Blurs

Inside Ukraine's Hidden Telecommunications War Thousands of Ukrainian mobile numbers, millions of pounds' worth of financial transactions, and commercial telecommunications equipment incorporated into Russian attack drones An investigation that began with the arrest of two suspected agents in 2025 has since exposed the potential scale of a supply network operating across international borders.  Meanwhile, Russian drone designs have evolved to incorporate increasingly sophisticated communications systems.  How did ordinary SIM cards become part of a modern weapons system, and what does the story reveal about the changing nature of warfare? In modern warfare, some of the most consequential technologies are not necessarily designed for military use. Mobile phone SIM cards, commercial computer components and ordinary telecommunications equipment can all find their way into weapons systems.  Their original purpose may be to connect a phone to a network, transmit data or provid...

The Hidden Journey of Information From Reality to Your Phone There was a time when war was something most people encountered through newspapers, radio broadcasts or the evening news. Today, it can arrive in our homes before we have even got out of bed. A phone vibrates on the bedside table. A notification appears. A video shows a missile strike thousands of miles away. Another shows a collapsed building. Another reports a bombing, a natural disaster, a mass shooting, a famine or a humanitarian crisis. Within minutes, we can move from a mental photograph of breakfast to images of death, destruction and despair. And then, almost immediately, back to entertainment, advertising and social media. The extraordinary and catastrophic has now become part of the ordinary. A World of Permanent Crisis Modern technology has fundamentally changed our relationship with catastrophic events.  A war happening on another continent is no longer simply reported to us. We can watch it unfold. Smartphone...

The story of Iran's nuclear programme did not begin with secret enrichment plants, sanctions or confrontation with Washington.  It began in the 1950s, when the United States was actively encouraging countries around the world to embrace civilian nuclear technology. Iran was one of the early beneficiaries. There is a remarkable irony at the heart of the modern nuclear confrontation between the United States and Iran. Washington spent decades trying to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. But the foundations of Iran's nuclear programme were laid during a very different era — when the United States was helping Iran develop nuclear science. The story began with an American vision of a future in which the atom would become a source of electricity, medicine and scientific progress rather than simply a weapon. It was called Atoms for Peace. And Iran was one of its early participants. Eisenhower's nuclear gamble On 8 December 1953, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower addresse...