Morning Briefing: Sunday 8 November 2026
- The two-minute silence falls at 11am; the King leads the Cenotaph service, which is broadcast live on the BBC, ITV and Sky News, with about 10,000 veterans marching and 10,000 members of the public expected on Whitehall.
- The Resolution Foundation reckons the Bank’s new forecast, not Thursday’s rate rise, is the real blow: inflation peaking at 4.9% next spring, 1.4 million households rolling off fixed mortgages in the next year and the average worker £390 worse off in real terms in 2027 than in 2025.
- Consultants in England strike from 06:59 on 25 November to 06:59 on 27 November unless a deal is reached; hospitals will run Christmas Day-level cover, so expect planned appointments in that window to be rescheduled.
US extends Iran blockade to land routes; aircraft disables cargo ship
Central Command announced Task Force Iron Gate on Saturday “to prevent Iran from using ground routes to transport advanced weapons and other materials”, extending the months-long naval blockade to Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea. H…
IRGC lifts self-imposed 2,000km limit on ballistic missile range
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on Saturday that the range restriction it had long cited to reassure Europe no longer applies. “This limitation has been lifted for us,” its spokesman Hossein Mohebbi told reporters in Tehran, adding that Ir…
Gunman kills six in Kraków square, including a British citizen
A 25-year-old Polish man opened fire with an automatic weapon from a moving car in Kraków’s Main Market Square at about 3pm local time on Saturday, killing four women and two men and wounding 16, among them two police officers and five for…
Russia fires 36 ballistic missiles at Kyiv energy grid before Abu Dhabi talks
Russia struck power infrastructure around Kyiv overnight on Friday with 36 ballistic missiles, including North Korean KN-23s, and 172 drones; Ukraine’s air force intercepted only four of the missiles. The Northern Bridge over the Dnipro wa…
Saudi coalition downs three Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Riyadh
The Saudi-led coalition said on Sunday its air defences destroyed three ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthis, two of them towards Riyadh and one towards the Eastern Province, according to spokesman Major-General Turki al-Maliki. The…
King leads two-minute silence at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday
The King leads the nation in the two-minute silence at the National Service of Remembrance this morning, joined by the Royal Family, the Prime Minister and senior politicians. About 10,000 veterans from more than 300 organisations take par…
Burnham writes to councils to house rough-sleeping veterans by Christmas
The Prime Minister is writing personally to every council in England asking for specific plans to offer accommodation to veterans sleeping rough before Christmas. “No one who has served our country should be left to sleep rough on our stre…
Opinium: Labour 28, Reform 21, Conservatives 20 as Greens climb to 11
Labour holds a seven-point lead over Reform UK in Opinium’s poll for the Observer, though both fell — Labour to 28% and Reform to 21% — with the Conservatives unchanged on 20% and the Greens up three to 11%. Andy Burnham’s net approval sli…
Resolution Foundation: Bank forecast means £390 real pay cut by 2027
The Bank of England’s new outlook, not Thursday’s quarter-point rise to 4%, is where “the real danger lies”, the Resolution Foundation says. Inflation is forecast to peak at 4.9% next spring and not return to target until the third quarter…
Consultants’ 48-hour strike on 25 November nears as BMA deadline runs
Senior doctors in England will walk out from 06:59 on 25 November to 06:59 on 27 November unless Yvette Cooper intervenes, in the first consultants’ action since 2023. The BMA consultants committee co-chairs, Helen Neary and Shanu Datta, s…