On Euronews I highlighted that Ukraine isn’t just Europe’s shield - it’s also its teacher. What Ukraine learns - and invents - today will shape how the EU and NATO deter Russia tomorrow.

I find it extremely dumb of our governments to not release selected materials that show the serious nature of some of the drone incidents. A majority is likely hysteria but there are also the real cases (mil drones). The countdown to losing that info-battle started a week ago.

I struggle with the categorisation of the potty-mouthed Russian commentary on these videos as “mature language”.

Why does it matter? Because as this excellent (and balanced, and objective) article by @sanshiro.bsky.social on Soviet and Russian infiltration of academia lays out, Valdai is still useful to Russia in laundering and legitimating its narratives. www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

Did you know Russia's Valdai Club is still being held, and is still attracting Western academics who are naive, unscrupulous or shameless enough to appear on its stage? This year's jamboree ended yesterday.

I’ve popped in to @chrussiaeurasia.bsky.social for the morning, to find some of my fan mail has made it to being pinned on the board.

Surpriiiiise! www.reuters.com/business/aer...

See this: tenbluelinks.org#chrome-android

I thought, unusually, I might glance at Google‘s “AI summary“. I’m so glad I did, otherwise I might never have known that Denmark is acquiring nuclear weapons. Thanks Google! Thanks AI!

I’ll be heading to London for this short event on Friday morning. Tune in if you can.

I suppose the editors were right that I was wildly optimistic thinking readers would have heard of the Maginot Line, and therefore they would need to explain it.

Spoiler: "Putin's escalation" is not "far worse" than anybody thought, if they have been paying any attention at all. But there's no doubt it *will* get "far worse" without effective and determined deterrence from Europe. inews.co.uk/news/world/p...

Another day, another morning spent shattering the dreams of media editors who think that Russia issuing a conscription degree with a different draft target than last time is an Exciting New Story and definitely not the same as the last six times they did it. www.lbc.co.uk/article/puti...

Keir Starmer, "Digital ID, so that we are clear in the principle that you cannot work in the UK without an ID" You currently need a National Insurance number to work in the UK. Not having a NI number hasn't stopped people from working in the UK

Patience with the prime minister appears to be running out.

In this depressing long read about affordable eating out ceasing to be an option for normal British families, some short notes on a key reason why - the UK’s leftist government’s punitive taxes aimed at class enemies like employers (see also small farmers, entrepreneurs, aspirational parents, etc.)

Between the escalation of Russian pressure on Europe and the ongoing drip-feed of Epstein evidence, it’s hard to know which is the greater incentive for the Trump team to find a distraction to make sure the United States is looking the other way (like, for instance, declaring war on Portland).

That’s a fair TL:DR of the Brit version of what happened at Pristina airport (heavily influenced by the well-publicised reminiscences of the two individuals you mentioned). Watching it in real time from Moscow led me to a different conclusion though. www.chathamhouse.org/sites/defaul...

From Ben Barry, you know that this is going to be a sober, balanced, reality-based account not a hatchet job (in fact Robert Lyman's review calls it a "love letter to the British Army"). Which makes the choice of title, and what it implies, all the more depressing. amzn.to/4gFfg16

Again this morning. TV: OK, we’ll send a camera crew. Me: Are you sure? TV: Yes, much better than online. Me: Are you *really* sure? TV: Yes, we’re… Wait a minute, where IS this address?! Daisy and her friends are here to remind you that there are places in this country that Are Not London.

I did this thread 9 months ago. We are back in this cycle now. (And prepare for sightings which aren’t really sightings) #drones #denmark

Hm, I’ve heard it’s pretty good… Maybe I should watch it while I’m here.

Yes, yes I do. Again.

The joy of machine translation. I’m told it’s a Danish figure of speech, and nobody has actually slapped Trump and greased him.

Your occasional weary reminder that airport disruption using drones, as in Copenhagen and Oslo overnight, is not a startling new "hybrid warfare" development but one Europe has had more than a decade to think about and find a viable solution to. But apparently didn't. ccdcoe.org/uploads/2018...

Wladimir Putin strotzt aktuell vor Selbstbewusstsein. Das zeigt unter anderem eine neue Massnahme seines Militärs. Welche Faktoren Putins Kriegseifer aktuell befeuern, weiss der britische Militärexperte Keir Giles.

Thanks to @agelfert.bsky.social for alerting us to what academia.edu has turned into and why we need to delete our accounts as soon as possible. Done. www.academia.edu/terms

And yet, and yet, and yet, still such a widespread determination not to understand that you cannot protect something from Russia without being ready and willing to fight for it.

I am indeed baffled. Janmar who? www.thesun.co.uk/news/3678300...

I’ll be on @listentotimesradio.bsky.social with @markomihkelson.bsky.social in a few minutes talking about MiGs in Estonian airspace, and will probably startle everybody by not saying right away “yes they should have been shot down to show Russia this has to stop”. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Yet another style of error message from British Airways (see thread for a compilation). They probably have somebody whose full-time job is to think up new ways of saying "no, we you may not buy tickets here, because our website is a dysfunctional mess. Oh and now we'll decide you're German again."

We should not think about it, we should do it! We've had years to think about it.

Was it indeed. Well that's encouraging. polizei.news/2025/09/14/s...

Steffie from the Indy called me for a piece on "Russian hybrid warfare". We had a conversation about what the phrase "hybrid warfare" means, to whom, and whether it's a helpful term for what's going on. "Hybrid warfare" appears nowhere in the finished piece. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/e...

This is a time commitment. A worthy investment, though. While the focus is on the UK, the message is applicable elsewhere too. Time to wake up and get busy.

OK it looks like there is a bit of a challenge here. HBC, IBC, JBC anyone?

I forgot to say, volume up is mandatory.

Don’t bother me for a bit, I’m at Duxford for a favourite relative’s bucket-list Spitfire flight.

Long overdue, but can anybody point me to an explainer for Americans of the difference between "Buckingham Palace" & "Buckingham", "Westminster Abbey" & "Westminster", "Oxford Street" & "Oxford" etc.? It could save me hours of discussion of how "Chatham House" and "Chatham" are Not The Same Thing.

Now it is up. www.gov.uk/government/p...

A curious phenomenon in the swirling commentary: people seeing comparisons between Charlie Kirk and Horst Wessel and/or his murder and the Reichstag fire, and then appearing more concerned that the American right may not know history than that it may know it very well and see it as a role model.

Excited to learn that the UK has sanctioned a new range of entities supporting Russia's war effort. Intrigued to find that the list of third countries they are in includes Turkey and China. Fascinated to review the whole list. Let's take a look at "List Of Targets"... oh. www.gov.uk/government/p...

What will Putin do next after an apparent provocation against NATO triggering Article 4? Especially if the NATO and US response is weak, ambiguous and underplays severity of the escalation. What could Putin do to test our will and capability? @keirgiles.bsky.social - youtu.be/nDUs7IJaz9E

@darthputinkgb.bsky.social sadly they removed the link to your "longstanding parody".

Is there anybody out there able to explain why nobody thought of doing this sooner? Like three and a half years ago, for instance?

To a certain extent it really doesn't matter. The European response now is far more important than the Russian intent. Russia is learning (confirming) more about the Europeans than viceversa

Looking back over a busy media day I realise I’ve pulled off the hat-trick of ABC (twice), BBC, and CBC (twice). If anybody knows of a DBC anywhere in the world, let me know and I’ll see if I can extend the streak.

Another weary inward sigh at the thought that the primary objection to a plan designed specifically and deliberately to protect people from Russia was that in doing so it might lead to "accidental confrontation with the Russians". www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Apparently, today’s theme is unexpected incursions…

Today, millions of people suddenly discovered, to their astonishment, that the North Atlantic Treaty also has articles 1 to 4. Thanks to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for their educational efforts