Government accused of backing ‘inhumane’ policies as 16 people are badly hurt by barrier blocking entry via Poland from Belarus Refugees and asylum seekers have been seriously injured by a “dangerous” razor-wire fence that the UK helped to build to keep asylum seekers out of Europe. At least 16 people have been gravely hurt, some hospitalised, when recently attempting to reach Europe by crossing a 5.5m-high barrier the British military helped to construct on Poland’s border with Belarus ..read more

Coroner says chain of command failed to recognise risk of stress to officer cadet and get her seen by doctor after ball The army missed opportunities to prevent the death of a “positive and bubbly” officer cadet who killed herself at Sandhurst military academy, a coroner has found. Olivia Perks, 21, fell victim to a “complete breakdown in welfare support” during her time at the academy, the 16-day inquest at Reading town hall heard. She was found in her room at Sandhurst on 6 February 2019 ..read more

British armed forces exhibit ‘culture of institutional misogyny’ despite promises of reform, says parliamentary committee chair A junior servicewoman said she was a victim of rape and forced to leave the armed forces while her abuser was protected, according to whistleblower testimony collected and published by a parliamentary committee on Thursday. Her story is one of eight cases revealing continuing rape and sexual abuse in the military, collected by forces medical teams and sent to a Commons defence select committee, inquiring into women’s experience of serving in the armed forces ..read more

Observers split on whether armed forces’ high-profile ceremonial role could help or hinder their image The British military deployed 9,000 personnel in ceremonial and supporting duties on Saturday’s coronation, nearly 5% of all the UK armed forces, in the largest display of official pageantry for more than 70 years. But the carefully choreographed effort, eight months in the planning, comes at a time when recruitment is falling and the image projected by the army on parade is, some observers say, far removed from the needs of the modern military ..read more

Liam Holden went to prison for 17 years on the basis of a confession he made after being tortured by British soldiers in 1972. Now the government is making it harder for people like him to get justice ..read more

Codebreaker who served in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry during the second world war Jean Argles, who has died aged 97, served in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Fany) during the second world war, as a code and cipher officer for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). At the age of 18, she was promoted to be shift leader in the SOE headquarters in Baker Street, London. Later, during postings to Egypt and Italy, she deciphered communications from partisan rebels fighting in Greece and Yugoslavia. It was a family contact who tipped Jean off about a possible role in the Fany, a small, elite unif ..read more

Military says emergency flights will operate as long as conditions are safe, as civilians arrive in Britain Sudan crisis – latest updates Britain could continue running evacuation flights from Sudan once the current three-day ceasefire expires on Thursday night, the army officer in charge of the rescue said, as the first planeload of civilians rescued from the country’s civil war arrived at Stansted airport. Brig Dan Reeve said the airlift from a base north of Khartoum would continue as long as conditions were safe, including possibly beyond the ceasefire period, if people could still travel ..read more

Liam Holden went to prison for 17 years on the basis of a confession he made after being tortured by British soldiers in 1972. Now the government is making it harder for people like him to get justice Shortly after 2pm on 17 September 1972, a bright Sunday afternoon, six soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment were patrolling near the Ballymurphy estate in west Belfast. If you were a British soldier stationed in Northern Ireland at that time, the area around Ballymurphy was not a place to stand still for too long. Even when pausing briefly in a doorway, the young soldiers wou ..read more

Staff unable to access computers and local authority phone lines knocked out as outsourcing giant investigates possible data breach Computer systems have abruptly stopped working at the outsourcing group Capita, knocking out council phone lines and triggering fears that the company that runs crucial operations for the NHS and the military could be under cyber-attack. Capita staff are understood to have been unable to access IT systems since the early hours of Friday, and an early investigation has yet to establish the cause ..read more

Estate awarded £350,000 including damages for inhumane and degrading treatment In 1973 Liam Holden was convicted of murdering a British soldier in Northern Ireland and became the last person in the United Kingdom to be sentenced to hang. On Friday – half a century after the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, 11 years after the sentence was quashed and a year after Holden died – a high court in Belfast awarded £350,000 to his estate ..read more