Sky News Today with Gareth Barlow

The IMF, meeting in Thailand, forecast faster UK growth this year, upgrading it from 1% to 1.3% and making the UK joint second fastest-growing G7 economy with Germany, while global growth was upgraded and France was downgraded. It warned food and energy costs will keep rising because of the Middle East war, with extreme weather and attacks on energy infrastructure adding pressure, and its chief economist said the UK should stay the course on fiscal consolidation. Analysis said AI is boosting growth but the UK is not directly benefiting as an energy importer without major AI exports, and the IMF warned an AI bubble bursting could significantly dent global growth; the IFS said large tax rises would likely need income tax or VAT. A senior Houthi spokesman, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, told Sky News Saudi Arabia was to blame for people killed when the Houthis struck an airport over the weekend, saying the group had warned Saudi Arabia and airlines that Saudi airports were legitimate targets and that it was sorry for civilian casualties but did not bear responsibility. UK Minister Luke Pollard said anyone firing a missile or drone at a civilian target is responsible and the Houthis cannot remove responsibility for deliberately targeting civilians.

At least one person was killed and five injured in a Russian drone attack on a high-rise apartment block in Kyiv overnight, while two ships were struck off Bulgaria in a drone attack a week after a similar incident; one sank, Ukraine blamed Russia, Bulgaria summoned Russia's ambassador, and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the attacks as unacceptable and said the Black Sea had become another front of escalation. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the Warsaw Security Forum that resolve was being tested, that Putin was not winning the war but that was not enough, and that sanctions, fiscal support and defensive support for Ukraine mattered. Sky's Ivor Bennett noted Donald Trump had lifted sanctions on Russian diesel and described an energy ceasefire, but Ukraine accused Russia of hitting at least six energy targets on Monday, and analyst Keir Giles discussed the pattern of diplomacy, reduced warning of ballistic missile launches and the urgent need for air defence and other support before winter. In UK politics, Parliament returned after party conference season and the Prime Minister chaired his first Cabinet in four weeks, with the mood described as upbeat after holding Holborn and St Pancras and a poll bounce from Andy Burnham's conference speech, though a new poll put Labour on 24% and Reform third for the first time since the general election. Ahead were the Budget in a couple of weeks, inflation and shrinking headroom, a £4.7bn defence black hole and about £10bn a year to reach the 3% target, plus a delayed EU summit in Brussels on 20 November where the Prime Minister has discussed closer ties and red lines, prompting both concern from red wall MPs and delight from one cabinet minister.

Emergency calls from the night of the botched execution of Christa Pike, who was sentenced to death for the murder of her classmate in 1995, showed help was delayed by confusion among first responders and prison officials; an initial 911 call came just over an hour after the attempted lethal injection began, but the operator was later told it was a false alarm, and prison officials only confirmed the emergency was real more than half an hour after the first call. More than 150 clinicians, including GPs and speech and language therapists, wrote to the government warning of a crisis in children's health linked to screen use in classrooms, saying almost a million children spend nearly every lesson on screens and raising concerns about sight, speech and language. They pointed to short-sightedness more than doubling since the 1960s, more than 2 million children struggling with speech and language, and SEND children being disproportionately steered towards screen-based learning, and called for a review. The government said it would consult on AI and ed tech to ensure they are safe in schools, and that technology used well can support learners and free up teachers.