who work harder don’t get punished for doing so,” she told the BBC’s…
Greens Adopt a Policy Equating Zionism With Racism
Green Party members in England and Wales voted by 1,022 to 813 for a binding motion stating that Zionism should be “treated as any other form of racism” and calling for a single Palestinian state. Four of the party’s five MPs opposed it; Z…
Justice Secretary Cannot Say How Many Freed Prisoners Are Tagged
Alex Norris was unable to say how many of the roughly 700 prisoners released early on Thursday had been fitted with electronic tags. “I don’t have that figure today, it only happened on Thursday,” he told the BBC. Nearly 5,000 are due to b…
Farage Questioned by the Standards Commissioner Over a £5m Gift
Nigel Farage has been interviewed by the parliamentary standards commissioner over whether he should have declared a £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, received just before the 2024 election. The half-hour interview…