MI5 is devoting more resource to countering state threats than during the Cold War, the head of the intelligence service has said.

Sir Ken McCallum said threats from foreign adversaries had quadrupled in the last decade, with Russia “aggressor number one” as well as increased Iran-linked aggression against Jewish sites and military bases.

At an annual speech in London, MI5’s chief said Russia was waging hybrid warfare at a time when AI was “supercharging the cyber-security contest between attackers and defenders”.

He also warned of rising threats from “extreme right-wing terrorism” and said MI5 had “caught terrorists seeking to exploit AI,” including by integrating the technology with drones.

He said the biggest threat from the misuse of AI was extremist groups using the technology to harness new and existing bioweapons.

However, he noted that work countering terrorism and state threats was now “pretty much of equal scale” which he described as a “huge shift” in recent years.

Sir Ken said Russia had stopped short of “conventional conflict” against Nato and is instead trying to unsettle European countries while its progress in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine is “minimal and horrifically costly”.

Hybrid warfare or hybrid attacks are loose terms which tend to describe non-military methods, for example cyber-attacks, sabotage or misinformation, designed to exert pressure and destabilise an adversary.

These are quite often employed using proxies, but Russia always denies involvement in such attacks despite growing evidence to the contrary.

Sir Ken said MI5 successes in identifying and expelling Russian spies from the UK had left the Kremlin dependent on paying proxies for attempted attacks.

“With its traditional covert footprint eviscerated by almost 1,000 expulsions since the invasion, the Kremlin’s global toolkit is weak, he said.

“So we see them scrambling to pay criminals to do their bidding.”

He added: “These are not the actions of a great power with the strategic upper hand.”

His comments come as a growing number of leaders across Europe have warned Russia may be preparing attacks to test their commitment to supporting Ukraine.

Asked after the speech about Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s recent comments that Russia interfered with the Brexit referendum, Sir Ken said it was “not new news” that there had been attempts from Moscow but distinguished between “interference attempted” and “outcome achieved”.

He said it was a matter of public record that there were pieces in Russian media and “so-called internet trolls and bot farms” seeking to influence the Brexit debate, but also stressed that the result of the 2016 referendum was “not in dispute”.

He added that he was “worried” about the the ongoing debate on Russian interference.

“I am a little bit anxious that we don’t play into our adversaries’ hands by making these trolls look 10ft tall,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Sir Ken warned that Iran is also expanding a hybrid campaign in the UK.

The intelligence chief said there had been 50 arrests in the last year over Iran-linked activities.

Much of this Iranian aggression has been aimed at Jewish communities, Sir Ken added, and also at “harder targets, like military sites”.

Sir Ken did not mention arrests at RAF Fairford directly during his speech, but told reporters afterwards the incident was “not unique”.

He added: “We have seen Iranian interest beyond RAF Fairford in the UK.”

The incident at the airbase in Gloucestershire, where three suspicious vans were seen parked nearby, has seen seven people arrested and bailed by counter-terrorism police.

Burnham has said the incident was “almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard”.

The MI5 head said in his speech: “What I can say is that those who seek to cause mayhem on British streets – whether hired thugs here or their paymasters overseas – will meet an unflinching response.”

Sir Ken added that the National Security Act – a 2023 law designed to target people working against UK interests for foreign powers – is in heavy use, and has been employed to tackle threats from China as well as Iran and Russia.

On the emerging threat posed by AI, Sir Ken said: “It can produce propaganda and radicalising material tailored to the individual.

“We’ve caught terrorists seeking to exploit Al to improve their reconnaissance and attack methodologies, with Al-enabled drones adding a new twist.”

Sir Ken said the bioweapons threat posed by AI was “not yet realised” but warned the technology has the “potential to change the stakes”.

“These risks are real. The UK Intelligence Community – MI5, GCHQ, MI6 – is working closely with the UK’s globally respected AI Security Institute to take them on.”

Sir Ken said AI poses unknown threats, telling Thames House: “Put at its simplest, human history has given us no experience of facing an actor which is smarter than we are”.

He announced MI5 had launched an AI Threat Assessment Centre, which he said would assess sources and “separate the bluster from the realities”.

In April, the UK’s terrorism threat level was raised to severe for the first time in five years, meaning an attack is highly likely.

Sir Ken said Islamist groups like Al Qaeda and so-called Islamic State both continue to direct and inspire attacks, while the increased risk was also driven “in significant part” by extreme right-wing terrorism.

He continued: “Over the last year the most marked trend has been an increase in cases where extremist versions of anti-immigration and anti-Muslim grievance are tipping into terrorist intent.”

Sir Ken said extreme right-wing terrorism tended to “skew young”, driven by the internet – adding that MI5 had in recent months investigated a “radicalised extreme right-wing 13-year-old here in the UK”.

He said: “That investigation generated insight that enabled one of our international partners to prevent a lethal attack on their soil.”

[BBC]

Pope Leo XIV has been diagnosed with lung cancer but had successful surgery to remove a lower lobe of his right lung, the Vatican has said in a medical bulletin.

The 71-year-old underwent a 90 minute surgery on Tuesday at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital and was subsequently diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma.

“After the operation, the Pope awoke normally and returned after a brief period of observation to his room on the 10th floor,” the Vatican said in a statement.

The lump was first detected during what the Vatican has described as “routine checks”.

Earlier, large crowds gathered outside the hospital to greet the Pope, with some waiting for several hours.

They cheered greetings and well wishes as he passed, while he waved and smiled back through the lowered back window of his car.

He was then met by staff on the hospital steps. “I’m sorry,” one of them commiserated, to which the Pope gave a smile and a shrug. “We’re here for you,” he was assured.

In its statement, the Vatican said the whole lower lobe of the Pope’s right lung was removed “to ensure the procedure was radical”.

A Vatican source told Agence France-Presse news agency further tests were being carried out to see if there was any sign the cancer had spread.

It was Leo XIV himself who on Sunday announced news of his operation to the world, speaking from the balcony in St Peter’s Square after delivering the traditional Angelus blessing.

He said the nodule, or growth, on his lung was “contained” and had been found “at a very early stage”, but that doctors had advised him to have it removed.

Gemelli’s thoracic surgery team operated on the Pope, whose schedule has already been cleared until 20 October to give him time to recover.

Nodules are quite common and not necessarily cancerous, but after it was examined the medical team confirmed it was pulmonary adenocarcinoma, “as suspected by pre-operative tests”, the Vatican said.

The Vatican has stressed that the pontiff, who is generally thought to be fit, had no symptoms of infection or illness.

Cardinal Kikuchi Tarcisio Isao of Tokyo wrote on social media that he’d had an audience with Pope Leo on Monday, and said the pontiff felt “nothing wrong” physically.

He said the Pope had decided to check in for surgery as soon as possible because he was due to travel to Latin America in early November, and was keen to stick to that plan.

The trip is particularly significant because it includes a visit to Peru, where the pontiff was a missionary and then a Bishop for many years.

Despite all the reassurances, the news has shaken Catholics all over the world.

“Am I worried? Yes, because I certainly wasn’t expecting anything like this,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin told journalists on Tuesday.

He agreed that the news was like a “bolt from the blue”, but said the cardinals had been struck by the Pope’s “serenity” and were confident in his recovery.

Outside Gemelli Hospital, which has treated several popes and is home to a large statue of John Paul II, a few Catholics lingered after the pontiff was admitted.

Carla had come specially, wanting to be close.

“He seems calm, so we are calm too – even though illness is always unpleasant,” she told the BBC. “We will wait here and pray.”

[BBC]