British forces based in Iraq shot down two Iranian drones overnight, Defence Secretary John Healey has said. But some drones in the attack hit the coalition base in the Iraqi city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, and injured a number of US troops. There were no British casualties. Brigadier Guy Foden said the base and another in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad were struck a number of times on Wednesday night and British personnel are currently in Erbil helping to defend that base. Since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, US bases in Iraq have been targeted in retaliation.

The UK lacks a plan to defend itself from military attack, a committee of MPs has warned. In a highly critical report, the defence committee says the UK is over-reliant on US resources and that preparations to defend itself and overseas territories in the event of attack are nowhere near where they need to be. The committee's chair, Labour MP Tan Dhesi, said: Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine, unrelenting disinformation campaigns, and repeated incursions into European airspace mean that we cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand. It comes as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) identified parts of the country where six or more new munitions factories could be built. In June, Defence Secretary John Healey announced plans to move the UK to war-fighting readiness, including £1.5bn to support the construction of new munitions factories, which will be built by private contractors.

British soldiers will be granted new powers to shoot down drones threatening military bases. The plans, to be unveiled by Defence Secretary John Healey in a speech on Monday, are intended to allow troops to take faster, more decisive action. Four British airbases used by US forces reported mystery drone sightings last year, while drones have disrupted airspace across Europe a number of times in recent months. The new powers will only apply to military sites, but could be extended to civilian locations such as airports. Healey is set to announce the introduction of a kinetic option, first reported by the Daily Telegraph, that would enable British troops or Ministry of Defence (MoD) police to shoot drones posing a threat to a military site in the UK.

John Healey, the British defense secretary, tours a new military drone production facility in Swindon, U.K., on Sept. 15. Healey is reportedly set to authorize new powers to shoot down drones amid a rise in incursions. British troops will be given new powers to shoot down drones threatening U.K. military bases, the Telegraph reported on Sunday, citing an upcoming announcement on Monday from John Healey, the British defense secretary. Healey is expected to unveil his vision on how to protect Britain's most critical military bases in response to a growing threat posed by Russia, the newspaper said. Although the new powers will initially apply only for military sites, the British government was not ruling out working to extend those powers to other important sites like airports, the Telegraph said, citing a source.

British fighter jets have conducted a Nato air defence mission over Poland as part of an allied response to Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace, the Ministry of Defence said. The RAF Typhoon jets were deployed over Poland on Friday night as part of the military alliance's mission to bolster its eastern flank. Tensions have escalated following repeated Russian violations of Nato members' airspace this month - with a drone detected over Romania and then warplanes in Estonia's airspace following the incursions into Poland. Russia has denied or downplayed the violations. Defence Secretary John Healey said the RAF flights sent a clear signal: Nato airspace will be defended.

Announcing the results of the review, the MoD said a new Digital Targeting Web would better connect soldiers on the ground with key information provided by satellites, aircraft and drones helping them target enemy threats faster. Defence Secretary John Healey said the technology announced in the review - which will harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) and software - also highlights lessons being learnt from the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is already using AI and software to speed up the process of identifying, and then hitting, Russian military targets. The review had been commissioned by the newly formed Labour government shortly after last year's election with Healey describing it as the "first of its kind". The government said the findings would be published in the first half of 2025, but did not give an exact date.

Heritage Foundation tech policy director Kara Frederick joins'America's Newsroom' to discuss pornographic AI photos of Taylor Swift sparking conversations about deepfake regulation. A bill aimed at outlawing "revenge porn" has been approved by lawmakers in the Massachusetts House and Senate and shipped to Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, a move advocates say was long overdue. If signed by Healey, the bill -- which bars the sharing of explicit images or videos without the consent of those depicted in the videos -- would leave South Carolina as the only state not to have a law specifically banning revenge porn. Supports say the bill, which landed on Healey's desk Thursday, would align Massachusetts with the other 48 states that have clear prohibitions on disseminating sexually explicit images and videos without the subject's consent. It is a form of abuse that advocates say has grown increasingly common in the digital age, subjecting people to social and emotional harm often inflicted by former romantic partners.

We're living in an age of mass, democratised creativity – or at least that's what the technology industry likes to tell us. You can shoot a movie or record an album on a smartphone, you can become a household name with a webcam and a YouTube channel, and you can download any of a dozen applications and build a video game from nothing. But the latter is an intimidating notion. Games are ultimately complex mechanisms, constructed from code, involving physics, narrative, animation and audio. There has been a deliberate effort within the industry to make creative tools more accessible, arguably spearheaded by Unity, a technology that both powers games and lets users create them – and yet, designing and constructing a game can feel overwhelming.

THE human-like abilities of robots continue to develop at incredible pace – with droids now being seen to chase targets and even fire guns. But now scientists have taken the potential for human-like resemblance to the next level with the creation of an artificial self-healing "skin". Scientists at the Brije Universiteit Brussel have managed to give robots self-healing properties which allow them to "recover" even if they are stabbed or gashed with a knife. The development evokes vsisions of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the cyborg assassin in the Terminator movies, but fortunately for humankind, these self-healing robots aren't likely to go on a rampage anytime soon. For now, they're more likely to be found grabbing fruit, veg and soft products on factory floors.

US troops could soon be fighting "The Terminator" on the battlefield. Experts in cyber warfare told a House committee Wednesday that they expect enemies of the US to begin using artificial intelligence in the next 10 years, The Hill reported. "There has been lot of speculation … about how soon it will be before robotic soldiers take the place of the fight in the kinetic world," Rep. Mike Conaway asked the experts at the panel's hearing. "How soon will A.I. supplant the need … for all these human beings to be able to defend these networks and do what we do?" Peter Singer, a strategist for the New America Foundation, said brace for Arnold Schwarzeneggers in camouflage.