Andy Burnham has authorised the first deployment of the UK military since becoming Prime Minister, agreeing to provide defensive support to Saudi Arabia as Iran-backed Houthi rebels intensify attacks across the region.
The Royal Air Force will provide air-to-air refuelling for Saudi aircraft carrying out defensive missions against the militants, who are threatening vital energy supplies and trade routes.
The support is expected to begin in the coming days and will be limited to “weeks”, with a single RAF Voyager assigned to the operation. The Voyager is the RAF’s air-to-air refuelling tanker, allowing fighter aircraft to remain airborne for longer and operate over greater distances.
PM to meet Trump for first time this week – what to expect
Prime Minister Andy Burnham set off for New York on Monday for the United Nations General Assembly.
It will be Burnham’s first foray into global diplomacy, as well as his first opportunity to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump.
Burnham is expected to meet Trump on Tuesday, at a time when the UK’s special relationship with the US is particularly fraught.
From the war in Iran, to Israel and the Falklands, there are a string of issues that could lead to conflict. Though there are hopes for co-operation too.
PM to set out vision for Britain
For Burnham, who Trump has described as the “mayor of a town”, an array of flashpoints may crop up in their 30-minute meeting.
The meeting will happen the same day the PM plans to set out his vision for Britain’s place on the world stage.
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What could be on the agenda?
Britain has not endorsed the wider Iran war, which is driving up energy costs.
Burnham is expected to press Trump for more support for Ukraine.
Trump has pressed former PMs to expand North Sea drilling and welcomed Burnham’s pledge to do so.
What could be on the agenda?
Digital services tax
Trump has threatened trade deals over the UK’s £1bn digital tax and has concerns over its under-16 social media ban.
Trade deals
Burnham may press Trump to fully revive the £31bn tech prosperity deal.
Trump has declined to commit to defending the Falklands, stoking fears that he could treat the islands’ sovereignty as negotiable.
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Cash ISA cut to go ahead in April – everything we know
A cut to the tax-free amount savers can deposit in a cash ISA will go ahead next April, The i Paper has learned.
Here is everything we know about the changing rules so far.
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What you need to know
The Government will press ahead with reforms to the cash ISA on 6 April 2027.
Former chancellor Rachel Reeves proposed the change in 2025 so that only £12,000 of the £20,000 annual ISA allowance could be held in cash, in a bid to encourage more people to invest in stocks and shares, which can offer higher long-term returns and boost businesses and the economy.
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Uninvested cash subject to new tax
The amount savers under 65 can deposit into a cash ISA tax-free each year will fall from £20,000 to £12,000 in April.
Savers in that age bracket will still be able to invest a further £8,000 tax-free in a stocks and shares ISA or the rarely used innovative finance ISA. Any interest earned on uninvested cash held inside stocks and shares ISAs will also face a new 22 per cent tax charge.
Finance industry calls for delays to new rules
- With less than seven months to go, the finance industry is demanding clarity on how the change will work – with some calling for a delay.
- Yorkshire Building Society described the timetable for implementing the changes as “challenging”.
- The Treasury has said officials are working “at pace” to put the necessary rules in place ahead of its launch next April.
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Customers face confusion about new rules
Bryan Byrnes, director of personal finance at savings provider Moneybox, said that customers were already confused about how the new rules will work.
He added: “Helping customers navigate these changes will therefore be just as important as implementing them.”
How baby girls are more sociable than boys from birth
Baby girls tend to be more people-focused than boys from when they are first born, a study suggests.
Researchers found that when newborns were shown side-by-side videos of a face and a toy, girls spent proportionally more time watching the face than boys did, suggesting that differences in attention may emerge from birth.
Biological factors at play
Because the babies were only a day or so old, it is unlikely that cultural or social experiences had influenced the effect.
It instead points to biological factors, including genetics and differing levels of testosterone exposure in the womb.
However, it is worth noting that the findings, based on tests with 130 babies at the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge, do not apply to all girls and all boys.
There was still plenty of variation and overlap between each sex.
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This is a very active and heated debate in the field of sex differences: what are the causes behind sex differences and how early in life are they present? What our research shows is that at least some differences are present at a small scale very early on in life.
Yumnah Khan, a PhD student at the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge
What does it tell us?
- Small differences at birth may play a role in long-observed trends.
- For example, girls typically learn to talk earlier than boys, and develop certain social skills younger too.
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The expert view
If they’re showing heightened social interest from birth onwards, that might facilitate the development of these skills.
Although only a hypothesis, Khan said that greater social interest from birth could help facilitate verbal and social skills.
However, she said further studies that follow the babies until they are toddlers would be required to support that idea.
Everything you need to know about the Russian elections
The pro-Putin ruling United Russia party retained its decisive majority in the national parliament, near-complete election results showed on Monday, while the anti-war Yabloko party appeared to have won a tiny foothold in one regional parliament.
The background
- Vladimir Putin had cast the three-day election to the State Duma – the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022 – as a test of support for the war.
- Elections for some regional parliaments and governors were held at the same time.
- In a tightly controlled political system, which critics say does not tolerate genuine dissent, few surprises were expected.
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A closer look at the results
With over 95 per cent of the vote counted, Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Central Electoral Commission, said United Russia had won a resounding victory with 57.83 per cent, up from the 49.8 per cent that it won in the last parliamentary election, in 2021.
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What else you need to know
- United Russia was set to control 355 seats or nearly 80 per cent of the 450-seat Duma, a total that includes results in individual constituencies.
- That would maintain its constitutional majority – enabling it to pass laws and initiate amendments to the constitution without support of other parties.
- Pamfilova said three other parties had made it into parliament – the Communists with 13.81 per cent, the ultra-nationalist LDPR with 8.98 per cent, and the New People party with 7.96 per cent.
read the i paper’s latest analysis
What Putin’s paranoia will lead him to do next
“Stalin knew how to run Russia and how to get respect. Vladimir Putin could learn something from him.”
The BBC has removed several sketches from That Mitchell and Webb Look on iPlayer after deciding some of the comedy show’s material “no longer works today”.
Controversial material removed
The sketch comedy show, starring comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb, originally ran for four seasons between 2006 and 2010.
However, some material has been removed, including scenes featuring war re-enactors in Blackface, a joke about Jimmy Savile and a sketch about a contestant on a makeover show wearing a burka, reported.
What did the BBC say?
This is a 20-year-old sketch ; in consultation with the programme makers, we have included the ones still work today not the ones don’t.
bbc spokesperson
Flights disrupted across north of UK – what you need to know
Flights across the UK – particularly Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England – are facing disruption due to a “technical issue” with air traffic control.
Here is everything you need to know – including the airports affected.
What caused the problem?
Nats, which runs air traffic control, has said the issue at its Prestwick centre in Ayrshire is “now fixed”, and that it is working to “safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can”. It said the glitch was a “connectivity issue with part of our systems network”.
Second failure in two weeks
This is the second failure at Nats in less than a fortnight.
But it said this most recent disruption has “nothing to do” with the software defect that led to the cancellation of 2,000 flights across the UK earlier this month.
EasyJet said this “once again calls into questions the resilience of Nats’ systems”.
Airports report disruption
Airports across the UK have reported varying degrees of disruption. They include:
- and – Arrivals and departures.
- – Issue causing some delays.
- – Experiencing “some delays”.
- – Urging passengers to contact their airline.
- – Experiencing some delays and cancellations similar to other airports.
- – Experiencing “some disruption” and “working closely” with Nats to resolve the issue.
- – Warns that there “will be disruption” to both arrivals and departures.
It marks a significant early test of Burnham’s approach to the use of British military power.
The Prime Minister approved the deployment after receiving a formal request from the Saudi government and taking advice from the Defence Secretary and Foreign Secretary.
This is in addition to the decision taken in March by the then Defence Secretary John Healey to deploy a Sky Sabre, the Army’s medium-range ground-based air defence system, to Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd Air Base.
‘Defensive’ move to protect British interests and help against Houthis
Speaking to reporters en route to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Burnham said the decision was intended to protect British interests as well as help Saudi Arabia respond to the growing threat from the Houthis.
“We have received a request from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for military support, and on the advice of the Defence Secretary and the Foreign Secretary, last night I agreed to that request for defensive air to air refueling, and that’s the agreement that we’ve given,” the Prime Minister said.
The move comes after a dramatic deterioration in the regional security situation over the past week. Houthi forces have made significant territorial gains in Yemen, including around the strategically important Bab al-Mandeb strait, while launching attacks against Saudi Arabia and its energy infrastructure.
The strait, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, is a crucial maritime chokepoint and any prolonged disruption could have consequences for international shipping and energy markets.
Burnham said those “pathways” needed to be “kept open” to avoid “potential further disruption.”
“I got back to the point I made about cost-of-living pressures and acting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region, because of course Saudi Arabia has been experiencing attacks, is looking at potential further disruption, and we need to keep those pathways open,” he said.
How long will UK military support of Saudi Arabia last?
The Prime Minister stressed that the assistance would be time limited and kept under review.
“It’s defensive support. We have support in the region to maintain the Strait of Hormuz open. We are playing our part,” he added.
Asked whether he would encourage US President Donald Trump to bring the conflict with Iran to an end when the two leaders meet in New York on Tuesday, Burnham said the UK wanted to see the conflict end “as quickly as possible”.
“Of course the message is that we want to see an end to the conflict as quickly as possible and we stand ready to play our part,” the Prime Minister said.
The decision to deploy the RAF puts Burnham in a delicate position as he seeks to support a key regional ally without drawing Britain deeper into the conflict.
It also echoes a decision by his predecessor, Keir Starmer, whose government allowed RAF Voyager aircraft to provide air-to-air refuelling support for US forces operating against the Houthis. Ministers argued at the time that the UK was acting alongside its closest ally in collective self-defence and to protect freedom of navigation, while the decision prompted criticism over Britain’s involvement in the US campaign.
Burnham is now offering similar aerial-refuelling capability, but for Saudi aircraft undertaking defensive missions.