FROM MOSCOW UNTIL 1991, THE Soviet Union’s KGB kept detailed records of British Army personnel who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, because they needed to know the disposition of British forces all the time in case of conflict with NATO. When the Cold War ended, it was believed that such spying was redundant.…

THE FRENCH CONNECTION, CANBERRA “YES, BRUCE LEHRMANN says he went back to Parliament on the night in question to deal with thoughts about French submarines; and Brittany Higgins and that new man of hers have recently moved to France. But I don’t think people should read any more into all that than an interest in…

BELGRADE, THURSDAY THE RUSSIANS CALL him Ded Moroz, which translates as Grandpa Frost, or Old Man Frost, or Father Frost. He is their equivalent of Santa Claus. Except he comes on New Years Eve. Yes, the Russians have always been awkward. Anyway, to look at, Grandpa Frost is a dead ringer for Santa Claus and…

KYIV FEARFUL OF ITS professed allies’ initial overconfidence in, and recent underwhelming support for, its war effort against Russia, the Ukrainian Government is said to have asked NATO if it would be interested in changing sides. “The feeling is that if NATO were to roll in behind Putin in the same manner that it has…

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA ANY PHYSICAL SIMILARITY between David Sharaz, Brittany Higgins’s new love interest, and Bruce Lehrmann, the man she accuses of raping her in a government minister’s office, are pure coincidence, according to a leading Freudian psychoanalyst. “The physical resemblance is as much in the minds of observers as it is in anyway real,” says…

FROM OUR DEMOGRAPHY DESK “CHILDREN ARE A woman’s choice, and they’re increasingly choosing not to have them in the western world. It will prove a costly decision.” Professor Germaine Pyll, who specializes in trade-off economics, went on to say that what is happening is what she calls the “pointed end of individual self-determination and social…

TECH CORRESPONDENTS AND WIRE SERVICES AN ANONYMOUS RUSSIAN hacker has admitted that he has thousands of UK Government phone and computer messages, sent between senior politicians, civil servants and advisors from as far back as 2014. Including all the Whatsapp messages the current British Covid Inquiry has been told mysteriously went missing. “I worked for…

ENTERTAINMENT DESK IT’S STOCK IN trade was cringe-making offensive sketches. It was the modern equivalent of the 19th Century freak show. And it was funny. Not all the time. But most of the time. Now it is said to be on its way back – presumably if its once feuding stars can be brought together…

FROM OUR HUMAN RIGHTS DESK IRELAND’S DECISION TO take the United Kingdom to the European Court of Human Rights over the latter’s proposal to bring in legislation granting immunity to its forces for their actions in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, may cause Dublin’s politicians during the conflict a little embarrassment, and perhaps worse, according…

FROM A GYM IN GERMANY EUROPEAN GYMS ARE in turmoil following the release of video showing Ukrainian military recruiting personnel wrestling young men from fitness clubs away for service in the front line of the country’s war against Russia. “The initial euphoria has come to a halt in the face of heavy losses in the…