A US federal appeals court has given Donald Trump’s global tariff plans a temporary reprieve, pausing yesterday’s ruling that the “Liberation Day” levies were illegal. The temporary stay – which allows the US to continue collecting tariffs – has been granted “until further notice”. Hamas is poised to reject a US-backed ceasefire plan which Israel agreed to uphold yesterday. Israeli officials say the deal would see Hamas hand over 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 dead hostages in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire, increased aid provided by the UN and the release of around 1,200 Palestinian prisoners. A senior Hamas official told the BBC the deal did not satisfy the group’s core demands. In a world first, the NHS will roll out a revolutionary blood test for lung and breast cancer patients. The “liquid biopsy”, which will be offered to 20,000 patients this year, allows for live monitoring, resulting in faster diagnoses and more personalised treatment.

Are we heading for Boris v Nigel?

Nigel Farage is the “most significant right-wing politician since Margaret Thatcher”, says Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail. He left the Tory party shortly after she was jettisoned, and “kept her candle burning bright” over many years. What’s happened? I used to think Farage was our best, and perhaps only, hope to save this country from economic decline, ever higher taxes, bolshy trade unions and a “bloated and often inefficient” state. Today, he is shedding his Thatcherite views in favour of left-wing ones. Almost every policy he announces – reinstating the winter fuel allowance, slashing the child benefit cap, raising the lowest income tax threshold – is designed to bribe Red Wall voters. But as any decent Thatcherite can see, we can’t possibly afford to do any of that. Farage is looking “less like the saviour this country so desperately needs”.

The difficulty for Reform UK is going to be keeping momentum, says Robert Shrimsley in the FT. Four years is a long time to stay ahead in the polls, and to maintain the impression that the Tories are toast and Reform really can win the next election. Opinions vary as to how long Kemi Badenoch’s MPs will give her as leader, but “Conservatives will not spend four years meekly shuffling towards the gunfire”. There is a reason for all the chatter about the return of Boris Johnson: it would, “at a stroke”, change the narrative of British politics. Farage can try all he likes to “play up Johnson’s failures”, but suddenly the most “newsworthy, maverick and charismatic figure” in politics would not be in Reform.

💸🧐 Farage’s leftward tilt opens a window of opportunity for the Tories, says Michael Simmons in The Spectator. Labour flirted with fiscal restraint but seem to have given it up at the “first sign of resistance”. But voters consistently rate the economy as the “most important issue facing the country”. If the Conservatives can sell themselves as the “party of fiscal prudence”, it just might be possible for them to weave a narrative that doesn’t see them completely wiped out at the next election.