Healey's Budget needs to sustain the stronger economy through gathering clouds There have been almost no Budget leaks. The chancellor's aides are using intelligence-style security measures to guard its secrets: the Budget has been split into compartments with very few given access to all of them. The IT has been locked down and ministers viewing the plans have to sign a digital promise not to brief media. Such security is a response to the feeling that speculation around the last Budget, sometimes informed by insiders, was economically destabilising. As a recent former defence secretary, Chancellor John Healey has embraced such strict procedures, and has approached most of his public engagements and interviews with a sturdy refusal to break the Budget omertà, akin to his fellow Yorkshireman Geoffrey Boycott's at times ultra-defensive stance on a cricket pitch. The economic news has been good - growth has been better than expected and the International Monetary Fund has endorsed the UK for standing out among the G7 countries for at least planning to cut borrowing.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, aims to harness the opportunities of AI to raise living standards and boost UK's economic growth. Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, aims to harness the opportunities of AI to raise living standards and boost UK's economic growth. John Healey pledges to use budget to harness power of AI to bolster Britain's security Chancellor says government to commit hundreds of millions to develop'distinctively British' approach to AI John Healey has pledged to use Wednesday's budget to harness the power of artificial intelligence to bolster Britain's security and prosperity against the risks in the accelerating global technology arms race. As he prepares for his debut budget, the chancellor said that Andy Burnham's government would commit hundreds of millions of pounds to develop a "distinctively British" approach to AI that would capitalise on the benefits of the frontier technology. At a fork in the road as AI developments pose both existential threats and transformative economic potential, Healey said he would be making the biggest ever investment to guard against cyber risks and the disruptive potential of the technology.

Barclays' strong performance included a 6% rise in net interest income at its UK retail banking operations, to £2bn. Barclays' strong performance included a 6% rise in net interest income at its UK retail banking operations, to £2bn. Barclays to cut 5,000 jobs as bank's bosses hail AI productivity advances Barclays is cutting 5,000 jobs as part of wider cost-cutting plans that its bosses say are being driven by advances in AI. The job cuts will mean losing about 5% of the bank's 93,000 global staff, with executives confirming they had already cut 1,000 workers since the start of the year. The bank's chief financial officer, Anna Cross, told reporters on Thursday that the job cuts were part of plans to save more than £1.1bn in 2027.

Protests have sprung up across the UK in opposition to the construction of datacentres, including outside the Scottish parliament. Protests have sprung up across the UK in opposition to the construction of datacentres, including outside the Scottish parliament. Former chancellor, now senior figure at OpenAI, says UK needs datacentres to maintain'sovereignty' over AI tech Datacentre nimbys are holding Britain back, George Osborne has said in reaction to nationwide protests about the giant water-and energy-guzzling structures. The former Tory chancellor is now the head of AI for countries at OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. His job is to represent the company to governments around the world and he also has a role in enabling the building of datacentres and other infrastructure.

The leaders of eight German states have backed the nation's chancellor amid growing speculation about his political future. The premiers - all of whom are part of Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) - wrote that restoring trust in their party lay in listening and taking political action, not in debates over personnel. Merz, who has only held the post for 16 months, is facing poor approval ratings while the anti-immigration, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is surging, prompting questions about whether he is an electoral liability. He has vowed to carry on but two more state elections on Sunday have been seen as a key test of his leadership. Rumours of a Kanzlertausch - or Chancellor swap - have been around for months, but they have increased since the conservative CDU tumbled to a distant second behind the AfD in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt at the start of September. The AfD shot up to 43.8% of the vote while the CDU plummeted to 17.2%, marking the first time since World War Two that a far-right party has come close to controlling a German state.

Unions who donate to Labour will meet John Healey on Thursday to press home their demands ahead of next month's Budget. Unite, the UK's second biggest union, has called for a reversal of the freezing of tax thresholds, that see the lowest paid drawn into paying tax. The union's leader, Sharon Graham, said she told Andy Burnham that the cut to the winter fuel allowance, carried out under former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, was a disgrace, adding: What to you need to do is winter fuel in reverse - something that says to everyday people I am on your side. The call is one of a number of policy proposals unions are taking to the chancellor, including increased taxes on tech companies. Unions say they believe Healey's first budget will define Andy Burnham's direction of travel as prime minister.

Faisal Islam: Chancellor's attempts to boost vibes may limit tax rises The chancellor may have thought about shifting the venue of his first major speech this morning. It was an absolute and total coincidence that he chose to make it in the Coventry Manufacturing and Technology Centre (MTC), just a few minute's drive from the city's totemic HQ of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). In the event, no one was pulling punches. The 4,000 office-based job losses at JLR were confirmed as John Healey answered questions a few miles away. Healey chose to lean into it as an example of the global turbulence against which the UK needs more resilience. The difference between this chancellor and his predecessor was he also feels that stressing fiscal discipline should instil confidence in consumers, businesses and investors, and not sap it away amid rolling fears of tax hikes.

The UK government borrows to fund day-to-day spending as well as long-term infrastructure projects.

Andy Burnham has accused former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair of failing to understand what's going on in people's lives and underestimating the impact of inequality. Sir Tony used a 5,600 word essay to argue the Labour government had no coherent plan for the country and had introduced policies that had held back business. He urged Labour not to move to the left and to embrace the radical centre instead. But Burnham, who is widely expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he wins a by-election next month, told the Observer Sir Tony doesn't mention inequality once in his critique of where the Labour government has gone wrong. If you don't get how that's driving politics now, if you are not rooting your analysis in the fact that people are unable to live and that things that were taken for granted are no longer affordable, then you are not understanding what's going on, said the mayor of Greater Manchester.

What are Russia's gains from the Iran war? 'We are not losers; we are winners' Who is Gerhard Schroeder, Putin's pick for Ukraine peace talks mediation? Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could coordinate talks with the European Union to secure a peace deal in Ukraine - a proposal met with scepticism by EU officials. European Council President Antonio Costa said recently he believed there was "potential" for the EU to negotiate with Russia and to discuss the future of Europe's security architecture. A day later, the Russian leader said the four-year-old war may be "coming to an end", adding that he was ready to hold direct talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Moscow or a neutral country. Speaking after Saturday's celebrations for Victory Day, which marks Russia's victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 at the end of World War II, Putin added he would be willing to meet Zelenskyy only once the terms of a peace agreement had already been settled.