The Afghanistan inquiry has cost the taxpayer £58m and has run for more than three and a half years without publishing a finding. As it drags on, the association representing more than 5,000 serving and former Special Forces personnel says it is ready to take the Government to court over separate Northern Ireland legacy legislation. Brigadier Ed Butler warns that years of unresolved legal jeopardy are already deterring soldiers from attempting SAS selection, and Britain's most dangerous military work depends on a small number of volunteers. The question is what happens to that pipeline if the men who do it come to believe the law will follow them for the rest of their lives.

He guarded Ismail Haniyeh for Hamas. Britain gave him asylum, then a passport. Now German prosecutors say Mr X, as the courts call him, was involved in an alleged plot to attack Jewish community centres, Israeli diplomats and pro-Israel rallies in Europe, timed for the second anniversary of October 7. A judge granted him anonymity for 100 years. It took a newspaper query to fix that. The allegation facing Mr X is extraordinary. The unanswered question for Britain is how much of his past was known, and by whom, before the state gave him its protection and, eventually, its passport.

Britain has taken a leading role in preparing NATO for the battlefields of the future, bringing together hundreds of soldiers, engineers, coders and defence...

The Duke of Edinburgh has thanked the sailors, engineers and shipwrights helping to keep Britain’s Royal Navy supplied and ready for action, during a...