Bottom Line Up Front
Iran’s strategic architecture, centered on arming a regional network of non-state actors termed the Axis of Resistance, has eroded significantly over the past year and failed to deter Israel and U.S. military action against Iranian territory.
Iran’s non-state allies constitute a force multiplier for Tehran, but they are often constrained by the political and social environment in their countries of origin.
Details of the most dangerous Russian intelligence operation, responsible for explosions in Poland and Europe. Its traces lead to a Soviet nuclear submarine
We have identified several people who were involved in transporting the bombs on behalf of the GRU. The saboteurs were coordinated by a man convicted of smuggling radioactive materials
We have reconstructed the route taken by the explosive packages – before they exploded, they crossed the borders of several EU countries many times without arousing suspicion
The case of the traveling packages is linked to the arson attacks on large stores in Poland and Lithuania
The following investigation, conducted over the course of six months with a consortium of five international partners, was scheduled to run Thursday morning. After receiving a list of detailed questions based on months of research and reporting, the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office and the Criminal Police Bureau decided to reveal part of our findings preemptively and publicly, naming three of the suspects involved in sabotage operations targeting Europe and North America. These operations were stagemanaged by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, via the social media platform Telegram. Given Vilnius’ unexpected disclosure, VSquare and its partners have decided to publish this story on Wednesday, recounting the actors involved and the route their dangerous consignment took throughout Europe, a day early. (On Thursday, we finally published our originally planned, in-depth visual investigation, which you can find here.)
Across the Arab world, a bitter contradiction has emerged. In the streets of Cairo, Beirut and Rabat, crowds still chant passionately for Gaza and the Palestinian cause. Yet behind the marble halls of power, many Arab rulers have grown conspicuously quiet.
The Palestinian cause, once the beating heart of pan-Arab identity has waned in the priorities of today’s regimes. Once the Palestinian struggle defined Arab nationhood; now it often passes silently through corridors of power. Why?
Le Haut commissariat aux réfugiés en Libye a annoncé « un incident tragique survenu au large de Tobrouk », samedi, et l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations a fait part du « tragique accident » d’un canot pneumatique, dimanche. La route maritime du centre de la Méditerranée est la plus dangereuse au monde pour les migrants.
Adama Bayala et Alain Traoré avaient respectivement disparu depuis juin et juillet 2024. La junte d’Ibrahim Traoré est accusée d’utiliser de manière abusive un décret de mobilisation générale dans le cadre de la lutte antidjihadiste.
Deux journalistes burkinabés enlevés et portés disparus depuis plus d’un an ont été libérés en début de semaine, ont indiqué à l’Agence France-Presse (AFP) leurs proches.
Nine months after the longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad was toppled by a rebel offensive, Syria faces a litany of new challenges. The country, which is now being led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is contending with recurring violent sectarian clashes, successive Israeli strikes into Syrian territory, and internal disputes within the new government. Adding to the tumult is a resurgence of one of Syria’s most enduring challenges: the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.
But, over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas. Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people. Many legal experts have now concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.” The Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have reached the same conclusion, as have international groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The US has the power to put a stop to this by threatening to cut Ukraine off if it refuses but won’t because it believes that this might become useful down the line.
RT recently published a report about late August’s claims by Deputy UN Representative Dmitry Polyansky and Director of the Officers Union for International Security Alexander Ivanov that Ukraine is responsible for terrorism all across Africa. According to them, its drone pilots assist terrorist-designated forces in Mali, Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Kiev has also supplied Libya with drones for use in its civil war despite a Turkish prohibition.