It began with a bold and risky military move: Ukrainian drones striking deep inside Russia, targeting the data centers of Yandex, the country’s largest tech company. The attacks were retaliation for a Russian campaign against Ukrainian digital infrastructure, which Moscow itself had cynically described as “a forced digital detox.” For days, ordinary Russians lost access to email, cloud storage, maps, and streaming; internet connectivity on Yandex networks plunged to a fraction of normal levels. But shortly after the smoke cleared, something else happened: a very different story exploded online. The claim was irresistible—that Ukraine had not only disrupted Russian internet…

Imagine a cold, clear Wednesday evening in late October, and instead of the usual floodlit monoliths of the Champions League, the camera pans across one of the most beautiful settings in European football. Lake Como is glowing under early evening lights, and the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia is packed shoulder to shoulder, with the water practically lapping at the walls. This is Como against Manchester United, a fixture that sounds more like a holiday brochure than a European tie, but it is very much a competitive one. The game kicks off at 5:45pm UK time on Wednesday 21 October 2026, which…