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What Ukraine’s “AI-driven air defence” is, and what it is not
Ukraine is developing an air-defence enhancement that relies on artificial intelligence, but recent coverage has blurred the distinction between a data-and-software foundation and a fully autonomous national missile shield. The latest wave of attention followed a Washington Post opinion column…
Davos: NATO chief plays down Greenland row as Europe’s defence gaps surface
DAVOS — A World Economic Forum panel billed as “Can Europe Defend Itself?” exposed both the scale of Europe’s rearmament plans and the limits of its independence from the United States, as Donald Trump’s push to bring Greenland under American…
Beijing Gets What It Wants:Britain’s China Miscalculation
There is something peculiarly British about managing to lose an argument twice. The row over China’s proposed “super-embassy” in London manages exactly that trick: a present government that waves it through with a shrug, and a previous one that quietly…
Europe’s defence spending soars as Readiness 2030 takes shape
European defence budgets have risen sharply since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The latest consolidated EU figures show total defence expenditure by the 27 member states reached €343 billion in 2024, equivalent to 1.9 per cent of…
Trump’s Arctic Ambitions Reveal a Dangerous Contempt for International Law
The parallels between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are no longer confined to temperament or rhetoric; they lie in a shared contempt for the constraints of international law when it proves inconvenient. Both men have treated sovereignty not as a…
Agents for a day: the financing networks driving Russia-linked sabotage across Europe
A fire in a warehouse, a scorched courier depot, a camera fixed to a lamppost on a supply route: many of the incidents now being investigated as Russian-linked sabotage in Europe are small in scale and, taken in isolation, look…
Russia has fired 13,300 missiles and 142,300 drones at Ukraine, Kyiv says
Russia has launched more than 13,300 missiles and more than 142,300 strike drones at Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief. The figures were released on Tuesday, 13 January 2026, after Syrskyi…
Europe’s gunpowder bottleneck: how cotton supply chains became a defence issue
Europe’s drive to expand artillery production has exposed a constraint that sits well upstream of the factory floor: access to nitrocellulose, the key chemical used in modern propellants. Nitrocellulose is produced by nitrating cellulose, and in the defence sector it…
Nightfall: Britain promises Ukraine a ballistic missile – but the hard part comes after the press release
Britain says it will help Ukraine by developing a new ground-launched ballistic missile able to carry a 200kg warhead beyond 500 kilometres. The project, codenamed Nightfall, is billed as a rapid boost to Kyiv’s long-range strike power. It is also,…
A missile message to Europe: what Russia’s Oreshnik strike was meant to signal
For a second time in a little over a year, Russia has used its Oreshnik missile against Ukraine, and for a second time the political message has been louder than the physical results. The latest launch was recorded overnight on…