Who will join Alix Earle, Robert Irwin, Whitney Leavitt, and Jen Affleck in the ballroom?
Day: September 3, 2025
Treasury reveals date as speculation rises over potential tax increases to plug deficit in public finances of up to £40bn
Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget will take place on 26 November, the Treasury has announced, amid mounting speculation over tax increases.
With the government under pressure on the economy, the chancellor has previously said measures designed to reboot growth would form the basis of her highly anticipated tax and spending plans.
On 27 August 2025, the presidents and prime ministers of three major EU states – Emmanuel Macron of France, Friedrich Merz of Germany and Donald Tusk of Poland – arrived in Chișinău for Moldova’s Independence Day. Their joint visit, just one month before the 28 September parliamentary elections, was a clear demonstration of political support for the country’s European path. After talks with President Maia Sandu, the leaders pledged continued technical and financial assistance, condemned Russian attempts at interference and hybrid operations, and sent a direct signal to Moscow that the EU would not leave Moldova alone under pressure. The visit, according to Politico, underscored the bloc’s readiness to stand with Chișinău in the run-up to the vote.
Moldova and Ukraine on a joint track to the EU
Since 2022, Moldova has been a candidate for EU membership, with accession talks formally launched last year. On 4 July 2025, Chișinău and Brussels held their first-ever Moldova–EU summit, confirming the country’s “European future” and commitment to align with the Union’s legal and market standards. The path is closely linked to that of Ukraine, both facing Russian aggression and hybrid threats ranging from disinformation to energy blackmail. European capitals view this alignment as part of a single “security arc” stretching from the Carpathians to the Black Sea, reducing Moscow’s space for destabilisation.
Elections as a test of resilience
The 28 September elections are widely described as decisive for Moldova’s European orientation. Russian-backed political projects, including associates of Ilan Șor and figures such as Igor Dodon and Vladimir Voronin, are seeking to reverse reforms through external funding and disinformation campaigns. Kremlin-linked actors have amplified efforts to disrupt diaspora voting, targeting Moldovans abroad – especially in Italy, Romania, France and Germany – with false messages about closed polling stations, invalid passports or threats to residency status. Online operations include DDoS attacks against the electoral commission and falsified protocols. These tactics aim to reduce turnout and undermine legitimacy if pro-European forces prevail.
Strategic consequences of the vote
A victory for pro-European parties would consolidate Moldova’s synchronisation with EU institutions, strengthen energy and trade integration with Romania and the wider Union, and bolster joint security cooperation, including border protection and cybersecurity. Conversely, a shift to a pro-Russian course would open a “soft corridor” for Moscow via Transnistria to the Danube and the Black Sea, reviving smuggling networks and undermining EU sanctions regimes. Such an outcome would also pressure Romania’s borders, strain NATO’s eastern flank and damage the credibility of EU enlargement policy. For the Union, Moldova’s direction is thus a strategic test with implications for the region’s stability.
European leaders’ messages
In Chișinău, Chancellor Merz emphasised that “the doors of the European Union are open,” signalling the EU’s readiness to begin opening negotiation chapters this autumn. Tusk recalled Poland’s own accession path two decades ago, highlighting parallels with Moldova’s current position. Macron dismissed Russian narratives of an “aggressive EU” as lies, underlining the voluntary nature of the Union. For Sandu, her call for a “great family of peace – the European Union” framed the choice as one between stability and accountability on the one hand, and chaos and impunity on the other.
Moldova’s 2024 referendum narrowly endorsed EU integration with 50.4% support, giving the government a democratic mandate for reform. Since then, the country has shifted its energy and trade orientation to Europe, ending reliance on Russian gas after Gazprom halted supplies in late 2024. Against this backdrop, the presence of Macron, Merz and Tusk in Chișinău on 27 August was intended as a political anchor for Moldova’s pro-European trajectory in the decisive weeks before the election.
Reform UK leader to speak about Online Safety Act at House judiciary committee; government set to announce date of budget at PMQs later
Good morning. It is the first PMQs since July, and with the government set to announce the date of the budget today (Wednesday 26 November, if HuffPost UK is right), you would expect Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch to get stuck into a debate about the economy, and taxation.
But it might end up as a free speech day at Westminster, as a result of the conflation of two related issues.
On the question of civil liberties, Britain has, unfortunately, now lost her way.
I will do my part, as a participant in UK democracy, to help our country find its way back to the traditional freedoms which have long bound together our two countries in friendship. In the meantime, Congress should draw bright lines: British free speech rules, applicable to Britons, are made in Britain, and American speech rules, applicable to Americans, are made in America.