12 h. ago The Defector: KGB agent's defection after Soho drink drive arrest changed the shape of the Cold War

The Evening Standard scooped the world in 1971 with the first and only picture of Russian defector Oleg Lyalin, who is now the subject of a compelling new book

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29 h. ago 'Outstanding' Tom Hanks war thriller with stellar cast is free to watch now on BBC

The modern classic is a gripping and understated thriller set during the Cold War and is available for free via the BBC.

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44 h. ago Cold War bunker goes up for auction near Bristol: ‘Discreetly integrated underground room’

A floor plan shows Room One — the only room

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46 h. ago ‘A gilded temple to the new world order’: inside the former US embassy that is now a super

Even the cheap rooms cost £1,400 a night at London’s bling-heavy hangout for high net worth individuals. From mega-basement spa to gaudy rooftop bar, our writer takes a tourRumours have long swirled about what lies beneath the great 1960s fortress of the former US embassy on Grosvenor Square. There have been lurid fables of cold war bunkers, secret service shooting ranges, CIA interrogation chambers and even escape tunnels to Hyde Park. But none of these fictional fantasies quite compare to the underground lair that has now been excavated below the imposing block, in its new incarnation as one of the fanciest hotels in London.Owned by the royal family of Qatar, and operated by an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, belonging to one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest dynasties, this former outpost of US imperialism has become a gilded temple to the new global order. Reborn as the Chancery Rosewood, it is a beacon of luxury designed to attract the cream of the world’s ul...

Politics

59 h. ago The perfect property listing in England for a buyer with a bunker mentality

A Cold War-era bunker in western England is going up for auction later this month

Politics

67 h. ago Xi Jinping accuses West of ‘bullying behaviour’ and ‘Cold War mentality’ at showpiece summit with Putin

The Chinese leader made a thinly veiled swipe at Trump’s tariff policy as he unveiled a new economic vision for non-western countries

Politics

68 h. ago Art and politics are not the same thing – but the Anna Netrebko case shows what happens when they collide | Martin Kettle

The arts and politics are bound to mix, but they are not the same thing. In the cold war, Soviet artists performed in the west. Should the Russian soprano, who has condemned the Ukraine invasion, be blocked from singing in London?It is one of my very earliest concert memories. In October 1965, my father drove us to Manchester to hear Mstislav Rostropovich play in the Free Trade Hall. Rostropovich played Dvořák’s cello concerto with the Moscow Philharmonic, who began the concert with a symphony by Tikhon Khrennikov and ended it with one by Brahms. I was smitten by Rostropovich’s noble playing. I had never heard a musician like him before.This was, though, a concert taking place slap-bang in the middle of the cold war. The Cuban missile crisis had taken place less than three years earlier. The Berlin Wall was still fairly new. The Vietnam war was deepening. That summer I had read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The movie version of Le Carré’s novel, with Richard Burton, was due out...

Politics

3 d. ago Xi Jinping criticises ‘bullying behaviour’ and Putin blames west for Ukraine war at Shanghai summit

China’s leader urges attendees to oppose ‘cold war mentality’ while Russian president claims Ukraine war was ‘provoked by the west’Xi Jinping has criticised the “bullying behaviour” of other countries while Vladimir Putin has blamed the west for his war on Ukraine, on the second day of a major summit in China which seeks to challenge western-led multilateral blocs.The Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) began in the city of Tianjin on Sunday, with Xi welcoming dozens of leaders from Eurasian member states and other partner and observer countries, including Putin, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater review – cold war chaos reborn with cinematic swagger

PC, PS5, Xbox; KonamiKonami’s lavish remake of Hideo Kojima’s PS2 masterpiece swaps in slick controls and stunning visuals, but leaves the eccentric espionage drama as gloriously unhinged as everA wise fictional character once said that war never changes, and if you play Snake Eater, you’d be hard pressed to argue. A remake of 2004’s cold war PS2 classic, Konami has dropped the three from the title and replaced it with a delta – but, make no mistake, this is the jungle-roaming jaunt almost exactly as you remember it. Without Hideo Kojima at the helm, Konami has sensibly not meddled with any story beats of this madcap masterpiece, instead pouring its energy into lavishly rendered art and adding slicker modern controls.Still, if there’s any PS2 title that can pass as a modern release, it’s Metal Gear Solid 3. Shifting the series into the great outdoors, Kojima squeezed every last drop of power out of Sony’s ageing console – sending Naked Snake slithering across the jungle. To contempo...

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1 week ago ‘Fire with fire’: The doomsday political scenarios after Texas and California launch their warheads over redistricting

A mid-decade redrawing of congressional maps would have implications far beyond the 2026 midterm elections, write John Bowden and Eric Garcia. The Independent’s interactive maps illustrate the Cold War-like scenarios at play between Democratic and Republican leaders for control of the US House of Representatives — and potentially the last two years of the Trump presidency.

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1 week ago 'Greatest war film ever made' is a 'stone cold masterpiece' and streaming now

The 1998 war epic, often labelled the greatest war film ever made, tells the story of a group of soldiers on a mission to find (and save) Private James Francis Ryan and bring him home safely

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1 week ago Revealed: The KGB plot to poison loch with radioactive waste... then blame it on American nuclear subs CND peaceniks were campaigning to ban from Britain

The KGB secretly plotted to attack the UK at the height of the Cold War by polluting Scotland's coastline with radioactive waste, it was revealed this weekend.

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1 week ago ‘Even after 20 years, I still cry’: the enduring brilliance of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Two decades after its release and with a remake about to land, the cast of Hideo Kojima’s stealth blockbuster reflect on what made this cold war caper a gaming classicYou never forget your first Metal Gear – yet there’s one title in Konami’s legendary stealth series that is universally heralded as its pinnacle: 2004’s Snake Eater. This prequel-cum-threequel was something of a reset. Originally intended as a PS3 game thanks to its sheer technological ambition, but then released on PS2, writer and director Hideo Kojima yearned to take gravelly voiced protagonist Solid Snake away from dimly lit military bases and have him slither outdoors. Featuring hunting for food and snapping broken bones back into place, Snake Eater felt more grounded and immersive than any of its 2000s PlayStation peers.Yet for all Snake Eater’s sweeping changes, one classic element remained intact – the stellar voice acting. It’s telling that as Konami releases its remake, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, eve...

Politics

2 w. ago Donald Trump is becoming the greatest unifier of Europe since the end of the cold war | Fabrizio Tassinari

The US president may be helping Putin to destroy the west, but his vanity is causing Europeans to speak with one voice on UkraineSeven is a biblical number, a number dear to ancient Rome, and the number of Cristiano Ronaldo’s lucky jersey. Perhaps it is also now going to be the answer to Henry Kissinger’s (probably apocryphal) question: what number do I call when I want to talk to Europe? Maybe the answer is seven, like the number of leaders sitting at the table in Washington on Monday alongside Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.It’s difficult to say at this stage whether anything good will come from the impromptu White House summit, but European leaders showing up as a group in support of Ukraine was a first. This seven-member format – Nato, the European Commission, France, Germany, the UK, Italy and Finland – truly spoke with one voice. They did so on a crisis, Ukraine, over which they have sometimes been bitterly divided throughout the past three and a half years (remember Emm...

Politics

2 w. ago What to know about Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia from Ukraine over a decade ago

Russia’s illegal seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 was quick and bloodless, and it sent Moscow’s relations with the West into a downward spiral unseen since the Cold War

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2 w. ago Brit millionaire living in Cold War bunker will 'find aliens' after Dragon's Den fail

Tech entrepreneur William Sachiti, 41, has bought an old RAF base and fired up its radar station to create a UFO-hunting network across the UK using and old cold war scanning system

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2 w. ago Trump and Putin recreate iconic Cold War photo of Richard Nixon and Nikita Kruschchev during tense Alaska talks

The US President animatedly pointed his finger at the Russian leader as a translator stood between them during their talks at a military facility in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.

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3 w. ago Expert makes bombshell Diana claim about Prince Harry and William's ongoing feud

Princess Diana would have been "a peacemaker" and ended the "cold war" between her two sons Prince William and Prince Harry, a royal biographer has claimed

Politics

3 w. ago As the world hurtles ever closer to nuclear oblivion, where is the opposition? | Simon Tisdall

The puerile standoff between the US and Russia ought to alert a slumbering public to a risk that is in many ways greater than during the cold warNuclear weapons – their lethal menace, dark history and future spread – are back in the headlines again and, as usual, the news is worrying, bordering on desperate. Russia’s decision last week to formally abandon the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty banning medium- and short-range nuclear missiles completes the demolition of a key pillar of global arms control. It will accelerate an already frantic nuclear arms race in Europe and Asia at a moment when US and Russian leaders are taunting each other like schoolboys.Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has repeatedly threatened the west with nuclear weapons during his war in Ukraine. Last November, Russian forces fired their new Oreshnik hypersonic, nuclear-capable intermediate-range missile at Dnipro. It travels “like a meteorite” at 10 times the speed of sound and can reach...

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3 w. ago Netanyahu believes he must escalate the war to avoid his own cold reckoning – so Israel will try to occupy Gaza next

The Israeli PM knows a full military occupation of Gaza will further isolate his country internationally and deepen domestic criticism. But with an arrest warrant hanging over his head and a government in chaos, he has chosen to continue the bloodshed, writes world affaris editor Sam Kiley

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