News 28/10/26

Standing charges are to be removed from household gas bills for tens of millions of people, the Chancellor has announced.

Fixed costs will instead be incorporated into the unit rate, with the government estimating that sixty percent of households will save an average of forty-five pounds a year. Standing charges are fixed daily fees applied separately to energy bills regardless of usage.

A senior US Air Force officer was flown out of the UK before police could question him over child sexual abuse image allegations, it has emerged.

Lt Col Michael Morris, an assistant military attaché at the US embassy in London, left Britain in August. He faces formal military charges including possession and distribution of child pornography, obstructing justice, and conduct unbecoming an officer. A hearing takes place at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland next month.

King Charles has begun a nine-day tour of the Caribbean by acknowledging the great suffering of the past amid calls for slavery reparations.

Speaking in the Bahamas, the King said local culture was born out of darkness and it was right to acknowledge historic injustices. His tour culminates at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where he confirmed leaders will discuss the region’s legacy of slavery.