The majority of Britain’s soldiers returning from summer leave this week might just as well be told to go back on holiday, with the shock announcement that all but essential training is to be cancelled immediately.
It is all part of an “efficiency saving” – a favourite Treasury weasel phrase – saving a princely £30m out of an annual budget of something around £74bn.
Apparently, the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) till for regular operational expenditure is running near empty. Only “essential” training is to continue to prepare soldiers for service in Estonia, Cyprus, or the Falkland Islands. In a wonderfully crass expression, an anonymous MoD official told the BBC that the Army was giving up on “nice to have training”, such as practising platoon attacks, working with attack helicopters, tanks and artillery, on Salisbury Plain, Sennybridge, Otterburn and Arbroath. The high point of such exercises is the part involving live ammunition – but you can forget about that for a game of soldiers well into next year.
Thieves steal 11 sheep from Jeremy Clarkson’s farm
Jeremy Clarkson has said that 11 sheep have been stolen from his Diddly Squat farm in Oxfordshire.
Clarkson appeals to thieves
Clarkson, 66, said the Easycare sheep were worth more than £2,000 at market, and has urged the thieves to “put them back”.
He told : “The police have been very good, actually… I said, ‘I know it’s going to sound like I’m from 1856, but I’ve had some sheep stolen’.”
- Clarkson claimed the theft had occurred at night – or during the day when the farm was not being filmed for its Prime Video TV show.
- He said of recording days that there is “a film crew here all the time” and ”a drone in the air”, which may have deterred or even caught the thieves.
- Asked whether he believed the show had made his farm a target, Clarkson said: “It’s more likely to make you a target than less, but I still don’t think they’ve been stolen because they’re on Diddly Squat.”
- He added: “This is 1,000 acres, it’s a big farm. Anyone could be anywhere and you wouldn’t know.”
No arrests made as livestock theft costs farms £4.5 million
The theft was reportedly raised with Thames Valley Police by Cooper and land manager Charlie Ireland. No arrests have been made and the force has appealed for anyone with information to contact them.
The National Farmers Union (NFU) reported in May that livestock theft had increased by nearly a third in 2025 – costing British farmers £4.5 million.
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Why yellow fever mosquitoes are now breeding in the UK
An invasive mosquito species known to spread yellow fever, dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses has been found breeding in some east London homes.
While it is the fourth time the Aedes aegypti insects have been detected in the UK – it is the first time they have been discovered reproducing.
Accidental hitchikers
These insects are usually found in countries with tropical and subtropical climates and are believed to have been transported into the country accidentally in baggage, on vehicles, or in nursery plants.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the risk to the public was low and there was no evidence of humans being infected.
Measures are now in place to destroy the larvae, and surveillance and trapping have been stepped up as part of the UKHSA’s Mosquito Watch scheme.
Too cold to survive in UK
Despite recent heatwaves, the overall UK climate is too cold for this species to survive long-term, the UKHSA said.
However, some expects warn that the UK would continue to see cases of invasive mosquitoes. As the climate warms, there may also be increased reports of them being able to survive.
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There is no evidence that these mosquitoes have caused human infections and importantly, to date, there is no evidence of the mosquitoes or larvae being detected in nearby public areas.
UKHSA’s head of medical entomology, Dr Jolyon Medlock
Hidden stowaways
Insects and other hidden stowaways such as lizards, geckos, and snakes can accidentally enter the UK inside shipments.
The massive volume of global plant trade means shipments move too fast for customers to catch every small creature or minuscule larvae.
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How AI is surging fraud cases to £10m a year
AI has enabled fraud losses to swell to nearly £10m this year, up from £1.2m the year before, the City of London Police Report Fraud study has found.
It comes amid a general increase in fraud, as the force reported that more than £3.2bn was lost to fraudsters in that period, up 26 per cent on the previous year.
How is AI making fraud worse?
AI is making common investment and romance scams much more sophisticated, meaning they appear more legitimate and real than they did in the past.
- Romance fraudsters can use AI to create fake but realistic dating and social media profiles, build relationships using real-time translation tools, and create fraud scripts for “automated relationship management”, the study said.
- Cases of “facetiming” make it “almost certain” that real-time AI generation is being used to dupe victims, it added.
- AI can also be used to create imitations of trusted public figures endorsing investment opportunities, while AI-cloned voices are being used to bypass banking security measures.
AI fraud on the rise
Breaking down the numbers
20%
The rise in investment fraud
The amount lost to romance fraud
Romance fraud rose by 15 per cent in the last year
Criminals are using -generated adverts, celebrity deep fakes, synthetic identities, voice technologies to make their approach to victims more and more compelling and believable on an ongoing basis, and I think is clearly a leader in that space.
City of London Police’s service delivery director Chris Bell
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Taking a trip abroad? Beware the EU change coming in next week
A journey into the European Union may soon take travellers significantly longer as the bloc prepares to reintroduce Entry/Exit System (EES) checks.
The fingerprint scans led to reports of six-hour-long airport queues earlier this year and threaten to disrupt journeys during the October half-term.
- The EU allowed member states to delay the full rollout over the summer in the event of sizeable disruption.
- However, this flexibility will be removed from Monday, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) trade group.
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Missed flights and connections
Delays caused by EES, which was launched in April, have resulted in people missing flights, being offloaded from aircraft and missing connections.
Border checks criticism
The new checks have received widespread criticism from travel industry figureheads.
Kenton Jarvis, the boss of easyJet, warned that the EU risked putting Britons off visiting altogether if they were forced to queue for hours or risk being stranded after missing their return flight.
Thomas Reynaert, head of external affairs at the IATA, said the scheme would only work once the technology is reliable and all installed booths are operational.
Even then, staff numbers must be sufficient to take over the manual processing of passengers should the system break down.
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EES gives Europe ‘bad rep’
These are real impacts being felt by passengers. That’s bad if you’re travelling alone and even worse if you’re travelling with family and small children. It gives Europe a bad reputation. When systems fail, passengers lose trust in the system and when people are late, airlines pay a high cost.
Thomas Reynaert, head of external affairs at the International Air Transport Association
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What to know as Argentina threatens Falkland Islands oil fields
Argentina’s President has said he will impose sanctions on oil drilling off the Falkland Islands amid heightened tensions between the UK and Argentina.
In a national address, Javier Milei said the “winds of change” favoured Argentina’s claim to control over the British territory, as the US reviews its position on the dispute.
Milei seeks oil firm sanctions
- The Argentine President said he would boost efforts to levy penalties against the companies, as well as their shareholders, directors and suppliers.
- Milei pledged to increase defence resources to build a naval base in the nearby Tierra del Fuego province.
- He has also promised to send Congress an urgent “national sovereignty defence” bill aimed at strengthening Argentina’s response to what he called unauthorised operations around the islands.
Urgent threat to Argentine interests
“If we do not act swiftly, in a few months they will have the material capacity to access the oil that lies underneath our sea – something that has never happened before.
Milei said Argentina had determined that the Sea Lion offshore project, operated by Navitas Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration, could begin oil development in the coming months.
Long-running soveriegnty dispute
The Falkland Islands have been a self-governing British Overseas Territory subject to a long-running sovereignty dispute with Argentina since the 19th century.
Argentina invaded the islands in 1982. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended in Argentine surrender after claiming the lives of 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders.
In a 2013 referendum, Falkland Islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain a British overseas territory, with 99.8 per cent voting in favour – and just three votes against.
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‘Falkland Islanders choose to be British’
In a statement on X, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said: “The Falklands are British because Falkland Islanders choose to be British.
“Our commitment to the Falklands is absolute and unshakeable.”
Trump suggests he would not help UK in Argentina invades Falklands
Milei’s comments follow a suggestion by Donald Trump that he would not back the UK if Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands.
Trump, who has strongly criticised the UK’s stance on the US-Israeli war on Iran, told GB News: “Your country was not there to help me.”
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Inside the BBC meltdown over licence fee’s future
Scrambling to find £500m
The BBC is scrambling to cut £500m from its budget after executives discovered a gap in finances which shocked even new director-general Matt Brittin.
It comes as the number of households paying the £180-a-year licence fee fell by half a million last year to 23 million, the latest BBC accounts show.
The previous year, accounts showed a 300,000 drop in licence fee payers.
The BBC’s chief financial officer, Bérangère Michel, said earlier this year that the drop in TV licences had “resulted in an unsustainable financial position”.
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More job cuts to come
The BBC must cut £500m from its budget by 2028 – with £160m to be delivered immediately. The corporation has already announced 550 job cuts in news, nations and TV and radio content as part of the first stage in its savings plan.
Other cost-cutting options include cutting BBC Four arts and its archive channel and moving its content to BBC Two. The BBC Three youth channel could also be under threat.
‘Every part of BBC affected’
- More shows are set to be axed, following this week’s decision to scrap , insiders said.
- In a staff memo, seen by The i Paper, interim BBC head of news Jonathan Munro, said the 200 job closures announced in June would be followed by “further post closures (in news)” in the coming months.
- “Every part of BBC News will be affected, including senior leaders, and we’re reviewing some on-air roles,” said Munro.
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Familiar faces set to depart
There will be familiar faces leaving, presenters, on-screen correspondents. They will be looking for a small number of expensive on-air people who they might try to persuade to leave sooner than they expected. It’s all up in the air.
A leading news figure told the i paper
Apprentice jobs also hit
- Apprentices were also told they could no longer expect jobs, as a result of the cuts.
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Two rescued a week after Nepal floods
Two people have been rescued alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal, nine days after
a catastrophic flash flood killed more than 1,200 people.
Some 39 workers are still believed to be trapped inside the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project, according to Suresh Raut, a senior official of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).
Rescued workers named
Authorities have named Sanjaya Shah, a mechanical foreman with the NEA, as the first person to be rescued from tunnels.
The second person rescued is Kabir Maharjan, the BBC reported.
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Injuries to hands and feet
- Both workers have injuries on their hands and legs, thought to be from crawling through the tunnel.
- They are also suffering from lack of oxygen, authorities said.
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Huge rescue mission
Hundreds of the more than 5,000 still missing are labourers working in a vast network of tunnels at hydropower sites along the river.
Engineers have been pumping air into the hydropower tunnels as part of the huge rescue operation. Aside from the tunnel, it is estimated that over 5,000 people remain missing in Nepal and Tibet.
The rescues inject hope into an otherwise gruelling mission through thick mud.
A tunnelling expert told the news agency that teams had already dug through debris blocking the tunnel for 50-60 metres (164-196 feet) before finding survivors.
They were hoping for a breakthrough, said Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association.
“After a week of 24/7 heartache, we might, just, be back in miracle country.”
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Four things to know as Reform reported to the police over ‘funding breach’
Reform UK has been reported to the police over allegedly breaching political donation rules.
The allegations
In the Channel 4 report, Reform’s Dan Jukes, discusses with a donor ways to allegedly get around electoral rules by securing a £500,000 donation via a foreign source.
The report, carried out by Verbatim Investigations, appears to show head of policy James Orr, suggesting the donor’s father could pay for polling. The report claims Reform commissioned three polls £32,500 in total and that the public was not told who commissioned or funded them.
The law
Under UK law, foreign companies are not a permissible source of funding for political parties, including payments for studies and research. Accepting donations from them could constitute a criminal offence.
Reform claimed it was the victim of a hoax and denied any wrongdoing.
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Reform’s response:
Reform UK has been the target of a hoax perpetuated by foreign-funded, climate change activists posing as would-be party donors. The party denies any wrongdoing.
A Reform Spokesperson
Reform UK has a robust vetting process for prospective donors approved by the Electoral Commission.
Who reported Reform?
- The Lib Dems have written to the Met Police and Electoral Commission saying that James Orr, a senior adviser to Farage, facilitating the donation from an impermissible donor would breach the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.
- Labour also intends to report the matter to the police, it is understood, while the Greens have called for an investigation.
- The Met said it is assessing the reports.
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‘No money reached Reform UK at all,’ says Orr
Orr, Reform’s policy head who is at the centre of the allegations, said that “no money reached Reform UK at all”.
“It was a public poll arranged by an independent person paying an independent pollster, and those polls were published immediately for the general public,” he said in a video posted to X.
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Aides step down
Both Orr and Jukes have stepped down from their roles. Farage said Reform UK has “broken no laws” and has not “taken any dodgy money” amid allegations the party breached political donation rules.
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This is one of the worst PR blunders of the Andy Burnham’s Government so far. It shows more than insouciance about defence, but a fundamental ignorance about the services, why they are needed and what they need to prepare for.
Soldiers live by training, and die by the lack of it. They need to practise for real how to work together, to use the equipment old and new, more the former rather than the latter in the case of today’s Army, to take orders and learn how to react when things go wrong. Just keep them in barracks and training from desktops and classrooms, and they will get bored. And bored soldiers get up to mischief.
Coincidentally, or not, the training cuts were announced within hours of the speech to the Argentine nation by President Javier Milei, declaring that he was pledged to his “sacred mission” of recovering the Falkland Islands, or Malvinas as he calls them. The exploitation of oil around the islands makes the issue urgent. The message about Army training underlines that UK military strength is at the lowest for 90 years – and we may not have the diplomatic nor the military muscle to defend the islands and British interests in the South Atlantic, Antarctica included.
During the short campaign to recover the Falklands in 1982, the Royal Navy had nearly 60 destroyers and frigates. In the campaign, four were sunk and around 30 were deployed. Today the Royal Navy has only three destroyers and between two and four frigates available for operations.
The government spends roughly 2.6 per cent of GDP on defence, around £74bn. It is pledged to up defence spending to meet the Nato requirement to spend 3 per cent of GDP by 2030, rising to 3.5 per cent by 2035. John Healey resigned as defence secretary from the Starmer government because the 3 per cent target was not likely to be met. As Chancellor, he has admitted it is unlikely to be met by the Burnham Government, either. “We cannot max out the credit card,” he is alleged to have told one reporter.
So what has changed in the last few weeks ? If anything the world has become even more dangerous, with Russian media and ministers singling out the UK for some pretty direct threats. The volume of Russian surface shipping and tankers from the shadow fleet going through the North Sea and the English Channel has gone up more than 30 per cent on last summer, according to the Royal Navy. Submarine activity through the Faroes-Iceland and Greenland gaps is of a similar scale.
Cyber attacks are persistent and increasing, according to the cyber agencies under GCHQ, and run now at something near 100,000 a year. Most, but not all, emanate from Russia, with a fair amount from Iran. The cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover last year that cost the UK economy something in the region of £1.9bn came from Russia.
Meanwhile in the past few weeks there has been another outbreak of suspicious drone activity, most notably at Leipzig airport, the logistics hub for air freight to Ukraine. One struck a plane on the ground, losing its explosive charge on the way, another was tracked mid-air.
Russia is involved in a cunning game of disinformation and misdirection, and has the initiative in the information war across Europe. One of the most worrying aspects of the latest defence pronouncements from the Burnham Government is lack of discussion of homeland defence and resilience. The east coast of England and Scotland do not have adequate air defences – successive governments, including Labour most recently, have turned down an integrated air defence system as too expensive and unaffordable. With a very real threat of covert drone attack now, this may well prove a risk too far.
There is another aspect to home defence and resilience almost totally ignored by governments , especially this one. This is the need for support in emergencies from wildfires and cyclones to droughts and floods, disrupted energy and food supplies, and human and animal pandemics. The reserves of the forces can fill the gap, as they did in the fires in Wales – but they need to train and to be equipped. In civil support operations, the forces need to draw on reserves – yet successive governments have failed to build up the reserves, and the cadet forces. Trained personnel are going to be needed with the reasonable prediction that 2027 is going to much hotter and stormier than 2026, with the most extreme El Niño phenomenon in a century now brewing up in the Pacific.
A lot of rethinking is needed about our forces and their training – for all kinds of contingencies and threats, some barely on the policy radars of Whitehall right now. The government should forget about their two major policy documents on defence so far, the Strategic Defence Review of 2025, and the Defence Investment Plan from June – both high on aspiration and wishful thinking and far too low on practicality and realistic targets. It is not just a question of more money, but spending it more wisely and to face the world as it is and not as we would wish it.
And we cannot rely on old friends and colleagues. Perhaps the most ominous bit of news during a week of threats came from a near neighbour, the Netherlands. The Dutch government has hastily ordered the transfer of 70 tonnes of gold bullion from New York to London, on grounds of security and safety. Quite a judgement on the regime stability of King Donald.