Exclusive: Declassified captures first footage of an American spy plane taking off from a Royal Air Force base bound for Gaza.
We are standing on a sand dune in the pitch dark listening to the Mediterranean crash onto Lady’s Mile beach. The last Cypriot fisherman went home about an hour ago and the seaside bars have closed, leaving us alone save for the occasional white cats scurrying along the shoreline.
Like our earlier reports on the combat situation in Ukraine, this article takes stock of the recent developments on the battlefield based on open-source information. Meduza has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the very start, and our detailed military analyses are part of our commitment to objective reporting on a war we firmly oppose.
Our map is based exclusively on open-source photos and videos, most of them posted by eyewitnesses on social media. We collect available evidence and determine its geolocation markers, adding only the photos and videos that clear this process. Meduza doesn’t try to track the conflict in real time; the data reflected on the map are typically at least 48 hours old.
Abstract: Hamas has evolved from a Muslim Brotherhood-rooted social-religious movement into a hybrid actor that governs, polices society, and wages organized violence. The October 7, 2023, terrorist attack marked a watershed for Israel and the world. Against that backdrop, this article maps how Hamas thinks, operates, fights, and governs—from its origins to the present—showing how a religious structure and social-welfare dawa network hardened into an organized war machine. Based on first-hand interviews with senior figures, including its founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, it details the ideology, organizational architecture, and decision-making that drive both the dawa apparatus and the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The analysis tracks pivotal inflection points—from the First Intifada and Marj al-Zuhr deportations through Gaza’s 2007 takeover, successive wars, and Iranian/Hezbollah backing—to October 7. It concludes by assessing Hamas’ degraded yet durable capabilities, internal factional dynamics, and implications for Gaza’s ‘day after.’
Abstract
The evolving threat of terrorism and political violence in the United States cannot be understood without observing technological change, institutional memory, and societal resilience. Recent discussions underscore five urgent considerations: (1) sustaining lessons from two decades of counterterrorism, (2) preparing for AI and drone-enabled battlefields, (3) confronting the misuse of commercial technologies, (4) maximizing open-source intelligence collaboration, and (5) analyzing the connection between counternarcotics and counterterrorism. Across all five lies a central truth: adversaries exploit division, while unity across government, private sector, and civil society is America’s most credible form of deterrence.
In its 2024 Openness Index, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) declared Imo State the worst place to be a journalist in Nigeria. The index, a subnational assessment of press freedom and civic space in Nigeria, was published in July. It ranked states based on political openness, media independence, and the safety of civic actors.
With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, US President Donald Trump unveiled a sweeping 20-point peace plan for the Gaza Strip on Monday – billed as a bold attempt to end the conflict and reshape the enclave’s political future.
The plan sets out a phased ceasefire, the creation of a governing body for Gaza, and a US-chaired “peace board” to oversee the transition, with the Trump administration in sole charge.
In a shaky handheld video uploaded on 2 September to an obscure Facebook page, a man crouching low behind an earth berm films a busy highway.
He mumbles the date and then says, “we are the Men of Light,” before an explosion immediately rips through a passing General Security vehicle in front of him.
By Salim Badat
We are easily deceived. The world shows us politicians, presidents, and prime ministers, their speeches, debates, and promises dominate the headlines.
Yet these men and women are not the real masters of power. Behind them stands another force, older, quieter, but infinitely stronger: the bankers, corporations, and financial dynasties who pull the strings.
This is the economic jihad we overlook, and it is the one that truly matters. Wars are not fought for freedom or democracy; they are fought for oil, gold, gas, and control of infrastructure.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan for the Gaza Strip, unveiled on Monday during meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes at a crossroads. On the eve of the war’s two-year anniversary, the humanitarian dimensions of the crisis increasingly are intersecting with political pressures and security priorities. This makes any approach to reconstruction and stability in Gaza a difficult test: Can this peace plan reconcile its ambitions with the reality on the ground?