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New Indian Express
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
A ripping yarn with a few loose threads
'I was saving India,' I reply. Kim saving India is a ripping tale of espionage, double crosses and Pink Panther-ish escapades, told in Alter's clear prose with detailed historical Raj trinkets. It is the lot of writers who attempt to storm the citadel of a master's legacy to buckle under the weight of the classic; those who write fake Sherlock Holmes stories fall in that category. Perhaps it is unkind to an author of Alter's calibre to call his novel a derivative follow up; he does tell a terrific yarn a lesser man may not have been able to execute in a pukka fashion. Hitler has lost the war, but his followers remain hopeful of resurrecting the defeated dream of the Aryan race, not just in Germany but among the English upper crust too. Wounded by a sharpshooter's bullet, Kim who 'may have some black Irish in me, the blood of a shipwrecked Spanish sailor in my veins perhaps' —is sent by British Intelligence to find out if the Partition is being sabotaged. From the whorehouses of Lahore, his mission takes Kim through a burning, sundered landscape where mobs roam burning trains and lynching people to the whispering lanes of Old Delhi and the quiet grandeur of Civil Lines, where conspiracies unfold with the slow rhythm of an empire crumpling, arousing his 'feral instincts'. The plot is full of references to the original story: Freemasons, the monk who wants to finding the River of the Arrow, the teeming streets of Lahore, and Zam-Zammah—the descriptions are nostalgically beautiful: 'whenever I get bored of sitting atop the great fire breathing cannon Zam-Zammah, and lording it over my friends, I would dismount from the tarnished bronze barrel etched with inscriptions in Farsi, and cross the street to Ajaib Ghar, 'the house of wonders' as we called the Lahore Museum.' Kim can be both maudlin and realistic—'a guttersnipe who bartered his soul for a lost cause...a drunkard who dreams only of the past but has a future.'
The Sun
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
New York's No.1 attraction on TripAdvisor has opened in the UK – and I was one of the first to visit
'YOU'D make a great surveillance officer. Have you ever considered joining the FBI?' It's not every day you hear those words. But then again, this isn't your average day out. I was deep inside SPYSCAPE, a new immersive experience in London's Covent Garden. First opening in New York, it is one of the top ranked attractions in the city and if you've ever fancied yourself the next Bond or Black Widow, this place is your training ground. Designed with help from ex-British Intelligence and leading psychologists, SPYSCAPE (and its adrenaline-pumping sibling, SPYGAMES) makes for an all-round exhilarating physical and mental challenge. It's part team games, part personality test, part sweaty workout. Whilst SPYGAMES tests your reflexes in physical team challenges, SPYSCAPE analyses your mind, assigning you the spy role that best suits you. By the end of the afternoon, I'd walk away with my own personalised spy profile - revealing exactly what kind of secret agent I'd make. I kicked off my mission with SPYGAMES, where teams of 2-5 people battle it out across a range of heart-racing physical and mind-bending challenges. After strapping on my interactive wristband and creating my spy avatar (a cute cartoon version of me), my partner and I joined forces to create our gaming squad. As we headed down the corridor illuminated by neon lights, what followed was a series of physical challenges that burned enough energy to have me ditching the evening gym sesh. Our first task? Cipher Sequenc e - a frantic code-cracking game that tests your speed and foresight. Indoor UK attraction is the 'world's first amazement park' with adult-ony nights 10 Glowing squares illuminated beneath our feet - the task was to eliminate all squares by strategically jumping on them in the right order. My speed and response time were my best skills, but it turns out I'm more stealth than strategist. My foresight cracked under time pressure, and let's just say my score didn't make the leaderboards… But I soon bounced back with Peak Protocol. This was a full-body stealth and agility test that had me scaling walls like Tom Cruise clinging to the Burj Khalifa (give or take a few thousand feet). 10 Chasing my teammate around the climbing wall like a Mission Impossible montage, my climbing skills came in handy for this task. I racked up a whopping 14,552 points and landed in the top 12 per cent of players. Not bad for a desk jockey. Having discovered physical tasks were my secret strength, I may or may not have convinced my teammate to take me on in a 1v1 speed race. Stealth Matrix was the most cinematic game yet - a full on laser-dodging mission that made me forget who I really was and go full spy-mode. Stood at one end of a pitch-black room, suddenly neon green lasers crisscrossed the space like something out of Entrapment. I charged in with confidence, but my long legs betrayed me. One wrong step and I triggered a sneaky laser pointed at my ankle, blowing my cover in seconds. But after slaying the physical tasks with stealth, it was time to get my brain analysed. We moved from SPYGAMES into SPYSCAPE - an interactive Spy museum that analyses your spy-chology as you wind your way through its rooms. 10 You begin by answering a series of questions and puzzles that quiz you on everything from social skills, to how risky you are. The questions were designed with the help of British Intelligence's former Head of Training, as well as top psychologists - so your secret agent skills are assessed with some serious precision. I then jumped into a secret booth that tested my lie-detecting skills. Closely watching video interviews, I had to decide if the individual was telling the truth or a lie. After scoring top marks, a voice boomed over me 'Ever thought about joining the FBI?'. Yes, mysterious speaker voice, quite frankly I have wondered. After walking through displays of real-life spy stories and tales of code-cracking breakthroughs, I faced my next task. Receiving instructions over a telephone, I conducted surveillance over a series of cameras. Sharp observation is key to becoming a successful spy, after all. Finally, I entered the last room to receive my complete spy profile. My every move had been tracked, my skills observed, my answers analysed. And now, the results were in… I was an AGENT HANDLER - somebody who runs, manages and oversees agents. So basically the spy of all spies - pretty cool, if I do say so myself. My top skills were balance, foresight and precision - I guess it's time I start climbing those buildings... Tickets for the SPYSCAPE experience are £23 per adult and £20 for kids. SPYGAMES costs the same for 50 minutes of gameplay instead. Or you can combine both experiences, like I did, for £35 per person.
Telegraph
21-06-2025
- Telegraph
Mohamed Fayed paid spies to discover ‘truth' about Diana's death
Mohamed Fayed paid Egyptian secret service agents millions in exchange for information about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, it can be revealed. The former Harrods owner spent a decade before his death channelling cash to his native country's agents in London, via a secret network of companies. The billionaire businessman – who has been accused by numerous women of rape and sexual assault while boss of Harrods – was desperate to obtain secret intelligence about the death of his eldest son Dodi and the Princess in Paris in August 1997. Sources say he hoped to receive confirmation from Egyptian secret service operatives of his belief that the British intelligence services had a hand in the fatal crash in the Alma tunnel. Fayed had grown convinced that the British establishment feared the idea of Dodi, an Egyptian, as a possible stepfather to the future King. At one stage, he told an Egyptian secret service agent that he knew the British intelligence services had killed the pair because they feared the possibility of the couple having a child who would be 'a Muslim brother to the future King'. His claims were discredited, along with other conspiracy theories about the Princess's death, following the three-year Operation Paget investigation by Sir John Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner. Sir John concluded in December 2006 that the pair had died as a result of an accident. Two years later, a jury inquest delivered a verdict of 'unlawful killing' due to the 'gross negligence' of Henri Paul, the driver, who was three times over the limit, as well as the speed of paparazzi photographers chasing them. Fayed, who died aged 94 in August 2023, is suspected of raping and sexually assaulting more than 100 women, dating back to the 1970s. More than 100 alleged victims have contacted police to say they were sexually abused by the tycoon. The youngest is thought to have been 13 at the time. A number of allegations were made against Fayed while he was still alive. Investigators twice sent files for a charging decision to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) – in 2008, relating to three victims and in 2015 linked to one other. On another three occasions – in 2018, 2021 and 2023 – the CPS was asked for what is called early investigative advice, but the matters were not pursued further by police. The Telegraph has been told that over the decade before his death, Fayed channelled 'some millions of pounds' through a network of holding companies and commercial businesses to fund agents and informants run by the Egyptian general intelligence service, known as the Mukhabarat, in London. One source with knowledge of the payments said: 'Over a ten-year period, sums amounting to some millions of pounds were paid in cash or Bitcoin from Fayed through various companies to the Egyptian intelligence services for their operations in the UK and some in Ireland. The money was eventually paid to agents and officers. 'In return, he would get sensitive information about business rivals in Qatar and Brunei.' The source added: 'Fayed also wanted information about the death of Dodi and Diana. The Egyptian secret services told him the British establishment had not liked her relationship with Dodi, but they said to him that they had no information to offer him about the way Dodi and Diana had died. 'In fact, agents warned Fayed about his behaviour in continuing to make loud claims about MI5 and MI6 having a role in their deaths.' Sources have told The Telegraph: 'Al-Fayed's manner after the killing of his son Dodi was completely unbalanced, and he was always shouting when speaking to the Egyptian intelligence officers, which made them not pay much attention to his requests.' Fayed's youngest son, Omar, has told The Telegraph that for several years he had been aware of shadowy individuals in his father's circle who he suspected were linked to the Egyptian intelligence services. Responding to the claims that his father paid Egyptian secret agents hoping for information about the Princess, Omar said: 'My father was a very generous man and he was an information addict. ' Following the tycoon's death, Fayed's widow, the Finnish socialite Heini Wathen-Fayed, and their children fell out over the dispersal of his estate, which is estimated at £1.3 billion. The Egyptian intelligence services are understood to have become concerned that an important funding stream for their intelligence work in the UK would be cut off as a result. It is understood that business intermediaries tried unsuccessfully to seek a meeting with Mrs Wathen-Fayed, to persuade her to 'continue her late husband's work' and carry on providing funding from his assets. Another Cairo-based source, who works for one of Fayed's institutions, said: 'One of the guards who works [here] and was recruited from the Egyptian general intelligence service informed me that some of the most prominent leaders of the service are very interested in determining the amount of money and wealth left by Al-Fayed and are seeking to continue its work as it was in the past.' Fayed rose from an impoverished childhood in Alexandria to build a multi-billion-dollar business empire. At the time of his death, he still owned the Paris Ritz, which he bought in 1979, though he sold Harrods in 2010 to the investment arm of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund for a reported £1.5 billion. Mrs Wathen-Fayed, his second wife, whom he married in 1985, was tasked with splitting an inherited property empire, which includes apartment buildings overlooking Hyde Park, a Scottish castle and apartments in New York, between his four children. Omar Fayed, now 36, said that his father's desire to discover what he was convinced was 'the truth' behind the death of Dodi and the Princess would have motivated any relationship he had with the Egyptian secret intelligence services. The environmentalist and publisher said: 'He always wanted a competitive advantage over his business rivals and he always wanted to know what had happened to Dodi and Diana, even if he had, towards the end, reconciled himself to what he said was 'letting God sort it out'. 'His papers and documents on the subject of Dodi and Diana were so huge they crossed continents, and any information the Egyptian SIS could have provided would have been very welcome to him.' Mr Fayed said that it was highly unlikely his mother would be prepared to agree to any request from Egyptian secret services to carry on her late husband's arrangement. He added: 'I certainly wouldn't be surprised if they [Egyptian SIS] would want to approach us to carry on getting funding. 'I have been approached by one Egyptian national who ran a private security firm about money owed to him by my father to 'look after' his [Fayed's] family. He wants the money to continue.'
South China Morning Post
16-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
North Korean casualties surpass 6,000 in Ukraine war, UK intelligence says
More than 6,000 North Korean soldiers are believed to have been injured or killed while fighting in Russia 's Kursk region in support of Moscow's war on Ukraine , according to estimates by British intelligence. The number amounts to more than half of the 11,000 North Korean troops thought to have been initially deployed to the Kursk region, the UK defence ministry said in a post on social media on Sunday. The estimates underline North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 's role as Russian President Vladimir Putin 's key ally in a war now in its fourth year. 'Significant DPRK casualty rates have almost certainly been sustained primarily through large, highly attritional dismounted assaults,' the UK defence ministry's statement said. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. No evidence was provided to substantiate the assessment. 02:39 North Korea hails soldiers in Russia as 'heroes' in first official statement North Korea hails soldiers in Russia as 'heroes' in first official statement
Bloomberg
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
UK Intelligence Estimates 6,000 North Korean Casualties in Kursk
More than 6,000 North Korean soldiers are believed to have been injured or killed while fighting in Russia's Kursk region in support of Moscow's war on Ukraine, according to estimates by British intelligence, underscoring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's role as a key ally of President Vladimir Putin in a war now in its fourth year. The number amounts to more than half of the 11,000 North Korean troops initially deployed to the Kursk region, the UK Defence Ministry said in a post on the X social media platform. 'Significant DPRK casualty rates have almost certainly been sustained primarily through large, highly attritional dismounted assaults,' the statement said. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
