Today’s defence in the media includes coverage of Major Heather Stanning’s Gold medal in Rio and the successful conviction of two men, following the seizure in 2015 by the Royal Navy and a Border Force Cutter of the biggest single cocaine haul ever recovered at sea in Europe.
RIO16
There is widespread coverage in today’s papers of Major Heather Stanning and Helen Glover retaining their Olympic title from London 2012 in the women’s rowing pair final in Rio.
The British Army tweeted:
Congratulations Heather Stanning and Helen Glover for winning Gold in the Women’s Pair Rowing #Rio2016
ROYAL NAVY
There is widespread coverage of the successful conviction of two men, following a Royal Navy and Border Force drug seizure in 2015. The The Mirror (p32), Times (p11), Sun (p32), Independent (p8), Daily Mail (p41) and Daily Star (p17) say that in April 2015 HMS Somerset and Border Force cutter HMC Valiant caught two smugglers with £500million worth of cocaine in the North Sea in what is being reported as Britain’s biggest ever drugs bust. The smugglers were both jailed for at least 20 years yesterday.
OPERATIONAL ALLOWANCES
The Daily Record Scotland (p18) reports on operational allowances. The MOD's position is below.
A MOD spokesperson said:
The allowance was originally introduced for intense combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. We review the qualifying locations every six months as standard but Ministers have no plans to change the eligibility rules for the allowance.
SYRIA
The Guardian (p17) reports that the Daesh stronghold of Manbij, in northern Syria, has fallen to allied Arab and Kurdish fighters, who freed more than 2,000 hostages held there by the terrorist group. A spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces said they had taken over the city after the last Isis militants fled on Friday.
PICTURE OF THE DAY
