I’ve been in Ireland for a week investigating Aughinish Alumina — the Russian-owned refinery on the Shannon Estuary that has become one of the most uncomfortable political questions in the country.

It is not a small place. It is not a marginal operation. It is one of the largest alumina refineries in Europe, sitting beside quiet Irish villages, supplying a material that continues to flow into Russia while Europe claims to be tightening the screws on Moscow’s war machine.

And yet, for weeks, the people with the power to answer basic questions about it have been remarkably difficult to pin down.

One of the hardest to reach has been Niall Collins.

Collins is not a backbencher shouting from the sidelines. He is a government minister. He is also one of the politicians who has repeatedly defended the refinery while avoiding the central question: why is Ireland still allowing this supply chain to continue, and why has the government not done more to investigate where this material ultimately ends up?

So, after days of official silence, unanswered questions and careful political footwork, I did what any totally normal journalist would do.

I put on a pair of Wellingtons and went to the Newcastle West Agricultural Show.

There, between tractors, livestock, local families and the gentle theatre of rural Ireland, I finally found the minister.

It was, in many ways, the perfect setting. This investigation is not happening in some abstract geopolitical space. It is happening in Ireland. In small towns. Beside farms. In villages where Russian corporate power has been allowed to become part of the furniture while everyone is told not to look too closely.

When I asked Collins about the Russian-owned refinery and the signs of its influence locally, his response was extraordinary.

He told me he had not heard of them.

A government minister, in a county where this refinery is one of the most politically sensitive industrial sites in the country, appeared to suggest he had somehow not noticed the Russian presence that locals, workers and reporters have all been forced to notice.

It would have been funny if it were not so serious.

Because this is the pattern I have seen again and again since arriving in Ireland. Nobody wants to own the question. Nobody wants to say clearly why the material continues to move. Nobody wants to admit that a Russian-owned refinery in Ireland has become a moral, political and strategic problem for the country.

So the question keeps being dodged.

But it is no longer disappearing.

The video of the confrontation has now been viewed by nearly a million people. Other exchanges I have had with Irish politicians on this issue have also travelled far beyond Ireland, drawing international attention to a story that was, for too long, treated as too complicated, too local, or too inconvenient to confront.

Now people are talking about it. Other outlets are beginning to pick it up. Politicians who once hoped this would remain a niche question about industrial exports are being forced to explain themselves in public.

That matters.

Journalism is often imagined as something that happens in studios, press conferences and carefully arranged interviews. But sometimes it happens in a field, in the mud, at a farming show, because that is the only place a politician who has avoided difficult questions can finally be asked them directly.

I came to Ireland to investigate a refinery.

What I found was a political class still struggling to explain why, in the third year of Russia’s full-scale war, Ireland is comfortable allowing this supply chain to continue.

Watch the exchange for yourself

ust days after Russia’s deeply embarrassing Victory Day parade, where almost no major military hardware was shown, Moscow has now come under one of the biggest long-range attacks since the full-scale invasion began. One of Russia’s most protected oil refineries was hit at a time when the Kremlin is struggling more and more to convince its own people that this war is still a success.

That doesn’t mean the war is ending anytime soon. But it does mean something important: Russia suddenly looks weak, both inside and outside the country.

I just got back from Venice a few days ago, where Russians seemed desperate to project strength to the world through culture, influence, and propaganda. But after spending time around it all, what struck me most was that the messaging no longer feels aimed at the West. It feels aimed inward. The propaganda now seems focused on reassuring Russians themselves that everything is still under control.

This week, I spoke to Bill Browder about what he believes is happening inside Russia right now, why the Kremlin is becoming increasingly obsessed with controlling perception, and what that tells us about the state of Russian society today.

I hope you enjoy the report. If you do, please consider subscribing 🙏Most of my reporting focuses on the front lines in Ukraine and Russia’s wider propaganda war across Europe.

I’ll also be publishing a major documentary this week filmed in Nikopol, right beside Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, looking at how Russia has weaponized the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant during the war.

This is the final part of my Hungary reporting, and I just wanted to say thank you for following along.

Over the past 12 days, I’ve tried to get as close as possible to what’s really happening on the ground. That’s meant speaking to people across Budapest, visiting Orbán’s estate, filming it from above, looking into corruption, covering the festival and the atmosphere around it, being at the rally itself, and staying through the night as the results came in.

I’ve put everything I could into this series, and I’m really proud of how it’s turned out. Across all platforms, it’s now been watched by millions of people, which honestly means a lot, especially for independent reporting like this.

I don’t have any government backing, no big sponsors, no outside influence. It’s just me trying to tell these stories as honestly as I can.

If you’d like to support what I do and help me keep making this kind of reporting, you can join my Patreon.

Thank you for watching and for sticking with it from start to finish.

I’ve spent the past few days on the ground in Budapest and beyond, trying to understand what this moment really feels like. I’ve spoken to voters, media analysts, artists, and organisers. I’ve been inside the atmosphere of Orbán’s rallies, stood outside his estate, and walked through the energy of the counter-protests.

After 16 years in power, Viktor Orbán faces what many are calling the most important election in Europe in decades. And as the day unfolds, there’s a growing sense that something significant could be shifting.

This is a snapshot of a country at a crossroads. Not the headlines, not the spin, but the feeling on the ground.

My full report will be out tomorrow, once the results are in and the dust settles.

If you found this reporting valuable, I’d really appreciate you leaving a comment. I read them all!

Everything in my reports is entirely independent. No governments, no institutions, no sponsors, just you.

This trip cost €5,000 covering travel, fixers, and production. There’s a PayPal link below if you’d like to help cover those costs. 🫡❤️

https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/9ogcA2...

Thank you so much for watching.

This week, Hungary is heading into one of its most explosive elections in decades and it’s neck and neck for Viktor Orbán.

I’ve just arrived in the country, and the first thing people start talking about isn’t the campaign… it’s his estate. Vast, heavily guarded, and something many say is deliberately kept out of sight.

So I went there with a film crew to see it for myself.

Along the way, I spoke to locals, politicians, and MPs. What stood out immediately was how few people were willing to speak critically on camera. Many described a growing climate of pressure, where speaking out can come with real consequences.

Over the next few days, I’ll be reporting from across Hungary — trying to understand what’s really happening here, and what comes next.

This has been one of the worst weeks for Russia’s oil industry since the full-scale invasion.
Even Reuters are now reporting serious disruption after strikes hit key Baltic export ports like Primorsk and Ust-Luga, which are absolutely critical for getting Russian oil out to sea.

And timing is everything here.

Oil prices have been rising because of the war in Iran, which should have been a moment for Russia to cash in and make more money from exports.

Instead, Ukraine has hit the infrastructure that actually allows that oil to leave the country.

So even if the damage isn’t permanent, the impact is immediate. Russia relies heavily on oil and gas for its state revenue, and any slowdown hits them straight away.

It also comes at a moment where global markets are already unstable, which makes it much harder to pin rising prices on Ukraine.

So this isn’t random. This is targeted pressure at exactly the moment it hurts most.

In this video, I sit down with Jake Bro, who always has really sharp insight into both the U.S. and Russia, and we talk through what this actually means, what’s happening behind the scenes, and where this could all go next.

Hope you enjoy it.!

Over the past few years, Ukraine has been under constant attack from Iranian-designed Shahed drones. Now, in a twist that feels almost surreal, Iran is calling Ukraine a “legitimate target” angered by the fact that Ukrainian-made interceptor technology is now helping defend other countries in the Middle East.

In this report, I spent time with some of Ukraine’s fastest-moving and most innovative drone interceptor teams to understand how these systems actually work. What makes them so effective, how they’re evolving in real time, and why Ukraine is now in a position to export this technology abroad. It’s a story about adaptation, survival, and how a country under attack has quietly become a leader in modern defence.

I also take a step back to look at the bigger picture. What this means for global politics, for the growing cooperation between Russia and Iran, and for the shifting stance of figures like Donald Trump, who has repeatedly changed position on Ukraine. There’s a much larger axis forming here and it’s been building for years.

If you found this interesting, I’d really appreciate you subscribing and leaving a comment. It genuinely helps more than you’d think, and there’s a lot more coming soon.

If you’d like to help me fund my trips one off, my links are here 🫡❤️🇺🇦

For days, people in Moscow have reportedly been dealing with major internet disruptions. Apps stop working. Payments fail. Even calling a taxi becomes difficult. In a modern capital built around digital infrastructure, that kind of disruption brings everyday life to a halt.

At the same time, the atmosphere around the Kremlin is becoming increasingly tense.

Senior officials are being arrested. Military commanders are disappearing from public view. In Russia, where power is tightly controlled from the top, signals like this often point to growing pressure inside the system.

Many analysts believe Vladimir Putin is increasingly worried about instability within his own elite. The war in Ukraine has not gone according to plan.

Russian forces are losing ground in key areas. Ukrainian strikes are targeting logistics hubs and supply routes. Modern communications tools such as Starlink and encrypted messaging platforms allow Ukrainian units to coordinate quickly on the battlefield. Meanwhile Ukrainian drones are striking high-value systems like radars and S-300 air defence platforms.

Videos circulating online show Russian soldiers and commanders openly complaining about the situation, furious with leadership and blaming the Kremlin for the failures they are seeing on the front.

But the story is more complicated.

Because while pressure is building inside Russia, the chaos unfolding in the Middle East could also bring the Kremlin an unexpected opportunity. Rising instability around Iran has the potential to drive energy prices higher, something that could bring billions into Russia’s war economy.

To understand what is really happening and what it could mean for the future of the war, I spoke to Bill Browder, one of the world’s leading experts on the Kremlin and the man behind the Magnitsky sanctions campaign.

In this conversation we break down the pressure inside Russia, the growing anger in the military, and how global events from Ukraine to Iran could reshape the Kremlin’s strategy.

If you’d like to join my Patreon or support my channel my links are here 🫡❤️🇺🇦

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Russians have begun their spring offensive, and the casualty numbers are staggering.

Over the past few days, losses have surged to levels we haven’t seen in years. Wave after wave of assaults, dozens of times a day, with huge numbers of troops being sent forward and taken out, most of them by Ukrainian drones and long-range strikes.

At the same time, something strange is happening inside Russia. A kind of shutdown, almost North Korea style, with information tightening and the system closing in on itself.

On the surface, it looks disastrous for the Kremlin.

But zoom out, and the picture gets more complicated. With rising tensions in the Middle East, oil prices climbing, and the prospect of sanctions shifting under Trump, Russia could be about to make serious money.

So who’s actually winning here?

I spoke to my friend and Russia expert Hamish De Bretton-Gordon to break it all down.

This is just a quick snapshot of the last week.

My full frontline documentary from Kherson drops this weekend, and after that I’ll be heading to Hungary to cover the election on the ground.

If you want to follow it all as it unfolds, subscribe and I’ll see you in the next one.🫡❤️

While Ukraine continues to fight a brutal war for survival, Russian athletes have been allowed to compete again in international sport. The decision has outraged many around the world and led to protests and boycotts of the opening ceremony by some countries.

In this short film I speak with Vladyslav Heraskevych, the Ukrainian skeleton racer who was disqualified from the Winter Olympics after refusing to remove a helmet honouring Ukrainian athletes killed during Russia’s full-scale invasion. The helmet featured the faces of more than twenty athletes and coaches who lost their lives in the war. The IOC ruled it violated Olympic rules against political statements during competition. 

For Heraskevych, it wasn’t politics. It was remembrance.

His decision to wear the helmet anyway meant losing the chance to compete for an Olympic medal, but he said honouring those who had died was more important.

At the start of this film I also look at something deeper. History shows that authoritarian regimes have often used sport to sanitise their image and project strength to the world. From the Berlin Olympics in 1936 to modern geopolitical battles around international competitions, sport has never been as apolitical as it claims to be.

So today, as the Paralympics begin, I wanted to ask one simple question:

What does this moment mean for athletes who come from a country at war?

I hope you find this conversation interesting, please let me know what you think!