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This decade would be the worst for household income growth on record, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said. John Healey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, would not guarantee that younger workers would receive the same minimum wage as others before the next election, despite an undertaking in the Labour party manifesto. Poundland’s directors filed a notice to appoint administrators; its US-based owners Gordon Brothers, which bought it last year for a nominal £1, rejected a takeover offer from the Irish company Martin Property Group. Thousands of Virgin Media O2 staff faced redundancy, while BT agreed to acquire TalkTalk. Nicola Shaw resigned as Yorkshire Water’s chief executive after the company was given the lowest possible environmental rating by the Environment Agency. A celebrity who asked the High Court to prevent two news organisations from publishing his identity and allegations of sexual misconduct lost his case, but his name was kept secret pending an appeal.
Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, conceded that migrant care workers who had arrived in the UK before May 2025 would be granted indefinite leave to remain after five years, while other migrant workers would have to wait ten years. Britain might one day be permitted to export sausages to the EU under a 200-page draft ‘sanitary and phyto-sanitary’ agreement circulated to its member nations. In the seven days to 1 November, 1,670 migrants entered Britain on small boats. At least 250 households were suddenly homeless after structural problems were found in five blocks of flats in Canning Town, east London. Alton Towers theme park permanently closed its World of David Walliams attraction.
Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, wrote in the Guardian that he was ‘open’ to the possibility of Britain formally apologising for its role in slavery – a change in the government’s stance that left the King in an awkward position when he had to make a speech at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting during his tour of the Caribbean. ‘That shameful chapter of history is one that fills my heart with horror,’ the King said, while reminding his audience of ‘the determination to end international trade in enslaved people, in which the Royal Navy played such a leading role’. Sir Patrick Stewart, the actor, died aged 86.
Abroad
In a remarkable upset for President Trump’s Republicans, the Democrats gained both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the midterm elections. The Pope voted by post and three astronauts voted from the International Space Station. The United States approved the sale of 500 Patriot defensive missiles to Ukraine, with the $2.1 billion cost ‘funded entirely’ by Kyiv’s allies in Europe and Canada. In Ukraine, phone apps gave false warnings of nuclear strikes; hours later Russia complained of its own apps being hacked. Nine 3,000kg Russian bombs hit the village of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, killing at least 33 around an aid distribution centre. More than 700 people were evacuated from the devastated Russian-occupied city of Oleshky on the left bank of the Dnipro. In Russia, Novaya Gazeta closed after 33 years under pressure from the authorities.
The value of Google’s parent company Alphabet fell to $3.46 trillion, from $3.97 trillion a day before, because the number of advertisements it was able to sell was hit by Google’s search engine now defaulting to AI summaries of a person’s query. The cryptocurrency exchange Binance was hit by a $6.3 billion hack; on the first day that trading resumed, a net $3.64 billion was withdrawn. The FBI blamed North Korea for the crime. There were bomb threats to seven flights in Europe, but no explosives were found. Supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Sweden were hit by a cyber-attack affecting their freezers.
Oscar Puente resigned as Spain’s transport minister six days after a train crash on the fast line from Madrid to Seville killed 69 people. Rioters looted shops in Frankfurt and there was violence in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg after protests against the cost of living, public spending cuts and military service. In France more than 300,000 demonstrated and in Paris Molotov cocktails were thrown at police, who fired tear gas. More than 5,000 people have died from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that began in May. CSH
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