By Sean Rayment Deep cuts to Britain’s overseas aid budget, carried out to boost spending on defence, will have “devastating consequences” without improving national security, a parliamentary report has stated. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement in February of heavy reductions to pay for an increased defence budget, in light of the growing Russian threat, could actually make the UK’s defences weaker, the International Development Committee said. Slashing the development budget will “continue to lead to unrest and further crises in the future” as well as jeopardise the UK’s ability to wield soft power, the committee of MPs added. Following cuts…

By Staff Writer When world leaders meet in Belém, Brazil, this November for COP30, the United States will be absent. President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement and confirmed he will not attend the UN’s annual climate conference. The absence of the world’s second-largest emitter comes as climate change is increasingly identified by defence and intelligence agencies as a global security issue. Rising sea levels, food shortages, and extreme weather events are already linked to instability, displacement, and competition for resources. The Pentagon, NATO, and the United Nations have described climate change as a “threat multiplier,” warning that…

By Staff Writer US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have reached a temporary truce over rare earth exports, in what could ease immediate supply-chain fears but leaves Washington’s long-term national security vulnerabilities largely intact. Meeting for the first time in six years, the two leaders described their discussions in Seoul as “constructive” and said a framework was in place to resolve “major trade issues”. Central to those talks was Beijing’s agreement to suspend newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, materials essential to the production of advanced weapons, fighter jets and missile systems, as well as…

By Ben Farmer Sudanese paramilitary rebels have been accused of massacring as many as 2,000 civilians, including hundreds of hospital patients, in ethnic killing sprees after they overran a besieged city. El Fasher fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after an 18-month bombardment and blockade that had turned the enclave into the epicentre of the country’s catastrophic civil war. Sudanese army defenders and their militia allies were eventually routed when the RSF captured their last stronghold in the city, the 6th Division headquarters, after heavy fighting. Tens of thousands fled in the hours that followed. Their testimony, along with…

By Sean Rayment Critical gaps across European NATO militaries risk undermining deterrence against Russia, according to a new report on collective defence by the Council on Geostrategy. Entitled Collective Defence, the Strategic Defence Review, and Capability Gaps, the report highlights shortfalls across air, sea and land power, and argues that without urgent reform and integration, European allies could struggle to respond effectively to future crises on the continent. In a foreword to the report, General Sir Richard Barrons, who also co-authored the 2025 Strategic Defence Review, warns that “hope and denial” have too often replaced coherent strategy in European defence planning.…

Germany is preparing to spend €377 billion on military equipment including an arsenal of cruise missiles that can reach Moscow, according to a leaked document. The country’s defence budget, which has been exempted from the constitutional limits on public borrowing, is rising rapidly and due to hit 3.5 per cent of national Gross Domestic Product by 2029, or about €152 billion a year. The 39-page document lays out €377 billion in desired buys across land, air, sea, space and cyber. The list includes the purchase of 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles with have a range that would allow them to destroy…

Scientists working at a military base which was at the heart of the Skripal nerve agent probe fear their personal details may have been stolen by cyber criminals.Workers at the Defence Scientific Technical Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, Salisbury, were alerted to the security breach this month by union officials.The base had been key in determining that it was Novichok which had been used in the attempted murder of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018.Other victims of the hack include technicians and engineers at the defence company BAe Systems, the electronics firm Siemens,…

By Sean Rayment Two leading cybersecurity companies have joined forces to deploy a cutting-edge artificial intelligence tool to bring greater security to hundreds of international organisations. Beyon Cyber, a Beyon Group company and the fastest-growing cybersecurity company in the Middle East, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Haven Cyber Technologies, a global cybersecurity services provider and Microsoft Solutions Partner, through its UK-based subsidiary ITC Secure. The move has allowed Beyon Cyber, a Bahrain-based company, and Haven Cyber to form a strategic partnership to deploy and integrate Orryx AI, Beyon Cyber’s agentic AI tool, into ITC Secure’s Security Operations…

By Sean Rayment Russian cyber hackers have breached security at some of the country’s most sensitive military bases, including an RAF station where US nuclear weapons are stored. The Russian group known as Lynx has targeted numerous RAF and Royal Navy bases using a tactic called a “gateway attack”. The bases whose security was breached include RAF Lakenheath, where the US B61-12 thermonuclear gravity bombs are believed to be housed. Other bases penetrated include RAF Portreath, a top-secret radar station that forms part of NATO’s air defence network, and RAF Predannack, now home to the UK’s National Drone Hub. Last…

By Sean Rayment Britain’s financial institutions are not prepared “tactically or strategically” for the way modern conflict threats could target them, it has been claimed. The UK has left itself vulnerable to security risks by failing to put finance at the centre of its national defences, the head of the City regulator has warned. Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), told leading financial figures at Mansion House that the UK was “not prepared, tactically or strategically” for the way modern conflict and other threats such as cyberattacks could hit companies and markets. In an unusual intervention…

By Staff Writer Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Vladimir Putin of abandoning planned peace talks after the United States decided against sending long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv, suggesting Moscow’s interest in diplomacy evaporated the moment the missile threat was taken off the table. The move has led to claims that Vladimir Putin used the prospect of talks with Donald Trump as a ruse to buy time and halt the possible delivery of Tomahawks, which Kyiv has described as a crucial deterrent against Russian strikes. After Russia abruptly pulled out of the talks, Zelensky said Moscow’s behaviour showed its…

By Sean Rayment The EU has agreed to move forward with plans for a drone wall at the heart of its eastern defences as momentum grows for a €140bn loan to Ukraine based on Russian frozen assets. After a meeting with ministers from ten mostly Central and Eastern European member states plus Ukraine, the EU’s defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said a drone wall to protect against incursions from the skies was an immediate priority and a core element of the bloc’s eastern flank defences. With the Russian threat growing through both drone and fighter incursions in recent weeks, Europe is…