Charlie Parker

Life on Britain’s nuclear subs as record patrols push sailors to limits

Now, after a Vanguard-class vessel returned from a record 204 days at sea, submariners tasked with maintaining the deterrent have revealed what life is like on board the boats ⬇️

Grieving father leads overhaul of suicide risk assessment system The day before he died Tom Pirie was said to be at low risk after he completed a crude questionnaire

Exclusive: Britain’s “flawed” suicide risk assessment system is being overhauled after a campaign by a bereaved father

Philip Pirie has helped to transform clinical care in honour of his son Tom, who was judged "low risk" of suicide a day before his death
www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...

Russian warships escort gunrunners through Channel The Times was aboard a fishing vessel to track a cargo ship sailing behind a convoy of vessels guarded by warships in British waters

Full story with @yeomans.bsky.social here 👇

I joined @osc-london.bsky.social on board a small fishing vessel to intercept a sanctioned Russian gunrunner as she sailed up the Channel

We caught Maia-1, a vessel notorious for shipping arms between North Korea and Russia, transiting behind a convoy of cargo ships guarded by Kremlin warships

Yesterday, The Times went on a boat chase, to track down and photograph a Russian warship and cargo ship full of weapons as they transited the English Channel. We watched them, and they watched us back. Story coming soon...

This commander of a Multiple Launch Rocket System said no wildlife was harmed in NATO’s Arctic artillery exercise this week

Other army chiefs told me “accidents still happen” despite vigorous checks, as they sometimes find dead reindeer next to bomb craters

Mind the reindeer! British troops test firepower in Finland Soldiers on an Arctic exercise are testing artillery that gives them an edge on battlefields made ‘transparent’ by surveillance technology — while avoiding harm to wildilfe

British soldiers are being trained to avoid hitting reindeer with rockets in Lapland after an entire herd was wiped out in a mortar strike

The barrage by Finnish forces in the 90s killed 47 reindeer that strayed into a firing range, prompting new firing rules
www.thetimes.com/article/5976...

Interesting take from a Times reader…

As for assault rifles, Finnish commander Olli Taskinen told Nato troops to keep their firearms “frozen all the time”

“If you take this inside, all the snow and ice melts and gets in the gun, then you go outside again and it freezes completely. Leave it outside your tent.”

British troops prepare for woodland warfare in -20C Finnish troops share their expertise on the second day of Nato’s Nordic frontline exercises

“If you sweat you die,” British soldiers training to fight in frozen woodlands near the Russian border have been warned

Getting wet in the -20C temperatures of Nato’s Nordic front line is more dangerous than combat with Russian forces, Finnish troops say
www.thetimes.com/article/170c...

Nato forces deploy ‘game-changing’ new firepower in Finland drill On the outskirts of the Arctic Circle, only 70 miles from the Russian border, the military alliance is conducting its largest-ever artillery exercise

www.thetimes.com/article/e61b...

The demos are designed to test troops in harsh winter terrains after Finlands accession to NATO doubled the alliance’s border with Russia

We were also shown similar “deep strikes” from Finnish forces using K9 self-propelled guns

(One of the blasts made me drop my phone…)

NATO’s largest ever artillery exercise is taking place on the outskirts of the Arctic Circle this week

Finland is hosting alliance forces for the first time, including British troops who live-fired brand new 52-calibre Archer Howitzers today👇

Keen to connect, chat about story ideas and continue scribbling for The Times, so do get in touch!

My DMs are open or you can email any tips to charlie.parker@the-times.co.uk

‘I want to climb Everest’: How Tony Hudgell turned his torture into a desire to ‘help others’ Nine-year-old Tony Hudgell has become the youngest honours recipient on record after raising £2 million for charity

And lastly, how Tony Hudgell, 9, who lost both his legs after suffering horrific abuse at the hands of his birth parents, turned his torture into triumph by raising £2 million for charity and becoming the youngest honours recipient on record
www.thetimes.com/uk/article/m...

Tom Holland: We must celebrate England’s forgotten founding mother As Celebration Day approaches, the historian makes the case for Aethelflaed, the daughter of Alfred the Great whom, he argues, it is an ‘injustice’ to overlook

Another highlight was hearing historian Tom Holland describe how Aethelflaed, the "forgotten founding mother of England” and daughter of Alfred the Great, fought off Viking hordes and helped to build Britain in the Dark Ages

www.thetimes.com/uk/history/a...

Why HMS Prince of Wales won’t return to service for months HMS Prince of Wales can launch the most advanced fighter jets ever built, carry submarine-hunting helicopters and destroy incoming missiles with radar-controlle

One of my favourite deep dives was into the problems plaguing Britain's largest warship, HMS Prince of Wales
www.thetimes.com/article/why-...

Glastonbury gatecrashers dig deep to gain illegal entry Glastonbury gatecrashers have been digging Great Escape-style tunnels and using grappling hooks to scale the perimeter wall to enter the festival without paying

At Glastonbury, @willhumphries.bsky.social and I discovered gatecrashers digging Great Escape-style tunnels and using grappling hooks to break into the festival

www.thetimes.com/article/glas...

Academic jihad and anti-West rhetoric of UK Islamic hub speakers Speakers at a British charity run by a representative of Iran’s supreme leader have called for “academic jihad” in schools, the eradication of western “empires”

This investigation into the Islamic Centre of England, a charity run by Iran's supreme leader, found speakers calling for “academic jihad” in schools, the eradication of western “empires” and preaching death as a “compassionate” sentence for gay people
www.thetimes.com/article/acad...

Israel-Gaza war: social media hosts war of fake news and AI images While rockets rip through the sky and fighters clash on the ground, a deluge of disinformation is fuelling an “unprecedented” information war between Israeli an

After the October 7 attack: How Twitter/X and other social media sites hosted an "unprecedented" information war of fake news

www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

And our exposé of the leaders behind the now proscribed Hizb ut-Tahrir group hijacking London protests
www.thetimes.com/article/who-...

@larisabrown.bsky.social and I later confirmed that a British-made Starstreak missile shot down a Russian helicopter in the weapon’s first recorded use on the Ukrainian battlefield

www.thetimes.com/article/uk-m...

Specialist Ukrainian drone unit picks off invading Russian forces as they sleep An elite Ukrainian drone unit has destroyed dozens of “priority targets” by attacking Russian forces as they sleep, The Times can reveal.Aerorozvidka, a specialist air reconnaissance unit within the a...

A fortnight after Russia's invasion, I spoke to an elite Ukrainian drone unit about how they destroyed dozens of “priority targets” by attacking Kremlin forces as they sleep

www.thetimes.com/article/spec...

Meet the east German football fans rooting for England Before reunification they saw West Germany as the enemy and admired the English style of play — although they’re disappointed with their Euro 2024 performances

At the Euros this summer: Meet the East German football fans rooting for England
www.thetimes.com/uk/society/a...

And the British pub owner who rebuilt his boozer brick-by-brick near Dortmund
www.thetimes.com/uk/society/a...

‘I’ll be back’ — prisoners celebrate early release, but some doubt they’re rehabilitated Reaction as 1,650 inmates walk free in a single day

Outside Brixton prison, violent criminals gave interviews as they were freed under the government's early release scheme

Inmates, including one jailed for "punching people in the head", told me they were "certainly not" rehabilitated and would likely reoffend

www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

British forces lead Nato allies for air assault demo in Estonia The British Army’s rapid response unit leads more than 2,000 personnel in a show of force on Russia’s border

From the Estonian border with Russia: British forces conduct major air assault demo in Nato's largest military exercise since the Cold War
www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/a...

HMS Edinburgh: diver ends silence on Soviet gold Deep beneath the surface of the Barents Sea, among unexploded bombs and human remains, Dougie Matheson spotted the unmistakable glint of gold.The 23-year-old deep-sea diver reached down through thick ...

Deep sea diver breaks his silence on recovering £200 million worth of Soviet gold from the wreck of a British warship, 40 years after it was sunk by Nazi torpedoes

www.thetimes.com/article/hms-...

👋 I'm among the many @thetimes.com journos jumping on the Bluesky bandwagon. I cover all sorts, but most enjoy writing about defence, crime, history and foreign interference

I've filed everywhere from Nato bases to Glastonbury hot tubs and next to the Queen's coffin, but here are a few favourites👇

Going to do a quick thread of my fellow @thetimes.com reporters who are on BlueSky and why you should follow them 👇

🗞️ More and more Times and Sunday Times journalists and staff are joining BlueSky.

We’ll be updating this starter kit as they do so, you should give them a follow

👇