What happened
The UK is expected to record the highest inflation rate among G7 nations both this year and next. New projections from the International Monetary Fund indicate that prices will rise 3.4% this year and 2.5% next year – primarily driven by energy and utility costs – before easing to the Bank of England’s 2% target. Despite this, the UK is set to be the second-fastest-growing advanced economy after the US, with modest GDP growth of 1.3% this year and next.

Who said what
The IMF described Britain’s inflation problem as temporary, but said the Bank of England needed to be “very cautious” about future rate cuts. Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is attending IMF meetings in Washington, admitted that people felt the economy was “stuck” and promised to “deal with it”.

The forecasts suggest that “consumers in the UK are expected to suffer”, said Heather Stewart in The Guardian. Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride called the IMF’s report “grim reading”, accusing Labour of allowing living costs and debt to soar.

What next?
The IMF cautioned that global uncertainty, fuelled by US tariffs and slowing trade, could derail growth and urged policymakers to prioritise price stability.

What happened
An Afghan migrant who claimed that he would shoot Nigel Farage has been handed a prison term. Fayaz Khan, who had made TikTok videos about his attempts to cross the Channel from France in a small boat, was included in a YouTube video by Farage in which the Reform UK leader criticised the number of “young males of fighting age coming into our country”.

In response Khan posted a video in which he made gun gestures with his hand and pointed to a tattoo of a rifle on his face as he addressed Farage, saying: “I’m coming to England. I’m going to pop, pop, pop.”

Who said what
Giving evidence, Farage said: “Given his proximity to guns and love of guns, I was genuinely worried.” Sentencing judge Justice Steyn told Khan: “You saw the widespread dissemination of Mr Farage’s video as a hindrance to your attempts to come to the UK.”

What next?
Khan was sentenced to five years behind bars at Southwark Crown Court. Swedish authorities have said they believe he has 17 convictions there under the name Fayaz Husseini, including for carrying a knife.

The running community has been caught in the middle of a bitter legal battle between the twin titans of athletic technology.

Strava, the app widely known as the “Instagram for exercise”, is suing rival platform Garmin for allegedly copying its features in a dispute that one runner summed up on TikTok as being “like Mom and Dad fighting”.

Strava is a fitness tracking app with social features that allow users to record their times, race against others, find popular routes for runs or cycle rides, and share their progress.

Garmin, meanwhile, specialises in GPS-enabled devices, with its smartwatches particularly popular among runners. And although the Strava app offers its own GPS tracking, many people like to use wearable technology, such as Garmin’s fitness watches, “because they think they are more accurate”, said The Guardian.

Until recently a truce had prevailed, with Strava allowing users with Garmin watches to record data from its app. But now Strava claims that Garmin has infringed on two of its copyrighted features: segments, which allow users to track their time in a particular section of a workout compared to other users, and heat maps, a visual representation of the popularity of different routes in an area. Strava says these options breach an agreement the two companies made in 2015 for Garmin “not to reverse engineer some of the Strava app’s features for its own purposes”.

When and how the stand-off is resolved remains to be seen. For now, amateur runners who have yet to enter the fitness tracking world “might want to wait and see” how this “dispute develops” before they commit to buying any pricey gear, said TechRadar.