UK economy at near-standstill as uncertainty over the budget and high interest rates weighed on consumer spending

The government did not put anybody up in the media round this morning in order to defend the weak GDP figures, but recently appointed Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride was across the airwaves to react to them.

He said he had concerns about growth going forward after seeing the figures. He told viewers of Sky News:

If you look at the OBR forecast around the budget, it shows growth being lower across that forecast than it would have been under us back in the spring.

We saw that in what are called PMI surveys of business confidence, and they pretty much plummeted not long after the government came into office. And I think some of that, at least, is what you’re seeing feeding through.

But I think the longer term is equally worrying, because, of course, what the government has done is ramped up taxes on business, national insurance, that’s going to depress wages, increase unemployment, it’s going to lower growth. You’re going to see higher inflation as a consequence, and higher interest rates. And these are things that are not good as an outlook for the future

At my budget, I took the difficult choices to fix the foundations and stabilise our public finances. Now we are going to deliver growth through investment and reform to create more jobs and more money in people’s pockets, get the NHS back on its feet, rebuild Britain and secure our borders in a decade of national renewal.

I think a lot of that is because this government, on coming to office, talked down the UK economy.

And it did that because it always planned to jack up taxes in the way that it has in the budget, and wanted to make out there was a bigger problem than there was.

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After a loved and hated second season, more of the button-pushing teen drama has been on pause but production is soon to officially begin

You would be forgiven for thinking that Euphoria was all wrapped up with. After all, as things stand, it has the entire world stacked against it. No new episodes have been seen for two years and nine months at this point. Narratively, season two ended without any big cliffhangers to clear up, or even all that many interesting plot beats to continue.

And then there’s its cast. Since Euphoria went off the air, its troupe of young actors have all been rocketed into the stratosphere. Jacob Elordi has become Emerald Fennell’s go-to muse, appearing in both Saltburn and her upcoming Wuthering Heights adaptation. Maude Apatow has gone away and directed her first movie. Colman Domingo was nominated for an Oscar for Rustin, and may well be nominated for another for Sing Sing. Sydney Sweeney has become an old-school four-quadrants movie star thanks to her ability to appeal to young women and horny teenage boys in equal measure. And the last few years have seen Zendaya become even more Zendaya than ever, which is impressive because she was already pretty Zendaya to begin with.

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Still only 20, Gauff moves with a wisdom that belies her youth. This was never more evident than how she conducted her business on and off the court during last week’s WTA Finals in Riyadh

Steadily – and rapidly – over the last 30 years, seeking to both expand their economic strength by not relying solely on their petroleum riches as well as struggling to convince the world they are becoming a less repressive regime, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has built an empire across the broad spectrum of professional sports; F1 racing, soccer, basketball, WWE and, most notoriously, golf with the LIV tour. And now professional tennis is the latest sport to be seduced by the massive amounts of money that the Kingdom can offer, with the WTA Finals just having concluded in Riyadh.

In 2023, while the Kingdom was intensely lobbying the WTA to host the tennis tour’s year end finals in Riyadh, a fault line developed amongst the old guard of the sport, with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova on one side and Billie Jean King on the other. In late 2023, just before the WTA confirmed that Riyadh would indeed host the 2024 WTA Finals, Evert and Navratilova sent a letter to the WTA outlining their deeply felt concerns:

In light of the WTA Finals potentially being moved to Saudi Arabia, we feel it is essential to speak up now and highlight why we are so concerned. The WTA Finals is the crown jewel of our tour and we can’t sit back and allow something as significant as this to happen without an open, honest and transparent discussion.We fully appreciate the importance of respecting diverse cultures and religions. It is because of this, and not in spite of it, that we believe allowing Saudi Arabia to host the WTA Finals is entirely incompatible with the spirit and purpose of women’s tennis, and the WTA itself.

The WTA was founded on fairness and equality to empower women in a male dominated world. In short, the WTA should represent values which sit in stark contrast to those of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not only is this a country where women are not seen as equal, it is a country which criminalizes the LGBTQ community.

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Dr Jean William ‘Bill’ Pape runs free health services and says people’s needs cannot wait for an end to the gang warfare that is tearing the country apart

Years of gang warfare have shuttered his country’s health system. About 700,000 people have had to leave their homes, many to live in tents. His son was abducted and held by a gang for months and his medical staff, those who have not fled, are regularly kidnapped.

Dr Jean William “Bill” Pape believes Haiti has now reached its lowest point: “I don’t think we can get any lower.” But people’s needs will not wait for an end to the violence, says the founder of the Gheskio (Haitian Group for the Study of Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections) network of health clinics.

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Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in an absorbing drama about the world’s first ‘test tube baby’, plus: Steve McQueen’s second world war epic about an evacuee who stays behind in London

The story of how the world’s first “test-tube baby”, Louise Joy Brown, came to be born in 1978 has been turned into an absorbing tale of medical discovery and motherhood by writer Jack Thorne and director Ben Taylor. Cambridge biologist Robert Edwards (James Norton) and Oldham obstetrician Patrick Steptoe ( Bill Nighy ) were the public face of 10 years of IVF research, but we mainly see the project’s ups and downs through the eyes of the team’s vital third member, lab technician Jean Purdy (a magnetic Thomasin McKenzie). Her struggles over her faith and health, and empathy with the childless test subjects, give an achingly personal dimension to the historic, life-changing quest.
Friday 22 November, Netflix

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(Stroom/Granvat)
The duo are joined by a stellar cast including Bill Frisell and Laraaji, bringing innovation and playfulness to their bright, elemental music

Spiralling out from a palette of Lithuanian folk forms, this album feels like a sharp, cold and bright autumn morning, bracingly new. Once a three-piece, Merope is now a duo comprising Lithuanian singer Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, who plays the kanklės (a Baltic chordophone with which she makes sounds that phosphoresce like frost or flash like streaking meteors) and Belgian multi-instrumentalist Bert Cools. They bring in a stellar supporting cast for their fifth album, including zither master Laraaji and jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, plus innovative composers Shahzad Ismaily and Toma Gouband.

Vėjula begins with Koumu Lil, about a newborn foal taking to its feet before heading across the fields. Fragments of Jurgelevičiūtė’s vocals burst in, like sunlight through clouds, over glimmering arpeggios on zithers and synthesisers, suggesting the momentary magic and fragility of early life. Just as beautiful is the more traditional Namopi, featuring both Laraaji and Ismaily. Its lovely violin melody emerges from an undertow of chimed strings and Moog shimmers, and carries you along in its bowed movements.

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Presenter says it ‘makes sense for someone else to take the helm’ at show as BBC looks to make changes

Gary Lineker has said it is the “right time” for him to leave Match of the Day after presenting the BBC football programme for more than two decades.

Speaking on his podcast, The Rest is Football, the 63-year-old said his time on the show had been “an absolute joy and privilege” but it was time for “someone else to take the helm” as the BBC looks to make changes to the show.

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Lebanon’s state-run national news agency said the Ghobeiry area ‘witnessed heavy gunfire’ from Israeli forces

We are restarting our live coverage of Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza.

The Israeli military has ordered residents to immediately evacuate the Beirut southern suburb of Ghobeiry , where it says Hezbollah fighters are located.

In Gaza, at least two people were killed and several others injured after an overnight Israeli airstrike hit a residential apartment in the centre of Deir al-Balah , according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. In a separate attack, the outlet reports that two members of the same family – a father and son – were killed in an Israeli missile strike that targeted a home in the village of al-Nasr , northeast of the southern city of Rafah .

The Israel Defense Forces said two rockets launched from Lebanon at the Haifa Bay area of Israel were successfully intercepted by air defenses. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

Canada’s foreign minister has expressed deep concern about “catastrophic” humanitarian conditions across Gaza and warned about “the life-threatening levels of acute malnutrition.” The country’s foreign affairs minister, Melanie Joly, cited a 8 November report by the Famine Review Committee that found a strong likelihood that famine is occurring or imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip. She said Israel must abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law and provide a significant and sustained increase to humanitarian assistance for Palestinians.

Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which says the policy amounts to crimes against humanity. The US-based group added it had collected evidence that suggested “the war crime of forcible transfer [of the civilian population]”, describing it as “a grave breach of the Geneva conventions and a crime under the Rome statute of the international criminal court” (you can read more about the report’s findings here ).

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It is easy to forego your own pleasure at this time of year – wearing lace is a way of asserting your own right to Christmas fun and pleasure

If I ask you a personal question will you promise not to take it the wrong way? Great. Do you, by any chance, have a tendency to martyrdom? I only ask because, as Christmas season looms on the horizon, the female impulse to sacrifice our own pleasure or free time in the cause of doing things for others gets particularly intense. Writing cards to people you haven’t spoken to all year. Making sloe gin to give as gifts. Buying stocking presents for the dog. Filling your notes app with endless lists.

It is a complicated thing, martyrdom, because it comes from a good place, but if you don’t keep an eye on it, it gets not just pointless (spoiler alert: the dog doesn’t care) but counter-productive. I promise that friends would much rather you arrived at their drinks party in a brilliant mood clutching a bottle of warm supermarket prosecco than overtired and crabby with a homemade gift.

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