Oxford and Cambridge have each survived more than 800 Freshers' Weeks; good luck frightening either city with nuclear weapons.

I'm shocked to discover that a senior member of a party run by Nigel Farage had a dodgy relationship with Russia.

#Hybrid: Moldovan elections have just demonstrated three crucial aspects of the psychological operations Russia is capable of executing: 1) Pro-Western elites are targeted on various levels: statements, integrity, and their level of inclusiveness with the population. Every

Q: What is Putin's goal with drones in NATO airspace? Stubb: He wages two wars — conventional in Ukraine, hybrid in the West. Hybrid means constant tests. Last Christmas, they cut Baltic undersea cables. NATO launched Baltic Sentry. Now they probe NATO skies with drones. 4X

Trump thinks "it's a shame" that Putin failed to conquer Ukraine in a week. Not the unprovoked invasion, not the rape, torture, and murder of Ukrainian citizens, not the bombing of hospitals. The fact Putin didn't win and win quickly: that's what Trump has a problem with.

Excellent.

Quite a number. Russian analysts say 38% of the country’s oil refining capacity is currently offline, with 70% of that due to Ukrainian drone strikes and the rest to repairs/maintenance. No wonder there is no gasoline in many parts of Russia. lenta.ru/news/2025/09/3…

I missed this yesterday, but I see our old friend the red line has made a reappearance. I'm sure that just like all the other red lines, Putin is really, really serious about this one.

This is a potentially encouraging sign from the Trump administration on intelligence sharing, but best to wait for confirmation it's actually happened. The wording around Tomahawks sounding very like the wording around those sanctions that were being "weighed" for months.

Thanks to Marcel Dirsus for asking me to recommend a book. I chose probably my favourite novel: The Secret Agent, Conrad's perpetually-relevant masterpiece about terrorism, extremism, Russian operations, and London. Some other great books on the list, too open.substack.com/pub/thehundred…

Everyone willing to turn up to Valdai absolutely deserves what it looks like they're about to get.