Experience of Britain under aerial bombardment lies at the limits of living memory, with few left alive today able to remember the Second World War.
Now, in the biggest conflict Europe has seen since 1945, the UK faces a different kind of threat: from Russia, the country that has brought war back to the continent. As a result, the UK has a pressing need for more weapons to fend off the danger of attack from the skies.
Since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian warplanes have flown close to UK airspace a number of times. Royal Air Force fighters have been deployed to intercept and monitor them.
The councils where parents could get potty training support
More parents in England are set to receive extra support with toilet training their children before they start primary school.
Here’s what we know.
Potty pilot progress
A pilot, trialled by City of York Council, saw potty-training advice sent to 1,700 families alongside school place offer letters in April, followed by a reduction in the number of children starting reception without being toilet trained compared to last year.
A survey of teachers by charity Kindred Squared, which funded the pilot, suggested around one in four children who started reception in 2025 were not toilet trained.
More about the scheme
Parent workshops and teacher training sessions were arranged to help with toilet training four-year-olds.
Community collaboration
There has been a 42 per cent decrease in the proportion of children starting school not toilet trained in York, the results from the pilot suggest.
‘Teachers losing a day a week’
Felicity Gillespie, chief executive of Kindred Squared, said parents and carers have been calling for “clear, concise, targeted advice” and that on average, teachers have been “losing the equivalent of a day a week of teaching time helping children who are not able to go to the toilet themselves”.
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More classroom time
I think the biggest impact for us has been that we don’t have to spend so much time changing children now.
Jo Mould, a teacher at Robert Wilkinson Primary Academy, one of 55 schools which took part in the pilot, said it allowed teachers to spend more time in the classroom.
Safeguarding measures mean it takes two members of staff to change a child’s nappy, which takes time away from other children.
Making a ‘real difference’
Toilet training can be one of the biggest milestones in a child’s early years, so it’s encouraging to see this pilot helping more children develop the confidence and independence they need before starting school. When children are supported to take these important steps early, it can make a real difference to how they settle in, make friends and start learning.
Paul Waugh, minister for early education
More to follow?
Some 20 councils in England are now looking at following the York pilot, including:
Mortgage rates hit three-year high – here’s what to do
Mortgage rates are at their highest since 2023, with just nine sub-5 per cent fixed deals available.
The average two-year rate has reached 5.98 per cent and the five-year rate 6 per cent – their highest levels since December and September 2023, respectively.
Iran war stokes inflation fears
The past month has seen major banks hike prices several times, as financial traders have begun to expect that inflation will stay higher for longer as a result of the US-Iran war. Barclays increased fixed rates on four occasions, while HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander and TSB each made three rounds of increases.
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Vanishing act for fixed deals
1,494
There were 1,494 sub-5 per cent fixed deals at the start of September.
However, 1,385 of these have since vanished, according to Moneyfacts.
- Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, said volatility has had a “brutal” impact on fixed mortgage rates.
- Nick Mendes, of John Charcol brokers, added that further increases “are likely while markets stay this unsettled”.
Huge impact on households
- Borrowers coming off fixed rates face a significant jump in payments.
- On a £250,000 mortgage with a 30-year repayment term, the difference between a five and six per cent rate is about £150 a month.
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If you have a mortgage expiring later this year…
- Compare a wide range of lenders and banks – don’t settle for the one you’re currently with.
- Consider speaking to a broker to help you, as these are professionals who often have access to deals you can’t find online directly.
- Most lenders will let you lock in a rate several months before yours ends, help you avoid going on to a standard variable rate.
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What to do if you’re buying…
Nationwide’s rate reservation tool lets you book a rate for up to 90 days.
Aaron Strutt, of Trinity Financial, said Nationwide’s rate reservation tool offers an exception to the general rule that if you’re buying a home, you need the seller to accept your offer before you can submit a full mortgage application.
Experts say it is still worth considering other lenders, though, to find your best fit.
New James Bond novel in the works from historian Dan Jones
Historian Dan Jones is set to pen a new James Bond novella as part of celebrations for the National Year of Reading.
The story was announced on 5 October, also known as James Bond Day as it was the date the first 007 film, Dr No, which premiered in 1962.
Out this year
Where and when?
The new story will see Bond in Sri Lanka, in 1954 as the British are leaving.
Paying homage
The story, titled will pay homage to Ian Fleming’s fourth Bond novel, , 70 years after it was first published.
Available soon
It will be published as a special edition via ianflemingshop.com on 3 December.
‘A pivotal moment in history’
Being asked to write a story is one of the greatest honours in contemporary fiction. I’m very excited to take to Ceylon at such a pivotal moment in world history – and thrilled that Ian Fleming Publications are trusting me to pay tribute to Diamonds Are Forever, which is one of the great books in the canon.
Dan Jones, historian and author
Fleming’s character lives on
Fleming wrote 12 Bond novels and two short-story collections between 1953 and his death in 1964. Numerous continuation authors have since added to the canon, most recently Charlie Higson with , released in September.
On the silver screen, there has been a long-running search for the next actor to play Bond since Daniel Craig’s departure.
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The five best history books of all time, according to Dan Jones
Dan Jones has spent much of his career bringing some of history’s most colourful characters and turbulent periods back to life. So, when Jones picks up a history book for pleasure, it has a high bar to clear.
The BBC has appointed Rachel Jupp, its former director of documentaries and long-form journalism, as the corporation’s new director of news and current affairs.
It comes nearly a year after the previous chief, Deborah Turness, resigned following the fallout over how BBC edited a speech by Donald Trump.
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Trump-Panorama controversy
The controversy that led to Turness’ resignation centred on a documentary about Trump’s role in the 6 January Capitol riot in 2021.
The documentary was accused of misleading viewers by splicing together parts of his speech delivered at different points. The row prompted a wider crisis over the BBC’s editorial standards.
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Jupp, whose new role starts this month, said she was “honoured” to “lead BBC News”. BBC director-general Matt Brittin described Jupp her as “an outstanding editorial leader”.
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Stepping in as redundancies loom
Sweeping cuts
Jupp will have responsibility for a team of 4,500 people and will be paid a salary of £400,000.
Sweeping cuts
It comes as the BBC continues to make sweeping jobs cuts.
Bid to save £500m
Between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs are set to be axed in an attempt to save £500m over two years amid “significant financial pressures”.
These encounters have so far passed off without incident. They are a chance for Russia to score some propaganda points – always an important part of Putin’s way of fighting wars. The Russian air force also wants to test its main rivals’ readiness in case of a conflict.
In wartime, however, it would be different. “If there were hostilities you wouldn’t expect aircraft to come particularly close to the UK because they’d be launching their missiles at very, very long ranges,” said Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
Parts of Russia’s aerial fleet – Su-35S aircraft and some Su-30SM2s – have been modified specifically with that in mind: their medium-range missiles replaced with longer-range ones, according to a paper published by the Rusi think-tank in January. The paper’s author, Justin Bronk, concluded that this had “significantly contributed to increasing the threat” they could pose to Nato air operations.
In short, a future conflict would be very different to any we have experienced, and the aerial threats exponentially larger.
There is a sense that both Russia and Nato are still relearning their roles as foes. The end of the Cold War, and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, led to a period of peace impossible to imagine during the East vs West confrontation that divided Europe in the second half of the last century.
When the Cold War ended, fighting forces were scaled back on both sides. Russia, stung by the loss of the Soviet empire and the superpower status that went with it, did not have the money for a large military. Western Europe, happy to have avoided the end of the world, focused its resources elsewhere. However, in the Putin era, that process has gone into reverse.
The Russian air force may have been reduced in size at the end of Cold War, but it was never mothballed. As a journalist in Chechnya in 1995, I ran for my life from a Russian air strike aimed at separatist fighters. Civilians in rebel-held areas of Syria later came to know well the fear inspired by Russian warplanes.
Over the last few years, despite the huge losses Russia has suffered in Ukraine, its air force has, if anything, become a greater threat. “Russian fighter pilots have improved their effectiveness in air-to-air engagements during the war,” the Rusi paper also warned.
And with the Russian budget for 2027 focused on providing even more fuel for the Kremlin’s war machine, the air force won’t want for resources.
At the same time, a future conflict in the skies between Nato and Russia wouldn’t just be about planes.
Ukraine’s ability to launch drones from increasing distances to strike targets far from the front lines has been a major factor in the way that conflict has evolved. Russia is utilising similar weapons to strike Ukrainian cities, including its latest generation of jet-powered Geran drones.
That war has lessons for the UK, although as Barrie points out, the drones that Russia is using in Ukraine don’t have the range to reach the UK’s shores. However, he said there may be other ways that Moscow looks “at launching similar classes of weapons”.
Recent reports have suggested this could include drones being launched from Russian merchant vessels in waters that put them in range of targets in countries like the UK, which have offered political and military support to Ukraine.
One aspect of UK defences in particular needs to be improved, according to Barrie. “The real area of weakness is in terms of ground-based air defence, so surface-to-air missiles. We really don’t have nearly enough of those, and we don’t have enough of those to cover the range of threats that the Russians could now deploy against us,” he said.
If it did come to war with Russia, the UK would be fighting alongside other Nato allies – but air defences are in short supply everywhere, particularly since the US launched its war against Iran earlier this year, which has depleted available stockpiles. “If you thought it was going to be 36 months before you got your missiles, it’s now going to be five years,” said Barrie.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told The i Paper that the UK would always defend itself against any threat. “The Defence Investment Plan has made air and missile defence a priority,” they said, “with significant investment to strengthen the UK’s ground-based capabilities, including doubling the number of Sky Sabre air defence missile systems and investing in long-range systems.”
However, the threats over European skies are only growing, and our enemies have a lot more recent experience in how to conduct and defend that type of warfare. Russia’s assault on Ukraine has also reminded us that war often brings about rapid technological innovation, in this case a growing aerial threat.
Absent any prospect of a drop in tensions between Putin and the West, the wider danger will continue to grow – and the UK’s defences will need to change and improve to meet that unpredictable threat. As a nation, we cannot risk not being ready.