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Latvia investigates drones ‘from Russia’ that crashed near empty oil facilities - Europe live

Meanwhile, the European Parliament has said it will work “expeditiously” to ensure the “spirit and the letter” of the EU’s trade deal with Donald Trump is sealed, after representatives failed to reach a deal in ratification talks with member states last night. No deal is expected now until 19 May when talks with MEPs resume. A timetable in Europe’s democratic process risks invoking the ire of Trump who on Friday said he would increase car tariffs from 15% to 25% because the EU were taking to long to implement its side of the Turnberry deal. The parliamentary delegation in the so-called “trilogue” talks which also involved the European Commission were led by MEP Bernd Lange, chair of the trade committee. Lange said in a statement last night: “We have just concluded a constructive second trilogue during which we made good progress on the issue of the safeguard mechanism and the review and evaluation of the main regulation, but there is still some way to go. We will continue to work expeditiously and responsibly on the two legislative proposals to ensure that the letter and the spirit of the Turnberry Deal are honoured, in full respect of our democratic norms, procedures and timelines. The next trilogue will take place on 19 May in Strasbourg. We remain more committed than ever to advance and defend Parliament’s mandate so as to provide additional guarantees that will benefit citizens and companies in both the EU and the US.” The 19 May date for next talks will be seen as a positive step however as yesterday Lange’s team were expecting the next date could be as far away as June. Lange’s committee were looking for three key amendments to the deal hashed out at Trump’s golf course last July.

Marco Rubio to meet pope at the Vatican after Trump attacks on pontiff

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is to meet Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday in an effort to ease tensions after Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of the first North American pontiff. Amid unprecedented strain on relations between the Holy See and Washington, Rubio is expected to meet Leo at the Apostolic Palace in the morning, before holding a series of meetings with the Italian government. Trump on Tuesday accused the pope of supporting nuclear weapons and “endangering a lot of Catholics’’ with his stance against the Iran war, in the latest attack by the US president on the pontiff. On Wednesday, Leo responded: “If anyone wants to criticise me for proclaiming the gospel, let them do so with the truth: the church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, there is no doubt about that. I simply hope to be listened to because of the value of God’s word.” Rubio downplayed the rift between Trump and Leo and told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the president’s recent criticism of the pontiff was rooted in his opposition to Iran potentially obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could be used against millions of Catholics around the world. Trump “doesn’t understand why anyone – leave aside the pope – would think that it’s a good idea for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said. Relations between the Vatican and Washington have never been so fraught. In April, the US president lashed out at Leo over the pope’s criticism of the war in Iran, branding him “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy”, and claiming he had only been elected pontiff because Trump himself occupied the White House. Trump later shared – before deleting – an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure. Rubio’s likely goal is to try to smooth over Trump’s insults and repair increasingly damaged ties between the US and the Vatican. According to several analysts, the secretary of state is expected to defend Washington’s rationale for launching the war in Iran, while carefully avoiding a direct clash with the church’s position. Asked whether he placed greater trust in Rubio or Trump, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told reporters on Tuesday: “I count on no one. I count only on our Lord Jesus Christ.” He added that Trump attacking Leo “in this way, or reproaching him for what he does, seems rather strange, to say the least”. Rubio will meet the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, on Friday as relations between Rome and Washington have also deteriorated. Lorenzo Castellani, a political historian at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome, said Trump’s attacks on the pope, which have provoked widespread outrage in Italy where the papacy plays a crucial role in the political and cultural imagination, ‘‘has effectively forced Meloni to distance herself from the US president’’, despite, earlier this year, saying she hoped Trump would one day receive the Nobel peace prize. According to some Italian newspapers, Rubio’s goal in talks with Italy will not necessarily be to mend relations, but rather to reassert Trump’s position after the US president lashed out at Meloni in April, accusing her of lacking courage for refusing to join the US campaign against Iran. According to Castellani, Meloni’s shift from being a staunch Trump ally to adopting a more critical stance towards the US president is driven by political and electoral considerations. ‘‘For the first time since the second world war, foreign policy has become a central concern for Italian public opinion,’’ Castellani said. ‘‘This shift had already begun with the war in Ukraine, but the current crisis represents a decisive escalation. The reason is simple: this is a conflict with direct geopolitical and economic consequences for Italy and for Europe as a whole.’’ ‘For this reason, he added, “Meloni can no longer maintain a clear separation between foreign and domestic policy. In the past, she has taken positions that ran counter to segments of her own electorate. But now, recent polling suggests that across both the right and the left there is broad agreement in condemning the position of Trump. The same sentiments now cut across a vast portion of the electorate – arguably as much as 80 to 90%.’’ Also expected to feature prominently in the talks is the future of the roughly 13,000 US military personnel stationed across seven naval bases in Italy. Asked last week whether he would consider pulling US troops out of Italy, Trump told reporters: “Probably … Italy has not been of any help to us.”

Thursday briefing: Five things to look out for in today’s local and parliamentary elections

Millions of Britons head to the polls today. From the Scottish Highlands to the Isle of Wight, swathes of the country will elect local councillors and representatives in national parliaments. Officially, the mundane functioning of everyday life is on the ballot: bin collections, road maintenance and community services. But many commentators are expecting a political earthquake, where the end of a system dominated by two parties is truly crystalised for the first time, and the survival of Keir Starmer as British prime minister is called into question. For today’s First Edition, we asked the Guardian reporters who have been on the ground ahead of elections about what they are looking out for. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Nigel Farage’s income since he was elected as an MP has reached £2m on top of his parliamentary salary, analysis of the register of MPs has shown. US news | A federal judge has unsealed an alleged suicide note written by Jeffrey Epstein, the first time the document has been made public. Cost of living | Fertiliser shortages caused by the Iran war have driven up costs for UK farmers by up to 70% and will have a “dramatic” impact on food prices globally next year, according to one of Britain’s most powerful property and farming companies. World news | Three people with suspected hantavirus, including a British expedition guide, have been medically evacuated from cruise ship MV Hondius. Middle East | The United Arab Emirates’ ruling royal family is benefiting from tens of millions in EU subsidies to grow crops destined for the Gulf, it can be revealed. In depth: ‘It could be a triumphant weekend for Nigel Farage’ Unlike in a general election, election junkies should think hard about staying up all night on 7 May – many councils do not hold overnight counts, so results will come out in dribs and drabs on Friday and into the weekend. A chunk of English councils and London boroughs will have total votes in the early hours, and big wins and losses will dominate the news agenda on Friday morning – but a significant number of English councils won’t have results before teatime. Wales and Scotland also do not count overnight, so results are expected later on Friday. Here is what our political correspondents will be looking out for. *** A ruling party under siege It could be a chastening weekend for Labour and the prime minister. Polling shows that the ruling party is under siege in traditional heartlands like Wales, the north of England and London, with hundreds of councillors expected to lose their jobs. “Labour is on course to break records, losing more than 1,800 council seats which would be 75% of the seats it is defending. And the onslaught is coming from all sides – from Reform across the former ‘red wall’ in the north-east, Midlands and north west, as well as in previously safer cities like Newcastle, Leeds and London, where the challenge is coming from an insurgent Greens as well as organised independents,” says Jessica Elgot, the Guardian’s deputy political editor. Jessica thinks the loss of those seats would be “traumatising” for Labour, especially if it loses councils like Barnsley, Hackney and Sunderland as expected – councils that Labour has held since its inception. That “will still send shock waves through the party”, she says. If results are as bad as feared, rivals like Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner could make their move to try to dethrone the prime minister as soon as the weekend. *** A significant election for those in favour of devolution By the end of the week, the UK could have nationalist leaders in all of its devolved administrations: Plaid Cymru is expected to be the largest party in Wales while the SNP is expected to win in Scotland. Bethan McKernan, the Guardian’s Wales correspondent, says it is the most significant election for the country since devolution in 1999, ending three decades of Labour hegemony. “A Welsh nationalist victory will put an independence referendum on the horizon,” says Bethan, adding that Plaid will be pushed hard by Reform UK. “Polls have repeatedly suggested Plaid Cymru and Reform UK are neck and neck in the new proportional voting system. Either could be the biggest party, but Reform is highly unlikely to be able to form a government, as other parties have ruled out a coalition with Nigel Farage’s outfit.” A similar picture is playing out in Scotland, says Libby Brooks, the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent. When Labour won the general election, it looked like the party might dethrone the SNP. But now, polls show the nationalists are heading for a fifth term in office despite repeated scandals and a patchy record in government. “Will the SNP achieve the majority they argue is a mandate for a second independence referendum, and will Reform beat beleaguered Scottish Labour for second place?” asks Libby. “This is the least predictable Holyrood election in a decade with an unusually high rate of undecideds and everything hangs on turnout from a dispirited electorate.” *** Will Reform maintain momentum? If polling is correct, it could be a triumphant weekend for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. His party is expected to make major gains across the country, sweeping aside the Conservatives as the main party of the right and eating into Labour heartlands. “Reform is expected to make sweeping gains in English councils – watch Labour heartlands such as Sunderland and Tory ones like Essex – and vie with Plaid for dominance in the Welsh Senedd,” says political correspondent Ben Quinn, who has been out on the campaign trail with Farage in Essex this week. The party, which was rebranded from the Brexit party in 2021, has sought to professionalise its operations in recent months after a surge of support, using an app for its activists to target potential voters and collect data. But there are signs that Reform’s support has plateaued in the polls, says Ben. “It’s a test of whether they can maintain momentum,” he says. *** The first major test for Polanski The Greens have been riding high under new leader Zack Polanski, who has built his campaigning around an eco-populism message since his election in September. As his popularity has risen, so has the scrutiny – and there are signs that support for the Greens is wavering in the polls ahead of Friday’s vote. Peter Walker, the Guardian’s senior political correspondent, says it is the first major test of Polanski’s message. “It is a big day for the Greens, with predicted net gains approaching 500 councillors. But it’s also worth seeing where these fall, and if Zack Polanski can sell his message outside London or other big cities. If the Greens are, in Polanski’s promise, to supplant Labour, they need to win widely.” *** Don’t sleep on the Lib Dems Do not forget the Lib Dems, who won a record 72 MPs in the 2024 general election. That played a key role in the wipeout of the Tory party that year, and the party could continue to make major inroads in traditional Conservative heartlands on Friday. “The Liberal Democrats have been largely ignored, but there is an outside chance they could end up as the biggest party in English local government,” says Peter. “What is certain is an eighth consecutive year of gain, possibly in the net hundreds. One test will be whether these span beyond ‘blue wall’ ex-Tory areas and into places where Labour are retreating, for example Birmingham and Preston.” What else we’ve been reading Director Baz Luhrmann, actor Jim Broadbent and more recall filming the record-breaking movie Moulin Rouge 25 years ago in this oral history. Martin Vincent Mundy has taken stunning photos of bomb craters that have been taken over by wildlife. Patrick One of the first gigs I ever went to was Ultravox in the 1980s, and frontman Midge Ure is about to release his first album of new material for 12 years. Sean Hannam interviews him. Martin If you have 15 minutes today, watch this excellent film on the so-called “Muslim vote” and how it is affecting British politics. Patrick A quite astonishing tale from Ramon Antonio Vargas of a Florida baby who was “born twice” after radical life-saving surgery to prevent a potentially fatal condition. Martin Sport Football| Paris Saint-Germain seals its place in Champions League final despite Harry Kane’s late goal for Bayern Munich, as the holders won 6-5 on aggregate. Women’s football | Manchester City are Women’s Super League champions for the first time in 10 years after Arsenal were held to a frustrating draw at Brighton. Cycling | Several cyclists, including riders due to start the Giro d’Italia on Friday, fell ill after a Belgian one-day race, with cow manure on the roads suspected to be the cause. The front pages The Guardian splashes with “Agree to peace deal or face fresh wave of bombing, Trump tells Iran”. The Times has “Deal or we’ll bomb you to hell, Trump warns” and the FT leads with “Record US fuel exports yield bonanza for oil groups but pose risk to Trump”. On the political front, The i Paper says “Starmer set to signal that UK is on a path to softer Brexit”. The Telegraph writes “Unions will tell Starmer to go after poll rout”, while the Independent leads with “Starmer’s plea for votes as Labour braces for disaster”, and the Express says “Taxi for Starmer time, surely”. In the Sun “Cruise Brits’ rat bug hell” leads, while the Star’s take is “Rat bug victims in UK”. And Metro runs with “Operation SOS. Save Our Summer”. Today in Focus An Infowars insider on the warped world of Alex Jones As the satirical online newspaper the Onion waits for court approval to take over the conspiracy website Infowars, Helen Pidd speaks to a former staff member about its sinister rise and dramatic fall. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad For more than 30 years, opera singer Janine Roebuck hid her worsening deafness while performing at venues including the Royal Opera House. Now 72, she says double cochlear implants have been “the best thing I’ve ever done in my life”. Her bilateral implants “have been utterly life-changing ”, she said. “They reconnect you to the world and, most importantly, people.” Roebuck’s surgery is now helping inspire a nationwide NHS-backed trial into offering two implants to deaf adults. Ralph Holme, director of research at the RNID, said: “It’s wonderful to hear just how life‑changing this experience has been for Janine, and the impact it’s had on her quality of life.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Martin Belam’s Thursday news quiz Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

Rewilding giants: captive elephants rehomed in Europe’s first sanctuary

Europe’s first large-scale elephant sanctuary, which is opening to offer a more natural environment for some of the 600 animals still held in captivity across the continent, is to receive its first arrivals. Julie, Portugal’s last circus elephant, will be moved next month to the animal charity Pangea’s multimillion pound sanctuary in the Alentejo, 200km (124 miles) east of Lisbon, close to the border with Spain. She will join Kariba, another female African elephant in her 40s, who is being relocated from a Belgian zoo where she has been living alone. “Kariba and Julie will live in an expansive natural habitat where they can roam freely, bathe and socialise in compatible groups,” said Kate Moore, the managing director of Pangea. “That autonomy is really critical but they will also have expert care as well. Elephants are one of the most sentient and intelligent animals on earth and so they have very complex needs.” The sanctuary will initially occupy 28 hectares (70 acres), with further fundraising required to expand the enclosures across the 405 hectares of the former cattle ranch. The sanctuary’s priority is to provide the elephants with as natural a life as possible and will not be open to the public. There are 36 elephants living in solitary confinement in zoos across Europe and about 40 still required to perform tricks in circuses. Many, including Kariba and Julie, were caught in the wild and brought to Europe in the 1980s and are reaching the end of their lives. Captive elephants are restricted to smaller-than-natural herds, drastically reduced roaming – they walk tens of kilometres each day in the wild – and are susceptible to diseases and lameness. Anne, Britain’s last circus elephant, was rehomed at Longleat safari park in 2011. She is now in her 70s and living alone. In 2022, Paignton zoo decided it would stop keeping elephants because it could not meet their complex needs. Studies have found reduced life expectancy and increased infant mortality rates among captive elephants. One study found African females lived 17 years on average in zoos as opposed to 56 years in the wild if human-caused deaths were excluded. Another study put the first-year mortality rate of captive-born Asian elephants in North America and the EU at about 30%. Wild African elephant first-year mortality is 10-15%. Although the use of wild animals in circuses is now banned in most EU countries – with the exception of Germany, which has regional restrictions but no national ban – many circuses are struggling to give up large animals such as elephants because there are no sanctuary spaces. Similarly, governments cannot confiscate animals from circuses if there are no places for them to go. In Portugal, a ban on wild animals in circuses came into full effect in 2025, with Julie the last wild animal to be rehomed after a voluntary agreement between the Cardinali circus and Pangea. Vítor Hugo Cardinali, the director of the circus that looked after Julie since acquiring her from a German zoo in 1988, said: “This has not been an easy decision, as she has been a deeply loved member of our family for decades, but we believe it is the right decision for Julie. Working closely with Pangea on her transition to her new home was a critical factor in our deliberations.” Moore said: “Across Europe, circuses and zoos are reaching the point where keeping elephants is no longer possible or appropriate – whether through changing legislation, the loss of a companion, or a decision to move on. Working in partnership with owners to find the right solution is central to how we operate, as it has been with the Cardinali family. Elephant relocations are complex, and their continued involvement is invaluable. “Our priority is to offer spaces to elephants in circuses or solitary confinement in zoos, but we’re very happy to work with anyone looking to transition away from elephants.” The sanctuary, which has taken 10 years to develop, is on the site of a degraded cattle ranch, where the elephants will also play a role in nature restoration. The region was once home to straight-tusked elephants which stomped across the Iberian peninsula 40,000 years ago. “It’s really important that it’s a diverse environment for them,” said Moore. “We’ve put a lot of effort into helping the nature recover on what was a degraded cattle ranch, following basic rewilding principles. We know elephants can normally strengthen the ecosystems if we get the stocking density of the elephants right. It gives us this really interesting opportunity to see how the elephants are responding to the land and vice versa.” When the sanctuary is expanded to405 hectares, it could carry 20 to 30 elephants living “naturally”, roaming and grazing and wallowing in the lakes.

New Hungarian PM’s voters want action on climate and LGBTQ+ rights, poll finds

More than three-quarters of Hungarians who voted for Péter Magyar in last month’s election want his government to do more to address the climate crisis, and more than 70% want him to protect LGBTQ+ rights, a poll has found. Magyar’s opposition Tisza party won a supermajority in the vote, bringing an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. The new prime minister will be sworn in on Saturday, weeks after the results set off celebrations in Budapest and Brussels. Magyar, a former member of Orbán’s populist rightwing Fidesz party, has a conservative background and avoided any pronouncements on progressive issues on the campaign trail, possibly for fear of providing fodder for the estimated 80% of Hungary’s media that is controlled by Fidesz loyalists. However, a poll carried out in the days after the election and published on Thursday suggests that Tisza’s voter base leans progressive, hinting at the conflicting pressures facing the new government. About 77% of Tisza voters polled said they supported an ambitious climate policy, while 71% supported, or somewhat supported, the new government protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ people, an area that experienced dramatic rollbacks under Orbán. Pawel Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations, which commissioned the polling, said: “That was my biggest surprise in this polling. There is a very clear mandate for the new government to have a more progressive stance. But it depends on whether Magyar looks at his own voters or the overall electorate, as the Hungarian public is much more divided on this.” The actions Magyar and his government are planning to take on the climate and LGBTQ+ rights remain vague, despite more than two years of campaigning and a 240-page election manifesto. The poll also offered a glimpse of other ways the government is likely to be pulled in several directions: although voters overwhelmingly said they were looking for change, they remained split on issues that are critical to the EU, such as support for Ukraine and the need for Hungary to curb its dependence on Russian energy. While 64% of those polled said they expected the new government to improve relations with Kyiv, support for the Ukrainian war effort remains low, with 24% backing the idea of Budapest providing financial support for Ukraine and 12% backing the provision of military support. More than half of those surveyed, 52%, were opposed to halting the country’s Russian energy imports. “Péter Magyar’s landslide victory was a vote for domestic change, not for a geopolitical U-turn,” Zerka said. “While Hungarians are ready to turn the page on years of corruption and isolation, they have drawn clear red lines around their country’s energy independence and national security – realities that will need to be respected by leaders in Brussels.” The findings suggest that the EU’s efforts to reshape its relationship with Hungary – long strained by Orbán’s efforts to paint Brussels as an enemy of the Hungarian people – will, in part, hinge on whether Magyar is first allowed space to focus on domestic change, even as the bloc races to work with him on unlocking billions in frozen EU funds. Zerka said: “The dilemma is that Brussels would want to use the opportunity for a broader U-turn. But if they push for these things too hard, they might divert the attention of the new administration and also risk breaking the neck of the new prime minister by placing him in a position where he would be seen by the Hungarian electorate as somebody who was forced by Brussels to accept unpalatable compromises.” He pointed to Poland as a cautionary tale, where Donald Tusk’s popularity has ebbed as political polarisation prevents him from carrying out changes voters had hoped for. This risk is moderated, however, by the 79% of respondents who said they expected the new government to improve relations with the EU, with 73% saying they were confident that Hungary would gain access to the frozen recovery funds. However, Fidesz continues to wait in the wings, with 52 seats in Hungary’s 199-seat parliament and its potential power leveraged by the many party loyalists that remain in the state, media and judiciary. “Viktor Orbán still has ways to control the situation, at least partly through his people at various levels of state institutions,” Zerka said. “So while there are good reasons to celebrate today, there are also equally good reasons to be cautious about the coming months.”

Revealed: Russia’s top secret spy school teaching hacking and election meddling

Last April, Vladimir Putin visited the campus of Bauman Moscow state technical university, set on the banks of the Yauza River in the east of the city and home to some of the country’s brightest scientific minds. He toured the campus, met undergraduates and boasted about Moscow’s ambitious plans for space missions to the moon and Mars. “You have everything it takes to be competitive,” Putin told the students. What the Kremlin readout of Putin’s visit did not mention was a secret faculty inside the university, known simply as Department 4, or “Special Training”. Here, a select group of students are quietly prepared for careers in the GRU – Russia’s military intelligence directorate, whose operatives have hacked western parliaments, poisoned dissidents on foreign soil and interfered in elections across Europe and the US. Until now its role in preparing future intelligence operatives has remained largely secret, save among a select group of insiders. “Sometimes you are first scouted from school, then go to Bauman and join the services … it is part of a pipeline,” said a former senior Russian defence official. The existence of this path, from one of Russia’s most prestigious institutions directly into its military intelligence apparatus, is revealed for the first time in more than 2,000 internal documents from Bauman, obtained by a consortium of journalists from six outlets: the Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, the Insider, Delfi and VSquare. The files, covering several years of activity up to 2025, include course syllabuses, exam records, staff contracts and the career assignments of individual graduates, tracing their path from classroom exercises in hacking and disinformation to postings in some of the most notorious cyber-units in the Russian military intelligence apparatus. Bauman, one of Russia’s leading technical universities, has never hidden its ties to the military. Founded in 1830, it later trained the engineers and scientists who built Soviet rockets, tanks and weapons systems and continues to do so today. In a 2013 internal letter seen by the Guardian and addressed to the then defence minister Sergei Shoigu, the university’s rector wrote it carries out more research and development than any other higher education institution in Russia, with more than 40% conducted in the interests of the ministry of defence. The curriculum Embedded within the university’s military training centre, Department 4 is divided into three specialist streams, the documents suggest. The most prominent, bearing the code 093400, is titled the “Special Reconnaissance Service”. The documents indicate that the GRU exerts direct control over the recruitment and grading process – sending its own officers to conduct exams, approve candidates and oversee placements. The picture that emerges is of a programme where the distinction between professor and handler and between teaching and recruitment is blurred. The department is led by lieutenant colonel Lt Col Kirill Stupakov, a signals intelligence officer who, according to the documents, signed a three-year contract in 2022 with GRU Unit 45807, one of the agency’s key units. It is not clear if he is still in active service. At Bauman, Stupakov’s subjects include training students to master electronic eavesdropping and covert surveillance. PowerPoint slides, apparently designed to accompany his lectures and viewed by the consortium, amount to a catalogue of deception: a smoke detector that is in fact a camera, a device that sits undetected between a keyboard and a computer logging every keystroke, a monitor cable that is also a silent screenshot machine storing its captures on a hidden flash drive. Another teacher mentioned in the documents is Viktor Netyksho, a western-sanctioned major general who commanded Unit 26165 – a hacking group known as Fancy Bear – whose officers were indicted by the US Department of Justice for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Among the core courses is one titled “Defence against technical reconnaissance”. Over 144 hours across two semesters, students are taught the full toolkit of modern hacking, including password attacks, software vulnerabilities and so called trojans – malicious programs disguised as legitimate software that can grant unauthorised access to a system. To pass the course, students are required to carry out “practical penetration tests”, while one module is devoted entirely to computer viruses. As part of the assessment, they must develop one themselves. Students are also taught the structure and organisation of US and British military intelligence agencies. Separate sessions cover the use of western intelligence in the war in Ukraine, and the development of enemy reconnaissance and strike drones on the Ukrainian battlefield. Apart from hacking tasks, the curriculum also covers information warfare. Advanced students must complete a seminar on developing a disinformation campaign, the documents suggest, tasked with creating a social media video using “manipulation, pressure and hidden propaganda”. Students are taught the mechanics of psychological manipulation and how to impose a “correct” perception of information on an audience. The teaching materials, meanwhile, saturate students with Kremlin orthodoxy: the war in Ukraine was “inevitable”; “nationalists and neo-Nazis” are in power there; Russians in the Donbas face “genocide”, backed by European countries. Western intelligence services have grown increasingly vocal about the scale of Russian cyber-activity in recent years. In a report published in February, the Dutch intelligence services warned that Russia was increasing hybrid activities across Europe, combining cyber-attacks, sabotage and influence operations targeting critical infrastructure. On 15 April, Sweden’s minister for civil defence, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, publicly accused Russia of regularly carrying out destructive cyber-attacks against EU institutions. From lecture hall to Sandworm The documents suggest that among the 69 students who graduated from Department 4 in spring 2024 was Daniil Porshin, who had spent six years at Bauman maintaining near-perfect grades while playing for the faculty football team. Upon graduation, he was assigned to Fancy Bear. Not every student makes the cut: the files show that dozens have been dismissed or failed to graduate, and the assessments of some students, written by the senior GRU officers who oversee the programme can be withering. “Insufficient understanding of how to carry out a remote network attack,” reads one evaluation. Many are deemed worthy of work inside the GRU, however: 15 others from Porshin’s cohort were similarly directed into GRU units. Among them was a student who took up his first posting that summer, 900 miles (1,500km) from Moscow at Unit 74455 in the Black Sea town of Anapa – one of Russia’s most popular holiday resorts, and home to the hacker unit known as Sandworm by western governments. Sandworm has been accused by western intelligence agencies of unleashing some of the most destructive cyber-attacks of the past decade including targeting Ukraine’s power grid in 2015, Emmanuel Macron’s French presidential campaign in 2017, the South Korean Winter Olympics in 2018, and the British investigation into the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning. The consortium sent requests to comment on the allegations to Bauman University, and to Netyksho, Stupakov and Porshin, but had not received a response at the time of publishing. As the war in Ukraine continues, intelligence experts suggest that Russia is ramping up its “hybrid” attacks on European allies of Ukraine, attempting a broad campaign of interference and sabotage to cause havoc in the west while remaining deniable and not crossing the threshold that could trigger a military response. Hacking and cyber-attacks have been a key part of this strategy and the documents suggest the Bauman programme shows no signs of slowing. The latest cohort of trainees will not graduate until the end of the 2027 academic year. While the trove of documents represent an unprecedented insight into the secretive and systematic training programme for Russia’s cyber-agents, insiders said it was only one part of the picture. Another Russian university, Mirea, was even more crucial in training hackers, according to the former defence official. “Bauman is one of a handful of elite universities used to identify gifted students for recruitment into military and intelligence structures,” said the source.

Australian director Phillip Noyce shoots feature film for Saudi Arabia celebrating ‘heroism of security men in combating drugs’

The acclaimed Australian film-maker Phillip Noyce is being paid by the Saudi regime to make a feature film portraying the repressive state’s narcotics officers as heroes. The Watchful Eyes, based on a real Saudi ministry of interior narcotics case, is billed as a dramatic depiction of the “heroism of security men in combating drugs”. Saudi authorities executed 356 people last year, including 243 for drug-related cases, and analysts say an increase in the kingdom’s execution rate is largely due to its “war on drugs”. Noyce has enjoyed a decades-long career with directing credits including the 1970s classic Newsfront, Dead Calm, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Bone Collector. Filming for The Watchful Eyes began in Saudi Arabia in December and it will be released this year. The Saudi Gazette news site reported: “The film will be shot entirely in the Kingdom and is expected to deliver a compelling artistic experience that highlights the heroism of Saudi security forces and introduces their efforts in combating crime to audiences around the world.” Noyce, 76, has been escorted around filming locations and prisons by Turki al-Sheikh, a royal adviser dogged by allegations of human rights violations, including the detention of people who criticise him on social media. Al-Sheikh, the chair of the country’s General Entertainment Authority, is known internationally for spearheading the Saudi bid to dominate world boxing and kickstarting moves to increase its influence on international football. A close confidant of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Al-Sheikh has posted multiple photos and videos of “the great director Phillip Noyce”, saying The Watchful Eyes is a feature “inspired by a true story taken from the case files of Saudi Arabia’s drug enforcement officers”. Noyce said he had accepted the job “for the challenge of working outside my comfort zone” and for the opportunity “to investigate a previously closed society” but did not address specific questions about the ethics of making a film paid for by the Saudi regime. Joey Shea, a Saudi Arabia senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the Saudi government used its huge investments in sport and entertainment as part of a strategy to whitewash its human rights record. “Given the subject matter of this film from what’s publicly available, combined with the reality of the rights abuses that have been so inextricably linked with this new war on drugs by the Saudi government, it’s really, really disturbing the role that these narratives may play in covering up the reality of these executions that have just been served the last few years,” Shea said. The Watchful Eyes is described by officials as a “massive production” and a “grand Saudi epic”. Noyce said the film was financed and produced by a Saudi entertainment company, Sela, which is backed by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, to produce content to boost the local film industry. The regime aims to make the country a leading global production destination as part of Prince Mohammed’s Vision 2030 plan for economic diversification to reduce reliance on the oil industry. Noyce described The Watchful Eyes as “a low-budget kidnapping thriller”. “Gritty and raw and shot entirely in Arabic, I don’t think the movie will attract any tourists to Saudi Arabia,” he said. Asked about the country’s human rights record and executions for drug offences, Noyce said: “I guess the story could be edited to send an anti-drug message, but the story I shot was told from the highly emotional point of view of the lead detective in the hunt for a missing child. “Surprisingly, Sela never once interfered from a creative point of view.” In March the BBC was accused of making “glossy propaganda films” after its commercial arm teamed up with the Saudis. Jeed Basyouni, who researches the death penalty in the region for the legal action non-governmental organisation Reprieve, said the number of executions in Saudi Arabia continued to grow while officials sold a false vision of the kingdom. “It is essential that the world sees this rebranding for what it is – a flimsy attempt to disguise brutal abuses of human rights,” she said. “The purpose of culture-washing is to legitimise the human rights abuses carried out by the Saudi regime, using the arts, comedy and film to portray a tolerant government when in reality, anyone who offends the men in power risks winding up dead.” The Public Investment Fund has backed the LIV Golf Tour to the tune of more than $5bn since 2021 but funding will cease at the end of the year, in part because of the conflict in the Middle East.

Argentina races to find origins of cruise ship hantavirus outbreak, amid reports some passengers have returned to US

Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise ship, amid reports that a number of passengers have already returned to their home countries. Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America. Investigators there are working to contact trace the source of contamination. The Argentine health ministry on Tuesday reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, roughly double to the year prior. A hantavirus found in South America, called the Andes virus, can cause a severe and often fatal lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease led to death in nearly a third of cases in the last year, Argentina’s health ministry said. Authorities said passengers on the MV Hondius ship tested positive for the Andes virus. Three passengers have died, one is in intensive care in a South African hospital, and three others were evacuated from the ship Wednesday. Another man who left the ship earlier in the voyage tested positive in Switzerland. Argentina on Wednesday said it was sending genetic material from the Andes virus and testing equipment to help Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom detect it. People usually become infected with hantavirus through contact with infected rodents or their urine, their droppings or their saliva, and human-to-human transmission is rare. But a limited spread among close contacts has been observed in some previous outbreaks with the Andes strain. Concern has also arisen about 23 passengers who reportedly disembarked the MV Hondius on the island of Saint Helena on 23 April, as reported by Spanish newspaper, El País. “There are 23 people wandering around there, and until three days ago, no one had contacted them,” a passenger, who asked to remain anonymous, reportedly told the paper in a phone interview. The cohort reportedly returned to their respective countries, including the United States. American passengers were being monitored in Georgia, California and Arizona, the New York Times reported Wednesday, although none of them had shown signs of illness. The WHO says the first death on board the cruise ship, a 70-year-old Dutch man, happened on 11 April. His body was taken off the vessel nearly two weeks later, at Saint Helena. His 69-year-old wife travelled by plane from Saint Helena to South Africa; she collapsed at a Johannesburg airport and died at a hospital on 26 April. The third passenger, a German woman, died on 2 May. Argentine officials say they’re trying to pin down where infected passengers travelled in the country before boarding the Dutch-flagged cruise liner in Ushuaia, a city in southern Argentina known as the end of the world. Once they know the itineraries, they plan to trace contacts, isolate close contacts and actively monitor to prevent further spread. Before boarding, the Dutch couple went sightseeing in Ushuaia, and travelled in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, the Argentinian government said. The virus can incubate for between one and eight weeks, making it hard to know whether the passengers contracted the virus before leaving Argentina for Antarctica on 1 April; during a scheduled stop to a remote South Atlantic island; or onboard. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, said earlier on X that the “WHO continues to work with the ship’s operators to closely monitor the health of passengers and crew, working with countries to support appropriate medical follow-up and evacuation where needed.” “Monitoring and follow-up for passengers onboard and for those who have already disembarked has been initiated in collaboration with the ship’s operators and national health authorities,” he added. “At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low.” The evacuation of three passengers from the ship, with close to 150 people onboard, means it can now continue on its three-day journey to the Canary Islands after Spanish authorities gave permission for the vessel to dock. But a row has erupted, with the president of the Canary Islands expressing concern over the ship docking in Tenerife. The ship was anchored off Cape Verde while arrangements were put in place to evacuate the crew members but on Wednesday evening the ship was on its way to the Canary Islands. Those evacuated on Wednesday include a British man, Martin Anstee, 56, who was an expedition guide onboard the ship. He was removed from the vessel along with a Dutch colleague, 41, who was the ship’s doctor, and a 65-year-old German passenger, the Telegraph reported. The health emergency aboard the MV Hondius comes as local public health researchers in Argentina point to climate change accelerating the risk of the spread of hantavirus. Public heath experts say that higher temperatures expand the virus’ range because, in part, as it gets warmer and ecosystems change, rodents that carry the hantavirus can thrive in more places. People typically contract the virus from exposure to rodent droppings, urine or saliva. “Argentina has become more tropical because of climate change, and that has brought disruptions, like dengue and yellow fever, but also new tropical plants that produce seeds for mice to proliferate,” said Hugo Pizzi, a prominent Argentine infectious disease specialist. “There is no doubt that as time goes by, the hantavirus is spreading more and more.” With Associated Press and Reuters