UK fires torpedo from undersea drone for first time in new warning to Putin
Britain has fired a heavyweight torpedo from a uncrewed, underwater drone for the first time as part of efforts to counter the growing threat from Russia.
The torpedo was fired last week in UK waters from the Navy’s 12-metre undersea drone known as Excalibur.
The weapon, jointly developed by the US and Australia, is designed to sink ships and deep-diving submarines.
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.
The test was carried out by Britain and the US under the landmark AUKUS defence partnership with Australia, which is developing next-generation submarine, artificial intelligence and autonomous undersea capabilities.
It is the first time either country has fired a torpedo from an uncrewed, underwater vessel rather than a crewed submarine.
The Excalibur drone, which is currently carrying out sea trials, was built in Plymouth and can be remote operated from nearly 10,000 miles away.
The test forms part of a wider drive to protect Britain’s vital seabed cables and pipelines from hostile powers.
The conflict in Ukraine, security in the Middle East and artificial intelligence are expected to dominate talks among world leaders over the coming days.
European intelligence officials have warned that Russia could step up its operations against Nato countries in the coming months. One Czech intelligence chief told earlier this week that a possible escalation could come in “months, not years”. Baltic intelligence chiefs cautioned that there was no evidence of an imminent attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected to meet Trump on the sidelines of UNGA. The US President has been pressing Zelensky to halt Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries over fears of fuel shortages and rising prices.
The Navy’s supersized undersea drone
Official name: XV Excalibur
Navy’s largest uncrewed, underwater vessel
Carrying out extensive sea trials
12 metres long, 2.2 metres in diameter and displacing about 19 tonnes
Can be controlled from a remote operating centre nearly 10,000 miles away
To help the Navy understand how large, autonomous submarines could operate alongside crewed submarines and surface ships in future conflicts.
Speaking ahead of the summit, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said the UK must take a leadership role against “a darkening global picture” of conflict, climate change and hostile states using disinformation to sow division.
Burnham will use his first visit to the US as Prime Minister to push for greater international co-operation on AI and discuss global issues affecting people at home, including Ukraine and Britain’s G20 presidency.
He will argue that AI technology should be harnessed to improve lives while strengthening security.
Britain and the US will also launch a new AI and Autonomy Partnership, bringing together defence officials from both countries to develop trusted artificial intelligence systems that can protect critical infrastructure, from sea lanes to airspace, while detecting threats and deterring adversaries.
The work will build on technology already being developed through AUKUS, including next-generation attack submarines and autonomous undersea capabilities.
Burnham said Britain was “at our strongest when we work with our partners” to tackle shared challenges, and said the country would show the same leadership on AI that it did during the global financial crisis.
He said he would also make the case at the UN for “a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine and renewed efforts to end the conflict in the Middle East, arguing that “what happens abroad impacts each and every one of us at home”.
Burnham will also confirm that Manchester will host the G20 leaders’ summit, which brings together the world’s major economies, next November.
