An unbelievable day in Damascus: “I’m 24yo and for every single one of those years I’ve had [Assad’s] boot on my neck, keeping me down,” said Omar Seif, who I met taking selfies in front of an abandoned tank. “But today? I can breathe for the 1st time.” on.ft.com/3OM6Kk4

Russia appears to be withdrawing some of its Syria-based forces following the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, according to analysis of satellite photography and a Ukrainian intelligence assessment. w/ Chris Cook max seddon on.ft.com/3Zy6dHo via Financial Times

Europe agrees insurance crackdown on Russia’s ‘dark fleet’ ft.com/content/8a485a… via @ft w/ Chris Cook Henry Foy and Laura Dubois

Totally agree. And it hits you right from the start: “In Tadamon, the children know the difference between a human jaw and a dog’s.”

We got a look at some potential Russian strike targets in Japan and South Korea in the event a conflict with NATO leads to “horizontal escalation.” There are lots of civilian targets –including nuclear power plants. And a gif! with ⁦Chris Cook⁩ on.ft.com/3W2Zi7V

seriously: a gif.

Great article by ⁦max seddon⁩ ⁦Chris Cook⁩ on the leaked Russian documents (the 4th in a series), this time about how Russia prepares for simultaneous/opportunistic attacks on the ROK and Japan when planning a surprise attack on NATO. ft.com/content/d345a6…

Russia trained officers for attacks on Japan and South Korea - Happy New Year X/Twitter. As first thread for 2025 I want to focus on ‘adversarial alignment’ - a theme I believe will be crucial to address in months to come. A thread linked to this FT piece: on.ft.com/3W2Zi7V

NEW: The UK's City Minister Tulip Siddiq this evening faces calls to resign as a senior Labour official concedes that her position has grown "hard to defend" amid a property scandal. Financial Times w/Chris Cook, Susannah Savage and Anna Gross on.ft.com/3W3kMla

EU shipyards are repairing Russian ice-class tankers and offering them dry dock facilities, enabling Moscow to continue moving gas through the Arctic despite western sanctions on its energy sector. ft.com/content/1604de… via @ft w Chris Cook

BREAKING: UK City minister Tulip Siddiq resigns from post in government following FT reporting into family ties and properties. Story w/ Chris Cook and Susannah Savage on.ft.com/40w46oW

Russian ship under sanction for carrying N Korea arms sails for European waters ft.com/content/3e9aca… via @ft Me with Chris Cook

The Bangladeshi politician who built a shadowy global property empire. Our investigation on Saifuzzaman Chowdhury is today’s Financial Times Big Read. with Paul Caruana Galizia Chris Cook Susannah Savage ⁦Chloe Cornish⁩ on.ft.com/3F02YBW

NEW: Huawei is building a 7nm fab in Shenzhen for its smartphone and Ascend chips, its first effort to manufacture its own high-end chips. The Guanlan site is part of a sprawling network of new chip manufacturing sites all working on various elements of Huawei's push to become

NEW: Traders made $100mn from buying Melania Trump memecoin minutes before launch on.ft.com/3GEGtDj via @financialtimes

A small group of traders earned a $99.6mn windfall by buying Melania Trump’s cryptocurrency token in the minutes before it was made public, an analysis by the Financial Times has found. on.ft.com/3SkBVVc

“The six-week trial in a Valletta court was widely seen as a critical test of the EU member state’s ability to stand up to corruption and organised crime” - ⁦Chris Cook⁩ on.ft.com/4eh7ObD