By Sean Rayment China is planning to build a giant space aircraft carrier capable of deploying unmanned fighter jets that could fire missiles from the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere. Chinese state media has released a concept video of the futuristic Luanniao, described as the world’s largest warship, travelling through space above existing defensive systems. The communist state claimed the carrier could become operational within 20 to 30 years. However, experts were sceptical about the project, with some likening it to a stunt designed to inspire the Chinese public. Resembling a spacecraft from a Star Wars film, the Luanniao is…

By Sean Rayment The Kremlin has announced that Russia would be willing to store Iran’s enriched weapons-grade uranium in a bid to de-escalate tensions between Washington and Tehran. A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said that an offer to process or store Iran’s uranium had been under discussion for some time. Asked whether Russia was discussing with Iran and the United States the possibility of taking Iranian enriched uranium, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This topic has been on the agenda for a long time.” “Russia has been offering its services for quite a long time as a possible…

By Andre Pienaar UANI report reveals IRGC command and control structure behind Iran’s deadly crackdown on protesters As protests continue to engulf Iran and the European Union (EU) moves to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, a new report from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has exposed the shadowy command centre coordinating the regime’s brutal crackdown on its own citizens. The report, titled The Tharallah Headquarters unveiled: the hidden infrastructure blocking regime change in Iran, is authored by UANI Senior Advisor Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi. Drawing on leaked internal IRGC documents obtained from inside Iran,…

By Andre Pienaar Executive order establishes secondary-sanctions-style mechanism targeting any country that sells petroleum to Cuba WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday declaring a national emergency with respect to Cuba. The order establishes an unprecedented tariff mechanism designed to sever the island’s access to foreign oil by penalising supplier nations with duties on their US-bound exports. The order, which took effect today, invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the National Emergencies Act (NEA) to authorise additional ad valorem tariffs against any country determined to “directly or indirectly” sell or provide oil to…

By Staff Writer The European Union has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, increasing pressure on the Islamic Republic over its violent suppression of nationwide protests. The decision was agreed unanimously by the EU’s 27 foreign ministers meeting in Brussels and was accompanied by new sanctions targeting senior Iranian officials and state-linked bodies accused of killings, mass arrests and online repression. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said the listing reflected the scale of violence used by the authorities against their own population. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own…

By Sean Rayment US President Donald Trump has warned that a “massive armada” of US warships is “moving quickly” towards Iran. The US president threatened to launch a sustained attack against the Islamic regime if Tehran did not agree to a new deal banning nuclear weapons. Mr Trump said: “A massive armada is heading to Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm and purpose. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. “Like with Venezuela, it is ready, willing and able to rapidly fulfil its mission, with speed…

By Andre Pienaar Ukraine’s ministry of defence has unveiled a new secure data environment designed to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence systems capable of autonomously detecting and intercepting Russian unmanned aerial systems. The initiative, known as the Brave1 Dataroom, marks a significant escalation in Kyiv’s technological response to Moscow’s intensifying drone campaign. The platform operates within Ukraine’s government-backed Brave1 defence innovation cluster and uses software infrastructure provided by the US defence technology firm Palantir Technologies. It provides Ukrainian developers with access to structured visual and thermal datasets collected directly from frontline operations, allowing machine learning models to be trained…

By Andre Pienaar Analysis of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s warning on AI risks In a sweeping new essay published this month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has issued what amounts to a strategic warning to national security establishments worldwide: artificial intelligence is approaching a threshold that will fundamentally alter the global balance of power, and the window for establishing effective safeguards is closing rapidly. “The Adolescence of Technology,” published in January 2026, frames the emergence of “powerful AI” as “the single most serious national security threat we’ve faced in a century, possibly ever.” Unlike his previous essay “Machines of Loving Grace,”…

By Sean Rayment The US President has said Iran wanted to make a deal as an American “armada”, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and guided missile destroyers, arrived in the Middle East. Previous threats of a US strike were said to have been called off after Iran said it would no longer execute dissidents. President Donald Trump told the Axios news site on Monday that the “armada next to Iran” was bigger than the force sent to waters near Venezuela before the abduction of Nicolás Maduro. “They want to make a deal,” he said, referring to the Iranians. “I…

By Andre Pienaar The US Treasury Department has sanctioned a Hamas-linked non-profit network, including a key international front organisation and six Gaza-based charities, citing their role in financing and supporting Hamas’s military wing through sham humanitarian operations. US officials and national security analysts say the case exposes how terrorist organisations continue to exploit the global non-profit sector, including networks with ties to South Africa and the United Kingdom, to move money, raise funds, and expand political influence. According to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the sanctions target the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) and six…

By Staff Writer More than 36,000 unarmed Iranian protesters calling for a change of government have in the Islamic state been shot dead by security forces, it has been alleged. The killings are believed to have taken place between January 08 and 09 according to Iran International, a London-based Persian-language news channel covering political developments and human rights issues in Iran. Details of the deaths have emerged at the same time as the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln accompanied by three warships arrived in the Middle East, bringing a renewed potential that President Donald Trump could opt to order…

By Staff Writer Once viewed as pariahs, cryptocurrencies have now seen their legitimacy and value widely recognised by the world’s largest institutions. Nowhere is this clearer than at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, the annual epicentre of institutional finance and power, where cryptocurrencies have taken centre stage. This is particularly true of the fast-growing $260 billion stablecoin market. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another asset. The most prominent of these are US dollar-backed stablecoins such as USDC, issued by Circle. In contrast to the outdated and unwieldy legacy international banking system, USDC…