Dr. Dan Lomas

I had a chance to spend a significant bit of time with Dame Stella Rimington in 2011 at Chautauqua, of all places, and occasionally saw her in the International Spy Museum context 2010-2013. She was absolutely charming and down to earth as well, of course, as being an amazing trailblazer. RIP.

Dame Stella Rimington, the first female director general of MI5, has died Dame Stella Rimington, who was the first female director general of MI5, has died, her family has announced.

Dame Stella Rimington, the first female director general of MI5, has died news.sky.com/story/dame-s...

UK academics studying topics sensitive to China face harassment, survey finds Exclusive: university staff report being pressured to change teaching and are told that Chinese surveillance is rife

UK academics studying topics sensitive to China face harassment, survey finds – The Guardian: ‘reported instances of harassment from colleagues and pressure from university administrators related to the financial consequences of damaging relations with China.’

Mossad launches first public recruitment drive for national service women Israel’s spy agency opens elite program to broader pool of national service volunteers, offering hands-on roles in tech, intelligence and operations; move marks rare public step by the notoriously sec...

Mossad launches first public recruitment drive for national service women

www.ynetnews.com/article/b1jl...

IRA spy triggered security alert by hitting safe house panic alarm Suspicions were aroused when armed police descended upon the house in Surrey where MI5 was paying over the odds to hide the British agent Stakeknife

IRA spy triggered security alert by hitting safe house panic alarm

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

Chinese university students told to spy on classmates, report says Lecturers are also being harassed, the report finds, as ministers say threats will not be tolerated.

BBC News - Chinese university students told to spy on classmates, report says
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Why an explosive fight erupted over the UK's new Chinese embassy It will be the biggest embassy in Europe, if approved. But its opponents fear it brings with it certain risks and dangers

BBC News - Why an explosive fight erupted over the UK's new Chinese embassy - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Annoyingly, the promotion criteria is flexible - except when it comes to research income. Career development is always being redesigned, but universities need to admit it. They're limiting promotion chances through making grant income mandatory, even though it's not a sign of academic excellence.

And grant success is necessary as part of the promotions process. Otherwise, you're junior despite having multiple books and articles 😉

Sandra Grimes, Who Helped Unmask a C.I.A. Traitor, Dies at 79 She became suspicious when she discovered large deposits in the bank account of Aldrich Ames, whose betrayal cost the lives of at least eight double agents.

Sandra Grimes, Who Helped Unmask a C.I.A. Traitor, Dies at 79 - The New York Times share.google/wGJKEtC69St8...

Opinion | Brennan and Clapper: Let’s Set the Record Straight on Russia and 2016

Brennan and Clapper: Let’s Set the Record Straight on Russia and 2016

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/o...

North Korea sent me abroad to be a secret IT worker. My wages funded the regime In a rare interview, a former North Korean IT worker reveals the secret scheme raising funds for Kim Jong Un’s regime.

BBC News - North Korea sent me abroad to be a secret IT worker. My wages funded the regime
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Left-wing ‘Angry Birds’ group claims responsibility for German train sabotage ‘Many things would be infinitely better without the industrial system’, extremist environmental group say

Left-wing ‘Angry Birds’ group claims responsibility for German train sabotage www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08...

Tom understands fairness. He went to private school 😉

It's pretty galling that a scheme to widen access into fast track gets a lot of hate, especially when 1/4 senior civil servants were privately educated in 2021.

We're in 2025 and parts of HMG remain a club.

Foreign spies are targeting defence employees working on Aukus, Asio boss reveals Public servants and private contractors with access to sensitive national security information are making it easy for spies, including by posting on LinkedIn, Mike Burgess will say in a speech

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Statement on state threats from Iranian intelligence services: 31 July 2025 Joint statement of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US on state threats from Iranian intelligence services

"We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty".
www.gov.uk/government/n...

‘Loyalty Enforcer’ Laura Loomer Targets Additional Officials

"You have a person, from outside of the government of no national security experience and with extreme views, having de facto hire and fire authority over some of the most senior and important positions in the United States government".

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/u...

Sneaking Into the Spy Museum’s New Vault

Sneaking Into the Spy Museum’s New Vault www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/a...

"Elsewhere at Manchester Metropolitan University – which has not undergone any recent redundancies – staff have complained that career progression is being stalled through a rigid pathways route".

And it's not just MMU 😉

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/staff-d...

Poster with caption 'New publication from Dan Lomas' and book cover image

"The book is a social history of how attitudes to sexuality and race have shaped Whitehall and have unintended consequences today"

📚 @sandbaggerone.bsky.social on his new publication 'The Secret History of UK Security Vetting from 1909 to the Present'

ℹ️ tinyurl.com/ms3vn6b8

Poland says 32 people detained and suspected of coordinating with Russia for sabotage Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says authorities have detained 32 people suspected of coordinating with Russia to engage in acts of sabotage

Poland says 32 people detained and suspected of coordinating with Russia for sabotage - The Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

British ‘Spy Fever’ in the First World War An exploration of how British society experienced 'spy fever' during the First World War. Following the declaration of war in 1914, German spies were sighted ac…

Pleased to announce that my first book, British 'Spy Fever' in the First World War, will be published in September with @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social. Pre-order a copy here:

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/british-s...

Top Lawyer for National Security Agency Is Fired

Top Lawyer for National Security Agency Is Fired
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/u...

Veteran C.I.A. Official to Retire After Losing Out on London Job

Veteran C.I.A. Official to Retire After Losing Out on London Job

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

Despite vowing never to (co-)edit a book, I made an exception for this:

A much needed attempt to free “covert action” or whatever the hell you want to call unacknowledged interference from its US-centric scholarly baggage

Thanks to all involved.

press.georgetown.edu/Book/Covert-...

Photo of Rory and quote from Joint Committee National Security Strategy letter - "the bigger threat is not whether an election outcome was affected by foreign interference, but 'the perceived legitimacy of those elections and the trust people have in the outcome' "

Fantastic to see a Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy letter to the security minister and chair of the defending democracy taskforce cites evidence from @nottspolitics.bsky.social's @rorycormac.bsky.social

Read the letter in full here ➡️ tinyurl.com/ynxs3txs

UKHE seeing Warwick's branding

They'll go for "New Party" and forget Oswald got there first 😉

"Students don’t just come to the University of Warwick to study; they come to be shaped and stretched” -- This guy gets paid ££££ for crap like this.

"Teli’s career path has been anything but conventional—shifting from the world of luxury marketing to higher education".

Explains why academia is frigged. And there's me thinking that quality teaching and rigorous research mattered. Maybe not.

vogue.sg/university-o...