Sunday Times columnist, C4News pod, BBC 1990-2024, author; Big Boys Rules, Rifles, TF Black, Tank War, Skripal Files, Red Devils, Tank. Trustee @I_W_M 2018-26
London (usually)
Joined May 2013
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Why journalists the world over will rue the advent of self-drive taxis!
Some truth here. Every CIA case officer would agree (seriously). I used to take taxis in the middle east sometimes for hours at a time and using different drivers to practice my (very mediocre) language skills, maybe during a SDR or too 😏, and to get an unscientific but quite valuable idea of some street sentiment. Was always worried I was missing what was happening by being isolated in diplomatic quarter crowd. Hit the streets, and taxi drivers were helpful. So yes, ask your driver what’s up in their country!
Mark Urban retweeted
Some useful context/tips from @MarkUrban01 on the great hacking and how to help protect yourself thetimes.com/comment/columni…
Mark Urban retweeted
Memo to the government: this is happening on your watch. There’s no clarity on funding the BBC from 2028, and it’s getting too late for radical change at that point.
A longer read on BBC cuts:
-BBC not halfway to £500m goal
-More radical savings required
-BBC Sounds under threat?
-Bosses mulled axing CBBC
-1,200 of 2k layoffs confirmed
-Industrial action threat lingers
-Concern at charter talks urgency
deadline.com/2026/10/inside-…
WATCH: America's secret drone war in the Strait of Hormuz. My latest Defence Decoded video youtube.com/watch?v=IrNDWcbc…
Mark Urban retweeted
I’m thinking the get tighter control, if only in the US national interest, is going to build
Too many rumours currently - from whether Netanyahu is about to act, to Trump or the Iranians. But with Israel’s election next week, tensions are very high
Exclusive: The US State Department is preparing to issue an ordered departure of some personnel and family members from US embassies across the Gulf region, three US officials said reut.rs/4i9CnSH
The inability to get soldiers out of isolated frontline positions for months on end has produced scenes like this - I can’t imagine the psychological damage to these guys
Is Argentina really threatening the Falklands? And how might different scenarios play out? That’s our theme on this week’s Fourcast Indicators pod! youtube.com/watch?v=c2UXtLXP…
Mark Urban retweeted
Amid all the sophistry about Starshield / Starlink and the promise to return service within 48 hours, frontline officers tell me they have yet to see previous speeds restored.
Your cut and and keep fact file on how the Patriot missile became the most sought after weapon in the world markurban.substack.com/p/pat…
Mark Urban retweeted
#UK police re-arrest two men on suspicion of helping #Iran's intelligence over #RAF #Fairford incident:
- CTP said in a statement they had re-arrested a 24-year-old British national and a 25-year-old British-Iranian dual national.
- The 24-year-old was first arrested on 27 September near RAF Fairford.
- The 25-year-old was first arrested in Westminster, #London, on 1 October.
- The US Air Force withdrew all of its bombers from RAF Fairford earlier this month following the suspected terror plot. reuters.com/world/uk/uk-poli…
Mark Urban retweeted
EXCLUSIVE: The UK’s Royal Air Force will fly defensive missions to protect Saudi Arabia from escalating Houthi attacks, according to British officials familiar with the matter
RAF Typhoon fighter jets will help defend Saudi cities and infrastructure against aerial attacks from the Iran-backed militant group, the people said. Andy Burnham has signed off on the decision
Britain will also provide an Atlas A400M transport aircraft with heavy lift capability to move kit around Saudi, as well as military advisers
The decision marks an extension of UK support for Saudi in the wake of Houthi attacks which have killed more than a dozen people in Riyadh. There have been multiple attacks on the kingdom in recent days
Mark Urban retweeted
This image, viewed over 6 million times and retweeted over 63,000 times, claims to show an elderly couple stripped down and robbed by rioters in France.
The image is AI-generated, and was created with Google AI, as detected by SynthID watermarks in the image.
Pour moi, c'est l'image la plus horrible de ce 17 octobre:
Un couple d'octogénaire dépouillé de tout, en pleine rue, laissé à moitié nu.
Comme si les Rolex, les Vuiton, les Hermès, les Dior, les Sephora pillés n'étaient pas suffisants pour la revente.
L'image qui devrait être un signal d'alarme pour tout l'occident.
L'image d'un pseudo président qui a perdu le contrôle. Qui a totalement échoué envers son peuple.
L'image d'une gauche radicale qui a sacrifié votre propre identité pour faire de votre pays une zone de guerre, aux arrières-plans culturels qui n'ont rien à voir avec les vôtres.
Cette image est effrayante!
Some eyewitness observations about the violence on French streets, well worth a read
Hi Rosie, I follow your work and ideas. I'm a writer and church minister currently working in France. Here's my eyewitness account of being caught up in the riots, and a deep search for the roots of the violence. There are themes that should resonate.
flaneurnotes.com/post/the-fr…
We’re going to do a Q&A episode of @C4TheFourcast Indicators podcast this weeks - feel free to add questions beneath this YouTube promo or indeed here youtube.com/shorts/QkeXy82h8…
There are 101 reasons why this is easy to spot as AI slop - not least that the missile ends up hitting an American battleship built in WW2! But we are now deep in the age where people share what they want to believe rather than what a moment’s reflection would reveal as false
Mark Urban retweeted
The attack on a delegation of European diplomats by masked Israeli settlers in the village of Taybeh is real.
But this video, which claims to show the attack, is AI-generated. The original source, On n’y Comprend Rien, is an Instagram account that posts AI-generated illustrations of news events.
Multiple errors consistent with AI generation are also visible in the footage.
With @davidnewschool
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