Missing Persons Cases and Military Accountability Issues

The family of Cheryl Grimmer, a British girl who disappeared from a beach in New South Wales, Australia in 1970, has given an ultimatum to a key person of interest, known as 'Mercury', to come forward and answer their questions. The family believes Mercury has information about Cheryl's disappearance and wants him to explain how he knew details contained in a confession he made as a teenager. A politician has offered to name Mercury under parliamentary privilege if he doesn't come forward. The case has been ongoing for over 50 years, with several missteps and controversies along the way, including a collapsed trial in 2019. The family is pushing for a fresh investigation and has released a document detailing their concerns about the handling of the case by authorities.

Australian police have called off the search for four-year-old Gus Lamont, who went missing in the outback nearly three weeks ago. Despite an extensive land and air search covering 470 sq km, no signs of Gus have been found. The police have not suspected foul play and will continue investigating, treating the case as a 'recovery operation'. The search involved 80 Australian Defense Force personnel and a 12-person taskforce. Gus was last seen playing outside his family's remote sheep station near Yunta, about 300km from Adelaide. The case has garnered significant attention in Australia, with the public urged to rely on credible sources of information amid speculation and misinformation online.

The High Court in the UK has ruled that several British soldiers who were stationed at a British Army base in Kenya fathered children with local women. The court made 'declaration of parentage' orders in six cases, with a seventh to follow, after DNA testing confirmed the fathers were not Kenyan. The children, aged from two to their mid-50s, were born near the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK). Lawyers for the children argued that not knowing their fathers had caused them to suffer harassment, bullying, and discrimination due to being mixed-race.