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November 5: Bank of England Raises Rates, Florida Approves Property Tax Cuts
European flight threats
Bomb threats disrupted at least 15 international flights within Europe, forcing at least two emergency landings. No explosives were found. Among the affected flights, an Aer Lingus plane carrying 157 people from Ireland to Italy diverted to a French military air base after a bomb threat was reported during the flight.
Britain’s rates and border costs
The Bank of England raised its key interest rate to four percent, its first increase in more than three years, as it tries to curb rising prices fueled by the war in Iran.
Meanwhile, a planned UK-EU food agreement could eliminate checks that Britain spent heavily preparing to conduct. The National Audit Office estimates plant and animal health infrastructure cost around 800 million pounds. Portsmouth port director Mike Sellers says his facility was built for 80 trailer checks a day, but the eventual operating model required only about two. He wants government compensation.
Strikes across France
Workers are striking across France, demanding a higher minimum wage, broader pay increases and other reforms. Demonstrations began Thursday in cities including Marseille, Grenoble and Lyon. Hospital workers, teachers, rail staff and air traffic controllers are among those expected to participate. Authorities deployed 70,000 police officers nationwide.
U.S. election results
Democrats began recruiting congressional investigators and anti-corruption lawyers after their midterm victories. In Mississippi, the Senate race between Cindy Hyde-Smith and Scott Colom remains uncalled, with a razor-thin margin. State law provides neither automatic recounts nor recounts by request.
Voters rejected property tax cuts in Oklahoma and Wyoming. California’s proposed one-time, five percent tax on billionaires’ net worth appeared headed for defeat Wednesday morning, while Washington voters appeared likely to retain a tax on annual incomes above one million dollars.
Florida approved a gradual expansion of its homestead exemption, cutting property taxes except those supporting public schools. State projections put potential annual revenue losses at up to twelve billion dollars beginning in 2031.
Patrols near the Strait of Hormuz
South Korea says it plans to extend anti-piracy patrols closer to the Strait of Hormuz and wants to send a patrol aircraft to protect merchant ships off Oman. Seoul says pirates have ventured farther from Somalia’s coast, while stressing that it wants to keep its forces out of the Iran war.
Poverty in Uzbekistan
The World Bank estimates Uzbekistan’s national poverty rate fell from 17 percent in 2021 to 5.8 percent in 2025, with 3.7 million people moving above the threshold. It highlights wages and employment as factors. Uzbekistan’s government separately reports a rate of 3.6 percent for the first nine months of 2026.
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