#armed-forces

#armed-forces

A root and branch reform of how Britain buys military equipment is needed after a damning report into a multimillion pound programme to build the army's new Ajax fighting vehicle, parliament has been told.Anger at the fiasco united the opposition and the government's own backbench MPs on Thursday after the release of a review into the project, which has been running for 12 years.

In an unusual, wide-ranging interview with war correspondents and military bloggers, President Vladimir V. Putin on Tuesday portrayed the Russian military as standing firm against the long-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive and suggested that the conflict was fulfilling the goals he set initially.

Hundreds of soldiers and sailors are to be trained from Monday to cover striking Border Force guards, as ministers prepare for a potential summer of chaos at ports and airports, the Guardian can reveal.In a move that unions say will diminish security at points of entry to the UK, members of the armed forces will be given five days' training before checking passports at Heathrow, Gatwick and Dover.

For more than two weeks, search-and-rescue teams in Colombia have scoured the Amazon rainforest for four children who were aboard a plane that crashed on May 1.The bodies of the three adults on board were found in the wreckage, but there was no sign of the children.Then, on Wednesday night, Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, posted on Twitter what appeared to be remarkable news: The country's armed forces had found the four children alive.

Ukraine is aiming to mark a turning point in the course of the war with its anticipated counteroffensive to retake territory occupied by Russia.Kyiv's strategists have said they are waiting for the end of the spring, when the weather will be drier and mud will not hinder tanks and other armored vehicles, and to receive the remaining armaments being delivered by their NATO allies.

BEIRUT - A leading international rights group on Thursday said Turkish border guards have been indiscriminately shooting at Syrian civilians along the border with the war-wrecked country, as well as using excessive force against asylum seekers and migrants trying to cross into Turkey.Are you on Telegram?

Germany is unveiling its first comprehensive national security strategy Wednesday in Berlin as part of an effort to address what it views as growing military, economic and social threats to the country.Chancellor Olaf Scholz and four of his top ministers are due to present the new strategy, which has been months in the making.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Germany's defense minister rejected suggestions that the country's armed forces were in disarray, a response given Thursday after parliament's commissioner for the military warned that troops have too little of everything.

A pride progress flag hangs on a building in November 2022 in London.Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images LONDON The United Kingdom is expanding an amnesty program to overturn convictions for gay and lesbian activity that previously was outlawed.Starting Tuesday, women in England and Wales can apply to have outdated criminal convictions related to homosexuality expunged from their records.

A British serviceman has died after a night out while on a military drill in Sweden, with four people arrested on suspicion of murder, according to reports.The 25-year-old Navy serviceman was in Sweden for the Aurora 23 defence exercise on board the HMS Albion ship.Swedish newspaper Expressen reported the man, who has not been identified, was on a night out in Stockholm with another member of the armed forces.

A giant replica of the crown that will be used in King Charles's coronation on Saturday has gone on display at Marble Arch.The 16ft replica crown weighing 300kg and incorporating 36 different coloured glass stones will remain in place until Thursday (May 11).It is also adorned with lights which create an illuminated nighttime display.

Here is all the coronation regalia being used at the crowning of the King and Queen Consort.The sacred, priceless objects are part of the Crown Jewels the nation's most precious treasures which are held in trust by the King for the country and kept under armed guard in the Tower of London.PROCESSION Two ceremonial maces Maces based on medieval weapons are used in royal processions to symbolise royal authority and will be carried before the sovereign on his way to Westminster Abbey.

The chairman of the independent inquiry into alleged unlawful killings in Afghanistan has said it is critical those who have broken the law be referred to relevant authorities for the reputation of the armed forces and the country.Lord Justice Haddon-Cave described allegations made against members of the UK armed forces as extremely serious including an alleged cover-up of illegal activity and inadequate investigations by the Royal Military Police.

The wrangling over the nation's debt limit raises a lot of questions, including what it actually is and why the United States has one.Here's everything you need to know.The debt limit is a cap on the total amount of money that the United States is authorized to borrow to fund the government and meet its financial obligations.

President Biden called for a new era of innovation in the American military on Thursday as he formally unveiled his choice to steer the country's armed forces into an uncertain future hunting down terrorists, managing the growing competition with China and countering Russian aggression in Europe.Introducing Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as his nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mr. Biden praised him as a proud, butt-kicking American airman and top-notch strategist.

Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo on Wednesday vetoed three Democratic-led gun control bills that attempted to increase the age to possess certain firearms and restrict who can obtain them.I will not support legislation that infringes on the constitutional rights of Nevadans, Lombardo said in a statement defending the first vetoes of his tenure.

For US troops, the training is nothing new: Applying tourniquets, clearing someone's airway, recognizing signs of traumatic brain injuries.But to the Ukrainian troops receiving it, the training is literally a matter of life or death on the battlefield in the war against Russia.US troops have been providing critical medical instruction and combat casualty care to Ukrainians at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany for almost a year, in between other significant training on weapon systems.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Thirty-one years after the downtown Hall of Administration was named after her father, then-Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, known as a liberal reformer, Supervisor Janice Hahn witnessed history Thursday: the flying of a Pride flag at the building honoring her dad.The event at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration kicked off LGBTQ+ Pride Month and marked the first time a Pride flag flew over a Los Angeles County building.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

President Biden on Thursday authorized sending 1,500 active duty soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border for 90 days to aid U.S. Customs and Border Protection efforts to combat international drug trafficking.About 2,500 National Guard members on active duty orders are already stationed at all nine sectors of the southwest border doing detention and monitoring work with CBP, a U.S. official said Monday.

Image As Jamie Tartt in Ted Lasso, Phil Dunster began as a bratty showboat and is ending as an emotionally mature team player.Credit...Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times The new Jamie Tartt is very different from the old Jamie Tartt.As played by Phil Dunster, the 31-year-old English actor, the Tartt that closes out the third and probably final season of Ted Lasso is earnest, candid and emotionally mature a far cry from the bratty, egotistic playboy and soccer star we were introduced to in Season 1.

Latvian lawmakers are set to elect a new head of state on Wednesday from a field of three candidates with no clear favorite.The Baltic nation's 100-seat Saeima legislature will choose a president to serve for a four-year term.Entrepreneur and businessman Uldis Pilens, civil society activist Elina Pinto and Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics are registered by parties to run in the race.

Even before Boris Johnson formally succeeded Theresa May as Prime Minister in 2019 there were problems over his use, or what some regarded as his abuse, of Chequers.It led to the resignation of the head housekeeper after claims of tensions with Carrie Johnson.Charlotte Vine MBE, who first worked at the prime minister's official country residence in 2004, left with a payoff in 2020 after signing a non-disclosure agreement.

Imran Khan and the police have been locked in a tense standoff in Lahore, with Pakistan's former prime minister holed up in his residence claiming he was about to be arrested and officers barricading the surrounding roads and accusing him of harbouring terrorists.Since Khan was released from police custody on Friday, after his arrest in a corruption case was declared illegal, he has repeatedly expressed his fear of being re-arrested and has only left his residence once, to attend court with his wife on Monday.

Search our comprehensive guide to things to do in Brooklyn for more local events - or submit your own!
Memorial Day Weekend kicks off on Friday, and Brooklyn is jam-packed with some great parades, festivals and barbecues to mark the occasion.FRIDAY, MAY 26
Prospect Park Nature Exploration
The Prospect Park Alliance will offer nature and educational opportunities for the whole family starting on May 26.

Central London is expected to be packed for the Coronation, and for those who don't get a spot along the parade route, a number of large screens are being set up in the Royal Parks around the parade route.On the day of the Coronation, the main access to get into the Mall and Whitehall will open at 6am, and the area will be effectively sealed off at 9am, and people attending are likely to be stuck in their spot until around 2pm.
There's a small army of portaloos now popping up like mushrooms after the rain, although most of them will be at the large televisions screening sites that have been created in the parks, there are some in clusters along the parade route.

Hail a cab, save a life



400 London taxis will be kitted out with lifesaving bandages as part of a new TfL scheme.Black cabs carrying the military-grade bandages will have a sticker in the windshield so they can be identified in an emergency.The emergency bandages will be able to slow down serious blood loss after an accident or major incident, such as a stabbing or terror attack.

Honor fallen service members this Memorial Day Weekend with parades, tributes, and tours around DC.
National Memorial Day ParadeConstitution Ave., from Seventh St. NW, to 17th St. NW This year, actor Anthony Anderson and EPSN's Joe Buck will host the National Memorial Day Parade with performances by Colbie Caillat, Andy Grammar, and Craig Morgan at the pre-parade show.

The Queen's Reading Room charity is giving away 2,500 free tickets to NHS staff, charity workers and members of the Armed Forces for its first ever literary festival.The one-day event at Hampton Court Palace on Sunday June 11 features a line up of stars and authors including Dame Judi Dench, David Harewood, Robert Harris and Kate Mosse.

An aerial view of The Pentagon on May 10, 2023.Images that purported to show smoke rising from the headquarters of the U.S. armed forces appear to have been generated by artificial intelligence tools.Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images A false report of an explosion at the Pentagon, accompanied by an apparently AI-generated image, spread on Twitter on Monday morning, sparking a brief dip in the stock market.

Hundreds of soldiers and sailors are being drafted in to plug the gaps of striking Border Force staff, reports suggest amid fears of a second summer marred in travel chaos.Training will begin on Monday, giving members of the armed forces less than a week to get up to speed before checking passports at Heathrow, Gatwick and Dover, according to The Guardian.

Rishi Sunak will unveil a new agreement with Japan to foster closer defence, security and cyber ties amid growing concerns about the threat from China.Visiting Tokyo, the Prime Minister will commit to deploying a naval battle fleet in the Indo-Pacific in 2025 and to double UK troop numbers in upcoming joint exercises.

President Biden and top congressional leaders are set to meet Tuesday to discuss raising the debt ceiling.Which raises a lot of questions, including what the debt limit actually is and why the United States has one.Here's everything you need to know about the debt limit.The debt limit is a cap on the total amount of money that the United States is authorized to borrow to fund the government and meet its financial obligations.

More than 5,000 armed forces personnel travelled by train to London Waterloo before marching off to take part in the coronation.Network Rail said it was the biggest movement of military personnel on Britain's railways since Sir Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965.Members of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Commonwealth forces travelled to the UK's busiest railway station on Saturday morning on board seven South Western Railway trains and two chartered West Coast Railways trains.

King Charles III, Britain's first new monarch in 70 years, will be crowned on Saturday in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London.Those hoping to catch a glimpse of the king and queen on their way to and from the service are lining the procession route in central London, while others will watch the broadcast on screens at the city's parks, at street parties or in their homes, including on a livestream at nytimes.com.

With Ukraine stepping up attacks deep inside Russian-controlled territory, there were new signs on Friday of disarray and unease among Russia's military and political leadership as they brace for a looming Ukrainian offensive, for which their forces may be ill-prepared.The latest manifestation of those tensions came from Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, who used what he said were the newly bloody corpses of his fighters as the backdrop for another expletive-laced rant against the top military command.

HOUR BY HOUR Issued on: 05/05/2023 - 10:42 A Ukrainian service member from a 28th separate mechanised brigade named after the Knights of the Winter Campaign of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, fires an anti-tank grenade launcher at a front line near Bakhmut on May 3, 2023.Sofiia Gatilova , Reuters Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russian paramilitary group Wagner, on Friday threatened to pull his fighters from the front line in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on May 10, saying ammunition shortages meant they faced "senseless death".

Sweden's prime minister Ulf Kristersson is set to meet Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting of Nordic leaders in Helsinki late on Wednesday afternoon.Published: 3 May 2023 15:04 CEST Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky meets Finland's president, Sauli Niinisto at a press conference at the President's Palace in Helsinki.

Ukrainian soldiers walk in a trench near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Saturday, 29 April 2023.Photograph: Libkos/AP Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Emma Graham-Harrison White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby did not detail how the US calculated Russia's losses, but said about half of those who died were fighting under the Wagner mercenary group, rather than with the Russian military.

Signs of an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive mounted on Monday with stepped-up military strikes by both sides, Russian forces moving into defensive positions and even an unexplained explosion that knocked a supply train off its tracks across the border in Russia.Ukraine's defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said in an appearance on national television that the military was reaching the finish line in preparations to launch a counteroffensive and that commanders would decide how, where and when.

Thousands of British nationals have fled Sudan as violence sweeps the country, killing hundreds of civilians.On 25 April, the first UK government evacuation flight rescued Britons trapped in the capital, Khartoum after a 72-hour ceasefire between warring factions was negotiated.The government announced final flights for evacuees would leave on Saturday evening after fears that the armistice between the two rival generals was wearing down.

British nationals trying to flee Sudan have until noon to reach an airport to be processed for an extra UK flight out of the conflict zone as rescue efforts shift to the east of the country.Members of the military are working round the clock to assist UK citizens and others trying to escape the war-torn nation amid an uneasy ceasefire, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said.

Emily Maitlis has recalled how she felt really sick ahead of her BBC Newsnight interview with the Duke Of York.The journalist, who grilled Andrew over his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, is executive producer of a new Channel 4 documentary, which forms part of the broadcaster's programming around the coronation.

Ben Wallace has defended the military justice system's ability to tackle rape and sex offences as figures revealed a dramatic increase in the number of cases being investigated.Some 333 Sexual Offences Act investigations were launched by the service police in 2022, up 108 from the previous year, an almost 50% increase.

The CEO of TikTok will make a high-profile appearance Thursday before a U.S. Congressional committee, where he'll face a grilling on data security and user safety while he makes his own case for why the hugely popular video-sharing app shouldn't be banned.Shou Zi Chew's testimony comes at a crucial time for the company, which has acquired 150 million American users but is under increasing pressure from U.S. officials.

WASHINGTON The CEO of TikTok will make a high-profile appearance Thursday before a U.S. Congressional committee, where he'll face a grilling on data security and user safety while he makes his own case for why the hugely popular video-sharing app shouldn't be banned.Shou Zi Chew's testimony comes at a crucial time for the company, which has acquired 150 million American users but is under increasing pressure from U.S. officials.

An RAF airbase has been transformed into a life-size replica of the coronation procession route to ensure the ceremony goes off without a hitch.More than 7,000 ceremonial troops brushed up on their military drill at RAF Odiham in Hampshire on Sunday for a rehearsal, bringing together the largest parade of military personnel since the funeral of Winston Churchill.

The UK will run a further evacuation flight from Port Sudan on Monday for those still trapped in the country after officially ending the operation from an airfield near Khartoum, the Government has said.Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said rescue efforts would continue from the east of Sudan as Britain and its international allies advocate for a long-term ceasefire.

The King's coronation procession is set to be a family affair for some military personnel with ancestors playing key roles in processions as far back as Charles II's coronation in 1661.Lieutenant Lachlan de Klee, who will be the Ensign for the Coldstream Guards, said his relatives had taken part in the past two coronations, while his ancestor the Duke of Rothes, John Leslie, carried the sword of state after the restoration of the monarchy.

Political editor, BBC News

This is a race against time, circumstances and numbers.And all three are bleak.Time is ticking down to the ceasefire ending.The circumstances are grim: unpredictable, volatile and dangerous.And the latest numbers published by the Foreign Office make it look, on the face of it, like it will be very difficult to get every Brit out in time before the fighting resumes.

Photos from every year of the King's life have been compiled to celebrate Charles III's coronation.The pictures, brought together by the PA news agency, show the monarch through the decades from newborn baby and toddler to university student, naval officer and daredevil prince, then husband, father and globe-trotting heir to the throne and finally as the sovereign.

Members of a recently formed Russian assault unit say their commanders deployed troops to stop them from retreating and threatened them with death after they suffered huge losses in eastern Ukraine.In a video addressed to President Vladimir Putin, a group of about two dozen men in military uniform say they are the remnants of Storm, a unit under the defence ministry.

Issued on: 25/03/2023 - 18:32Modified: 25/03/2023 - 18:38 A checkpoint of the Russia peacekeeping force is seen on a road towards the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenia, Tuesday, March 14, 2023.Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday accused the Moscow-dominated security alliance of leaving his country in the cold in the face of a threat of renewed hostilities with neighboring Azerbaijan.

Russian cruise missiles intended for use by Moscow's Black Sea fleet have been destroyed in an explosion in the city of Dzhankoi in the north of the Crimean peninsula, Ukraine's defence ministry has said.Ihor Ivin, the Russian-installed head of the Dzhankoi administration, was quoted as saying the city had come under attack from drones, and that a 33-year-old man had suffered a shrapnel injury from a downed drone.