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25 Aug, 4 tweets, 1 min read
NEW Stranded Afghans should consider fleeing over land borders, not waiting for RAF airlifts out of Kabul airport, warns Ben Wallace.

Defence Sec told MPs tonight that Afghan translators should now “explore another route” out, ahead of UK troop drawdown.

telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
Wallace said: “I wouldn't go forward [to Kabul airport] if you haven't been called...

“It is higher profile going to the airport. That is where the Taliban will be focussing their efforts at the moment.”

Revealed average wait at Abbey Gate is currently 16 hours (US is 24 hours)
Wallace said moves are afoot to “beef up” UK embassies & consular operations in countries neighbouring Afghanistan, to process Afghan refugees faster.

Home Sec Priti Patel is preparing to change the regulations to speed up the process too, he added.
The number of Afghans seeking evacuation from UK has far, far exceeded British Govt's expectations, it's understood.

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Lucy Fisher Profile picture
26 Aug
NEW: Afghan evacuees have arrived at Heathrow in past 48 hours with forged papers & with no documentation, a border officer on ground told @Telegraph.

Home Sec Priti Patel insisted security checks were 'vigorous' & 'digital identities' of all Afghans without docs were assured.
Ian Denison, Border Force assistant director, said some Afghans 'tell us they’ve lost the documents they had...

'We're not going to have an argument with the ppl that have been through the process they’ve been through... You see people with their life belongings in plastic bags'
He set out the security checks all arriving Afghans evacuees are obliged to go through, in a process that takes up to 4.5 hours.

This involves screening & checks by Border Force, Counter-Terror Command, and military intelligence.
Read 4 tweets
Lucy Fisher Profile picture
20 Apr
NEW Liz Truss prepares for showdown with Aussie trade minister in London this week.

Her allies says trade deal progress is “glacially slow” under Dan Tehan.

“He is inexperienced compared to Liz. He needs to show that he can play at this level,” they add

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/…
Allies of Truss say she plans to sit Aussie trade minister Tehan “in the Locarno Room [in Foreign Office] in an uncomfortable chair, so he has to deal with her directly for 9 hours”.

They add “Australia need to show us the colour of their money” and match “words with action”.
Australia is accused of being “slow to move on key UK asks”, including on services, investment & biz visas – particularly in law & management consultancy.

Australia must make “some serious movement on their side” to unblock negotiations, say Truss allies.
Read 4 tweets
Lucy Fisher Profile picture
12 Mar
💥EXCL: Govt is set to increase the number of nuclear warheads that Britain can stockpile, Telegraph understands.

Announcement expected in Integrated Review on Tues, in change of direction on non-proliferation. UK has around 180 warheads stockpiled.

More on @Telegraph at 21.30
The last strategic defence review in 2015 set out a cap of 180 nuclear weapons by mid-2020s.

BUT... it left wriggle room: "We will continue to keep our nuclear posture under constant review in the light of the intl security environment & the actions of potential adversaries."
The UK cap of 180 nuclear weapons represented a 65% reduction since the height of the Cold War.

For scale, US has around 3,800 warheads in active status and more in reserve, according to estimates.

Fears have been rising in recent years about China growing its nuclear stockpile
Read 5 tweets
Lucy Fisher Profile picture
10 Mar
EXCL: Northern Research Group has moved to cement its power base in the Tory party by securing pledges for £1 million

Red Wall Tories have struck out on their own, declaring CCHQ needs a "kicking" for failing to provide enough cash ahead of local polls

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/…
In a warning to No 10 & CCHQ, chairman Jake Berry said: “The NRG is now a political hydra - cut one head off, and two grow back.

“I believe we’re the best-funded backbench organisation in Parliament, & absolutely focussed on driving forward ‘levelling up’ and the North’s agenda”
NRG is awarding small pots of funding to its 50-odd MPs, who must state how they'll spend it when they apply.

Berry & John Stevenson help "matchmake" donors with MPs

In first round in January, pots of £2k were given to 20 MPs.

In current round, £3k will be given to 30 MPs.
Read 5 tweets
Lucy Fisher Profile picture
7 Feb
EXCL: Attempts by far-left activists to “hijack” movements including Black Lives Matter & Extinction Rebellion are being investigated in a review ordered by Govt

Lord Walney is leading the new probe on violence & disruption on the hard left and far right

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/…
Lord Walney warns in an interview with @Telegraph that the UK must heed the growth of the far right in US, following storming of Capitol.

But he also cautions against a "blind spot" in Britain over "progressive extremism" in the name of fighting climate change & racial injustice
He is also examining entryism: "the way anti-democracy, anti-capitalist far left fringe groups in Britain, like the Socialist Workers Party, tend to have much more success hijacking important causes & mainstream cultural activity than the far right, & the harm that may do"
Read 4 tweets
Lucy Fisher Profile picture
29 Sep 20
NEW - The Army aims to become a force of “boots and bots” with soldiers fielding teams of robots on the battlefield, the service chief has said today.

Gen Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, said human-machine teaming should be “commonplace” in the force by 2025

1/n
CGS said that in conflict Armoured Fighting Vehicles should become "motherships – commanding teams of robots & thereby generating a new form of combat mass.

"They will be supported by longer range and more powerful artillery... firing on targets identified by swarms of drones"
First robotic vehicles will be in the hands of 2 Para this month.

Training is also to be overhauled. "We will create – & train against – a multi-domain ‘enemy’ force, to fight in all domains against our troops, and in doing so ensure that our training acts as a war laboratory"
Read 5 tweets

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