Why ‘spy wars’ are back in the open

The news headlines this week brought a warm glow of nostalgia to anyone brought up during the 20th century’s Cold War.

The US shot down four UFOs which are suspected Chinese surveillance balloons. Not to be outdone, China accused the US of violating its airspace with spy balloons of its own.

In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reassured us that the RAF were quite capable of dealing with hostile UFOs threatening our security, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, a London court sentencing hearing has heard how David Smith, a security guard at Britain’s Embassy in Berlin who was spying for Putin’s Russia, was trapped in an MI5 sting involving a fictitious Russian agent called ‘Irina’.

And in France historians announced that they had cracked the cyphers for scores of coded letters written in the 16th century by Mary, Queen of Scots during her long imprisonment by Elizabeth I which eventually ended in Mary’s execution.