By Andre Pienaar US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed on that American forces carried out a fourth successful strike against a drug-smuggling vessel in international waters off Venezuela.The strike launched on 3rd October killed four suspected traffickers and destroyed a craft believed to be carrying narcotics destined for US markets.This operation forms part of a new maritime interdiction campaign spearheaded by the Department of Defense (DoD) and US Southern Command, aimed at breaking the logistical backbone of transnational drug cartels.“Cartels must know that their operations will be hunted down and destroyed wherever they sail,” Secretary Hegseth stated. Trump Administration’s…

By Ben Farmer, A catastrophic spill of more than a million tons of acid waste at a copper mine in Zambia has become a geopolitical flashpoint as China and America jockey for minerals and economic influence. A torrent of mining waste cascaded across farmland and into the river system when a storage dam, at Sino-Metals Leach Zambia’s facility near Kitwe partially burst in February. As the waste from known as tailings flooded from the Chinese state-owned mine into the Mwambashi and Kafue rivers, the acidity killed large quantities of fish and ruined crops. The mine and government have since been…

By Sean Rayment Russia has been targeting and attempting to jam British military satellites, according to the head of the UK Space Command.Maj Gen Paul Tedman has for the first time set out the level of interference from Moscow against the UK’s space-based assets.He said Russia had also been trying to jam the UK’s military satellites with ground-based systems every week.Last month Germany’s Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, said Russia had been shadowing satellites used by their military.Gen Tedman gave details of how Russia was doing the same to the UK. “They’re interested in what we’re doing and flying relatively close,”…

By Sean Rayment British intelligence services are investigating links between a terrorist who murdered two people outside a synagogue in Manchester and Iran. MI5 is trying to establish whether Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, was acting alone or as part of a covert terror cell. The disclosure comes as police confirmed that one of the two people killed was shot dead by officers. Intelligence sources told National Security News that both the police and the security service are investigating whether Al-Shamie became self-radicalised or was inspired either by Iranian proxies or by individuals linked to Hezbollah. One source…

By Sean Rayment Russia is sending battalions of troops into battle infected with highly contagious diseases including HIV and hepatitis, Ukrainian military experts have said. Soldiers in these units wear armbands marking them out as sick and have been spotted on the frontlines around Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in eastern Ukraine that has been the focus of a prolonged and bloody assault by the Kremlin, they told The Telegraph. “There is currently information that these units are participating in fighting in what is currently the hottest spot, Pokrovsk,” said Dmytro Zhmailo, executive director of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre…

By Sean Rayment The UK has imposed sanctions on 71 Iranian individuals and organisations linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme amid concerns that it is developing nuclear weapons. The move follows a decision in August by the UK, France and Germany to revive sweeping UN-backed sanctions on Iran after efforts to restart diplomatic talks over Tehran’s nuclear programme stalled. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the sanctions package targeting Iranian financial institutions and energy companies “sends a clear message” to Tehran that Britain “will continue to take every step necessary to prevent Iran ever developing a nuclear weapon”. Iran has said its…

By Sean Rayment British-made unmanned air vehicles will be deployed to create a “drone wall” to protect Nato from Russian aggression, the UK government has revealed. The new low-cost unmanned craft, developed in collaboration with Ukraine, are part of a strategy to deter Russian jets and drones from attempting to penetrate the alliance’s eastern flank. European ministers are concerned about a spate of Russian incursions into Polish and Estonian airspace, which prompted Britain to deploy RAF Typhoons over Poland in a show of force to Moscow. A suspected Russian “hybrid” incursion of drones this week took place in Denmark and…

By Adam Treger The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, once the world’s pre-eminent seafaring force and largely responsible for the country’s historic prosperity, today boasts more admirals than warships ready for deployment. While this is symbolic of the country’s wider decline in hard power, the UK can take solace in the knowledge that its soft power continues to endure and even flourish thanks to Shakespeare, Harry Potter, the Beatles, and the Royal Family. British football and the Premier League, perhaps the country’s biggest export, have attracted billions in foreign direct investment. Another key tenet of the UK’s soft power is its…

By Sean Rayment A former head of MI5 has said it may be right to say that the UK is at war with Russia, citing cyberattacks, sabotage and covert operations on British soil. Baroness Manningham-Buller, who led the Security Service between 2002 and 2007, told the Lord Speaker’s Corner podcast that she agreed with foreign policy expert Fiona Hill’s warning that Moscow is waging a new kind of conflict against Britain and the West. “Fiona Hill may be right in saying we’re already at war with Russia,” Manningham-Buller said. “It’s a different sort of war, but the hostility, the cyberattacks, the…

By Ben Farmer Mali’s Russian-backed military junta has been tipped into crisis by a militant blockade of fuel supplies, highlighting its weak authority in the West African nation. Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has, over the past fortnight, torched scores of tankers as it attempts to lay economic siege to parts of southern and western Mali. The attempted stranglehold marks an escalation of the militants’ long campaign and comes as extensive Kremlin military backing has done little to halt the insurgency. Mali, along with neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, has in recent years fallen to a military coup and pivoted…

By Isabella Egerton Russia has launched an extensive information campaign to disguise its economic vulnerabilities, following US President Donald Trump’s description of the country as a “paper tiger” and his suggestion that Ukraine could reclaim occupied territory with Western backing. A report released by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the Kremlin’s messaging has coalesced around three themes: restating its original war aims as necessary for Russian security, portraying Russian victory as inevitable, and highlighting the supposed benefits of renewed US–Russia economic ties. ISW assessed that Moscow is also dangling trade incentives to coax Washington toward normalising ties…

By Isabella Egerton Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have taken their defence partnership, which spans over fifty years, to a new level. Last week in Riyadh, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement. According to Islamabad’s official statement, the accord “demonstrates the shared commitment of both nations to bolster security in the region. It is intended to expand areas of defence cooperation between the two countries and to strengthen their joint deterrence against any aggression.” The agreement further states that “an attack on either country will be regarded as an attack…