Morning Briefing: Saturday 24 October 2026
- If you are following the Budget on Wednesday: the only substantial measure announced on the record so far is £100m for an AI biosecurity laboratory, within a £165m initiative. Everything else being reported — energy support, a bank levy, the size of the headroom — rests on unnamed sources and is not confirmed.
- If your area won levelling up money: an analysis of data released under freedom of information law finds 821 of 1,347 funded projects were still incomplete in May, and that in 73 council areas with accepted bids not one project has been finished. The money was allocated between 2018 and 2021.
- If you drive: Brent settled on Friday at its highest since April after Iran threatened oil facilities across the Gulf. Pump prices follow crude with a lag of a week or two, and motor fuel was the largest single driver of September’s inflation figure.
Israel Seals Hebron as 200 Families Are Displaced Overnight
Israeli forces have raided at least 15 towns across the northern West Bank and sealed Hebron, closing seven of its entrances. The city’s municipality says up to 200 families were forced from one neighbourhood overnight. The army says the o…
US Spy Chief Says Iranian Plots to Kill Americans Are Advanced
America’s director of national intelligence told the secretary of state, in a dated unclassified memo, that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target American personnel and that lethal plotting has “reached advanced stages”. The m…
France Deploys 70,000 Officers as a Fourth Protest Weekend Begins
Some 70,000 police and soldiers have been mobilised across France, a fifth more than last weekend, and 24 Paris metro stations are closed. Police banned the planned march from Bastille to Nation and the organisers’ legal appeal failed. Cou…
Russia and Ukraine Agree a Local Truce for a Starving City
Both Moscow and Kyiv have confirmed a localised ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, to evacuate residents and bring in aid. Each says its forces will stop firing at two in the morning on 27 October. The White House, which an…
Serbia Votes Tomorrow With a Student List Level Against Vucic
Serbia holds parliamentary elections on Sunday, with a movement grown out of almost two years of anti-corruption protests mounting the most serious challenge to the governing party since it took office in 2012. Its 250 candidates have no p…
Treasury to Fund World-First AI Biosecurity Lab With £100m
The chancellor will put £100m into a new AI Biosecurity Lab, within a £165m biosecurity initiative, alongside up to £200m of model credits and computing power pledged by OpenAI and Anthropic. It is the first substantial Budget announcement…
Six Warnings as Boelo Arrives, With Amber Wind From Tonight
Six weather warnings now cover the United Kingdom as Storm Boelo arrives, including two amber wind warnings that begin at nine tonight across mainland Scotland, the Western Isles, northern England, northern Wales and north-west Northern Ir…
Most Levelling Up Projects Still Unfinished Years After Funding
Of 1,347 projects funded under three levelling up programmes, 821 were not complete as of May this year, according to an analysis of data released under freedom of information laws. In 73 council areas that won money, not a single project…
Tories’ Former Campaign Chief Sentenced Over Election Betting
Anthony Lee, the Conservatives’ former director of campaigning, has been given ten months and two weeks suspended for cheating at gambling, having bet on the date of the 2024 election using information from a private meeting called by the…
Green Councillors Face a Labour Deadline Over Zionism Policy
Green council groups have until Sunday to disown their party’s policy that Zionism is a form of racism, after which Labour’s national executive will decide whether local power-sharing arrangements continue. Nine authorities are exposed, th…