Reflectii

Abstract: Small and commercially available drones in the hands of violent extremists pose a rapidly growing terrorist threat. This article examines that threat in the light of the invasion of Ukraine. Consumer drones such as DJI Mavics, FPV racing drones, and Shahed-style one-way attack drones have become potent weapons. Their affordability, accessibility, and adaptability enable precision strikes, bypass traditional defenses, and democratize air power for state and non-state actors alike. This article details how these drones have been used in Ukraine—from grenade-dropping quadcopters to long-range strategic attacks—and highlights their potential adoption by violent extremist organizations (VEOs). The second part of the article assesses the implications for global counterterrorism, emphasizing the psychological impact, scalability, and low operational risk of drone attacks. It concludes by outlining countermeasures, including electronic jamming, physical barriers, kinetic interception, and the growing role of drone-on-drone defense, urging a comprehensive and adaptive response to this multifaceted and accelerating threat.

Former President and Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev has shrugged off President Donald Trump’s latest moves on Ukraine.

How the 2020 assassination of Mohsen Fakrizadeh bought Israel time to improve capabilities for June attack on Iran.

The founder and chief of Iran’s nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated on November 27, 2020, with Iran pointing the finger at the Mossad. Israel, even after the June conflict with Iran, has not taken responsibility for the episode.

European leaders urged private business and equity on Thursday to invest in rebuilding Ukraine now, even as Russia accelerates its war, as they opened an annual recovery conference with announcements of a new equity fund and public-private partnerships amid uncertainties of the U.S. commitment to Kyiv’s defense.

On July 7, in the midst of President Donald Trump’s discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, and their genuine efforts to bring peace to the Middle East; the brutal military attacks of Russia against Ukraine and its people were equally at the center of discussions.

War kills in so many ways. These days, Americans are bombarded with images from Gaza and elsewhere of people or broken bodies being ferried on stretchers from the rubble of homes and hospitals, by rescue workers whose thin bodies and stricken faces suggest they are barely better off than those they’re helping. Social media and journalists make us eyewitnesses to emaciated children too weak to cry. And yet, compared with air raids that crush and bloody instantaneously, a slower disaster, more difficult to capture (especially given our made-for-TikTok attention spans), consists of the hours that many people in war zones spend wasting away from infectious diseases of one sort or another.

The French government on Monday said it would take new measures to tackle the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in France, including the disbanding of endowment funds and a new asset-freeze mechanism.

An official 74-page report on the Muslim Brotherhood “required more ambitious proposals” from the state, the Elysee said in a statement, after a high-level meeting with a small group of cabinet members.

[This investigation is co-published with French investigative outlet Disclose and our Arabic-language sister publication Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. It is a follow-up to a first investigation into the same subject, which was published in French in online newspaper Mediapart in March 2024].

The U.S. dollar is tumbling as President Donald Trump’s economic agenda—at the executive and legislative level—takes full shape.

Economists told Newsweek this could advance Trump’s goal of promoting American goods in foreign markets and strengthening exports, but warn that a weakened dollar comes with significant downsides, including the jeopardization of its status as the world’s reserve currency.

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s three-year war against Ukraine has battered the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF). Ukrainian successes have largely forced the fleet to abandon its traditional Sevastopol base in Crimea for safer anchorage in the Sea of Azov and Novorossiysk on the Black Sea’s eastern coast (see EDM, November 8, 2022,November 15, 2023, January 17, March 26, August 13, 2024, June 27).