Author: M Barbu

The Boomerang Soldiers: How Romania’s commandos became mercenaries—then came back to coup Bucharest

In January 2025, approximately 300 mercenaries commanded by Romanian-French fighter Horațiu Potra were captured in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formally taken into UN custody, and “repatriated.”

Nine months later, European police raided 70 homes across Moldova and Ukraine, hunting 654 Wagner Group suspects. Among the evidence: proof that fighters had deployed to both Ukraine and Congo as part of the Russian mercenary network.

Q&A | The Islamic State’s pivot to Africa

The Islamic State is increasingly pivoting its operations toward Africa, where it maintains the capacity to coordinate violence across a broad area, generate financial resources, and expand its recruitment base. Over two-thirds of the Islamic State’s global activity in the first half of 2025 was recorded in Africa (see graph below). This pivot to Africa comes as the group’s propaganda also focuses more and more on its operations in Africa, with its affiliates gaining influence and prestige in the global IS network. This surge in activity raises urgent questions about the Islamic State’s capacity for violence in Africa, its strategies, and the threat it poses to regional governments and the world.

Why Are Jihadist Manuals Continuing To Reach Europe?

European investigators say extremist propaganda is spreading through translation networks that repackage jihadist materials for new audiences on encrypted or little-known platforms

After a year of knife attacks, rammings, and disrupted plots across Europe, investigators say the online machinery behind radicalization has changed shape. European agencies are confronting a familiar message wrapped in new packaging: propaganda that jumps borders not by virality alone but through translation. The most effective chokepoint is no longer a single post or channel, but the translation pipelines that move jihadist propaganda across languages and platforms.

West Bank witnessed ‘unprecedented escalation’ in Israeli settler violence in October

This year’s West Bank olive harvest was marred by continued attacks by Israeli settlers and the military, amid the continued expansion of illegal outposts.

Israeli military and settler violence in the occupied West Bank reached unprecedented levels last month, with more than 2,000 assaults reported, the Palestinian Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission said Tuesday.

Meet the Muslim Brotherhood

In 1918, V.I. Lenin renamed the Bolshevik Party the Russian Communist Party. Western scholars and policymakers soon began studying communism and the threat it posed to free nations.

In 1920, the German Workers’ Party adopted a new name: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the Nazi Party. Western scholars and policymakers soon began studying Nazism and the threat it posed to free nations.