IMF warns UK inflation will be the highest in the G7 in 2025–26 and cuts growth forecasts, denting the Chancellor’s Budget plans. Ministers weigh tax rises to plug a hole of up to £40bn as costs, led by food and hospitality, accelerate, clouding prospects of meeting the 2% target soon.
Captives were released under a deal that also freed detainees, prompting claims of a new era of peace. In a Knesset speech, the US president celebrated the outcome, while families marked contrasting homecomings across communities after a prolonged crisis.
Trump visits Israel and Egypt to oversee a ceasefire he helped broker and the expected release of 48 captives held by a militant group. A swap would see detainees freed from Israeli custody and remains returned. He will meet families and attend a regional peace summit after the transfers.
Families led a mass rally demanding the immediate return of hostages and a definitive agreement to bring them home, as authorities moved to facilitate an anticipated prisoner exchange.
Tens of thousands of civilians are returning to damaged northern neighbourhoods in Gaza as a ceasefire begins, facing scarce essentials and a lengthy rebuilding effort.
A truce has been agreed in the region, with an armed group set to release remaining hostages as a nation’s leadership considers a ceasefire.
Kemi Badenoch pledged a £9bn plan to scrap stamp duty on main homes to help first-time buyers, with promises to reverse carbon taxes and VAT on private school fees and workers’ rights reforms and to ban doctors’ strikes.
Robert Jenrick defended controversial remarks drawing criticism from local and party figures.
Kemi Badenoch set out plans to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and deport 150,000 people a year, prompting former attorney general Dominic Grieve to warn the strategy could spell the Conservatives’ demise as she marked a shift to the right at conference.
Police detained 442 people at a central London protest linked to an activist group banned under UK law, citing exhausted officers after carrying many demonstrators and saying the event proceeded despite appeals to cancel following a fatal incident in Manchester.