World News by Wild Rose

Erin Ogunkeye is pleased to welcome Bamo Nouri, investigative journalist and also Honorary Research Fellow with the Department of International Politics at City Saint George's University of London. He sees the end of the American military presence in Iraq as a profound shift in the balance of power inside the country. For him, the central question is not whether Iraq has formally regained sovereignty, but whether it possesses the political cohesion, security capacity and economic independence necessary to exercise that sovereignty. America is leaving Iraq, but Iran is not. Tehran's influence is already embedded within Iraq's political parties, armed groups, economic networks and financial system, meaning that its power does not depend on a conventional military presence. Removing the American counterweight now could give Iran-backed groups greater room to operate, while leaving Iraq's Kurdish region, which has relied heavily on American military, intelligence and air-defence support, facing its own strategic uncertainty. Ultimately, the withdrawal will potentially intensify Iran's role in Iraq while making Iraq's attempts at political and economic reform considerably more difficult.

Moscow has suffered further losses of occupied territory, but is using new drones to beat Ukraine's defences.

Russia launched its heaviest combined assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in months on Wednesday, killing seven people and triggering emergency power cuts in Kyiv and nearby regions. The strikes came as officials warned of a difficult winter as Russian forces target power and heating systems.

An Israeli air strike killed the head of Hamas’ armed wing in north Gaza on Tuesday, officials on both sides said, with the militant group describing him as a leader of the October 7, 2023 attack that precipitated war in the Palestinian enclave. Israel’s government said its military had targeted and killed Izz al-Din Al-Beik, ‌who they said was involved in planning attacks and recruiting. Hamas confirmed his death. Medics said the Israeli strike hit a building in Gaza City’s Nasr neighbourhood...

Russian-Iranian intelligence helped the Houthis' offensive on the Red Sea coast. Now that system is under attack.

Mark Owen is pleased to welcome Peter Zalmayev from Kyiv, Founder and Director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative. According to Zalmayev, Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine reflect a broader political logic in which military force, political objectives and territorial ambitions are intertwined as instruments of Russian strategy. He argues that Moscow’s attacks on civilian infrastructure are designed to exert extreme pressure on Ukrainian society while demonstrating fierce retaliation to domestic audiences in Russia. Zalmayev contrasts this with Ukraine’s strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, which he describes as targeting assets that directly sustain Moscow’s war effort.

France 24's Gulliver Cragg reports from Kyiv where he says a "particularly heavy night" of Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital involved the use of ballistic missiles.

The developments follow a series of reported drone strikes in Tigray. Regional authorities say at least 14 people were killed and 22 injured in a strike on the town of Alamata on Tuesday, with the mayor accusing federal forces of targeting schools.

Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and its northeast killed eight people on Thursday in attacks that included a maternity hospital and a farm, officials said. Moscow has stepped up its air ‌war in recent months, deploying more of its faster and harder-to-stop drones while Ukraine is short of interceptors to down ballistic missiles. Two people died in the latest assault on Kyiv, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in New York for the UN General...

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly that ‘warfare knows no borders’.

Scientists in China have simulated a drone attack on one of the country’s major suspension bridges to determine the vulnerability of key transport hubs to modern warfare tactics. The researchers found that a drone carrying just 30kg (66lb) of TNT could trigger a bridge collapse if it detonated within inches of the main suspension cable at the point where it meets a support tower. The targeted bridge strikes that have featured in Russia’s war on Ukraine showed that warfare has shifted from mass...

This is the moment a drone exploded as it hit an apartment building in Moscow.

American troops need to prepare for combat not only in Earth’s orbit but around the moon, President Donald Trump’s top military adviser said on Wednesday, looking ahead to a new frontier in warfare after the US revealed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told service members and industry figures at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference outside Washington that the US military should adapt now so it “is prepared to...

Automated AI drones are just one component of an ultimate chain of destruction both sides are building.

Iran-backed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have intensified as fighting spreads around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital chokepoint for global trade and oil shipments. On FRANCE 24, Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies chairman Farea Al-Muslimi argued this could mark "the last round in Yemen's current war", unpacking the Houthis' ties with Iran and the growing pressure on Washington as the group targets US allies while Donald Trump heads into a crucial election.

The toll from days of fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in southwest Yemen climbed past 300 on Sunday, as hundreds of families fled their homes to escape the violence. Two military officials with the Saudi-backed government forces said that 84 of their troops were killed between midday Saturday and early Sunday morning, mostly in missile attacks. Four Houthi military sources said 57 rebel fighters were killed in the same period. The two sides have been fighting for...

China’s military researchers have proposed a redesigned “AI principles and practice course” for graduate students with “educating for war” at its centre, embedding combat scenarios to better prepare future officers for intelligent warfare. Researchers from the National University of Defence Technology’s College of Intelligence Science and Technology outlined their proposal in the July issue of the journal Defence Industry Conversion in China. The initiative comes as China seeks to cultivate more...

Greek authorities say that the two pilots onboard an F-4 Phantom fighter jet have been killed after it crashed.

The Ukrainian capital was hit by Russia’s most intense wave of air attacks on Kyiv, reportedly in four years, with Reuters describing air raid sirens, drones, cruise and ballistic missiles exhausting Ukraine’s defence system, with 12 people killed and the Ukrainian foreign minister making a direct appeal to Western allies for more Patriot interceptor missiles.