The Wagner Group’s presence extends from the ancient battlegrounds of Syria to the deserts of sub-Saharan Africa, projecting the Kremlin’s global influence with mercenaries accused of using brutal force and profiting from seized mineral riches.
After the dramatic death of Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and several of his closest lieutenants in August, much of the discussion among international observers has centred around which individuals or organizations might take control of Prigozhin’s economic, military and criminal activities in Africa.
The government of Turkey has threatened to invade and annex Greek islands in the Aegean Sea for at least the past five years.
[T]he Turkish media continues to falsely and repeatedly to claim that “152 Greek islands and islets in the Aegean belong to Turkey”. These islands historically and legally… belong to Greece.
Germany’s ignored transnational organized crime risk?
Clan criminality is perceived as a worrying trend in Germany. Law enforcement needs to engage new strategies to successfully combat these structures, an ‘external’ criminal threat within the country and beyond.
Unless and until a ceasefire comes into effect, the Gaza war’s destabilising impact is set to spread further across the Middle East – to say nothing about the horrifying situation inside the besieged enclave.
At this point, more than seven weeks after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion into southern Israel, it is increasingly important for the various parties directly and indirectly involved in the war to begin considering key questions about the “day after” and focus on Gaza’s future.
Following is the October 2023 installment of “ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency,” a monthly chronicle of attacks by the terrorist group ISIS in central Syria.
ISIS carried out at least 19 confirmed attacks in October in the Homs, Hama, Raqqa, and Deir Ez Zor governorates. These attacks killed at least nine pro-Assad regime soldiers and wounded at least three more. There were also six high quality* attacks during October, all of which occurred in eastern Homs. ISIS activity in central Syria increased in October, reaching levels similar to those in August, although with fewer confirmed deaths. As in September, ISIS maintained an aggressive posture this month. At least 12 of October’s 17 confirmed attacks were carried out using small arms or heavy weapons, and often involved attempted or successful assaults on regime positions. Only one attack this month involved a mine or improvised explosive device (IED).
La dissolution du G5 Sahel entérine l’échec de la France, qui pensait pouvoir imposer son jeu à travers cet organe, explique à Sputnik le militant panafricain Abdoulaye Nabaloum.
Une coquille vide. Le G5 Sahel, dont la dissolution a été actée par la Mauritanie et le Sahel, n’a été qu’un instrument d’influence au service de la France et n’a pas vraiment aidé à lutter contre le terrorisme, a expliqué à Sputnik Abdoulaye Nabaloum, fondateur de l’association Actions pour la Souveraineté des Peuples.
The record is clear: Iran uses murder as a weapon of statecraft — and it does so, in part, via its commercial aviation sector, which Tehran has suborned to its goals of exporting revolution and sowing chaos.
Iran arms Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, who threaten to open a second front with Israel on the Lebanon border; it supplies drones to Russia, which deploys them against Ukrainian civilians; it props up the murderous Maduro regime in Venezuela, trying to turn that country into its forward operating base in the Americas. The common denominator in each of these endeavors? Iran’s commercial aviation sector.
Since October 7, the Israeli authorities have greatly reinforced their instruments of repression, as a form of vengeance for the Hamas attacks.
Since October 7, Israel has declared war on Gaza, killing more than 15,000 Palestinians, including more than 6,150 children, and destroying civilian infrastructure that could sustain life in the future. However, Israel has also been mounting a silent war on Palestinians in the West Bank and within the 1948 borders, to repress and contain them, quell any expressions of collective Palestinian identity, and make the occupied Palestinian territories unlivable for Palestinians.
An open letter to President Biden from MSF-USA executive director Avril Benoît
Dear President Biden,
I am writing to you on behalf of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), our staff, and our patients to urgently request that the United States call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. MSF has delivered medical aid in many high-intensity conflicts over more than 50 years, yet rarely have we encountered such a catastrophic combination of escalating humanitarian and medical needs, ravaged infrastructure, and intentionally limited humanitarian access. We urge you to use your influence to secure an end to the widespread and indiscriminate attacks against civilians, forced displacement, and siege of Gaza. Vital humanitarian aid must be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip at scale.