Russians mock their own space agency in wake of Indian triumph.

Putin’s mercenary dies in a jet crash just outside Moscow.

Why The Moon Has Become The New Gold Rush.

Humiliation for Putin as Indian spacecraft lands on moon after Russian failure.

Nuclear risk on the rise for 1st time in a decade, watchdog warns.

Humiliation for Putin as Russia’s Luna-25 crashes.

Maths Graduates Will Be Spies of the Future, Says MI5.

SAS war hero overwhelming choice to lead British army.

Govt comes under new pressure to class Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as terrorists.

The future of the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland was in the balance last night.

China and Russia are building an arsenal of cosmic weapons in a bid to achieve military dominance in space.

Ramaphosa’s “Peace Initiative” with Ukraine and Rosatom.

Russia switches off radiation sensors at Zaporizhzhya.

Twenty years after its founding, the African Union faces severe headwinds – everything from personnel problems to the organisation’s ability to find lasting solutions to continental conflicts, writes LIESL LOUW-VAUDRAN. A YEAR after the first shots were fired in the war in Ukraine, global geopolitics look very different. New power blocs are emerging and there is increasing pressure on organisations such as the African Union (AU) to lift their game. The organisation must better represent the continent and do more to resolve crises and conflicts on its own. After all, the AU – which turned 20 last year – is…

Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government claims it has addressed electoral reform, yet the trajectory ahead of polls in August could mean another term for the incumbents, something the country can ill afford, writes PIERS PIGOU. ZIMBABWE is heading for another round of “harmonised elections” (presidential, parliamentary and municipal) on August 23. The trajectory with less than three months until polling day has some disturbingly familiar features: key elements of the process contested, further claims of a compromised election commission that is not trusted by most of the population, restricted access to an unaudited voters roll, a dodgy delimitation process, and so on.…

Africa is being aggressively targeted with disinformation campaigns by Beijing and Moscow to exploit the continent’s vast wealth of natural resources, while coercing its political leadership into backing China and Russia on the global stage. 

The international race to commercialize and militarize space arguably began in earnest when American astronaut Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon on July 20th, 1969, uttering his famous phrase, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Now, 53 years later, the latest iteration of that ever-growing space race is playing out in Djibouti, a small east African country that is home to U.S. and Chinese military bases. China in its bid to dominate infinite outer space is now focused on developing four square miles of sea-level space in the former French colony. Ostensibly, Beijing is claiming the proposed…

In American folklore and in our sense of national identity, imagined and real, the principled lone ranger – the Gen. George S. Patton type – has long infused America’s ideal of a hero. You see it in our novels – Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It also imbues our Hollywood movies – perhaps best exemplified by director Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington starring the late Jimmy Stewart. Now, in the form of Gen. Mike Minihan, Commander, Air Mobility, United States Air Force, a new lone ranger very much in the tradition of his American…

Moldova has squarely been in the Kremlin’s crosshairs since the outset of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘special military operation.’ Ever since 1992, when the Russian army occupied the non-NATO country’s Transnistria region, the Moldovan government has been under tremendous pressure. It bent, then subsequently broke prompting the resignation of Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita. Saddled by an energy crisis, “skyrocketing inflation,” and Russian missile incursions into Moldovan airspace – all deliberately brought on by Moscow, Gavrilita’s government collapsed on Friday, February 10th, only three days after the European Union (EU) and the Moldovan Association Council met in Brussels to further strengthen cooperation as a bridge to full EU membership. It is, for now, a non-kinetic success for the Kremlin that likely…

Starlink Satellites Being Turned Off To Block Ukraine From Using Them Militarily.

Putin to throw 500,000 troops into Ukraine War, as he goes on the offensive against Germany.

The world is now finding itself in the garden of Armageddon – and the gates of hell await.

Chinese Spy Who Became A US Army Reservist and Planned to Infiltrate NASA jailed for eight years.

Germany and America agree to supply Ukraine with battle tanks, as Rattled Russia warns of escalation.