‘We should have seen this coming’: Why a Royal Navy ship still hasn’t reached Cyprus after Iran strike

When a drone struck a Royal Air Force base in Cyprus on Sunday night, the UK was forced to reconsider its hands-off approach to America’s war with Iran.

In a recorded TV address earlier that evening, Sir Keir Starmer said he had agreed to a US request to use British military bases for “defensive” strikes on Iranian missile sites, adding “British lives” had been put at risk. By Tuesday, the government decided it would scramble a warship, HMS Dragon, to the eastern Mediterranean.

But the intended display of naval might has yet to take place, with the warship still in Portsmouth where it is expected to remain until at least next week. It’s a wait that has left MoD officials “fuming” and exposed the shortcomings of previous financially-motivated decisions – including agreements with contractors to not work out of hours.

Under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, which handed independence to Cyprus, the UK has a legal obligation to ensure the island’s security. But the Cypriot government has said it was “disappointed” in Britain’s response to the strike and has been forced to draft in help from France.

It is also thought to be the first time since 1980 that no Royal Navy ships have been stationed in the Gulf after years of scaling back British presence in the region. Admiral Lord Alan West, who served as First Sea Lord between 2002 and 2006, previously described the decision to bring home the last remaining vessel as a “terrible error”.

HMS Dragon is one of the Royal Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers – three of which are in various stages of readiness, while the remaining three are undergoing maintenance.

Described by the navy as “one of the most advanced warships in the world”, the vessel is equipped with the Sea Viper anti-air missile system and manned by a crew of around 200.

It is currently being loaded with ammunition, having recently come out of maintenance. It is understood that it was in dry dock being refitted earlier this week.

Professor Kevin Rowlands, a former senior Royal Navy officer who now works for defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said each ship has a declared “readiness” level that tells ministers how many days it would take until it can set sail.

He told The Independent there would always be a basic level of supplies on the ship to adhere to that readiness level and that the prime minister would have been aware of the vessel’s state when the decision to deploy it was made.

“If we wanted something earlier or quicker, there would be ways of doing that,” he said.

He said that rather than being an issue of unpreparedness, the situation highlights how the UK’s strategic priorities have turned towards Russia in recent years.

“The UK, through successive defence reviews, have made some strategic choices,” he said. “It’s Nato first. It’s the North Atlantic, it’s the high North. The principal adversary is Russia.

“And so, if those choices have been made, that has meant a drawdown of fewer forces in other regions, including the Middle East. Every time you make a choice, sod’s law is that it’s going to be the wrong one, but then you’ve got to accept the consequences, which are that you’re not necessarily going to be there straight away.”

Other navy voices believe a lack of funding has resulted in an unpreparedness for action. Commodore Steve Prest, former director of Royal Navy acquisition, told BFBS Forces News the navy’s fight to keep its “full structure” has been a “real budgetary challenge”.

“With the fleet that we have got, the ageing Type 23s in particular, and to an extent the Type 45s, have suffered from a lack of spares and a lack of maintenance,” he said.

“So getting them out in sufficient numbers at sufficient readiness has been a problem.”

The Independent also understands that ministers had to intervene after contractor Serco raised question marks over service crew members working at the weekend on HMS Dragon.

It is understood armed forces minister Al Carns had to step in to overturn a money-saving tweak made to the servicing contract last year, which ended overtime work, including weekend working, on the ship.

MoD sources told The Independent contract changes were down to the department’s need to find £2.6bn of in-year savings for this financial year.

Before the issue was resolved, an MoD source told The Independent: “People are fuming here. It is not on for a contractor to work to rule in these circumstances.”

By Thursday afternoon, both the Royal Navy and Serco confirmed work was going ahead. In statements, they both insisted the contract does provide for overtime when necessary, including weekend work.

But Prospect, a trade union representing UK defence workers, warned on Thursday that the overtime ban had slowed down the ship’s preparation already.

Earlier this week, Mr Carns also admitted on Sky News that the battleship was previously being prepared for a different purpose, so adjustments to its set-up had been required.

Some have also questioned why the UK did not send a warship to the region sooner. The Spectator reported Sir Keir was first asked by the US about the use of UK bases to attack Iran on 11 February, 17 days before Israel and the US struck Tehran and killed the country’s leader, Ali Khamenei, on 28 February.

“You could see the buildup; it was unlikely to be without consequences,” Commodore Prest told BFBS Forces News. “We could and should have seen this coming.”

He added he believes that, on a strategic level, the UK has taken “our eye off the ball”.

But Prof Rowlands said forward planning happens “all the time” in the armed forces, and that the navy will have been preparing “a month or two in advance” for potential action in the Middle East.

“Everybody would have seen and known about the US buildup of forces in the region, so it wasn’t a complete surprise one morning that it happened,” he said.

“The options to do something would have been given, and whether those options are then taken or not is a different matter. If the option had been taken earlier and the ship had been readied and sailed, then the message that would have sent was that we were part of the operation, and that’s not the political position of the UK.

“So there’s a balance to be had there.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “We are reinforcing our defensive presence in the Eastern Mediterranean with four additional Typhoon jets to Qatar. Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters armed with Martlet drone-busting missiles are arriving in Cyprus.

“They will reinforce our RAF Typhoons, F-35B jets, ground-based counter-drone teams, radar systems, and Voyager refuelling aircraft already deployed. Our jets are flying continuous sorties to defend against indiscriminate Iranian strikes threatening UK people, interests and bases.

“The Royal Navy are working as fast as possible to prepare HMS Dragon for deployment, including resupplying her air defence missiles at our ammunition facility in HMNB in Portsmouth.”

Ukraine sounds nationwide alert after Russian attack kills seven

At least seven people, including two children, were killed and 10 injured in Kharkiv after Russia attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles and drones overnight, officials said.

A countrywide air raid alert was issued at around 3am local time to warn people against incoming Russian projectiles.

Kharkiv oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov said fires were reported as a result of a ballistic missile attack, which killed four civilians and injured 10, including two children.

Explosions were first reported in Kyiv at around 1.30am local time, the Kyiv Independent reported, followed by more blasts at around 1.40am local time.

The attack came hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he had visited the eastern front on Friday.

Zelensky said he gave awards to soldiers defending positions near Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian forces were concentrated in preparation for a spring offensive.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, said ⁠it had summoned Hungary‘s acting ⁠charge ​d’affaires ⁠in Kyiv following the detention ​of ⁠Ukrainian nationals ‌transporting a cash-and-gold haul in Budapest.

Michelle Obama raises eyebrows again by skipping Jackson memorial

Former first lady Michelle Obama did not appear to attend the Chicago memorial service for civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson on Friday, despite the Obamas’ longstanding ties with the late activist.

The ceremony, which took place in a church on the South Side of the Obamas’ hometown of Chicago, featured numerous dignitaries, including former presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton; former Vice President Kamala Harris; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and former first lady Dr. Jill Biden. California Gov. Gavin Newsom was also present.

“President Donald Trump is unable to attend Jackson’s funeral due to scheduling and ongoing events, and has recorded a video message in tribute,” a White House official told The Independent.

The Independent has contacted the office of Barack and Michelle Obama for comment.

In a statement after Jackson’s passing in February at age 84, which followed years of health struggles, the Obamas spoke of their admiration and personal relationship with the leader, who was a protege of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Reverend Jackson also created opportunities for generations of African Americans and inspired countless more, including us,” the statement reads. “Michelle got her first glimpse of political organizing at the Jacksons’ kitchen table when she was a teenager. And in his two historic runs for president, he laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land.”

Though the Obamas occasionally had their differences with Jackson — the activist was caught on a hot mic in 2008 criticizing Barack Obama for the way he addressed the Black community — they have described him as a key influence.

“The message he sent to a 22-year-old child of a single mother with a funny name, an outsider, was that maybe there wasn’t any place or any room where we didn’t belong,” Barack Obama said during Friday’s service. “He paved the road for so many others to follow.”

Later in 2008, when Obama won the presidential election, Jackson was famously seen with tears in his eyes as he watched the candidate make his acceptance speech in Chicago.

The former first lady’s apparent absence from the Jackson funeral is the latest in a string of high-profile ceremonies she has missed, including Trump’s inauguration and former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, both of which took place last year.

These moments, coupled with less frequent public sightings of the Obamas together, fueled speculation they may be getting a divorce, though the former first lady has dismissed such claims.

She has explained that in recent times she has made an intentional decision to be less in the public eye.

“One of the major decisions I made this year was to stay put and not attend funerals and inaugurations and all the things that I’m supposed to attend,” she told NPR last year. “That was a part of me using my ambition to say, ‘Let me define what I want to do, apart from what I’m supposed to do, what the world expects of me.’ And I have to own that. Those are my choices.”

“The fact that people don’t see me going out on a date with my husband sparks rumors of the end of our marriage,” she said elsewhere in the interview. “It’s like, OK, so we don’t Instagram every minute of our lives. We are 60. We’re 60, y’all. You just are not gonna know what we’re doing every minute of the day.”

Spirited Mansfield give Arsenal a fright in FA Cup tie for the ages

Eberechi Eze’s previous FA Cup goal brought one of the famous old competition’s most treasured upsets in recent years. His next one may have prevented one of the greatest ever.

Eze remains on course to win the FA Cup in consecutive years with different clubs, just as Arsenal carry their quest for the quadruple still deeper into the season.

And yet it is not fanciful to imagine it could have been Mansfield Town in the quarter-finals, with another miracle shaped by a managerial Clough in the East Midlands. “You have that nagging feeling we could have nicked it,” said Nigel Clough.

The side 16th in League One forced Mikel Arteta to change shape, make a defensive change, send not just for Eze but Piero Hincapie, Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka. They had the attacking intent to unleash 10 shots in the first half, the wherewithal to stage a comeback, and the spirit to make a meeting at the oldest professional football ground in the world a tie for the ages.

Mansfield had not played Arsenal for 97 years. They made it an afternoon they will remember for decades. “It was a great occasion,” said Arteta. “I think that game exemplifies the history of the FA Cup, the difficulty of that and the beauty of that.”

It was settled by the man who scored in the final for Crystal Palace against Manchester City in May.

There are reasons to argue Arsenal have been the best team in Europe this season. They barely looked the best team in Mansfield for swathes of this. Clough’s collection of cast-offs and free transfers could note their cup run was finally ended by two players who cost Arsenal a combined £116m last summer: Noni Madueke, at £48m, and Eze, at £68m.

That neither is in Arteta’s strongest side illustrates the strength in depth he possesses, which was also part of Arsenal’s strategy in the transfer market. They delivered two quality goals: Madueke curling a shot from 20 yards that bent away from goalkeeper Liam Roberts, and Eze turning on the edge of the box to find the top corner with a rising effort.

They were required. Even in injury time, the Mansfield substitute Oliver Irow had a header to take it to extra time. A cup run that began against Harrogate, now bottom of the Football League, could have yielded the scalp of Arsenal, top of the Premier League. Mansfield were giant-killers, eliminating Sheffield United and Burnley; now they gave a fright to one of the biggest of all.

Mansfield were irrepressible. Three days earlier, in Arsenal’s previous match, Fabian Hurzeler had claimed only one team wanted to play football. Two did at the One Call Stadium: a shot count of 18-19 showed how much Mansfield contributed. “We are surprised how much we created,” Clough admitted.

Arsenal arguably had the better chances, with Kyle Knoyle excelling to clear Gabriel Jesus’ header off the line at 1-1 and Liam Roberts making a hat-trick of saves from Max Dowman and a fine stop from Saka.

However, twice, it took Arteta’s intervention to bring a breakthrough. Sometimes deemed too negative, the Spaniard tried to be too positive this time. It threatened to backfire. He tried using Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli as wing-backs in a 3-1-5-1 system. Arteta joked they only had 10 minutes to train with the formation.

His back three included a boy making his first start; Arsenal did not need as many No 10s as defenders and they creaked under a Mansfield onslaught. Leandro Trossard’s injury allowed Arteta to reconfigure, to bring on centre-back Piero Hincapie, in a search for a solid base. Three minutes later, Madueke struck. Then, after Mansfield had levelled, Arteta sent for Eze. He scored four minutes after his introduction.

Arteta’s flagship choices at the start showed boldness. Arsenal became the first Premier League team to start with two players 16 or under, but they delivered contrasting performances. Dowman oozed class on just his second senior start, gliding past defenders on effortless solo runs, looking the best player on the pitch. “I think he was exceptional,” Arteta said.

But it was a challenging full debut for Marli Salmon. The rookie was exposed by Arteta’s initial use of a back three. He was terrorised by Rhys Oates then. He was culpable for Will Evans’ equaliser. “I could sense that he was responsible,” said Arteta. “But everybody who was in that room has made an error.”

Latching on to Salmon’s loose pass, Evans powered forward and drove a shot under Kepa Arrizabalaga. An FA Cup scorer against Manchester United in his Newport days, the Welshman clearly has an aptitude for such occasions. Mansfield rocked to a tune borrowed from Bruce Springsteen, with lyrics customised to suit Phil Foden. “Will Evans is on fire,” they sang.

So was Oates, a striker whose CV includes Gainsborough, Grimsby and Gateshead. So was Louis Reed, a scorer at Bramall Lane and Turf Moor and a man denied by Arrizabalaga. Mansfield were relentless. “If we go out, let’s go out having a go,” rationalised Clough. His side certainly did.

Their goal went to Evans, a former Bala Town striker. It was one of the clichés of the day, but they all provided a reminder of the competition’s enduring appeal. The muddy patches on the pitch felt like a throwback. There were scrambles in crowded penalty boxes. A clearance flew into the back yard of a terraced house.

And, eventually, Mansfield’s first foray to the fifth round since the 1970s ended. “It was a good job we didn’t get through,” smiled Clough, aware of a backlog of games in League One. “We would have had a huge fixture problem.”

Starmer mocked for ‘copying Trump’ in Middle East war TikTok

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of trying to emulate Donald Trump after posting a dramatic TikTok edit showing Britain’s military response to the war in the Middle East.

The prime minister posted a video showing British Wildcat helicopters and military jets in action, accompanied by the song ‘Money for Nothing’ by Dire Straits.

The edit has been mocked by social media users and MPs alike, who have accused the prime minister of trying to copy the White House, which has recently come under fire for its own TikTok clips related to the war.

Al Pinkerton, a Liberal Democrat MP, compared the post indicated Sir Keir has been “sucked into the orbit of Trump’s deranged confusion of blockbuster with international conflict”.

“Trump’s illegal war in the Middle East is not a movie for promotion despite what [the president’s] press channels may imply,” he told The Guardian.

The Green Party told the paper the post “has echoes of videos coming out of the White House glorifying war”.

TikTok users also chimed in, with one commenting: “Not the UK Government [trying to] do a White House style TikTok.”

The UK has been criticised for failing to have air defence measures in place to sufficiently protect RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which was hit by a drone earlier this week.

The prime minister was forced to reject criticism from opponents and allies that Britain had not acted fast enough when fighting began, amid concerns that air defence destroyer HMS Dragon is not expected to sail to the eastern Mediterranean until next week.

On Thursday, Sir Keir announced that an additional four British Typhoon fighter jets are being deployed to Qatar to strengthen “defensive operations” in the region, but said that he “stands by” his decision not to join the initial strikes on Tehran over the weekend.

Part of Sir Keir’s address from earlier this week features in the clip, as the prime minister can be heard saying: “Our number one priority is protecting our people.”

However, his voice voice is largely drowned out by the Dire Straits soundtrack, a choice which has been ridiculed by critics.

Asked whether Sir Keir approved his TikTok audios before they were posted, his official spokesperson said he wouldn’t “get into internal processes” and said: “The PM’s position on defence spending has been set out very clearly.”

The Middle East war entered its eighth day on Saturday as an American bomber landed in Britain amid US warnings of a “surge” in strikes on Iran.

The 146ft B-1 Lancer arrived at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on Friday evening after Sir Keir granted permission for “defensive” US action against Iranian missile sites from UK bases.

Armed forces chief Sir Richard Knighton said he would expect the US to launch missions from the Gloucestershire base “within the next few days”.

Meanwhile, a second Government charter flight carrying British citizens from Oman landed at Gatwick Airport at 12.30am on Saturday as efforts to help people trapped in the war zone continue.

The Titan Airways flight departed from Muscat International Airport at 5.30pm before a short layover in Cairo, Egypt. The latest arrivals join around 6,500 Britons who have returned from the United Arab Emirates since widespread conflict began in the region.

Idyllic beaches and vivid sunsets: Relaxing Spanish island escapes

I resigned from the Foreign Office in disgust at what it has become

I resigned earlier this week from the Foreign Office after 11 years in the diplomatic service. My career took me from postings in London, New York and Hong Kong to heading up the British Consulate in Russia from 2023 to 2025.

For all the adventure, I decided to leave because of mounting frustrations over civil service ways of working, and over the Foreign Office’s skewed priorities. The department is overly focused on the peripheral to the neglect of its core purpose: defending British interests abroad. Recent foreign policy controversies, such as the giveaway of the Chagos Islands, a British overseas territory, seem to me to exemplify this problem.

The Foreign Office was once, and could once again be, a mighty institution, but to be so, we need to reform it. Here are five things about the Foreign Office that might shock you, and which need to change.

1. Corporate ’behaviours’ valued over subject-matter expertise

Recruitment into the diplomatic service and promotion within the Foreign Office is based not on subject-matter expertise or results, but on “civil service behaviours”. It doesn’t matter what you know about Chinese history and culture, the Chinese political system or military capabilities, nor even knowledge of Mandarin: jobs on the China desk and in the British Embassy in Beijing go instead to those who can give the best examples of “changing and improving” or “developing self and others”.

The same applies to all jobs across the Foreign Office. Focusing on these fluffy corporate concepts means we fail to recruit deep subject-matter experts, promote the wrong people and incentivise staff to jump through corporate hoops rather than building deep expertise.

2. Constant job churn

It is rare for officials to spend more than three years in a role, and often it’s even less. My career followed the same trajectory. We have a rotational model of “generalists”, which means after a stint on the Brazil desk, you may go on to the Iran desk, and after a posting at our embassy in Japan, you may go on to a role in Baghdad. This merry-go-round makes little sense and seriously erodes the building of institutional knowledge and country expertise. We should have much more specialisation and keep staff in roles for longer or focus on one region.

3. Bloated HQ bureaucracy

Three-quarters of British officials are based not abroad but in the Foreign Office’s two UK headquarters (London and East Kilbride, Scotland). The result is a bloated centre, with too many officials paper-pushing and speaking to each other, rather than to foreigners. These officials spend ever-increasing amounts of time on corporate processes, responding to Freedom of Information requests or drafting media “lines to take”.

They should be spending their time – as indeed they want to be – thinking deeply about the foreign policy challenges we face today. We should free HQ-based staff from excessive bureaucracy and have a greater proportion of staff based in our embassies overseas, doing what the core of the diplomat’s job is: going out to bat for the UK overseas.

4. Selling off the family silver

Over the years, we have disposed of many of our grandest embassies and ambassadorial residences abroad, selling off the family silver for a quick buck. When the historic British Embassy compound in Bangkok was sold in 2018, we relocated to a modern office tower and British prestige in Thailand took a drumming. Locals – who revered the two-ton bronze statue of Queen Victoria in the grounds as a symbol of fertility and female power – were among the angriest.

When part of our embassy in Tokyo was sold in 2021, the Foreign Office boasted that the money would “contribute towards making our embassies in Tokyo, New Delhi and the wider Indo-Pacific region some of the most modern and environmentally friendly diplomatic buildings in the world”. The storied embassy, dating back to 1872 and situated alongside the moat of the Imperial Palace, was sold in part to pay for solar panels.

These buildings are working offices, not plush homes for ambassadors. They represent the UK in bricks and mortar, and not only enhance our prestige but also massively improve our ability to convene the powerbrokers we need to influence abroad. We should hold on to them.

5. Embassies not being shop windows for Britain

British embassies, high commissions and consulates abroad do not routinely serve British produce when putting on official entertainment. This is an opportunity missed: we should be promoting our national brand, supporting UK farmers and boosting exports by serving everything from Scotch whisky and English wine, to Welsh lamb and Northern Irish beef.

But it also illustrates a deeper problem: we often fail to support British businesses at every opportunity. We also allow ourselves to be tied up in legal knots: when I strived to do more to showcase British brands, government lawyers said it was contrary to public procurement law to favour British suppliers over foreign ones. We need to be confident about putting Britain first, from the small to the big things.

Netflix cuts ties with Meghan Markle’s lifestyle brand

Netflix is parting ways with Meghan Markle’s lifestyle brand, As Ever, months after the streamer signed a multi-year TV and film contract with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Meghan initially launched As Ever in April 2025 in partnership with Netflix’s Consumer Products division. Alongside the brand, which sells products like wine, tea and jams, Meghan debuted her Netflix cooking series, With Love, Meghan.

In a surprising new update, spokespeople for As Ever told The Independent that the lifestyle brand will continue “independently.”

“As Ever is grateful for Netflix’s partnership through launch and our first year,” they said. “We have experienced meaningful and rapid growth, and As Ever is now ready to stand on its own. We have an exciting year ahead and can’t wait to share more.”

In a separate statement, a Netflix spokesperson said: “Meghan’s passion for elevating everyday moments in beautiful yet simple ways inspired the creation of the As Ever brand, and we are glad to have played a role in bringing that vision to life.

“As it was always intended, Meghan will continue growing the brand and take it into its next chapter independently, and we look forward to celebrating how she continues to bring joy to households around the world,” they added.

Meghan — who, along with her husband, Prince Harry, stepped down as senior working members of the British Royal Family in March 2020 — has been busy growing her lifestyle brand. During its first few months, As Ever experienced multiple sell-outs.

“You guys are doing it again, we’re nearly sold out on everything and I can’t believe it,” Meghan said in an Instagram video last June.

In connection with her brand, Meghan debuted her critically panned Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. The first season, which premiered in March 2025, was described as “queasy and exhausting” in a one-star review by The Independent’s Katie Rosseinsky.

It failed to break into the streamer’s top 300 shows in its first half of the year on the platform. At the time, speculation swirled that Netflix would not renew its contract with Meghan and Prince Harry, who released the low-rated 2024 docu-series, Polo, on the streamer in December 2024.

However, in early August, ahead of the release of the second season of With Love, Meghan, Netflix announced it had signed a multi-year contract with the couple to create “thoughtful” content.

“We’re proud to extend our partnership with Netflix and expand our work together to include the As Ever brand,” Meghan said in a previous statement shared with The Independent.

“My husband and I feel inspired by our partners who work closely with us and our Archewell Productions team to create thoughtful content across genres that resonates globally, and celebrates our shared vision.”