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Helen Warrell

@helenwarrell.bsky.social
4K followers 291 following 29 posts

FT investigations. Previously defence & security editor, political and home affairs correspondent. Get in touch: helen.warrell@ft.com

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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Important update from the Guardian about one of the students featured in our @ftweekend.com profile of James Orr. Here's a free link to the full story as.ft.com/r/79295329-9...
as.ft.com
James Orr and the gospel of the new British right
Reform’s policy head is a Cambridge theologian with an enviable contact book and a belief in ‘faith, family and flag’
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Reposted by Helen Warrell
Janine Gibson @janinegibson.ft.com · 03/09/2026
If you’d like to know more about James Orr, here’s this week’s @ftweekend Magazine cover story as.ft.com/r/2ba39ce2-9...
as.ft.com
James Orr and the gospel of the new British right
Reform’s policy head is a Cambridge theologian with an enviable contact book and a belief in ‘faith, family and flag’
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Reposted by Helen Warrell
Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 03/09/2026
Cambridge university was ordered to pay £5,000 compensation to a former PhD student who was found to have been bullied by Professor James Orr, who is also Reform UK's head of policy as.ft.com/r/c0b319f3-2...
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Chris Cook @chriscook.news · 02/09/2026
A big shock from Malta: the jury acquits the man accused of orchestrating the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia: as.ft.com/r/977679ea-7...
as.ft.com
Businessman acquitted in Maltese journalist’s murder trial
Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in 2017
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
James Orr: Reform’s head of policy, Cambridge theologian, architect of the new British right. Our profile for @ftweekend.com looks at his links to the Maga movement, Silicon Valley & European populists, and his life as a Cambridge lecturer with @ramshodgson.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/c2d0...
ft.com
James Orr and the gospel of the new British right
Reform’s policy head is a Cambridge theologian with an enviable contact book and a belief in ‘faith, family and flag’
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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
It’s been quite the ride. Me on Burnham, the Manchester years as.ft.com/r/2d95cb4b-8...
as.ft.com
The decade that made Andy Burnham
What 10 years covering the Manchester mayor’s many reinventions taught me about the man who wants to lead Britain
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 17/06/2026
Does it change our perception of our society to know that a fair chunk of extremist behaviour is in fact a Russian sabotage campaign? www.ft.com/content/8fa3...
ft.com
Russian saboteurs hired third operative for UK attacks
Footage points to the role of an unidentified man spraying anti-Muslim graffiti in London
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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
This is a huge story. www.ft.com/content/dd79...
ft.com
Arson targeting Keir Starmer properties originated in Russia
Handler was affiliated with a pro-Kremlin hacktivist group
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 15/06/2026
Arson targeting Keir Starmer properties originated in Russia ft.trib.al/6LJCBeD
ft.trib.al
Arson targeting Keir Starmer properties originated in Russia
Handler was affiliated with a pro-Kremlin hacktivist group
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Reposted by Helen Warrell
Miranda Green @greenmirandahere.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
stop all the clocks. and then wear all your brightest colours in tribute - the king of drawing as well as colour
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Phenomenal detail from the FT's obituary of the great Alex Younger, by Charles Clover & JP Rathbone: When Dominic Cummings called him for the first time, he asked Younger what he was doing. “Plotting evil shit,” Younger replied. www.ft.com/content/59c9...
ft.com
Alex Younger, former MI6 chief, 1963-2026
With courage and a clear moral compass, he dedicated his tenure to preparing Britain for mounting foreign threats
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
A stunning exposé in FT on how Russia and Iran use nearly identical techniques to recruit teenagers to do espionage and sabotage for them. Russia and Iran have long enlisted proxies to perform hostile acts on European soil, but targeting minors represents a new twist on their subversive gig economy.
ft.trib.al
The teenagers enlisted as agents of mayhem by Russia and Iran
Minors are being targeted to carry out hostile acts from Ukraine to western Europe and Israel
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Russia & Iran are recruiting teenagers across Europe and the Middle East to conduct sabotage. From Kyiv to Tel Aviv, we reveal how minors are hired online, paid in crypto & exploited as disposable, deniable, single-use agents. From @christopherjm.ft.com & me www.ft.com/content/58da...
ft.com
The teenagers enlisted as agents of mayhem by Russia and Iran
Minors are being targeted to carry out hostile acts from Ukraine to western Europe and Israel
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
If you read one thing today, make it @stephenkb.bsky.social's admirably clear and rational analysis of the police's actions following Henry Nowak's murder, from the @financialtimes.com Inside Politics newsletter www.ft.com/content/aa94...
ft.com
What Henry Nowak’s murder does — and does not — tell us about policing
Kemi Badenoch says his killing needs to be seen as a ‘Stephen Lawrence moment’ but the failures in both cases differ
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 22/05/2026
Providers charge the state an average of £384,020 per child per year, a huge rise from a decade ago. That is multiple times the cost of the country’s most prestigious boarding schools such as Eton College and of its young offenders institutions. ft.trib.al/MwQX4gy
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Elisabeth Braw @elisabethbraw.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
A mysterious Russian wanted to buy a struggling golf club - located near the railway serving the UK's main submarine-manufacturing shipyard. When @financialtimes.com started investigating, he pulled out www.ft.com/content/19a3... (with comments by yours truly)
ft.com
Russian oilman tried to buy golf course on railway to British nuclear site
Purchase of Lake District club collapsed this week after government officials and the FT raised questions over strategic location
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
A Russian businessman & his daughter tried to buy a lake district golf course next to the railway line that serves Sellafield nuclear waste site & submarine shipyard at Barrow. UK security officials intervened. @financialtimes.com scoop from @ramshodgson.bsky.social & me www.ft.com/content/19a3...
ft.com
Russian oilman tried to buy golf course on railway to British nuclear site
Purchase of Lake District club collapsed this week after government officials and the FT raised questions over strategic location
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
NEW: The UK Home Office has admitted that some people are being referred to its Prevent deradicalisation scheme *just* to ensure faster access to mental health & neurodiversity services, in an internal review seen by @financialtimes.com [free link for first 300 readers] as.ft.com/r/f8176f47-6...
as.ft.com
UK deradicalisation scheme being used to speed mental health service access, review warns
[FREE TO READ] Home Office has expressed concerns that Prevent programme is under pressure due to wider gaps in public services
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 27/03/2026
How MI5 gets into the minds of young terrorists ft.trib.al/3jOqNFT
ft.trib.al
How MI5 gets into the minds of young terrorists
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
PMQs: Kemi Badenoch raises the fact that I asked Starmer in January 2024 about our 2023 FT story showing Mandelson staying at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion while he was in prison for soliciting prostitution from a minor (Starmer shrugged off my question)
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Harry Wallop @harrywallop.co.uk · 02/12/2025
Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
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FT Edit @ftedit.ft.com · 25/11/2025
When it comes to modern war, Ireland is a high-value target: its waters on the western fringe of Europe contain three-quarters of all undersea cables in the northern hemisphere. Despite this, is unprotected and unprepared. An #FTEdit 🧵 on why this determinedly neutral nation is Europe's weak link 👇
A quote card on a beige background. The quote reads:
“We’re a member of the EU but we’re not a member of Nato… If you wanted to strike at the European Union without any fear of Nato retaliation, then Ireland is ground zero.”
Attributed to Cathal Berry, former second-in-command of the Irish army’s Army Ranger Wing.
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Last week the UK warned Russia to rein in its spy ship Yantar, which was heading to Irish waters. This is how Ireland's neutrality & lack of naval clout has become a security liability, threatening its economy & unsettling its neighbours. By @judewebber.bsky.social & me www.ft.com/content/4748...
ft.com
How Ireland became the weak spot in Europe’s defences
With few ships and limited intelligence-sharing, some say the country cannot hope to protect itself or its infrastructure
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H I Sutton @covertshores.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
UK 🇬🇧 Ministry of Defence (MOD) image of Russian spy ship Yantar, presumably in or near UK waters. Note that the ROV (remote operated vehicle, a deep-sea robot) A-frame is deployed (red). It’s doing something on the seabed. Also two new radomes (yellow)
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
The Russian spy ship Yantar is once again loitering near UK waters: for a full run-down on this vessel and the exploits of GUGI, Moscow's secretive underwater operations unit, see our @financialtimes.com investigation from earlier this year: ft.com/content/0b35...
ft.com
The Russian spy ship stalking Europe’s subsea cables
Covert operations in waters surrounding the British Isles pose a grave threat to critical infrastructure and a fresh challenge to Nato
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Niall Firth @niallfirth.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Today we have the latest in our collaboration with the @financialtimes.com. This week, we're talking all things WAR, with @jamesodonnell.bsky.social and @helenwarrell.bsky.social www.technologyreview.com/2025/11/17/1...
technologyreview.com
The State of AI: How war will be changed forever
In this conversation, Helen Warrell, FT investigations reporter and former defense and security editor, and James O’Donnell, MIT Technology Review’s senior AI reporter, consider the ethical quandaries...
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 26/09/2025
FT Investigation: Using radar data collected by European Space Agency satellites, the FT was able to locate the spy ship hovering over critical cables in the middle of the Irish Sea in November, at a point in the voyage when the ship was seeking to hide its activities. on.ft.com/46JjsIJ
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
What is Russia's spy ship Yantar and why has it been loitering in British waters? The FT investigates the threat to undersea cables & the work of Moscow's secret deep-sea research unit, GUGI, as an agent of sabotage. With @chriscook.news Daria Mosolova & David Djambazov www.ft.com/content/0b35...
ft.com
The Russian spy ship stalking Europe’s subsea cables
Covert operations in waters surrounding the British Isles pose a grave threat to critical infrastructure and a fresh challenge to Nato
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Reposted by Helen Warrell
Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
FT exposes Russian cooperation with Iran in pursuit of dual-use nuclear technology. Essential reading to understand Iranian efforts to acquire the tools, expertise and material to make and amplify the power of nuclear bombs. Ace reporting by @miles-johnson.bsky.social and @maxseddon.bsky.social
ft.com
The covert trip by Iranian nuclear experts to Russia
An Iranian delegation visited Russian scientific institutes that produce dual-use technologies — components with potential applications in nuclear weapons research
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Christoph Becker @chwb.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Mit Gewinn gehört: Die FT-Hot Money-Staffel von @samgadjones.bsky.social zu Marsalek. Letzte Folge heute erschienen, einschließlich eines sehr nachdenklich stimmenden Schlusssatzes. www.ft.com/content/d5f8...
ft.com
How Wirecard’s Jan Marsalek went from fraudster to spy
The third season of our investigative podcast asks: who is the real Jan Marsalek? And what does his secret life reveal about the powerful forces he serves?
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Great column by @sarahoconnorft.ft.com:
ft.com
Why does the internet hate my apostrophe?
It turns out I am not machine readable — but that might be an advantage in the future
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Essential reading from Miranda here — a firm no to shorts and jackets but yes to male sarongs
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
A poignant report from our ever-brilliant Najmeh Bozorgmehr
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Masterful piece on Iran's Fordow enrichment plant, buried deep in the mountains, by my colleagues JP Rathbone and Charles Clover "To Israeli military planners, it is akin to Mount Doom..." www.ft.com/content/46c6...
ft.com
The nuclear mountain that haunts Israel
Buried half a kilometre underground, Iran’s Fordow enrichment facility is the ultimate test of Israeli air power
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
New: UK appoints Blaise Metreweli as the first female head of MI6 Metreweli, 47, is currently SIS' head of technology, known as ‘Q’. She has previously worked for SIS in roles across the Middle East & as director of state threats for MI5 www.ft.com/content/b12e...
ft.com
Britain’s MI6 spy agency promotes ‘Q’ to be first female head
Appointment of Blaise Metreweli comes as agents grapple with competing threats
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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
New Hot Money podcast is all about Jan Marsalek, the Wirecard fraudster and Russian spy. Listen to @samgadjones.bsky.social chase him through the shadows here:
on.ft.com
Hot Money: how Wirecard’s Jan Marsalek went from fraudster to spy
The third season of our investigative podcast asks: who is the real Jan Marsalek? And what does his secret life reveal about the powerful forces he serves?
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Rhianan Rudd was drawn into far-right extremism aged 14, with tragic consequences. Her inquest heard from MI5, CT police, Prevent officials & social workers, who face a rising caseload of teens radicalised online. Is there more the British state could do to keep them safe? www.ft.com/content/ae02...
ft.com
The vulnerable teen drawn into far-right extremism online
Could the British state have done more to help Rhianan Rudd?
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Dr. Dan Lomas @sandbaggerone.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
UK close to appointing first female head of MI6 www.ft.com/content/55bf...
ft.com
UK close to appointing first female head of MI6
Two women remain in running to be chief of Secret Intelligence Service, with decision expected within a fortnight
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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Wild new Jan Marsalek update from UK court. The fugitive Wirecard fraudster and Russian spy aspired to build a Chinese rival to Musk’s Starlink, was trading diamonds in Africa, and had plastic surgeries to change his appearance. Oh, and then there’s the Afghanistan airlift claims…
on.ft.com
Bulgarian spy helped Wirecard’s Marsalek plan Kabul airlift for CIA, court told
[FREE TO READ] Claim dismissed by prosecution lawyers at Old Bailey sentencing hearing
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
In northern Norway, US marines are learning Arctic warfare. Here is my @financialtimes.com story on the competition between Russia, China & Nato in this region – and how troops fight in a hostile climate. With Daria Mosolova & beautiful 📷 by @kalpeshlathigra.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/76fd...
ft.com
Meet the warriors trying to teach the west how to fight in the Arctic
Melting sea ice, rising tensions and the relearning of what it will take to master the art of Arctic warfare
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Gordon Corera @gordoncorera.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Farewell to one of the most important spies of the Cold War. Oleg Gordievsky has died in the UK. A KGB officer who spied for MI6, he supplied vital intelligence that helped manage tensions between the West and the Soviet Union in the 80s. Nothing suspicious to his passing, I understand.
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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Marsalek made himself useful, running a Bulgarian spy ring in the UK with enough bumbling adventure for most lifetimes, according to details revealed in the trial that resulted in three convictions today. Astounding story from Helen Warrell, Martha Muir and Daria Mosolova here:
ft.com
The Wirecard fugitive, Russian intelligence and a Bulgarian spy ring
A London espionage trial has provided rare insight into the activities of Jan Marsalek, the former payments executive, and how Moscow is outsourcing its spying
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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
You think a story is over, then a Bulgarian pops up in the seaside resort of Great Yarmouth with a garage full of spying equipment and plans to kidnap a dissident
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
The Wirecard fugitive, Russian intelligence and a Bulgarian spy ring -- what a London espionage trial tells us about the new life of Jan Marsalek. With Martha Muir, Daria Mosolova & @samgadjones.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/d91d...
ft.com
The Wirecard fugitive, Russian intelligence and a Bulgarian spy ring
A London espionage trial has provided rare insight into the activities of Jan Marsalek, the former payments executive, and how Moscow is outsourcing its spying
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 01/03/2025
James Bond, the British spy under US ownership on.ft.com/41GDDET
on.ft.com
James Bond, the British spy under US ownership
Ian Fleming’s fictional creation, a boon and burden to UK intelligence agencies, will now be defined by tech giant Amazon
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Helen Warrell @helenwarrell.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
A few weeks ago I wrote for @financialtimes.com about the high number of autistic children being referred to the UK's Prevent deradicalisation programme. Now @yvettecooper-mp.bsky.social has announced a review into how Prevent manages people with neurodiversity diagnoses www.ft.com/content/4218...
ft.com
Home Office to review autism cases in anti-extremism unit
Study into Prevent programme comes after FT investigation exposing prevalence of autism in counter-terror casework
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David Sheppard @oilsheppard.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
FT Investigation: A Scottish-Lebanese dynasty. A sheikh scorned. A German arms deal. A £50mn penthouse. The former King of Spain. One of London’s hottest tech investors. Intrigued? Hope you enjoy What led to the fall of the house of El Husseiny on.ft.com/402y3wZ
on.ft.com
What led to the fall of the house of El Husseiny
[FREE TO READ] A prominent family made a fortune working for autocrats. Who was really to blame when it fell apart?
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Neil Renic @ncrenic.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Two stages of writing: 1) This shouldn't take too long 2) Oh no
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