Budget crunch
The UK, the US, El Salvador, China, Hong Kong, and Guinea-Bissau.
Hello,
Here are the five things you need to know today:
BRITAIN. Excellent in parts, but the smell is rotten.
UNITED STATES. An ambush on every Thanksgiving dinner debate.
EL SALVADOR. The crypto-deportation complex hits a bump.
CHINA. HONG KONG. Property disasters, sudden and slow, shake the CCP.
GUINEA-BISSAU. A coup sends a warning to democrats and autocrats alike.
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BRITAIN. The chancellor’s egg
Excellent in parts, but the smell is rotten.
London shares were choppy Wednesday after Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered a mixed budget, with higher effective taxes but few real reforms. The Office for Budget Responsibility lowered its growth outlook in a leaked report.
INTELLIGENCE. The OBR mistakenly published its response an hour before Reeves’s speech, leading to frenzied trading and accusations of government chaos. This overshadowed a solid but uninspired budget, as many expected. It has led to fresh speculation on who will replace Keir Starmer, who has vanquished his parliamentary majority with milquetoast leadership. As in the budget, there’s nothing particularly wrong with Starmer, but also nothing right.
FOR BUSINESS. Between now and the May 2026 local elections, where key metropolitan boroughs are up for grabs, Starmer and Reeves will be hounded by rumours of a spill. After being wrongfooted at Labour’s September leadership conference, Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is again favourite, with a Norwich backbencher recently offering his seat if it happened. But Burnham, seen to Starmer’s fiscal left, would need to move well ahead of the municipal polls.
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UNITED STATES. The shots heard
An ambush on every Thanksgiving dinner debate.
Two national guardsmen were shot Wednesday, two blocks from the White House. The suspected shooter, an Afghan who had overstayed his visa, was described as an “animal” by Donald Trump, who promised more troop deployments.
INTELLIGENCE. The soldiers were unarmed and in legal limbo, with a federal judge