Senior banking executives have told the BBC they expect the sector to be on the menu when the chancellor announces his Budget in two weeks' time. John Healey has described the banks as part of the crown jewels of the UK economy, yet has refused to rule out a raid on the sector. The biggest four banks collectively made around £15bn profit in the first six months of this year, leading to calls from trade unions and others for additional taxes. However, the banking sector trade body, UK Finance, warned that further increases in bank taxes would weaken competitiveness, discourage investment and job creation, and work against the government's ambition to deliver growth in every postcode. What is the Budget and what could be in it?

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said she is minded to intervene in the proposed £1.6bn deal for Sky to buy ITV's media and entertainment division. Nandy said there were reasonable grounds to believe the deal could affect free expression in the media and the variety of Britain's news landscape. Sky said it would carefully consider a letter from the culture secretary and engage constructively with the review into the deal. We remain confident that bringing Sky and ITV's media and entertainment business together will create a stronger British media, it said. ITV welcomed the letter and said the deal would help it compete with global streaming platforms, benefiting viewers, advertisers and the UK creative industries.

Image caption, Romania's Maritime Coordination Centre has launched a search and rescue operation off the coast (file pic) Eight of 12 crew members are missing after a tanker caught fire off Romania's coast, naval authorities say, and there are reports of explosions on board. The San Marino-flagged Wine Trader was about 13 nautical miles (24km) east of the mouth of the River Danube at Sulina, when it reported explosions and a fire on Thursday morning. The west coast of the Black Sea has seen a spate of drone attacks in the past two weeks and there are unconfirmed reports from nearby ships that the tanker was hit by two drones. Swarms of Russian drones were detected overnight not far from the scene of Thursday's fire, near Ukraine's Snake Island. On Tuesday, two merchant ships were struck by drones further south along the coast of Bulgaria, Romania's neighbour, and one of the vessels sank.

UK economy grew 0.1% in August ahead of Healey's first Budget The UK's economy grew slightly in August, according to the last set of official figures before John Healey's Budget. With the chancellor planning to set out his tax and spending plans later this month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the economy expanded by 0.1%, which was better than analysts had expected. The small increase follows growth of 0.4% in July, as well as positive upgrades to the outlook for Britain's economy from global watchdog the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But Healey still faces a challenge to to deliver a balanced Budget without turning to more borrowing. Britain's economy was boosted in August by an increase in production, which includes manufacturing, oil and gas extraction and energy supply.

I'm 12 and I want to try protein powder - should I? Twelve-year-old Ben is desperate to try protein powder but there's one hurdle: me, his mum. I've asked about 20 times and you just keep saying no!, he says, claiming it would make him fitter and bigger and that his male friends use it. In recent years, there's been an explosion of products marketed as high protein, including milk, yoghurt, breads, cereals, bars and powders. Social media is flooded with adverts for various supplements, including protein powder. As a health journalist, I'm sceptical and think at Ben's age he must be getting enough protein through his diet.

Amarpreet Singh has been drinking protein shakes since he was 16. The 30-year-old, who lives in London and works in banking, started going to the gym at a time when he says protein supplements were mostly associated with bodybuilders. Fourteen years later, shakes are still part of his routine, but they have become considerably more expensive. He says a 4.5kg bag of the whey protein he buys cost around £60 in 2020. By last year, the price had gone up to £120, though he managed to get one from eBay for £90. Now the same bag is £170.

The video games industry is unpredictable. If you'd told us this time last year that a previously unknown French studio would claim game of the year, Battlefield 6 would knock Call of Duty off the top of the annual charts and that Saudi Arabia would buy gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) we'd have been... sceptical. So you'd have to be very sure of yourself - or very foolish - to try and predict what's going to happen in the year ahead. Luckily, we're not in the crystal ball business here at BBC Newsbeat, but there are a few things we can be confident video game fans should keep an eye on in 2026. Whether it's big releases, big moves or big issues - here's a rundown of some of the most important things to look out for.

A man who was twice homeless as a teenager before becoming a multimillionaire entrepreneur has topped a list celebrating influential black Britons. Dean Forbes, who, after failing to make it as a professional footballer, began his career in a call centre, is now the boss of a software company. He worked his way up from abject poverty on an estate in south-east London to become chief executive of Forterro, a Swedish software firm. Forbes said topping the Powerlist 2025 was a professional and career high. He told the BBC that although he grew up in a single-parent family on a housing estate in Lewisham, his disabled mum always encouraged her children to be positive, and gave them hope.

Late autumn is the time for making lap yuk, a type of preserved pork that is a local speciality, and across town I would often spot slabs of meat hanging from high-rise apartment balconies, tied up with string and swaying next to shirts and sheets left out to dry. To make lap yuk, a piece of raw pork belly is soaked in a blend of rice wine, salt, soy sauce and spices, then hung out to cure in the damp, cold autumn air. The fat becomes translucent and imparts a savoury-sweet taste to any stir-fried vegetable dish. A relative of mine claims that only southern China can make preserved pork like this. The secret is the native spores and bacteria that are carried on the wind there. Guangzhou was the first stop on a journey I was taking in order to try to understand how artificial intelligence is transforming China's pork industry. The country is the world's largest producer of pork, and the story of how it has ramped up production in recent years to feed its growing middle class is sometimes described as "China's pork miracle".

Thursday's top Amazon deals are on things you'll love. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA Today's newsroom and any business incentives. When everyone else is checking their email, reading the news, or scrolling through Facebook as they start their day, I'm over here poring over Amazon's deals to try and find those hidden gems and exciting sales on products that are actually awesome. Some days, it can be hard to find more than one or two that really wow me, but today it took no time at all to spot these all-star deals on vacuums, soundbars, smart speakers, protein powder, and tax software.