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LONDON: The only British soldier ever charged in the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre will learn his fate Friday in a Northern Ireland courtroom.
Judge Patrick Lynch is due to deliver his verdict in Belfast Crown Court on whether the former paratrooper identified only as Soldier F committed murder and attempted murder in the deadliest shooting of the three decades of sectarian violence known as “The Troubles.”
Prosecutors said the lance corporal, who has not been named to protect him from retaliation, killed two people and tried to kill five others when he and other troops fired at fleeing unarmed civilians on Jan. 20, 1972, in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
Thirteen people were killed and 15 were wounded in the event that has come to symbolize the conflict between mainly Catholic supporters of a united Ireland and predominantly Protestant forces that wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom.
While the violence largely ended with the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, tensions remain. Families of civilians killed continue to press for justice, while supporters of army veterans complain that their losses have been downplayed and that they have been unfairly targeted in investigations.
Soldier F, who was shrouded from view in court by a curtain, did not testify in his defense and his lawyer presented no evidence. The soldier told police during a 2016 interview that he had no “reliable recollection” of the events that day but was sure he had properly discharged his duties as a soldier.
Defense lawyer Mark Mulholland attacked the prosecution’s case as “fundamentally flawed and weak” for relying on soldiers he dubbed “fabricators and liars,” and the fading memories of survivors who scrambled to avoid live gunfire that some mistakenly thought were rounds of rubber bullets.
Surviving witnesses spoke of the confusion, chaos and terror as soldiers opened fire and bodies began falling after a large civil rights march through the city.
The prosecution relied on statements by two of Soldier F’s comrades — Soldier G, who is dead, and Soldier H, who refused to testify. The defense tried unsuccessfully to exclude the hearsay statements because they could not be cross-examined.
Prosecutor Louis Mably argued that the soldiers, without justification, had all opened fire, intending to kill, and thus shared responsibility for the casualties.
The killings were a source of shame for a British government that had initially claimed that members of a parachute regiment fired in self-defense after being attacked by gunmen and people hurling fuel bombs.
A formal inquiry cleared the troops of responsibility, but a subsequent and lengthier review in 2010 found soldiers shot unarmed civilians fleeing and then lied in a cover-up that lasted decades.
Then-Prime Minister David Cameron apologized and said the killings were “unjustified and unjustifiable.”
The 2010 findings cleared the way for the eventual prosecution of Soldier F, though delays and setbacks kept it from coming to trial until last month.
Soldier F has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder for the deaths of James Wray, 22, and William McKinney, 27, and five counts of attempted murder for the shootings of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon, Patrick O’Donnell, and for opening fire at unarmed civilians.

WASHINGTON: In the midst of a federal government shutdown, the US government’s gross national debt surpassed $38 trillion Wednesday, a record number that highlights the accelerating accumulation of debt on America’s balance sheet.
It’s also the fastest accumulation of a trillion dollars in debt outside of the COVID-19 pandemic — the US hit $37 trillion in gross national debt in August this year.
The $38 trillion update is found in the latest Treasury Department report, which logs the nation’s daily finances.
Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, who served in President George W. Bush’s Treasury Department, told The Associated Press that a growing debt load over time leads ultimately to higher inflation, eroding Americans’ purchasing power.
The Government Accountability Office outlines some of the impacts of rising government debt on Americans — including higher borrowing costs for things like mortgages and cars, lower wages from businesses having less money available to invest, and more expensive goods and services.
“I think a lot of people want to know that their kids and grandkids are going to be in good, decent shape in the future — that they will be able to afford a house,” Smetters said. “That additional inflation compounds” and erodes consumers’ purchasing power, he said, making it less possible for future generations to achieve home ownership goals.
The Trump administration says its policies are helping to slow government spending and will shrink the nation’s massive deficit. A new analysis by Treasury Department officials states that from April to September, the cumulative deficit totaled $468 billion. In a post on X Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that’s the lowest reading since 2019.
“During his first eight months in office, President Trump has reduced the deficit by $350 billion compared to the same period in 2024 by cutting spending and boosting revenue,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement, adding that the administration would pursue robust economic growth, lower inflation, tariff revenue, lower borrowing costs and cuts to waste, fraud and abuse.
The Joint Economic Committee estimates that the total national debt has grown by $69,713.82 per second for the past year.
Michael Peterson, chair and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said in a statement that “reaching $38 trillion in debt during a government shutdown is the latest troubling sign that lawmakers are not meeting their basic fiscal duties.”
“Along with increasing debt, you get higher interest costs, which are now the fastest growing part of the budget,” Peterson added. “We spent $4 trillion on interest over the last decade, but will spend $14 trillion in the next ten years. Interest costs crowd out important public and private investments in our future, harming the economy for every American.”
The US hit $34 trillion in debt in January 2024, $35 trillion in July 2024 and $36 trillion in November 2024.