Britons on hantavirus-hit ship to be asked to isolate back in UK for 45 days
British passengers onboard a cruise ship hit with a deadly outbreak of hantavirus will be asked to self-isolate in the UK for 45 days, a health official suggested, as two passengers who left the vessel continue to isolate at home in Britain. Neither of the two Britons who left MV Hondius at St Helena in late April are reporting symptoms, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKSA). A British crew member was medically evacuated from the ship after falling ill and flown to the Netherlands for specialist care. The Foreign Office is arranging a charter flight for remaining Britons onboard the ship who are not displaying symptoms, so they can be repatriated once docking Tenerife in the coming days. Three people on the MV Hondius have died since 11 April. As of Thursday, there have been eight suspected cases, three of which were confirmed as hantavirus – a rare family of viruses carried by rodents – by lab testing, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “It’s important to reassure people that the risk to the general public remains very low,” said Dr Meera Chand, the deputy director for epidemic and emerging infections at the UKHSA. “We are standing up arrangements to support, isolate and monitor British nationals from the ship on their return to the UK and we are contact-tracing anyone who may have been in contact with the ship or the hantavirus cases to limit the risk of onward transmission.” It is understood 19 British nationals were listed among the 150 passengers on the cruise, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, with four British crew members. The outbreak has been linked to a birdwatching expedition in Argentina joined by two passengers before they boarded the ship. Officials in Argentina, from where the cruise departed, are scrambling to determine if the country was the source of the deadly outbreak. The Latin American country, which has reported 101 hantavirus infections since June 2025, is consistently ranked by the WHO as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease. The UKHSA has said once the ship docks in Tenerife, the remaining British nationals can be repatriated if they do not develop symptoms. It said that though none of the British nationals onboard were reporting symptoms, they were being closely monitored. Spain’s health minister, Mónica García, said on Wednesday that none of the passengers left onboard the ship were presenting symptoms of the disease and would be repatriated to their countries. The 14 Spaniards onboard would be flown to a hospital in Madrid to quarantine, she said. On Monday, South African officials said a British man was in critical condition with the virus and receiving private care in Johannesburg. About 40 passengers are believed to have disembarked the ship on the south Atlantic island of St Helena after the first passenger died, according to Dutch officials. Among the three individuals medically evacuated from the ship on Wednesday was British crew member Martin Anstee. The expedition guide and former police officer was flown to the Netherlands and spoke from hospital saying: “I’m doing OK. I’m not feeling too bad. There are still lots of tests to be done.” It was a “good sign” Anstee was able to communicate with family, said Prof Robin May, the chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, adding that he would be under investigations for some time. May also told BBC Breakfast on Thursday that the two British nationals who left the cruise earlier on its course had returned to the UK before the outbreak was detected. “There’s a chance they may have been exposed to the virus, so we have been in contact with them. They have agreed very kindly to self-isolate for the next period of time,” said May, who said the same process would apply to other British nationals onboard who he suggested would be asked to self-isolate, most likely at home, for 45 days. May said hantaviruses as a group were widespread across the world. The viruses naturally infect rodents and are “occasionally” transmitted to humans, according to the WHO, through contact with infected rodents or their urine, droppings or saliva. A focus is an Andean strain, which has shown evidence of limited human to human transmission in the past among close contact, according to the WHO. Found in South American, it can cause a severe and often fatal lune disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Found in Europe and Asia, the viruses can cause haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. May said the Andes virus strain had been studied intently because it was “such a severe disease” and there were global efforts to develop vaccines against it. “This is not a virus that spreads easily between humans,” he added, but given it could spread between individuals, “we are contact tracing everyone who might have been in close contact.” He said: “We will continue to support them and their families whilst they self-isolate, probably at home, but obviously depends very much on the individual circumstances, depending on where they live and who they live with, as to what the most appropriate mechanism is for them to self-isolate for the next 45 days.”
Middle East crisis live: Iran reviewing peace proposal as Trump says a deal ‘very possible’
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has killed the commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan force, the most elite unit of the pro-Iran armed group, in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. In a statement, the IDF named the Radwan commander as Ahmed Ghalib Balut, saying he was killed in a strike in the Dahiyeh neighbourhood in southern Beirut. Hezbollah has not immediately commented on the report. Israel struck Beirut yesterday for the first time since a ceasefire took effect on 16 April. At least 11 other people were killed in strikes across the south and east, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
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.
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.
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.”