Tag: perpetual war

US military ‘preparing to strike inside Venezuela’ in move that would mark major escalation

The United States is planning military strikes in Venezuela against drug cartels in the coming weeks. 

Donald Trump is yet to approve the actions which are in response to President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. sees as illegitimate, not doing enough to stop illegal drugs from getting out of Venezuela. 

It would largely consist of drone strikes against leaders and members of gangs, as well as drug labs, NBC News reports.  

They follow a recent lethal strike on a vessel allegedly affiliated with a terrorist organization ‘trafficking illicit narcotics’.

The attack killed ‘three male narcoterrorists’ took place in the US Southern Command’s area of responsibility, the president said.

Trump administration officials expressed disappointment that the move and any of the recent military escalations do not appear to have weakened Maduro.

They’re also wary about further attacks after the backlash to the Venezuelan boat bomb. 

The White House referred to Trump’s prior comments on the matter: ‘We’ll see what happens. Venezuela is sending us their gang members, their drug dealers and drugs. It’s not acceptable.’ 

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Kiev false-flag provocation could lead to World War 3 – Zakharova

Ukraine is planning a possible false-flag operation in Romania or Poland that could escalate into a third world war, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

In a Telegram post on Friday, she pointed to reports in Hungarian media alleging that Kiev intends to stage acts of sabotage in neighboring NATO countries and place responsibility on Moscow.

”Europe has never been so close to the outbreak of World War 3 in modern history,” Zakharova wrote.

According to the information available, the Kiev regime’s plan is to repair several downed or intercepted Russian UAVs, fit them with lethal warheads, and – controlled by Ukrainian specialists – send them disguised as “Russian drones” to major NATO transport hubs in Poland and Romania, Zakharova continued. At the same time, they would run a disinformation campaign across Europe to pin the blame on Moscow and thereby try to provoke an armed conflict between the Russian Federation and NATO, she added.

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Western news agencies demand Israel grant international journalists access to Gaza

The world’s most prominent news agencies released a short film and a joint statement on 25 September calling on Israel to allow international journalists into Gaza to report on the horrors of the ongoing war.

The video, produced on behalf of the BBC, Reuters, AP, and AFP, features iconic photos and clips of news reports from previous wars over the past century alongside the message that “history is told by those who report it.”

“The world ignored Rwanda until reporters revealed thousands a day were being massacred; the report of a child’s body washed up on a beach revealed the stark reality of the Syrian refugee crisis; in Ukraine, journalists from around the world risk their lives every day to report the suffering of the people,” BBC journalist David Dimbleby narrates.

“But when it comes to Gaza, the job of reporting falls solely to Palestinian journalists who are paying a terrible cost, leaving fewer to bear witness,” Dimbleby states as photos of the devastation from Gaza are shown.

“The Israeli government will not allow international reporters into Gaza to do their work and to document freely what they see. International journalists must now be allowed into Gaza to share the work with Palestinian reporters there so we can all bring the facts to the world,” he concludes.

Since Israel began its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, it has blocked access for foreign news correspondents unless they are embedded with the Israeli army. Their reports are then reviewed and approved by Israel’s military censor before publication.

In perhaps the only exception, CNN journalist Clarissa Ward briefly entered Gaza via Rafah in a convoy of UAE medical volunteers in December 2023.

As foreign news agencies relied on local journalists to produce reports on the ground, the Israeli military has mercilessly targeted them for assassination.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), at least 210 Palestinian journalists have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the war began nearly 23 months ago.

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EU chief says shooting down Russian jets ‘on the table’

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that shooting down Russian fighter planes entering NATO airspace is “on the table.” 

“My opinion is we have to defend every square centimeter [of] territory, and that means if there’s an intrusion in the airspace, after warning, after being very clear, of course, the option of shooting down a fighter jet that is intruding our airspace is on the table,” von der Leyen said during an appearance on CNN. 

President Trump said on Tuesday during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations General Assembly that NATO countries should shoot down Russian jets that enter their airspace. 

“Yes,” the president said when asked by reporters. 

Polish Foreign Affairs Minister Radosław Sikorski said “roger that” in response to Trump’s comments. 

The remarks from von der Leyen and Trump come as NATO countries have experienced Russian drones and planes flying in their airspace in recent weeks. 

Poland’s military, with the help of NATO allies, shot down multiple Russian drones that violated the country’s airspace. 

Russian fighter planes flew into Estonian airspace, prompting the country to invoke Article 4. 

“The United States stands by our NATO allies in the face of these airspace violations. And I want to take this first opportunity to repeat, and to emphasize, the United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz said on Tuesday. 

Von der Leyen, the head of the European Union’s executive arm, told CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour that Russia is “testing” Europe on “all fields.” 

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Microsoft reduces Israel’s access to cloud and AI products over reports of mass surveillance in Gaza

Microsoft said Thursday it had disabled services to a unit within the Israeli military after a company review had determined its artificial intelligence and cloud computing products were being used to help carry out mass surveillance of Palestinians.

The action comes after The Associated Press and The Guardian published reports earlier this year revealing how the Israeli Ministry of Defense had been using Microsoft’s Azure platform to aid in the war in Gaza and occupation of the West Bank. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president, wrote in a blog post that the company was taking steps to enforce compliance with its terms of service.

An AP investigation in February showed that the Israeli military’s use of Microsoft products skyrocketed after a deadly surprise attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023. The AP’s report cited internal Microsoft data showing the Israelis were using gigabytes of cloud storage and massive amounts of AI-enabled language translation services.

The AP also reported that Israel’s military used Microsoft Azure to compile information gathered through mass surveillance, which it transcribes and translates, including phone calls and text messages. That intelligence is then cross-checked with Israel’s in-house AI systems for targeting airstrikes.

AP reported that internal Microsoft data showed multiple Azure subscriptions were tied to Unit 8200, an elite cyber warfare unit within the Israeli Army responsible for clandestine operations, collecting signal intelligence and surveillance.

Following AP’s report, Microsoft acknowledged in May that it had sold advanced AI and cloud computing services to the Israeli military during the Gaza war and aided in efforts to locate and rescue Israeli hostages. But the company said an internal review found “no evidence” its Azure platform was used to target or harm people.

The Guardian, working in partnership with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, reported in August that the commander of Unit 8200 had met directly with Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella in 2021. The Israeli unit then used Microsoft products to aid in the development of an AI-powered mass surveillance system that was sweeping up, translating and analyzing millions of telephone calls per day made by Palestinian civilians. The report also revealed that data from the Israeli surveillance system was being stored at Microsoft cloud data centers in Europe.

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Moldova: The Next Front in the West’s Confrontation With Russia?

Moldova’s September 28, 2025, parliamentary elections are shaping up to be another highly contentious struggle between pro-Russia and anti-Russia factions.  Both the European Union and Moscow also are accusing each other of illicit election meddling to put their respective Moldovan clients in power.  In many respects, the lead up to this election is reminiscent of the tense atmosphere and inflammatory accusations of the 2023 vote for parliament and the 2024 presidential election that resulted in a disputed victory for pro-Western incumbent President Maia Sandu.

The situation also has the potential to become another prominent arena for the ongoing, dangerous geopolitical power struggle between the West and Russia.  Moldova shares a 1,222-kilometer border with Ukraine and the Kremlin currently stations some 1,500 troops in Moldova’s secessionist region of Transnistria. The U.S. government should, in this case, as in many others, stay out.

U.S. and European think tanks and news media outlets reliably parrot the allegations of Sandu and her supporters. The Atlantic Council’s Aidan Stretch notes: “Moldova is raising the alarm over escalating Russian interference as the country approaches a crucial geopolitical crossroads. On September 28, Moldova’s pro-Western government will face a parliamentary election amid widespread allegations of Kremlin cyberattacks, propaganda, and various other Russian attempts to influence the outcome of the vote. If pro-European parties lose their majority, Moldova’s Western integration could stall.”

Stretch continues:

“The implications of an election victory for pro-Russian forces would extend far beyond Chisinau [Moldova’s capital]. Moldova shares a long border with Ukraine, while the two countries are currently on a joint EU accession track. A Kremlin-friendly government in Moldova could potentially derail EU integration for both nations, while also creating a significant new security threat on Ukraine’s southwestern frontier. The coming vote is therefore an important test of Russia’s ability to reassert its influence and a potential landmark moment for the wider region.”

In the short term, though, the East-West struggle is confined to the political arena.  Sandu and her supporters in Europe and the United States are quick to highlight any evidence of Moscow’s support, especially financial support, for friendly political factions.  She recently accused Russia of spending “hundreds of millions of dollars to buy Moldova’s election.”

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MSM Reports on How Ukraine Is Crumbling Under Military, Political and Economic Problems

The real Ukraine is not what they dreamed of.

Two years ago, The Economist published an editorial that predicted a ‘Ukraine 2.0’ that was a secure, democratic, and prosperous nation.

But now, the British magazine has been forced to the conclusion that the Kiev regime is anything but what they expected.

They found that Ukraine is ‘eroded across multiple fronts’, a nation in slow decline, and the article questions the purpose of their prolonged resistance.

The Economist reported:

“’We can fight for years, losing positions slowly,’ says a senior Ukrainian official. ‘But why?’”

Ukrainian forces have been capable of holding out Russian advances but at the cost of incremental territorial concessions.

The article reasons that Russia’s attrition strategy is succeeding, hollowing out Ukraine’s defensive posture.

“Russia’s plan is to grind Ukraine down, and it is working.”

Ukraine’s society is broken, with centralized power, tested institutions, and complicated alliances, particularly as Western support is diminishing.

Prosperity is but a dream, with a Ukrainian economy battered by destruction, displacement, and a complete dependency on aid.

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Air Force AI Targeting Tests Show Promise, Despite Hallucinations

The Air Force is on its third of a series of sprint exercises intended to show how artificial intelligence can supercharge human decision-making. And while officials are raving about the results, they also demonstrate that the algorithms can still propose bad or nonsensical options that need to be babysat.

Maj. Gen. Robert Claude, Space Force representative to the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management Cross-Functional Team, said participating in the Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming (DASH) series, led by his team, was an “eye-opening experience,” though it proved the limitations of AI processing as well.

The DASH-2 sprint, held at Shadow Operations Center-Nellis (SHOC-N), the USAF’s premier tactical command and control battle lab, outside of Las Vegas earlier this summer focused on a decision-intensive process: matching the right platform and weapon to a desired military target, Claude told The War Zone at the U.S. Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference. 

According to a release, six industry teams and one SHOC-N innovation team participated in the exercise, attacking the challenge of designing AI-enabled microservices that could help operators select a weapon to destroy an identified target. The kinds of targets identified in the scenario were not described. Developers watched human-only battle-management crews and designed their microservices based on their observed needs and processes. Finally, human-only teams went head to head in the weapon-matching exercise against human-machine teams.

In terms of generating courses of action – or COAs – the machines easily had it over their human counterparts on speed and quantity. 

“I think it was roughly eight seconds [for the algorithm] to generate COAs, as opposed to 16 minutes for the operators,” Claude said, adding that the machine generated 10 different COAs to the human team’s three.

But AI-generated slop continues to be a problem.

“While it’s much more timely and more COAs generated, they weren’t necessarily completely viable COAs,” Claude said. “So what is going to be important going forward is, while we’re getting faster results and we’re getting more results, there’s still going to have to be a human in the loop for the foreseeable future to make sure that, yes, it’s a viable COA, or just a little bit more of this to make a COA viable, to make decisions.”

Claude clarified in response to another question the kinds of mismatches the AI was creating. 

“If you’re trying to identify a targeting package with a particular weapon against a particular target, but it didn’t factor in, it’s an [infrared] target, or it’s an IR-sensor weapon, but it’s cloudy and [bad] weather conditions,” Claude said. “So that’s just as an example, those fine-tuned types of things that they found these COAs weren’t where they needed to be. But as we build this out, theoretically into the future … those sorts of things will be factored in.”

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War Secretary’s Emergency Meeting A Mystery To Hundreds Of Top Officers Ordered To Attend

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to an urgent meeting in Virginia next week, but the reason is unknown to many who have been ordered to attend, The War Zone has learned.

Many of these high-ranking officers have been in contact with each other to find out why Hegseth has ordered such an unprecedented gathering that will upend the schedules of hundreds of them, a U.S. official told The War Zone.

“They know about this through scheduling, but they have no idea what this is all about,” the official added. “It is something everyone is wondering. There is no indication of what the topic is.”

The Pentagon confirmed the meeting but provided no details.

“The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.

The meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, comes as Hegseth is looking to trim the ranks of the military’s top commanders and reduce the number of headquarters.

“The directive was issued earlier this week…months after Hegseth’s team at the Pentagon announced plans to undertake a sweeping consolidation of top military commands, according to The Post.

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The Most Ominous Thing That A President Of The United States Has Said In My Entire Lifetime

There will be no peace with Russia, and we all know what that means. When I initially learned what President Trump had said about the war in Ukraine, I had a very difficult time believing it. When he was running against Kamala Harris, Trump reaffirmed his commitment to end the war in Ukraine over and over again. That was an extremely popular position, because the vast majority of Americans do not want to end up in an apocalyptic conflict with Russia. But now everything has changed. Trump has been receiving really bad advice from his national security team, and based on that advice he has fully embraced the war in Ukraine. In fact, he now appears to believe that Ukraine can actually win the war and take back all of the territory that Russia has conquered.

I had to verify exactly what Trump said about the war for myself, and so I went directly to his Truth Social account. When I got there, I read the most ominous thing that a president of the United States has said in my entire lifetime…

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