Tag: perpetual war

Two Incendiary Bombs Dropped on Gaza Flotilla Ships in Past Two Days

For the past two nights around 11:30pm Tunisia time, Israeli forces have dropped incendiary bombs from quadcopter drones on boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla in the waters near Tunis, Tunisia. On the night of September 8, 2025, the first incendiary bomb hit the deck of the lead ship of the flotilla, the “Familia,” causing a fire.

A crew member onboard “Familia” told me that he saw the quadcopter hovering about 20 feet above the ship and then going higher and moving to the bow of the ship. The quadcopter then dropped the incendiary device.

The second incendiary bomb dropped from a quadcopter drone hit the “Alma” ship in the night of September 9, 2025 and again caused a fire to break out.

The Global Sumud Flotilla will not Stop the Mission

The Global Sumud Flotilla issued a statement that the flotilla will not be deterred by the incendiary bombs:

“The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) confirms that on September 9, another boat in our fleet – the “Alma” – was attacked by a drone as it was docked in Tunisian waters. The boat, sailing under the British flag, sustained fire damage on its top deck. The fire has since been extinguished, and all passengers and crew are safe. An investigation is currently underway and when more information is available it will be released immediately. This marks the second such attack in two days.

These repeat attacks come during intensified Israeli aggression on Palestinians in Gaza, and are an orchestrated attempt to distract and derail our mission. The Global Sumud Flotilla continues undeterred. Our peaceful voyage to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza and stand in unwavering solidarity with its people presses forward with determination and resolve.”

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Russia Denies That It Launched Drones Into Poland

Poland said on Wednesday that NATO fighter jets shot down multiple Russian drones that entered its airspace, while Moscow is denying that its forces launched drones into the NATO country.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that a total of 19 drones entered Poland’s airspace and that a large number of them came from Belarus, which also said it destroyed drones over its territory and suggested they were off course due to electronic jamming during an exchange of strikes between Russia and Ukraine.

In response, Tusk invoked NATO’s Article 4, which states that NATO members will “consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened.”

According to CNN, Polish and Dutch jets intercepted the drones with assistance from Italian, German, and NATO’s multinational forces. Drones have previously entered Poland’s airspace, but Warsaw said this was the first time shots were fired by NATO jets to intercept them.

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Trump Calls His Drone Strike on an Alleged Drug Boat ‘Self-Defense.’ It Looks More Like Murder.

Last week, President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike that sank a speedboat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people on board. Trump described the targets as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua who were “at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.” Although the men could have been intercepted and arrested, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters, the president decided their summary execution was appropriate as a deterrent to drug trafficking.

On Wednesday, The New York Times, citing unnamed “American officials familiar with the matter,” reported that the boat “appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it.” That detail further complicates the already dubious legal and moral rationales for this unprecedented use of the U.S. military to kill criminal suspects.

The attack “crossed a fundamental line the Department of Defense has been resolutely committed to upholding for many decades—namely, that (except in rare and extreme circumstances not present here) the military must not use lethal force against civilians, even if they are alleged, or even known, to be violating the law,” Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman notes in a Just Security essay. Lederman adds that the September 2 drone strike “appears to have violated” the executive order prohibiting assassination and arguably qualifies as murder under federal law and the Uniform Code of Criminal Justice.

New York University law professor Ryan Goodman, a former Defense Department lawyer, agrees. “It’s difficult to imagine how any lawyers inside the Pentagon could have arrived at a conclusion that this was legal,” he told the Times last week, “rather than the very definition of murder under international law rules that the Defense Department has long accepted.”

As Trump told it, the attack was justified because Tren de Aragua is “a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of [Venezuelan President] Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.” He said the strike was meant to “serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America.”

Drug cartels have “wrought devastating consequences on American communities for decades, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of United States citizens each year and threatening our national security and foreign policy interests both at home and abroad,” Trump said in a September 4 letter to Congress. “We have now reached a critical point where we must meet this threat to our citizens and our most vital national interests with United States military force in self-defense.”

U.S. forces therefore “struck a vessel” that “was assessed to be affiliated with a designated terrorist organization and to be engaged in illicit drug trafficking activities,” Trump explained. “I directed these actions consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to my constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct United States foreign relations.”

Trump says the men whose deaths he ordered were “assessed” to be affiliated with Tren de Aragua. They also were “assessed” to be engaged in drug trafficking. Without knowing the basis for those assessments, we cannot say how accurate they were. Last week, Trump joked about the potential for deadly errors: “I think anybody that saw that is going to say, ‘I’ll take a pass.’ I don’t even know about fishermen. They may say, ‘I’m not getting on the boat. I’m not going to take a chance.'” Conveniently for Trump, summary execution avoids any need to present evidence, let alone meet the requirements of due process.

“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Vice President J.D. Vance declared in an X post on Saturday. When a commenter observed that “killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime,” Vance replied, “I don’t give a shit what you call it.”

That was too much for Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.). “Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?” Paul wondered. “Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”

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Qatar Says It Reserves Right To Retaliate Against ‘Barbaric’ Netanyahu

Qatar has threatened retaliation after Israel’s strike on Doha Tuesday which killed five top Hamas officials. Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in a fresh speech condemned the attack as “state terrorism” on the Gulf country’s capital and warned that payback is coming.

He said Qatar reserves the right to retaliate, saying, “We’ve reached a decisive moment; There should be retaliation from the whole region.”

Referencing Israel’s Netanyahu at one point in the address, Thani said that “barbaric actions that only reflects one thing: It reflects the barbarism of this person that is leading the region, unfortunately, to a point where we cannot address any situation and we cannot repair anything, and we cannot work within the frameworks of international laws.”

The Qatari leader continued of the Israeli prime minister, “He just violates all those international laws” – he said through the translator from the Arabic.

But for all the tough talk, the reality remains that Qatar has long been host to major US military and naval bases, especially Al-Udeid Air Base – the largest US installation in the Middle East, and is the operational regional HQ for US Central Command (CENTCOM).

And so it would not take drastic action against a close US military ally such as Israel, also given Qatar’s military capabilities are miniscule compared to Israel’s. The small oil and gas rich GCC nation also does significant lobbying on Capitol Hill.

Reflecting this reality, Thani quickly switched to a more restrained tone in his reaction speech at one point: “Mediation and Qatari diplomacy is part of its identity, and it will continue, and nothing will deter us from persisting in this role across the various issues around us in the region, in order to achieve the stability of the region and ultimately the stability of our peoples,” he said.

So we should expect that absolutely nothing will happen, at least on the military front, but a direct aerial attack on a Gulf state does put the prospect of expansion of the Abraham Accords at a greater distance.

Trump says he assured the Qataris that such an attack “will not happen again on their soil”.

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Poland Triggers Article 4 After NATO Jets Engaged Russian Drones In Allied Airspace

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country would formally request the invocation of NATO’s Article 4 after an overnight Russian aerial attack on Ukraine saw the alleged violation of Poland’s airspace by multiple Russian drones. He called it an “act of aggression”.

Tusk cited that 19 drones breached the country’s airspace throughout the incident, resulting in some of them being shot down. NATO’s Article 4 states: “The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”

Article 4 consultations can lead to the alliance taking action if the consensus is reached. Notes from Poland says “It has previously been invoked seven times, including by Poland and seven other countries when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.”

“Triggering Article 4 launches a consultation process within NATO, which can then lead to the alliance taking action. In 2022, it resulted in NATO providing support to Ukraine and activating its own response force,” the analysis continues.

A Spokesperson for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe has described of the overnight border breach of NATO’s ‘eastern flank’ member Poland that this was “the first time NATO aircraft had engaged potential threats in allied airspace.”

He further confirmed that German Patriots in Poland were “placed on alert and that an Italian airborne early warning aircraft and an aerial refueler from NATO’s Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) fleet were also launched,” as cited in Newsweek.

As for Tusk, he said in his address, “We are dealing with a large-scale provocation” and that “the situation is serious, and no one doubts that we must prepare for various scenarios.”

However, this certainly isn’t the first time errant drones have crossed into Poland, but in this instance they were reported to have ‘threatened’ a Polish city some 40 miles away from the border with Ukraine. The NY Times notes:

But the apparent scale of the incursion and the joint NATO response in the early hours of Wednesday was a startling reminder of the risk that the war in Ukraine could escalate into direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. It was not yet clear whether Russia intentionally sent its drones into Poland, which would represent a clear expansion of the conflict.

Kiev has been trying to hype this threat, and it is in its interest to do so, as it has long sought to get NATO more directly involved in the war with Russia.

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Mexican cartel was taught drone warfare in Ukraine – media

A powerful Mexican drug cartel has acquired advanced drone warfare skills in Ukraine, the Milenio newspaper reported on Monday.

Moscow has long argued that the Ukraine conflict fuels global instability by spreading weapons and fostering reckless behavior by Kiev in pursuit of its war aims. Foreign fighters have become a key part of Ukraine’s military strategy as authorities face resistance to conscription at home.

Milenio examined propaganda materials released by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a major criminal group based in western Mexico, including footage showing a drone-armed hit squad operating with apparent military discipline and tactical expertise. Experts cited by the paper said the group’s methods and armaments bore similarities to battlefield practices in the Ukraine conflict.

Mexican intelligence believes CJNG members received training in drone and urban warfare tactics in Ukraine, sources in the Jalisco state government told Milenio.

The report highlighted the cartel’s use of specific equipment, including DJI Matrice 300 RTK drones commonly employed in the Ukraine conflict. The quadcopter aircraft, marketed for civilian use, can carry payloads of up to 3kg, operate at night, and fly long distances.

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Israel attacks Hamas leadership in Qatar

he Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday it has attacked Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar.

“The IDF and ISA conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the Israeli military group posted on X. “For years, these members of the Hamas leadership have led the terrorist organization’s operations, are directly responsible for the brutal October 7 massacre, and have been orchestrating and managing the war against the State of Israel.

The leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian group with which Israel has been at war for nearly two years, have had their headquarters outside of Gaza for years.

“Prior to the strike, measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence. The IDF and ISA will continue to operate with determination in order to defeat the Hamas terrorist organization responsible for the October 7 massacre,” the IDF also posted on X.

The attack reportedly happened late Tuesday afternoon local time. 

A senior Hamas official told CNN that their negotiators were targeted. Hamas’ chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Doha on Monday.

A senior Israeli official told CNN that among those targeted was Al-Hayya.

“We are awaiting the results of the strike,” the official said.

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BBC Media Action: Britain’s overseas info warfare unit

Leaked documents reveal how a shadowy BBC unit is “embedding” staff in foreign media outlets to “contest the information space” and generate “behaviour change” in favor of London’s geopolitical objectives.

Though BBC Media Action (BBCMA) portrays itself as the “international charity” of the British state broadcaster, files show the group frequently carries out politically-charged projects overseas with government funding. Furthermore, the group consistently trades upon the BBC’s reputation and its intimate “links” with the British state broadcaster when pitching for contracts with donors, including the Foreign Office, which operates in tandem with MI6.

The leaks reveal that BBCMA’s work is explicitly “driven by a social and behaviour change communication approach.” The organization’s “project design” is informed by “psychology, social psychology, sociology, education and communication,” and consideration of “the specific factors that can be influenced by media and communication that could lead to changes in behaviours, social norms and systems” in foreign countries. Which is to say, BBCMA is concerned with psychological warfare, warping perceptions and driving action among target audiences.

“We recognise that different formats achieve different things when it comes to change… and consider audience needs, objectives and operational context when deciding which format to use,” BBCMA asserts in one file. In another, the organization crows, “people exposed to our programming are more likely to: have higher levels of knowledge on governance issues; to discuss politics more; to have higher internal efficacy (the feeling that they are able to do something); and participate frequently in politics.”

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US-E3 Snapback Sanctions on Iran: Diplomacy out of the Barrel of a Gun

Iran has voiced a strong rebuke against the recent decision made by France, Germany, and the UK to invoke the UN Security Council’s “snapback” mechanism, which seeks to reimpose sanctions on Tehran regarding its nuclear program. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described this action as “unjustified, illegal, and lacking any legal basis.” He emphasised that Iran is prepared to respond decisively to safeguard its national rights and interests.

Tensions rose in 2025 after Trump’s return to the presidency in January, leading the US to reinstate its “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran amid ongoing negotiations for a new agreement. In June, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), sometimes referred to as “Israel’s spy agency,” declared Iran non-compliant with its nuclear safeguards under the NPT. Following US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Tehran ceased cooperation with the IAEA, denying access to its facilities. However, in June, IAEA inspectors had been allowed to return to Iran for the first time since Israel and the US targeted its nuclear facilities. European officials warned that the lack of monitoring and unverified stockpiles of highly enriched uranium pose serious proliferation risks, even though President Trump boasted about having obliterated Iran’s Nuclear facilities. France, Germany, and the UK— also known as the “E3” threatened that if Iran does not engage in meaningful negotiations by the end of August, they would activate the snapback mechanism to conclude by October, when Russia will assume the Council presidency.

DOCUMENT: NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran Resolution adopted on 12 June 2025 during the 1769th session (Source: IAEA)

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Ukraine Runs Low On Air Defense Munitions-Expect Another Z Trip To DC?

It’s time for another Zelenskiy trip to Washington to demand weapons the American military needs to defend the homeland.

The question is — will Trump give them to Kyiv? Or put America first?

Recently, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth released information that after the Middle East ’12 Day War’, the U.S. had used up 25% of its reserve of air defense munitions.

Ukraine is running low on air defence munitions as the Pentagon slows arms deliveries following a June review of US military aid.

The slowdown comes amid intensified Russian missile and drone attacks, including the largest aerial assault since the full-scale invasion, killing civilians and targeting key infrastructure, reports FT.

Officials warn Ukraine’s air defence systems could soon face critical shortages if attacks continue. 

US shipments of Patriot interceptors, Stingers, NASAMS missiles, Hellfires, and precision artillery shells have all been delayed.

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