Sir Richard Moore and Bill Burns did not list examples but there has been a spate of mysterious sabotage and arson attacks on infrastructure in the UK, Germany and in the Baltics.

Russia is waging a “reckless campaign of sabotage” across Europe, the heads of MI6 and the CIA have warned in their first-ever joint remarks.

Sir Richard Moore and Bill Burns also said the UK and the US faced an “unprecedented array of threats”, and said the entire world order was under the most serious strain since the Cold War.

In a newspaper article, the spymasters pointed to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, while also describing China as “the principal intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century”.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    5712 days ago

    I’m sorry, but those poses by the guards are cracking me up. what is up with that lmao

    • @Anyolduser
      link
      English
      812 days ago

      The position of attention is usually heels together, gut in, chest out, etc.

      The raised chin is kind of old fashioned and only used for ceremonial purposes by some countries. Russia is one of those countries.

      That being said, dude on the left looks like he put a little meth in his cereal that morning.

    • [email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1212 days ago

      So sky news uk and sky news Australia are different. I wish news corp would disintegrate for my convenience.

          • ms.lane
            link
            fedilink
            English
            512 days ago

            Apparently unless the bot is completely anti-Semitic and calls for the death of Israel, it’s Israeli biased.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              411 days ago

              The ‘methodology’ for rating biases that it uses is little more than one person’s opinion which means it is necessarily biased.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  4
                  edit-2
                  11 days ago

                  Yes it is. It’s literally “pick a few numbers between 0 and 10 then take the average”, mate. Can you really say it’s a robust methodology? Hey, if unbiased was something on offer I’d gladly take it but it’s simply not possible. MBFC does nothing but add another bias into the mix.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            4
            edit-2
            12 days ago

            The bots job us to assert that only sources that follow approved narratives are reliable. It even insists that CIA propaganda network Radio Free Asia and its siblings are unbiased and trustworthy.

            Rule 3: Sources that have (what it considers) a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.

            italics mine

    • @Anyolduser
      link
      English
      1011 days ago

      Standing at attention is supposed to keep you a little off balance - not that much, but a little. Some people lock their knees when they stand, which will ultimately make you faint. Standing “gut in, chest out” makes you to lean forward slightly, forcing your knees unlock.

      Because these guys are ceremonial guards they crank the whole thing up to eleven and it tends to look ridiculous at times.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1411 days ago

      Everyone except the masses. See what happened with COVID and no-vax people.

      The problem is finding the right balance between freedom of speech and national security.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1011 days ago

        The problem is not free speech, the problem is the absence of teaching critical thinking and healthy scepticism

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      511 days ago

      People around me still look at me like I’m wearing a tinfoil hat when I point out the obvious facts.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      511 days ago

      Guessing they are talking about it more loudly now to try to redirect the rising anti-conservative sentiment before it threatens the status quo.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          311 days ago

          From my perspective, things have shifted in recent years. In the past, there seemed to be a general consensus that both the right and left were interested in building a system that benefited society at large, they just disagreed on what that looked like. Seems like more and more people are realizing that all conservatives want to conserve is their power and access to wealth.

          It’s also becoming more apparent that even conservative social issues aren’t intended to improve anything for anyone but are just about controlling people and making them more vulnerable. Like it’s no longer a secret that the drug war was more about racism than public health. The abortion ban and their plans for divorce laws are clearly about making women either more dependent on men or unable to leave them if they can’t prove fault.

          All that plus the red wave that was supposed to take over Europe didn’t.

          It’s too early to tell for sure and it might just be the pendulum swinging this way before it swings back that way. It could also be more of a reaction to the far right than conservatism in general, since the far right has seized so much control over conservative political groups. But I do hope that this sentiment sticks.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      2412 days ago

      Doesn’t mean they’re wrong, just that they also engage in a similar activities, albeit with different targets and objectives.

      Still, not sure how relevant that is to mention when the subject being reported on is active FSB/GRU operations.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        111 days ago

        Spy agencies calling adversary countries bad is a given. They didn’t even bother to list examples, it’s just a “Russia bad and also China bad btw” article, so they’re not even reporting on active FSB/GRU operations, just that they exist, which again, is a given and is also a given for western agencies. How does this qualify as news?

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1212 days ago

    In the meantime, the most damaging act of sabotage that we know of on European ground was perpetrated (it seems) by Ukrainians. Many were pointing the finger in Russia’s direction when that happened, even if it didn’t make much sense. Just saying, we shouldn’t take spooks at their word, you never quite know who is really behind covert attacks on infrastructure. At best we, the general public, can speculate. It usually takes a hell of a long time for any serious investigation to take place, if that is even going to be conclusive.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1512 days ago

      Sabotage against an enemy in war is a long-held tradition, and can be a very effective tactic if it causes economic (or other) damage to their enemy. It will still cost less than rebuilding entire cities, but I guess that doesn’t matter as much since it wasn’t (scary hand gestures) sabotage.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1511 days ago

      Lol good riddance of that nordstream pipeline, and also it was, probably, the russians shooting themselves in the foot, you russ-bot.