Tag: drones

Mali Govt Says Al-Qaeda Extremists In Region Receive Training, Drones From Ukraine

The Malian government announced on Thursday that militant groups with links to Al-Qaeda carrying out terror attacks in the country were trained and armed by Ukrainian specialists.

Fousseynou Ouattara, Vice President of the Defense Commission of Mali’s Transitional Council, said authorities identified militants who received training in Ukraine to carry out operations using kamikaze drones produced by Kiev. “These young people are known, we have now added them to our lists, and we have their names,” Ouattara said.

The militants fighting the Malian government belong to a Tuareg-led separatist group, the Azawad Liberation Front (ALF), and Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen (JNIM), an extremist group linked to Al-Qaeda.

He added that the militant groups are receiving fighters from Algeria, Mauritania, and Libya, as well as training from members of the French Foreign Legion and Ukrainian instructors.

France is allegedly supporting the ALF and JNIM following the Malian government’s removal of French troops in 2022. In their place, private military contractors from Russia’s Wagner Group were deployed.

After a May 2021 coup in Mali, the country’s military junta officially demanded that France withdraw its troops “without delay.” French troops had been present in Mali for nine years, allegedly to fight the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgency.

Mali was a French colony known as French Sudan before it gained independence as the Republic of Mali in 1960. However, France has sought to reassert its influence in Mali and in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, which are also former French colonies.

In September 2023, the military leaders of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso established the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which established a partnership with Russia.

Fighting between the Malian army and the ALF and JNIM has escalated in recent weeks. On July 7, the Malian army released a statement saying that “more than 200 terrorists were neutralized during coordinated air and ground operations” conducted in the village of Anefis in the northern Kidal region. The army statement noted that the operation was conducted in response to attacks by armed groups on military positions.

On July 4, Mali’s Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs announced that militant groups attacked army positions in Aguelok, Anefis, Gao, Kenioroba, Konna, Sevare, and Somadougou.

Clashes with the militants reportedly continue near Anefis, where a major Malian military base is located. On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his AES counterparts held a meeting in which they condemned destabilization campaigns supported by Ukraine and France.

Russia and the AES agreed to expand military cooperation, with Moscow pledging additional support to strengthen the operational capabilities of the armed forces of AES nations.

The foreign ministers of Russia, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso described the recent militant attacks on AES countries as “barbaric and ignoble” acts threatening regional stability.

“The two sides firmly condemned such destructive actions aimed at undermining the sovereignty of the AES and regional stability,” they said.

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The Drone Has Replaced the Tank

Military strategists are still fighting the last war while the battlefield has already changed. Every major conflict throughout history has been defined by a technological revolution. Gunpowder ended the age of castles. Tanks transformed World War II. Precision missiles reshaped modern warfare. Now we have entered the age of the drone. The military that cannot dominate the skies with unmanned systems will lose, regardless of how many tanks, aircraft, or soldiers it possesses.

South Korea has reached the same conclusion. Its Defense Ministry announced that it will train approximately 500,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines as “drone warriors.” Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said every service member should become as proficient with drones as they are with their personal weapons. The plan calls for procuring 11,000 commercial drones by the end of 2026, expanding to 60,000 training drones by 2029, while also acquiring more than 20,000 low-cost combat drones by 2030. Seoul is accelerating production of loitering munitions, AI-enabled drone swarms, laser weapons, and microwave systems designed to destroy incoming drones.

They are responding to the lessons of Ukraine, where inexpensive FPV drones costing only hundreds or thousands of dollars routinely destroy tanks worth millions. The battlefield has become saturated with unmanned aircraft. Ukraine plans to manufacture roughly 7 million military drones in 2026 after producing about 4 million in 2025. According to Ukrainian officials, drones now account for the overwhelming majority of battlefield strikes, fundamentally changing military doctrine. Entire branches of both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries are now dedicated solely to unmanned systems.

A modern drone operator can eliminate armor, artillery, supply convoys, or individual soldiers from miles away while sitting in relative safety. Fiber-optic drones have largely defeated electronic jamming. AI-assisted targeting is reducing operator workload. Swarm attacks can overwhelm traditional air defenses that were designed to intercept aircraft, not hundreds of inexpensive autonomous systems arriving simultaneously. Ukraine has even developed interceptor drones whose sole mission is to hunt other drones, creating an entirely new layer of aerial combat.

South Korea is not alone. Russia formally established its Unmanned Systems Forces, with Ukrainian military estimates claiming the branch could expand from roughly 80,000 personnel today to more than 165,000 during 2026 and perhaps over 200,000 by 2030. NATO countries are pouring billions into drone production, counter-drone technologies, autonomous weapons, and electronic warfare. The United States, China, Israel, Turkey, and Europe are all racing to build domestic drone industries because they understand the next war will not be won by the side with the largest army. It will be won by the side that can produce, replace, and innovate faster than its opponent.

This is precisely why I have warned that the War Cycle is changing the global economy. Wars no longer require decades to build fleets of battleships or thousands of heavy tanks. A nation with sufficient manufacturing capacity can produce tens of thousands of drones every month. The barriers to entry have collapsed. Software updates now matter as much as ammunition. Engineers have become as important as infantry.

The defense industry is no longer limited to traditional contractors producing aircraft carriers and fighter jets. Semiconductor manufacturers, AI companies, battery producers, optics firms, communications specialists, robotics companies, and rare-earth miners have all become part of the defense sector. This is why governments are scrambling to secure critical minerals, expand chip production, and protect supply chains. They are preparing for a world where industrial capacity determines military survival.

Our computer has consistently projected that 2026 marks the acceleration of the international War Cycle. The military transformation unfolding before our eyes confirms that forecast. The next great conflict will not resemble Iraq, Afghanistan, or even the opening stages of Ukraine. It will be fought by autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare, and millions of inexpensive drones operating continuously across every battlefield. The drone has become what the machine gun was in World War I and what the tank became in World War II. Anyone who fails to recognize that reality is preparing for a war that no longer exists.

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Ukraine Drones Hit Blue Stream Pipeline Compressor — Targeting Russia’s Gas Lifeline To Turkey On Day One Of NATO Summit In Ankara

Ukraine struck the Krasnodarskaya compressor station in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai on the evening of July 7 — timed, whether by design or coincidence, to the opening day of the NATO summit hosted by Turkey in Ankara. The Krasnodarskaya station is a critical node in the Blue Stream pipeline, which carries Russian natural gas directly to Turkey under the Black Sea. Gazprom confirmed the attack in an official statement, saying deliveries were not disrupted. That claim should be treated as a floor, not a ceiling — Gazprom has institutional incentive to minimize the incident and a track record of doing so.

The strategic geometry is deliberately provocative. Ukraine is attacking infrastructure that supplies gas to Turkey — the very country hosting the NATO summit where Erdogan is simultaneously positioning himself as both NATO convener and back-channel broker with Russia. At the summit, Erdogan separately announced new arms supplies to Ukraine while thanking the US, Spain, Germany, and Italy for air defense assistance during the Iran conflict — a performance of omnidirectional relevance that only Erdogan could plausibly sustain.

The Kremlin’s response was predictable: calling the strike “terrorism against critical global energy infrastructure.” What is less predictable is Turkey’s actual long-term posture. Ankara depends on Russian gas via Blue Stream and Turkish Stream, is courting Ukraine with weapons, is hosting the NATO summit, and is negotiating quietly with Moscow. Ukraine’s targeting of the Blue Stream compressor — reportedly guided by Palantir’s Maven targeting system — puts Erdogan in a genuinely uncomfortable position: his NATO allies’ weapons are striking infrastructure that heats Turkish homes.

Gazprom said exports were unaffected. This is the second reported attack on Blue Stream infrastructure in recent weeks, suggesting Ukraine has identified the pipeline as a pressure point specifically because it hurts both Russian revenue and Turkish dependency simultaneously — a two-for-one leverage play. There has been no indication Kyiv offered Turkey any advance warning….

President Trump has intentionally courted Turkey for its refusal to get involved on the side of Muslim Iran in the conflict, going so far as returning access to the F-35. Whether Anakara will remain in Trump’s camp as Russian gas is slowed is another issue entirely.

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European Taxpayers Spend 3.9B Euros on Drones for Ukraine

The European Union just sent another €3.9 billion to Ukraine to buy drones. This is not humanitarian aid. This is war financing. Reuters reported that the latest transfer is part of the EU’s new €90 billion loan program designed to keep Kyiv funded through 2026 and 2027. The money is being directed toward Ukraine’s drone procurement, meaning European taxpayers are now openly financing the weapons system that has become central to this war.

Do not let anyone pretend Europe is a neutral party. The EU Council itself says support for Ukraine has reached €211.3 billion since the war began. That figure includes military, financial, humanitarian, and refugee-related support. Now Brussels is adding a €90 billion loan on top of that to cover Ukraine’s budget and defense needs for the next two years. This is not charity. This is Europe admitting it intends to keep the war going because Ukraine cannot finance it on its own.

The EU sent nearly €2.8 billion earlier in June, Reuters reported another €3.2 billion tranche under the broader loan structure, and now another €3.9 billion is being pushed out for drones. Ukraine’s reconstruction costs are estimated at $588 billion over the next decade, while Kyiv is signing more than 160 recovery agreements worth over €10 billion. Europe is no longer merely supporting Ukraine. It is building the financial architecture for a permanent war economy.

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NASA Just Flew a Human Kidney, and Transplant Medicine May Never Look the Same

A human kidney flew across NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., on June 5, and the real story begins with what didn’t happen. The organ wasn’t rushed into an operating room, as no surgeon scrubbed in while a family waited outside. From Space.com:

NASA is hoping to use drones to speed up organ delivery for transplant patients.

A flight test earlier this month at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia saw a drone pick up a kidney and fly it for the first time beyond “line of sight”, or the distance from which a drone is visible by an operator. Keeping a line of sight on a drone is a typical requirement for flight safety, but NASA is developing tools that may allow these machines to fly further away from operators in populated environments more regularly.

The kidney on the June 5 flight test was not viable for organ transplantation, which is why the agency and partner United Network for Organ Sharing were able to use it, according to WTKR. If all goes to plan with future tests conducted with NASA Langley, however, UNOS aims to fly organ-bearing drones as far as 15 miles (24 km), in between hospitals for example, to allow for swift and safe delivery to waiting patients. The drone collaboration was created to “explore faster, more reliable ways to transport donor organs using advanced aviation technologies”, according to space agency materials published in April.

Drones may have a better ability than larger aircraft to navigate ground logistics or maneuver in dense or hard-to-reach delivery areas. What’s more, drones might be able to do so faster than aircraft, which is crucial: organs can only last so long during transportation.

The test used additional radios on the drones intended to allow pilots to keep an eye on the drones even while out of sight. “What that means, more or less, is we’re going to have the pilot in command be about a mile away inside of a control room,” Kyle Smalling, an aerospace engineer at NASA Langley, told WAVY.com.

The kidneys used in the test had been donated for research after they were ruled out for transplant. Researchers still treated them like precious cargo because someday a flight like this may carry an organ that can save a life.

NASA Langley Research Center, the United Network for Organ Sharing, and LifeNet Health used a drone to transport human kidneys beyond visual line of sight. The flights lasted about 15 minutes, and researchers biopsied the kidneys and placed them on preservation pumps before and after the flights while tracking temperature, pressure, and altitude. Early results showed no evidence that the flights damaged the organs.

Mark Johnson, interim CEO of UNOS, called innovation in organ transportation essential because more than 100,000 people are waiting for lifesaving transplants. HRSA’s public organ donation data puts the national waiting list at 103,223 men, women, and children. Seventeen people die each day waiting, and another name is added every eight minutes.

Those numbers don’t leave much room for slow systems, missed handoffs, or traffic jams.

Transportation is one of the quiet pressures inside transplant medicine. A donor organ has a limited window of usefulness once recovered. Delays hurt organ function, affect outcomes, or stop a transplant from happening at all.

A kidney can travel by plane, ambulance, courier car, or handoff chain, but the weakest link often sits close to the ground, where congestion, routing, weather, and scheduling cost valuable time.

John Koelling, director of the Aeronautics Research Directorate at NASA Langley Research Center, said the project gives NASA a chance to apply Langley technology to a real-world problem that saves people waiting for transplants. The work uses NASA tools in flight planning, sensing, safety systems, and beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations.

Space-age language sounds distant, but the goal here is deeply human: get the organ where it needs to go with less delay and less risk.

The study also shows why serious medical progress frequently arrives in careful steps. Nobody should pretend drones will replace the transplant logistics network next week.

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Ukraine Closes Week Of Record Drone Attacks On Russia By Hitting Important Weapons Plant

Ukraine announced Saturday that it used its Flamingo cruise missiles overnight to strike Russia’s Titan-Barrikady weapons plant, which reportedly manufactures parts for its powerful Oreshnik missile.

The military plant is in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, which is a major industrial city in southwest Russia. Writing on X, President Zelensky described it as a “major industrial complex” where Russia “produces artillery systems and specialized military equipment, including components for missile launch systems.”

“Every Russian defense facility involved in the war against Ukraine is a legitimate target for our long-range strikes,” he wrote.

The Associated Press reports, “Volgograd Gov. Andrei Bocharov confirmed an attack on a business in the region’s Krasnooktyabrsky district, saying 10 people had been wounded and taken to a hospital. He said production facilities at the site were damaged but did not identify the company.”

Additionally, “Ukraine’s state security service said Saturday morning that Ukrainian forces also struck an oil pumping facility in Russia’s Vladimir region that supplies fuel to Moscow, for the second time this month.”

But on the other side of the border, Ukrainian media reports that Russia was also busy with now nightly airstrikes:

Russian forces targeted production facilities belonging to the Naftogaz Group, Ukraine’s largest national oil and gas company, in the Poltava and Kharkiv regions.

The barrage of attacks included 129 drones, of which 113 were destroyed or jammed by Ukrainian forces, Ukrainian media reported.

The Russian overnight attacks on Ukraine killed two people and injuring more than 20, according to state officials.

At a moment much of the globe’s attention remains fixated on Iran and the fate of energy shipping through the largely blocked Strait of Hormuz, the Ukraine war is rapidly escalating.

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UK to send Ukraine 150,000 drones

The UK will provide Ukraine with 150,000 UAVs by the end of the year, London announced on Thursday following one of Kiev’s largest drone attacks on Moscow since the start of the conflict.

The package, worth £752 million ($996 million), was announced by British Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels. According to the British government, which has been among Kiev’s most active military supporters, the package will be funded through London’s £2.26 billion loan to Kiev, backed by proceeds from frozen Russian sovereign assets.

British officials presented the package, which includes drones, missiles and radars, as necessary military support for Kiev. Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged that London would continue backing Ukraine and putting pressure on Moscow. Russia has long argued that continued Western arms deliveries only prolong the conflict and undermine peace efforts.

The announcement came after Moscow and the surrounding region were hit by one of the largest Ukrainian drone raids in recent years. Russian air defenses intercepted 194 drones approaching the capital overnight, according to officials, but the attack still caused damage.

Local authorities reported that one drone struck the Moscow Oil Refinery in the Kapotnya district, triggering a fire, while debris damaged residential buildings, vehicles, and commercial sites, including several shopping centers.

Residents in several districts also reported black rain and soot falling from the sky after the refinery blaze, with the local authorities advising people to keep windows closed and limit time outdoors.

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Ukraine Hits Moscow Oil Refinery Causing Black Skies, But Kremlin Continues Advancing In Donbass-Kostiantynivka Falls, Ukrainian Drones Specifically Targeting Civilians In Russia Areas

Ukraine scored a public relations and tactical win this morning with strikes on the Moscow oil refinery, hitting a storage tank and causing black smoke to drift over the entire city.

Oil-like residue is falling over Moscow and the surrounding region, leaving marks on cars, windowsills, benches, and other surfaces.

The development caused Ukrainian President Zelenskiy to declare, “If Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn too.If Putin does not want to end this war and wants to continue it, we will not sit quietly. We will respond.”

What Zelenskiy is not telling the world is that the city of Kostiantynivka in Donbass has recently fallen under the Russian advance. Russian forces are now focusing on Sloviansk, which once taken, will open the door to Kramatorsk in one or two months.

A situation is developing where a massive cauldron is forming, encircling thousands of Ukrainian troops and the Zelenskiy government will not order the withdrawal to save the soldiers.

“It is a deliberate slaughter of Ukrainian soldiers,” said a source in Kyiv. “It is intentionally losing a division.”

Russia has launched massive strikes on Kyiv as of late in response to Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets. Recently many attacks have been filmed of drones hitting civilian vehicles, such as buses and trucks carrying civilian personnel and cargo, raising Russian ire. One such video of a drone intentionally targeting a truck in the Belgorod region of Russia is below.

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FBI stopped plot to massacre crowd at White House UFC event, Kash Patel says

The FBI foiled an alleged plot to massacre Sunday’s UFC White House event attendees and arrested several suspects, according to the bureau’s director, Kash Patel.

“On June 10, FBI and our law enforcement partners became aware of a potential threat to the UFC America 250 event in Washington, D.C.,” Patel shared Tuesday on X. 

According to officials cited by Fox News, the would-be perpetrators planned to set off explosive drones on the South Lawn, forcing attendees to flee the event. The alleged conspirators then planned to gun them down by sniper fire as they were funneled out of the White House grounds.

A total of 23 people were involved in the plot, according to court and FBI documents. They were allegedly upset about “government corruption, the handling of the [Jeffrey] Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions,” according to the affidavit.

In a private Signal chat, the suspects considered targeting Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) as well as West Virginia GOP Reps. Carol Miller and Riley Moore.

One proposed Marsha Blackburn as a potential target because she had “taken money from the Israel pro Israel lobby and supports them,” despite the fact that a large majority of congressmen have received money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

The mother of suspect Tycen Proper, 19, who was arrested on June 10, tipped off local police about her son’s “recent conduct, including firearms purchases and communicating with certain individuals online,” according to a federal affidavit.

She said in a phone interview with an FBI officer that the conspirators “claimed to be ex-military and Christian based.” The group allegedly wanted to “jumpstart” a revolution by killing “high-value targets” including “billionaires” and “capitalist elites.”

Proper admitted to helping to plan the attack during a June 11 FBI interview and said that the conspirators got in touch around March 2026 through a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old.”

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Poland Suspends Transference of MIG Fighter Jets to Ukraine – The Stated Reason, and the Probable Unspoken One

Drone tech, or the worship of Nazi collaborators and war criminals?

After the war in Iran appears to have found its way towards a peace settlement, the eyes of the world again turn to the Black Sea, where the bloodiest European war since WWW2 continues unabated.

As the usual Euro-Globalists scramble to continue financing the Kiev regime’s war effort, one close ally is moving in the opposite direction.

Neighboring Poland has paused the transfer of promised MIG-29 Fighter Jets to Ukraine, to the dismay of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government and the MSM alike.

The stated reason for the pause was Kiev’s delay in sharing with of drone production technologies with the Polish.

This is a very believable reason – but for us following the Ukrainian bilateral relations, there is another very clear reason that is not being mentioned, as you can read in President Nawrocki Wants Zelensky Stripped of Top Polish Honor for Glorifying WW2 Nazi War Criminals.

​Zelensky has caused mass indignation in Poland by signing a decree recognizing a Ukrainian special forces unit’s ​contribution to the fight against Russian forces by naming it after the Ukrainian Insurgent ⁠Army (UPA).

The UPA was involved in ​the Volhynia massacres from 1943 to 1945, in which around 100,000 Poles were killed by Ukrainian nationalists.

Zelensky also transferred alleged WW2 war criminal Andriy Melnyk to a hero’s tomb in Kiev.

With all that, the relations soured considerably. Even Prime Minister Donald Tusk had to criticize the move.

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