Death toll in Hong Kong tower block fire rises to 44 with hundreds still missing

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Three arrests made after huge blaze broke out at Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po district on Wednesday

The death toll from a huge fire that engulfed several residential tower blocks in Hong Kong has risen to 44, with 45 in critical condition and hundreds reported missing.

A taskforce has been set up to investigate the cause of the fire, which broke out on Wednesday afternoon at the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po, in the northern New Territories. The complex is made up of eight 31-storey towers containing about 2,000 flats, which house about 4,800 people.

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Properties worth more than £2m in England face new tax – BBC

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  1. Properties worth more than £2m in England face new tax  BBC
  2. ‘I don’t live in a mansion. It’s a 1930s house’: Richmond residents react to council tax rise  The Guardian
  3. Chancellor swoops on landlords and wealthy homeowners  Financial Times
  4. Reeves Hits UK Property With Annual Tax on £2 Million Homes  Bloomberg.com
  5. UK Mansion Tax—The Beginning Of A British Wealth Tax Regime?  Forbes
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Rachel Reeves targets UK’s wealthiest in £26bn tax-raising budget

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Chancellor axes two-child benefit cap and cuts energy bills paid for by mansion tax and freezing tax thresholds

Rachel Reeves targeted Britain’s wealthiest households with a £26bn tax-raising budget to fund scrapping the two-child benefit policy and cutting energy bills.

On a chaotic day that involved key details of her budget accidentally being released early by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the chancellor defended the measures, saying she was “asking everyone to make a contribution to repair the public finances”, but that she wanted the wealthiest to pay the most.

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How Rachel Reeves’s budget was leaked 40 minutes early

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By the time the chancellor reached the dispatch box, the OBR had accidentally published its verdict in full online

Shortly before midday on Wednesday, a series of headlines about Rachel Reeves’s budget began appearing on the Reuters newswire, sending instant ripples though financial markets.

The details were jaw-dropping: they appeared to spell out the key policies of the chancellor’s budget more than 40 minutes before she was due to deliver them to a crowded Commons chamber.

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How Rachel Reeves’s budget was leaked 40 minutes early

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By the time the chancellor reached the dispatch box, the OBR had accidentally published its verdict in full online

Shortly before midday on Wednesday, a series of headlines about Rachel Reeves’s budget began appearing on the Reuters newswire, sending instant ripples though financial markets.

The details were jaw-dropping: they appeared to spell out the key policies of the chancellor’s budget more than 40 minutes before she was due to deliver them to a crowded Commons chamber.

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