Move extinguishes one of the last hopes of legal action over killing of 13 civil rights demonstrators in Derry in 1972

Relatives of Bloody Sunday victims have condemned a decision not to prosecute 15 former soldiers for perjury, calling it an affront to the rule of law.

Northern Ireland ’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) on Friday announced the 15 army veterans plus a former alleged member of the Official IRA would not face prosecution for allegedly giving false evidence to the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

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Our leaders are too eager to revisit the UK’s one-time role as police officer to the world. This isn’t the way to do foreign affairs

Britain’s use of its air force to defend Israel against Iran at the weekend was an emphatic intervention in the war in Gaza. It was more than Britain has done for Ukraine. And while the war in Ukraine does at least have implications, albeit distant, for Britain’s long-term defence, Israel’s dispute with Gaza has none. It is not Britain’s business. So why did we get involved? Better by far to stick to Britain’s sensible decision to keep open a diplomatic presence in Tehran, at least more influential than a few downed drones.

The answer shone through in the remarks of the foreign secretary , David Cameron, to the BBC on Monday morning. He could not resist reverting to Britain’s one-time role as police officers to the world, telling it how Britain expects it to behave. The eagerness of British leaders to cut a dash on the world stage, usually on the coat-tails of the US, seems irresistible. In the past decade, it has sent the Royal Navy to the Mediterranean , the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. This craving seems to be resisted by most other European powers (France being occasionally an exception), who sense no similar threat to their security. Britain has a craving to project “global power” that is unrivalled by most other European powers. It is costing British taxpayers billions of pounds.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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The Associated Press reports: As their rivalry intensifies, U.S. and Chinese military planners are gearing up for a new kind of warfare in which squadrons of air and sea drones equipped with artificial intelligence work together like swarms of bees to overwhelm an enemy. The planners envision a scenario in which hundreds, even thousands of the machines engage in coordinated battle. A single controller might oversee dozens of drones. Some would scout, others attack. Some would be able to pivot to new objectives in the middle of a mission based on prior programming rather than a direct order. The world's only AI superpowers are engaged in an arms race for swarming drones that is reminiscent of the Cold War, except drone technology will be far more difficult to contain than nuclear weapons. Because software drives the drones' swarming abilities, it could be relatively easy and cheap for rogue nations and militants to acquire their own fleets of killer robots. The Pentagon is pushing urgent development of inexpensive, expendable drones as a deterrent against China acting on its territorial claim on Taiwan. Washington says it has no choice but to keep pace with Beijing. Chinese officials say AI-enabled weapons are inevitable so they, too, must have them. The unchecked spread of swarm technology "could lead to more instability and conflict around the world," said Margarita Konaev, an analyst with Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. "A 2023 Georgetown study of AI-related military spending found that more than a third of known contracts issued by both U.S. and Chinese military services over eight months in 2020 were for intelligent uncrewed systems..." according to the article. "Military analysts, drone makers and AI researchers don't expect fully capable, combat-ready swarms to be fielded for five years or so, though big breakthroughs could happen sooner."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Will the US-China Competition to Field Military Drone Swarms Spark a Global Arms Race?

Israel’s military has reported minor damage after Iran launched dozens of drones and missiles towards it late on Saturday

• Iran attack on Israel – live updates
• Full report: Iran launches drones and cruise missiles against Israel

Iran launched hundreds of drones as well as cruise missiles towards Israel , in the Islamic Republic’s first ever direct attack on the Jewish state in response to the 1 April strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed a senior figure in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and eight other officers.

“Very little damage was caused,” according to Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said 99% of the more than 300 missiles and drones were intercepted. Sirens blared across the country and explosions were visible in the sky as the first wave reached Israel at around 2am local time (midnight BST) and Israeli air defence systems went to work.

Iranian strikes caused “minor damage” to the Nevatim airbase in the south of Israel, army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Sunday. “Only a few missiles fell in the territory of the state of Israel with slight damage to a military base in the south, with only slight damage to the infrastructure,” Hagari said in a statement.

Iran warned Israel on Sunday of a larger attack on its territory should it retaliate against Tehran’s overnight drone and missile attack, adding that US bases would be targeted if Washington backs any Israeli military action against Iran.

The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, said US forces intercepted “dozens of missiles and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] en route to Israel”, while Gallant praised the assistance of the US and “additional partners”.

The US president, Joe Biden, said Iran was aided by its proxy forces in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. He praised the work of US military personnel in helping to bring down “nearly all” of the drones and missiles fired by Iran. Biden cut short a weekend stay at his Delaware beach house to return to the White House to meet his national security team. He has said he will convene a meeting of G7 leaders on Sunday.

Royal Air Force fighter jets and refuelling aircraft were also involved, taking off from bases in Cyprus. Their role, according to the UK Ministry of Defence, was to fill in for the US air force in the sorties against Islamic State normally carried out over Iraq and north-eastern Syria, but also to intercept Iranian drones if they came into the UK area of operations.

Jordan intercepted some flying objects that entered its airspace on Saturday night to ensure the safety of its citizens, a cabinet statement said on Sunday. Jordan, which lies between Iran and Israel, had readied air defences to intercept any drones or missiles that violated its territory, two regional security sources told Reuters.

World leaders have condemned Iran’s attack, with regional powers including Saudi Arabia and Egypt calling for restraint. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said: “I am deeply alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation. I urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid any action that could lead to major military confrontations on multiple fronts in the Middle East.”

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Joe Biden is believed to have urged restraint, and Tehran deems the matter ‘concluded’ but ultimately Israel’s response lies in the hands of three prickly rivals in its war cabinet

• Iran attack on Israel – live updates
• Full report: Iran launches hundreds of drones and cruise missiles at Israel in unprecedented attack
• Iran attack – what we know so far

The prospect of a major regional war in the Middle East hangs in the balance on Sunday morning, when Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet is due to meet to decide Israel’s response to Iran’s drone and missile attack.

Netanyahu’s ministers voted in the middle of the night to delegate that decision to the tiny war cabinet, comprising Netanyahu, defence minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, a Netanyahu opponent who joined the government as minister without portfolio after the Hamas 7 October attack, which began the spiral of violence that has brought Israel and Iran to the brink of war.

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US defence official says action is part of ‘ironclad commitment to Israel’s security’, with UK’s Royal Air Force also involved in regional operations

• Iran launches attack against Israel – live
• Full report: Israel under fire as Iran launches drones and cruise missiles

A hastily assembled coalition including the US and UK has helped Israel shoot down Iranian drones over Jordan, Iraq and Syria in an effort to blunt the attack and prevent an uncontrollable escalation.

As a mass salvo of Iranian drones and cruise missiles neared its borders, Israel scrambled its fighter jets to intercept the incoming projectiles, according to Israeli news reports, and it was supported in the effort by its partners and neighbours.

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Starmer’s comments come before visit to Barrow, where he is to promise nuclear deterrent is ‘bedrock’ of security plan

Labour will aim to raise the UK’s defence spending to 2.5% of GDP “as soon as resources allow”, its leader Keir Starmer has said.

Speaking to the i newspaper, Starmer said defence was “the number one issue for any government” in a world where international threats had risen and the situation was “more volatile” than it had been for many years.

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HMS Trent seized 200kg of cocaine and other drugs in two operations that intercepted speedboats

The Royal Navy has seized nearly £17m worth of drugs after it intercepted smuggling speedboats in the Caribbean Sea.

HMS Trent seized 200kg of cocaine and other drugs with an estimated street value of £16.7m across two operations.

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For two years, David Bonney’s sexuality was investigated by his employer, the RAF. When he confessed, he was sent to solitary

David Bonney realised his employer, the Royal Air Force, was investigating his sexuality within minutes of entering the guard room at RAF Mount Batten, a military base near Plymouth. It was 1991 and Bonney, then a 21-year-old medical assistant, had just been escorted from his post at the medical centre by military police. He sat down in the guard room, opposite the duty staff, and the interrogation began.

“Questions about my sex life,” says Bonney, now 55. “Questions about witnessing me with other gay people. Questions about things I said on the phone to my mother.” He says there was shouting, swearing, banging on the desk. “Threats to me, threats to my career, threats to my family.” Bonney hadn’t told anyone in the military that he was gay. Before 2000, it was illegal for gay people to serve in the British armed forces and he knew a confession would cost him his career. “They wanted to get rid of me,” he says. “Anything they could to just manipulate me into confessing, to frighten the hell out of me.”

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