Morning Briefing: Sunday 18 October 2026
- If you heat your home with oil: one household in Devon paid about £340 for 500 litres this time last year and just over £600 for the same amount now. The government has accepted a recommendation to regulate the sector for the first time, after the competition authority found 1,700 households were owed compensation for cancelled orders they had to replace at higher prices.
- If you expect to need the NHS this winter: almost £140m is going to fourteen urgent care schemes in England, on top of twenty-five new or expanded sites announced in April that will open for winter. More than 7.4 million flu vaccinations had been given in England by 11 October.
- If you live in Northern Ireland: resident doctors will hold a twenty-four-hour walkout on Friday 20 November and consultants will run a much-reduced service the following Monday, because seven months into the financial year Stormont still has no budget to pay a rise that doctors elsewhere in the United Kingdom received in April.
A Tug Is Struck as Hormuz Attacks Hit a Weekly Record
At least ten vessels have been attacked in or near the Strait of Hormuz since last Sunday, the highest weekly figure since the war began, with twenty-three recorded this month. A tug off the United Arab Emirates reported being struck by tw…
Deaths at a Canadian Military Base as Fire Spreads Beyond It
A fire that crossed the fence at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta on Saturday and spread rapidly in high winds has killed and injured people on the base, the defence minister says. No official toll has been given. A hospital in E…
Record Arrests in Paris as Unrest Spreads Across Four Countries
Paris police detained 855 people on Saturday, which they say is the highest ever for a single event, within a national total of 1,200 arrests and 150 injured officers. Cost-of-living protests ran the same day in Belgium, Italy and Portugal…
Zelensky and Rubio Contradict Each Other on Ukraine’s Drones
Ukraine still cannot use the satellite network to shoot down jet-powered Russian drones, its president said on Saturday, giving a precise figure: the service cuts out above 161km/h in Ukraine while working above 180 in the European Union.…
At Least Nineteen Killed in a Festival Crush in Kolkata
Nineteen people died and twenty-five are being treated after a crush at a Durga Puja pavilion, the chief minister of West Bengal said after visiting the hospital. A seven-year-old girl is among the dead. Police say a crowd ran for cover as…
Cooper Puts Almost £140m Into Urgent Care Before a Hard Winter
The health secretary says winter “will be more challenging for our NHS this year, after such a heavy summer”, announcing almost £140m for fourteen urgent care schemes in England. The largest single award is £42.1m for Queen’s Hospital in R…
Reform Suspends an Activist and Says It Is Suing ITV
The party has suspended Jason Powell, who has applied to be one of its parliamentary candidates, over undercover footage in which he reportedly says “you cannot be Muslim and British, it’s like oil and water” and that migrants arriving ill…
Northern Ireland Doctors Call Strikes Over the Missing Budget
Resident doctors will stop work for twenty-four hours on Friday 20 November and consultants will run a much-reduced service the following Monday. The Executive is seven months into the financial year without a budget, so a 3.5% rise recomm…
Rural Households Face Winter After a Rise of up to 82%
Heating fuel costs have risen by as much as 82% since the start of the conflict, the energy consumers minister told the BBC, calling it “striking” how rural communities with “so many people off grid” are “some of the most exposed”. One hou…
Police Rule Out Action Over a Palestine Action Post
The Metropolitan Police will take no further action over a post about the proscribed group written by Sarah Helm, a journalist and the wife of the national security adviser. Specialist officers assessed it and “determined that it did not m…