Evening Briefing: Tuesday 6 October 2026
- If you employ someone under 25: The Conservatives would halve employer national insurance on 21 to 24-year-olds, from 15% to 7.5%. That is worth £1,125 a year on a worker earning £20,000 and £1,875 at £30,000, an average of £1,545 a head. The plan to pay for it does not arrive until tomorrow.
- If you vape or smoke: For the second year running more over-16s vape than smoke — 5.4 million against 4.9 million — and 1.1 million people who never smoked regularly now vape. From the new year, tobacco sales are permanently barred to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
- Your money: Sterling firmed 0.39% to 1.3271 today, its strongest move of the week, which makes imports a little cheaper. The FTSE closed 0.42% higher and Brent is back at $100.04 after dipping below the hundred mark this morning.
Trump Says Iran Could “Take Out” Los Angeles and San Diego
Speaking at a rally in Nebraska, Donald Trump said of the war on Iran: “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego.”…
Germany’s Former Spy Chief Arrested for Treason and Espionage
August Hanning, who ran the BND from 1998 to 2005, has been arrested on suspicion of espionage, attempted treason and acting as an agent for a foreign intelligence service. Prosecutors allege he received around 2,000 classified documents o…
A Cargo Ship Is Sunk by Drones Inside Bulgaria’s Waters
Two commercial vessels were hit by air and sea drones about seventy nautical miles off the Bulgarian coast, inside the country’s exclusive economic zone. The Togo-flagged, Turkish-owned Alfa Watan sank at the scene with its crew missing; a…
Nearly 90,000 March in France as Half the Schools Are Blockaded
Some 86,000 people marched this morning in Marseille, Nantes, Lyon and elsewhere, with tens of thousands more expected in Paris, as 1,800 of France’s 3,700 high schools were blockaded or closed. Official figures put the toll of the past we…
The AfD Takes a State Speakership, a First Since the War
Tobias Rausch, 35, has been elected speaker of the Saxony-Anhalt parliament, the first time a far-right party has held the post in post-war Germany. His party fell three seats short of a majority, so he needed nine votes from other benches…
Tories Would Halve Employer National Insurance for Under-25s
Kemi Badenoch will cut employer national insurance on 21 to 24-year-olds from 15% to 7.5%, at a static cost of £3.25 billion falling to £2.3 billion by 2029-30 once extra receipts and lower benefit spending are counted. Earnings above £50,…
A Seventh Arrest Over the RAF Fairford Incident
A 22-year-old British man has been arrested in Westminster on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorism Act. He is the seventh person held over the 27 September incident at the Gloucestershire airbase and nobod…
Three Iranians on Trial Over a Plot Against London Journalists
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act. The prosecution says at least…
Badenoch Would Rather Fight a Second Election Than Deal With Reform
Asked what she would do in a hung parliament, the Conservative leader said: “If there is a hung parliament, then we can have another election. We had this in 1974.” Pressed on whether she would genuinely prefer a second election to a coali…
A Million Britons Who Never Smoked Now Vape
Some 1.1 million people who have never smoked regularly now vape, up from about 940,000 last year, according to official figures. For the second year running more people over 16 vape than smoke — 5.4 million against 4.9 million, with smoki…