Dan Sabbagh

Ukrainian Troops Battle Russia's Push Toward Pokrovsk As Russia intensifies its effort to encircle Pokrovsk, Ukrainian units on the strategic city’s edge are under nonstop attack. RFE/RL followed Ukrainian crews holding defensive lines as they assemble t...

Remarkable video report from Pokrovsk featuring drones w heavy bombs, in one case assembled and launched by a Ukrainian 18yo

www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-fr...

...murder or war crime?

Not subtle + legally questionable...

UK 🇬🇧 Ministry of Defence (MOD) image of Russian spy ship Yantar, presumably in or near UK waters.

Note that the ROV (remote operated vehicle, a deep-sea robot) A-frame is deployed (red). It’s doing something on the seabed.

Also two new radomes (yellow)

..oh in case you missed it, earlier he said Nigel Farage was "soft on Putin".

Russian spy ship Yantar on the edge of UK waters. Healey says he has changed Navy's rules of engagement + "we have military options ready" in case ship changes course. Threat comes after Russian drones and planes entered Nato airspace this autumn...

Watching a rare speech from def sec John Healey in 9 Downing St. A special outing from Labour's safest pair of hands in an attempt to short up messy budget pitch rolling, justifying boost to defence budgets. "We're getting on with the job we were elected to do," he says.

Tim Davie resigns as BBC director general after accusations of ‘serious and systemic’ bias in coverage Davie tells staff departure was ‘my own decision’ but it comes with the BBC preparing to apologise for the way it edited a Trump speech

A row out of nowhere, a politicised leak, a sudden double resignation. A coup from the inside too?

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

On another platform this user is apparently the leading poster on the Huntingdon train stabbings...

Stephen Parkinson, DPP, had decided Sept 3 to drop the case. Only senior civil servants could be informed (incl Powell). Not clear when Starmer + Cooper were told (and doesn't look like they could intervene) - case was publicly dropped Sept 15.

Future questions best directed at Parkinson...

Tory spy case accusations backfiring...

Rishi Sunak was sent a copy of first witness statement in the spy case says Jonathan Powell + Matthew Collins. Powell says he 'played no role' in subsequent evidence when in govt

Jimmy Buffett's deathless 'It's 5 o'clock Somewhere" ?

Waiting for the Collins statements due at about 5pm from No10

We've gone from Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 through The Who's 5.15 to....

Opinion: Why I'm handing in my Pentagon press pass Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scen...

For 28 years, NPR’s Tom Bowman has held a Pentagon press pass.

Today, he is handing it in.

So Nо10 will publish the Collins witness statements in the China spy case. Clearly Downing St is confident of its position.

Looks like the defence will be that Collins could not go beyond first witness statement, given under the Tories

The "substantive evidence" was given in Nov 2023, Starmer says

An Iranian designed Shahed 136 drone is unveiled at the Speakers House in parliament. It has been decommissioned, guests are assured...

*Three* witness statements were provided to the CPS for the China 'spy' trial by Matthew Collins, UK dep NSA, Ruth Anderson tells the Lords. None sufficient to allow the trial to go ahead though

Michael Gove asks if the Collins statements will be made public. Anderson ducks the question

Why did the CPS think it was reasonable to charge Cash and Berry with spying in April 2024 but said it had to drop them in Sep 2025 b/c of a ruling in another spy case

On any reasonable reading that judgment is lowering or widening the definition of enemy...

Manchester synagogue terrorist was on bail for alleged rape Exclusive: Jihad al-Shamie had been under investigation over alleged sexual attack earlier this year, sources say

Manchester synagogue terrorist was bail for alleged rape at time of the attack

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

UK has deployed counter drone systems to Denmark ahead of this week's EU and EPC summits in Copenhagen, defence sec John Healey says at a Labour conference fringe

YouTube video by MI6 - Secret Intelligence Service MI6 - SecurelyContactingMI6 - Introducing SILENT COURIER

Do you have information of interest to MI6? Now they are advertising that you can contact them securely online (what used to happen before?)
Instructions at the end + let's hope they have a good spam filter...

youtu.be/xkOUH8d8UQY?...

Met police operating live facial recognition outside Brixton tube. Three people picked up since 11.30 a sergeant tells me

British_political_decision_making_V3(FINAL)_USETHISONE.png

You'd have thought this would have happened earlier...

If nato’s interception ratio is 4 out of 19, can you imagine how they would handle an average night in Ukraine with 700 air targets in the span of 5 hours

Tusk warns prospect of military conflict ‘closer than at any time since second world war’ amid Russian drone incursion – follow live Tusk says the first signals from Nato members show the understanding of how serious the situation is

Nineteen Russian drones cross the border into Poland says PM Donald Tusk as Warsaw asks for consultation with Nato allies. Meanwhile a Russian diplomat tells the RIA accusations of an incursion "groundless". No doubt Donald Trump will know who to believe...

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

The Gaza family torn apart by IDF snipers from Chicago and Munich Five-month investigation reveals how four members of one family were shot and killed in a single day and highlights a pattern in which Israeli troops target unarmed civilians

War is not abstract. There are killers and victims. They all have names. They all have lives. This story cites two IDF snipers and the four Palestinians shot dead on one day, some trying to retrieve the bodies of other victims. Not easy reading --->

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

This is correct. UK, Qatar and US Marine core + most of EU use probe. USAF (mostly) and IDF use flying broom.

It’s physically impossible for the UK to refuel an Israeli Aircraft

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_...

No RAF involvement in refuelling Israeli jets that bombed Qatar. The RAF Voyager nearby was engaged in exercises with the Qataris. Brit sources say that UK refueling method (probe and drogue) is incompatible with Israeli fighters

Obviously that's £5.1m....