- Teen Konstas to open for Australia in Boxing Day India Test
- Asian stocks mostly up after US tech rally
- US panel could not reach consensus on US-Japan steel deal: Nippon
- The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'
- Blogs to Bluesky: social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami
- Tennis power couple de Minaur and Boulter get engaged
- Supermaxi yachts eye record in gruelling Sydney-Hobart race
- Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, spewing columns of lava
- El Salvador Congress votes to end ban on metal mining
- Five things to know about Panama Canal, in Trump's sights
- NBA fines Minnesota guard Edwards $75,000 for outburst
- Haitians massacred for practicing voodoo were abducted, hacked to death: UN
- Inter beat Como to keep in touch with leaders Atalanta
- Man Utd boss Amorim questions 'choices' of Rashford's entourage
- Trump's TikTok love raises stakes in battle over app's fate
- Is he serious? Trump stirs unease with Panama, Greenland ploys
- England captain Stokes to miss three months with torn hamstring
- Support grows for Blake Lively over smear campaign claim
- Canada records 50,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2016
- Jordanian, Qatari envoys hold talks with Syria's new leader
- France's second woman premier makes surprise frontline return
- France's Macron announces fourth government of the year
- Netanyahu tells Israel parliament 'some progress' on Gaza hostage deal
- Guatemalan authorities recover minors taken by sect members
- Germany's far-right AfD holds march after Christmas market attack
- Serie A basement club Monza fire coach Nesta
- Mozambique top court confirms ruling party disputed win
- Syrian medics say were coerced into false chemical attack testimony
- NASA solar probe to make its closest ever pass of Sun
- London toy 'shop' window where nothing is for sale
- Volkswagen boss hails cost-cutting deal but shares fall
- Accused killer of US insurance CEO pleads not guilty to 'terrorist' murder
- Global stock markets mostly higher
- Not for sale. Greenland shrugs off Trump's new push
- Acid complicates search after deadly Brazil bridge collapse
- Norwegian Haugan dazzles in men's World Cup slalom win
- Arsenal's Saka out for 'many weeks' with hamstring injury
- Mali singer Traore child custody case postponed
- France mourns Mayotte victims amid uncertainy over government
- UK economy stagnant in third quarter in fresh setback
- African players in Europe: Salah leads Golden Boot race after brace
- German far-right AfD to march in city hit by Christmas market attack
- Ireland centre Henshaw signs IRFU contract extension
- Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Hasina's family
- US probes China chip industry on 'anticompetitive' concerns
- Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Clock ticks down on France government nomination
- Mozambique on edge as judges rule on disputed election
- Mobile cinema brings Tunisians big screen experience
- Honda and Nissan to launch merger talks
UK's Labour govt prepares to deliver decisive first budget
Britain's new Labour government unveils its first budget on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer warning of tax rises and public spending cuts as he focuses on long-term growth.
The highly-anticipated fiscal update -- the first under the centre-left government after 14 years of Conservative rule -- is crucial to Starmer's mission of firing up Britain's economy.
But to do that, he said there will be a number of "tough decisions".
The government has confirmed that the budget will include tax rises, cuts to public spending and changes to fiscal rules to enable borrowing billions more to invest.
Finance minister Rachel Reeves, who will present the budget to parliament October 30, has promised "iron discipline" over public finances.
Criticism has already been mounting against the government for scrapping a winter-fuel benefit scheme for millions of pensioners with a recent YouGov poll showing only 18 percent of the public approves of its performance.
- Fiscal rule changes -
The government has pledged to claw back what it says is a £22-billion ($28.6 billion) black hole in public finances inherited from the previous Tory government.
With the UK's public sector borrowing already back to levels last seen in the 1960s, Reeves will be shaking up Britain's fiscal rules to allow her to borrow billions more to fund public-sector investment.
Starmer has already announced a number of policies that will be included in Wednesday's budget, as he aims to fix "crumbling" public services and "stagnant" living standards.
The government is set to allocate £240 million to roll-out local services to help people get back to work.
It will also extend a cap on bus fares until next year but will raise the cap to £3 from £2.
Reeves has announced that £1.4 billion will be allocated to rebuild schools and £1.8 billion will go towards government-funded childcare.
She also said she will triple investment in free breakfast clubs.
The National Health Service is expected to receive a substantial boost, however Reeves warned Tuesday that one budget cannot "undo 14 years of damage" to the service.
- Tax rises -
The government has pledged not to raise taxes for "working people" -- which would rule out an increase to national insurance, income tax and VAT.
However, to meet this promise, Starmer has confirmed that other taxes will need to rise.
"Nobody wants higher taxes, just like nobody wants public spending cuts, but we have to be realistic about where we are as a country," he said in a speech on Monday.
Reeves is expected to raise employers’ –- rather than employee -– national insurance contributions by at least one percentage point in the budget.
Analysts are also predicting an increase in capital gains taxes and a reform of inheritance levies.
It's a move that has already attracted criticism from the opposition party.
"She promised not to raise tax, and tomorrow, she's planning the biggest tax raising budget in history," Conservative finance spokesman Jeremy Hunt said in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Alongside the budget, government fiscal watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will provide revised forecasts on Britain's economic growth.
J.Pereira--PC