RAF Typhoon fighters will fly defensive missions over cities and infrastructure, in extension of UK support for Riyadh RAF Typhoon fighters are to protect Saudi Arabia from attack by Yemen’s Houthis, flying defensive missions over the country’s cities and critical infrastructure, as western allies step up their intervention in the escalating conflict. The operation – the most significant military mission signed off by Andy Burnham as prime minister – will involve RAF pilots attempting to shoot down Houthi missiles and drones, after attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities. Continue reading...
UK to deploy fighter jets to protect Saudi Arabia from Houthi attacks

Original reporting
The Guardian: read the full reportFollow this story
Earlier reports and follow-ups on the same developing story.
- Egypt to provide ‘necessary’ support to Saudi Arabia amid Houthi attacks
- GCC condemns Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia as Yemen fighting intensifies
- Saudi Arabia cancels 2026 ‘Davos in the Desert’ amid Houthi attacks
- UK to deploy RAF fighter jets to defend Saudi Arabia from Houthi attacks
- UK to deploy jets to defend Saudi Arabia from Houthi attacks
- UK to deploy fighter jets to defend Saudi cities from Houthi attacks
Related stories

Ban on family visits to care homes at start of pandemic had ‘devastating consequences’, inquiry finds – UK politics live
Heather Hallett, chair of the Covid inquiry, has just published the report from the inquiry’s module 6, looking at what happened in care homes Badenoch says Britain needs tax cuts. We need to get out of the way of job creators who make our country richer. We need to encourage risk taking, wealth creation, enterprise. Britain’s tax burden has never been higher. You are taxed on the heating in your home. You’re taxed at the petrol pump filling up your car. You’re taxed when you insure that car. You’re taxed if you take the family away on holiday. You’re taxed if you stay in the UK thanks to Andy Burnham’s tourist tax. You’re taxed to buy a home, taxed to live in a home, taxed to pass on your home. This is clearly not working. Britain does not feel better off. Andy Burnham wrote in The Times yesterday about the moral outrage of the current benefit system. But as far as I could work out, his

UK government failures led to Covid spreading ‘like wildfire’ in care homes, inquiry finds
Inquiry chair says failure to advise care homes to isolate people discharged from hospital was ‘significant oversight’ • UK politics live – latest updates The care sector was “an afterthought” during the Covid-19 pandemic, and government failures caused the virus to spread “like wildfire” among vulnerable and elderly people, a public inquiry has found. Heather Hallett, who is leading the Covid-19 inquiry, said it was a “significant omission” that the government did not advise that patients discharged from hospitals into care homes should be isolated, causing the virus to spread rapidly among residents and staff. Continue reading...

Ex-Greens co-leader urges council groups to reject Zionism policy
Exclusive: Adrian Ramsay calls conference motion a distraction and says councillors should maintain coalitions where possible UK politics live – latest updates Adrian Ramsay, the former co-leader of the Greens, has urged his party’s councillors to reject the newly adopted “Zionism is racism” motion if it will help them stay in power in local government, in a fresh sign of internal dissent over the policy. Ramsay, one of the Greens’ five MPs, said he was pleased that a number of Green council groups had already condemned the policy, which was adopted at the party’s conference and also calls for a single Palestinian state in place of Israel. Continue reading...

Criminals detained in hospital set to lose benefits
The families of the victims of Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane had been campaigning for the change.

Healey to reject calls to raise capital gains tax in budget
Cabinet colleagues have previously called for an increase but chancellor feels it might ultimately cost the Treasury John Healey will not raise capital gains tax in next week’s budget, despite previous calls to do so from cabinet colleagues including Louise Haigh and Wes Streeting. The chancellor has decided that any increase might ultimately cost the Treasury if wealthy individuals defer the sale of assets or move them out of the country, according to Treasury sources. Continue reading...

What’s the future for the Green party? Should it be ecosocialism? | Joe Todd
The party must aspire to be more than a Labour pressure group. It should offer a vision for radical reform – and ways to implement it It’s a strange time to be a Green. We have just held our largest conference ever, but it was overshadowed by a controversial motion that was attacked by the media as racist. Then, when we lost a byelection in a Camden seat that is so Labour it has estates named after Blair-era ministers, the headlines called for Zack Polanski to resign. It does, however, mark the end of phase one for Polanski’s Greens. Polanski burst on to the political scene in 2025 and ate up attention, enjoying an easy monopoly on hope while Labour was sucked into the black hole of Starmerism. Labour has since escaped, with Andy Burnham giving social democracy with Mancunian characteristics a half-hearted go. But Burnham’s honeymoon already seems to be ending. John Healey’s budget of “