Vladimir Putin is growing more reckless as his inner circle shrinks, UK security insiders believe, prompting fears that he might “lash out” against Britain or another Nato state.
The Russian leader’s smaller, more radical group of advisers is fuelling his unpredictable actions, sources have told The i Paper.
Concerns over Putin’s brinkmanship have been heightened by the attempted drone attack on Leipzig airport last month, which this week Germany blamed directly on Russia.
Disgraced comedy actor Chris Langham dies, aged 77
The former The Thick of It star has died from cancer at the age of 77. His high-flying career came to an end in 2007 when he was convicted of viewing child sexual abuse images.
What you need to know
- Langham’s death was announced via an obituary in which said he had died from pancreatic cancer on 24 June this year.
- He was for many years a leading comedy actor and writer, starring in the BBC’s Whitehall satire The Thick of It. He was also a writer for and appeared in sketch show Not The Nine O’Clock News.
- But his career came to an end when he was charged with 15 counts of downloading indecent images, including clips that showed the rape of a teenager and sexual abuse of an eight-year-old.
‘I did something terribly wrong’
Langham’s fall from grace was precipitous. Days after winning a Bafta he was charged with sex offences and subsequently sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment. The actor claimed he had viewed the material for research purposes.
The actor denied he had a sexual interest in children but he was placed on the sex offenders’ register. In a 2015 interview, the actor said: “I did something terribly wrong… I was punished, quite correctly, for being as stupid and arrogant as the judge described me to be.”
The plan to tackle ‘mega dinghies’ crossing the Channel
A new “surge team” of French police officers is to be deployed on beaches in the Channel region to tackle new “mega dinghies” being deployed by people smuggling gangs.
The rise in mega dinghies
Traffickers have responded to a security crackdown in northern France by turning to to ferry migrants. Last month, one of these vessels carried 230 people across the Channel.
Everything you need to know
- The UK and French governments have announced a team of 45 additional police will be deployed to beaches to prevent crossings.
- The unit will focus on areas further along the coast from Calais where smugglers are launching to try to avoid detection. A separate French intelligence unit targeting smugglers has also been boosted to 30 officers.
- The total number of officers involved in efforts to stop crossings in France now stands at nearly 1,050. The UK is paying France £660m to fund the operation.
Small boat crossings in numbers
Arrivals fall to six-year low but gangs switching tactics
- Between June and August, 102 migrant boats were detected crossing the Channel – the lowest summer total since 2019.
- Home Office figures show there were 7,371 arrivals in the same three-month period, the lowest since 2020, when 3,307 arrived.
- Since July 2024, the Government says 48,000 crossing attempts have been stopped and 1,100 boats and engines seized.
- The average number of people per boat has risen from seven in 2018 to 65 in the year to this June.
Burnham: ‘We cannot be complacent’
Andy Burnham is meeting French President Emmanuel Macron at No 10 to discuss issues including small boat crossings. The two leaders insist the beefed-up security operation in northern France is delivering results.
But the Prime Minister knows he will have to show a sustained fall in the number of crossings to prove to the electorate that the decades-old issue of illegal migration from France is being tackled.
What time are you on till? Uber launches UK’s first robotaxis
Londoners are able to hail autonomous vehicles for the first time after Uber launched a “small fleet” of robotaxis to operate in the capital.
Robotaxis on the streets of London
The vehicles are equipped with AI driving technology made by British firm Wayve. But while the cars are designed to drive themselves, safety regulations mean they will still have a human driver to intervene if needed.
What you need to know
- Transport for London issued the first minicab licences for self-driving vehicles last month.
- Uber insists there are at least 140,000 Londoners who would be willing to use a self-driving vehicle. The AI cars are ordered in the same way as the company’s other cabs through its ride-hailing app.
- The Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles are charged at the same rate as other Uber vehicles. London is the first city to use Wayve technology for commercial journeys.
The robotaxi revolution rolls on
While Londoners will be starting to get used to autonomous vehicles, self-driving cars are already common in other parts of the world. In the Chinese city of Wuhan, more than 1,000 robotaxis are in operation, while fleets also operate in locations including Beijing, San Francisco and Dubai.
In several locations, including Wuhan, operators have already dispensed with the human safety driver required in London.
Watch more from The i Paper
Dozens feared dead after boat found adrift off Canary Islands
More than 80 migrants are feared to have perished after a boat was found drifting off the Canary Islands.
Everything you need to know
- The canoe-like vessel was discovered south of the holiday islands on Thursday morning. It is thought it had been at sea for 26 days.
- The boat left Gambia in West Africa with about 128 occupants last month. Those on board are thought to be mostly from Gambia and Mali.
- Rescuers found only 44 survivors, along with five bodies. Aid workers said survivors reported that 83 people, including a baby, had died during the crossing.
Migrant route to Canary Islands one of the world’s deadliest
The Atlantic crossing from West Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands is attempted by thousands of migrants each year despite the risks posed by rough seas and long distances. According to one estimate, 1,300 migrants died in the first five months of 2026 trying to reach the Spanish coast.
Canary Islands regional leader Fernando Clavijo said on X: “It is intolerable that lives continue to be lost. The Canaries cannot get used to or accept as normal the fact that the Atlantic continues to be a death trap.”
Gloria Steinem, groundbreaking feminist campaigner, dies aged 92
An icon for many
Steinem was known for radically changing the rights of many women in the US so that they could eventually apply for credit cards without a man’s signature, legally get an abortion and be admitted to Ivy League universities.
4 min read
Changing lives
“Gloria’s near century on Earth were years well lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end.”
A post on her official instagram account said
A campaigner who radically changed rights for women
From legal clerk to bunny girl to activist
- Steinem was born in Ohio in 1934 and grew up in a trailer home. She attended a liberal arts college and travelling to India, where she worked as a legal clerk in the country’s supreme court.
- She subsequently spent decades as an activist, championing causes from abortion rights to the banning of genital mutilation.
“‘s greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard. Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor.”
STatement on gloria’s foundation
Zack Polanski launches bid to run for Starmer’s seat in by-election
Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, will stand to become an MP when a by-election is held in Sir Keir Starmer’s seat in the coming months.
Everything you need to know
- Polanski has confirmed he wants to be the Green Party candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election caused by Starmer’s decision to leave frontline politics.
- The leader of the Greens insisted the seat was winnable, accusing Labour of standing up for “corporations and big money”. He added: “I will stand up for people struggling to pay their bills.”
- Polanski is currently a member of the London Assembly but is unusual as a national party leader in not being an MP.
Polanski gambles on by-election battle
The Green leader’s decision to stand in Holborn and St Pancras represents a gamble as he seeks to maintain his party’s momentum in challenging Labour on the left. The party’s in recent months and a victory for Polanski would represent a valuable political prize.
Until now, Sir Keir’s central London seat has been a Labour stronghold but the Greens came second in the area in local elections earlier this year.
Protests erupt in Spain over Ceuta migrant crisis
Thousands have attended protests across Spain against the government’s handling of the arrival of thousands of migrants in the exclave of Ceuta on the Moroccan coast.
Everything you need to know
- The rallies on Wednesday were called by city councils controlled by opposition parties. They accuse Spain’s left-wing government of abandoning Ceuta’s residents.
- There have been near-daily protests in the North African city calling for remaining migrants to be returned or distributed across mainland Spain.
- Demonstrators have called for prime minister Pedro Sánchez to resign but the government accuses right-wing parties of exploiting the crisis.
Why did these protests happen?
Some 72,000 people crossed illegally from Morocco into Ceuta in July. While most have returned, as many as 5,000 remain. The Spanish government has blamed for the influx but critics claim the Moroccan authorities were complicit.
Did Morocco orchestrate the mass crossing?
A police report this week said Moroccan security forces had shown “total permissiveness” during the huge influx into the exclave on 30 and 31 July. Sánchez has insisted Morocco was not responsible but the report said the Moroccan police presence was “clearly smaller” than usual.
The police report nonetheless stopped short of directly accusing Morocco of being behind the mass influx.
The protests in pictures
Watch more from The i Paper
What to know as toxic haze spreads across South East Asia
Indonesia is battling , some of which have been burning for weeks and resulted in a toxic haze affecting millions.
What you need to know
Multiple locations
The fires are burning on several of Indonesia’s biggest islands, in particular on Borneo.
Health risk
Millions have been exposed to toxic smoke, with 50,000 being treated in hospital for respiratory infections.
Regional problem
Air pollution caused by the fires is affecting Malaysia and The Philippines.
Indonesia’s decades-old problem with wildfires
The forest and peatland fires engulfing parts of Indonesia are a familiar problem for the authorities. Their roots lie in a project by former ruler Suharto to rip up rainforest and drain peat bogs for plantations and logging.
Repeated investigations have shown that developers use fire as a cut-price means of clearing large areas for plantations and industrial sites.
Haze shrouds parts of South East Asia
European and British diplomatic insiders believe the plot – which involved military grade explosives – marked a new phase in Moscow’s grey zone warfare against the West, as it tested the limits of what is normally deemed the threshold of military action, going beyond typical hybrid activity of cyber attacks, signal jamming and sabotage.
‘None of the sensible voices are there’
A Western security source said: “One of the concerns is that Putin is speaking to an increasingly small inner circle of people and none of the more sensible voices are still there.”
The suggestion has fuelled fears that the Russian president is “paranoid” and may “not be thinking rationally”.
The assessment is shared by military experts and former generals, who said it should serve as a warning to Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey to go faster on defence spending.
The i Paper has learned that a number of Labour MPs are concerned that Burnham and Healey are refusing to commit immediately to a timetable of 3 per cent by 2030, and are instead waiting until next year’s spending review to announce it.
It follows the broadside by Tan Dhesi, the Labour chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, at PMQs on Wednesday that “vibes alone” were not enough to address funding of the Armed Forces.
It was a significant challenge to Burnham from one of his own senior MPs on his first day in Parliament as Prime Minister.
The Kremlin has denied playing a part in the Leipzig attack plot.
‘Internal enemies are starting to circle’
With Putin said to be increasingly reliant on his tight-knit circle of advisers, the president is facing internal pressure from others over the progress of the war in Ukraine and the dire state of the Russian economy.
Lord Dannatt, former head of the British Army, said: “The internal enemies are starting to encircle the Kremlin wagons.
“The old guard of Putin’s supporters are becoming more concerned that popular opinion is turning against Putin, despite his control of the media.
“You cannot hide rising prices, interest rates and inflation, nor the long queues at petrol stations.
“The danger for us is that he might lash out. What about the drone at Leipzig? And his smirk when asked if the UK should be worried about an attack.
“Meanwhile, our Government refuses to commit to 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030. ‘Vibes will not defend us’ says the chair of the Defence Select Committee.”
Gen Sir Richard Barrons, a former UK forces commander and co-author of the latest Strategic Defence Review, said: “It is clear that Putin is calibrating his sub (military) threshold attacks on the UK and Europe at a higher level of risk and consequence than has been the case of the past two years or so.”
Barrons said he believed the rising tensions were closely connected to the progress of the war in Ukraine as Putin was “not making the hoped-for significant breakthroughs on the battlefield”.
Russian action against Europe ‘likely to be ramped up’
The continued deterioration of the Russian economy “raises big questions – not yet critical – about the long-term sustainability of the Russian war effort”, he said.
Barrons added: “Putin must be considering whether to make a bigger effort in Ukraine, which is likely to require another very unpopular compulsory mobilisation of people, and as part of this escalation he will continue to increase the pressure on European countries supporting Ukraine.
“The failed drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo aircraft in Leipzig was a major increase in the threat – this shouldn’t be lost sight of even though it failed. Imagine what would’ve happened if that large cargo aircraft had been damaged on takeoff and fallen on a populated area.”
He added: “In all these circumstances, we must assume that Russian sub-threshold activity against Europe is much more likely to be ramped up than diminished and that the UK will be a high priority target.”
The visit to Moscow last week by CIA director John Ratcliffe, who reportedly warned Putin’s aides not to attack Nato, “shows how high the stakes are”, Barrons said.
Labour MPs concerned about defence spending
Labour MPs echoed Dhesi’s call for an announcement on 3 per cent defence spending.
One Labour MP said they thought Dhesi was “right to keep applying the pressure on this”, adding: “I would like the 3 per cent target announced as soon as possible and actually think we’ll end up needing more than that anyway.
“Alongside that we need to increase public awareness of the threat to the UK and what it means to people here in terms of costs to them of cyber attacks, etc. So we create that upward pressure for more government action.”
Another MP said: “I think it’s always good to keep up the pressure and show there is backbench support for [a] firm date on 3 per cent.” Although they acknowledged it was made clear at the time of the Defence Investment Plan in July that the next steps would be taken in next year’s spending review.
Asked whether or not Burnham had committed to a 3 per cent defence spending target by 2030, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “As the Prime Minister made clear in the House, we remain unwavering in our commitments to international defence spending targets, and the first duty of government is to keep its country safe.
“And the Prime Minister and Chancellor remain fully committed to funding the Defence Investment Plan and meeting our Nato commitment of 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035.
“On 3 per cent the Chancellor, as he has said, will set that out at the spending review next year. So I’m not going to get ahead of that.”
Who is in Putin’s close circle of advisers?
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, SVR, who has made threats against the West
Nikolai Patrushev, former secretary of Russia’s security council but said to be still influential
Sergei Kiriyenko, the hardline deputy chief of staff of the presidential administration
Alexander Bortnikov, the head of domestic intelligence service, FSB
Valeri Gerasimov, the head of the armed forces