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The Red Tractor advert was last shown in 2023 but will now be banned for future use unless it is updated
A TV advert by Red Tractor, the UK’s biggest certifier of farm products on supermarket shelves, has been banned for exaggerating the scheme’s environmental benefits and misleading the public.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the organisation had provided “insufficient evidence” that its farms complied with basic environmental laws to substantiate the claims in its ad.
Environmental group River Action, which brought the complaint in 2023, said the ruling showed the scheme was “greenwashing” and urged supermarkets to stop using it.
But Red Tractor called the watchdog’s decision “fundamentally flawed” and argued that the scheme’s focus was animal welfare not environmental standards.
In 2021, Red Tractor aired an advert in which it said: “From field to store all our standards are met. When the Red Tractor’s there, your food’s farmed with care.”
You can watch it below.
Watch: the ad banned by the Advertising Standards Authority
The environmental charity River Action took issue with the ad, which ran for a further two years, and complained to the watchdog that it suggested to consumers that Red Tractor farms will “ensure a high degree of environmental protection”.
The charity pointed to a report by the Environment Agency, released in 2020, which looked at how many breaches of environmental law there were on Red Tractor farms in the previous five years. The report concluded that these farms were “not currently an indicator of good environmental performance”.
After more than two years of investigation – one of the longest running – the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld the complaint.
It said that Red Tractor had failed to provide “sufficient evidence” that its farms met “basic” environmental laws and had a good environmental outcome to substantiate the claims in the ad.
It also ruled that as a result the advert was “misleading” and “exaggerated” the benefits of the scheme.
River Action welcomed the decision by the ASA and called on supermarkets to act.
“What this shows is that for their environmental credentials Red Tractor has been misleading the public and their supplies,” said Amy Fairman, head of campaigns at River Action. “So, we’re looking for suppliers like supermarkets to really examine and take stock of what is on their shelves.”
She added that challenging such adverts was important because of the pollution risk to the environment from agricultural pollution.
In 2022, the Environment Audit Committee concluded that agriculture was one of the most common factors preventing rivers from being in good health – affecting 40% of them. The risks to the environment include from slurry and pesticide runoff.
BBC News/Tony Jolliffe
Amy Fairman represents environmental charity River Action which campaigns for clean and healthy rivers
But Red Tractor, which assures 45,000 farms in the UK, have pushed back strongly, calling the finding by the ASA “fundamentally flawed”.
Jim Mosley, CEO of Red Tractor, told the BBC: “They believe that we have implied an environmental claim. Nowhere in the voiceover or the imagery is any environmental claim actually made.”
He argued that the ASA only found a minority of people would think the advert meant Red Tractor farms had good environmental standards, and in fact the scheme is focused on other issues.
“Red Tractor’s core purpose is food safety, animal welfare, and traceability. Whilst we have some environmental standards, they are a small part. And as a consequence, we leave that entirely to the Environment Agency to enforce environmental legislation,” said Mr Moseley.
When asked if that meant Red Tractor does not know if its farms are complying with environmental law, he said: “Correct”.
But many supermarkets do refer to the environmental benefits of Red Tractor farms.
Natalie Smith, Tesco’s head of agriculture said last month, on the 25-year anniversary of Red Tractor: “Certification schemes play a key role in providing reassurance for customers, and over the past 25 years, Red Tractor has established itself as a mark of quality, standing for… environmental protection.”
On Morrisons’ website it states: “100% of the fresh pork, beef, lamb, poultry, milk and cheddar cheese we sell in our stores comes from farms certified by Red Tractor, or an approved equivalent scheme, giving customers assurance… environmental protection.”
Both supermarkets were asked if they stood by the Red Tractor logo.
Morrisons did not respond to comment and Tesco referred the BBC to their industry body the British Retail Consortium.
The consortium said that “retailers remain committed to working with Red Tractor”, but that the organisation themselves are owners of the scheme.
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, took out “a couple of” gangs, without identifying which groups, Anadolu reports.
“They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad, very, very bad gangs. And they did take them out, and they killed a number of gang members, and that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s okay,” Trump told reporters at the White House, alongside Argentinian President Javier Milei. “It’s a couple of very bad gangs.”
His remarks came a day after Hamas and Israel carried out a hostage-prisoner swap that saw hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released from Israel’s notorious Ofer military prison and other prison facilities in the Negev Desert. All 20 living Israeli hostages were also released.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump announced the start of “phase two” of his Gaza ceasefire agreement, following the release of hostages under the first stage of the deal brokered by Türkiye, the US, Qatar and Egypt.
Phase two of the deal calls for the establishment of a new governing mechanism in Gaza, the formation of a multinational force and the disarmament of Hamas.
Trump said he spoke to Hamas and the group will disarm.
“They will disarm, and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them — and it’ll happen quickly and, perhaps, violently, but they will disarm,” he added.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The U.S. Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), better known as the Night Stalkers, has been exploring ways to ensure it can operate in more heavily defended airspace in the future. This includes making increased use of uncrewed aircraft, the employment of new electronic warfare and decoy capabilities, and just flying longer and faster. The U.S. special operations community as a whole continues to reorient itself around preparing for high-end fights, such as one across the broad expanses of the Pacific against China, after decades of low-intensity missions in much more permissive environments.
Army Col. Stephen Smith, head of the 160th SOAR, talked about planning for future operations in denied areas deep inside an opponent’s anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) ‘bubble’ during a panel discussion today at the Association of the U.S. Army’s main annual symposium. TWZ‘s Howard Altman was in attendance and had the opportunity to speak more with Smith directly afterward. The Night Stalkers publicly acknowledged fleets include a mixture of heavily modified MH-60M Black Hawk, MH-47G Chinook, and AH/MH-6R Little Bird helicopters. The 160th also has MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones. The unit expects to eventually receive special operations-specific versions of the Army’s future MV-75A tiltrotor.
A pair of 106th SOAR MH-60Ms configured as Direct Action Penetrator (DAP) gunships seen during training. USMC
“Over the last 20 years that I’ve been in the Regiment, we have been really, really good at deploying in an environment like GWOT,” Smith said, referring to the Global War on Terror era of operations in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. “What we have done over the last 10 years is, we’ve looked at the near-peer threats across the globe, and we looked at ‘how does the 160th expect to operate inside that environment?’”
“So, what we’re going to have on the aircraft to defend the aircraft, by itself, will not survive in the A2/AD environment,” he also said bluntly during the panel, speaking generally about the known Night Stalker fleets.
One of the 160th SOAR’s MH-6 Little Bird wearing an experimental maritime camouflage wrap seen during shipboard operations training. USASOC
“What we realized was really two major takeaways. The number one takeaway is we can’t do it alone. The idea of ‘alone and unafraid,’ that does not exist in the denied area planning space,” he explained. “And then, second, we needed a team to look at that. So we stood up a five-person team that consisted of our aviation flight leads.”
“When we started looking at the training concept of how the 160th is going to operate, we leveraged the three range complexes on the West Coast of the United States to create an environment that provides us a ‘tyranny of distance‘ problem, but also the complexity of using those three ranges to replicate a near-peer,” he added.
A pair of Night Stalker MH-47G Chinooks. USAF
The 160th’s commander says the unit has come from all this with new views on how it might operate in more heavily defended environments going forward. This includes additional emphasis on crewed-uncrewed teaming.
“Manned-unmanned teaming is the future. We’ve talked about the potential of launched effects off the aircraft, or a potential loyal wingman,” Col. Smith said. Launched effects is a broad term that the U.S. military currently uses to refer to uncrewed aerial systems configured for different missions, like reconnaissance or acting as loitering munitions, which can be fired from other aerial platforms, as well as ones on the ground or at sea.
“We see in the near future, for our primary mission of crisis response, and also denied area penetration, we still see a human in the loop,” Smith noted. “We don’t expect to send Kit [Col. Kitefre Oboho, commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment] and his team to the X without Night Stalkers in the front of the aircraft.”
Smith highlighted how the 160th has already been teaming its crewed helicopters with its MQ-1Cs drones as something the unit is looking to build on. “So, when we train on the West Coast, we’ll use an MQ-1 to lead the half [a group of helicopters] into the objective.”
An extended-range version of the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, which the 160th SOAR is known to operate. US Army
This also leads into the electronic warfare and decoy capabilities the Night Stalkers are looking at as part of future denied area operations planning.
“We can hang different capabilities on that platform [the MQ-1C]. So that platform could look like a Black Hawk. It could look like a [CH-]47. It could look like a Little Bird,” Smith said. “So we’re using that as a decoy, [and there are] potentially other capabilities on [the] side of that aircraft.”
The 160th is also exploring other new electronic warfare capabilities, including improved self-protect jamming systems, according to Smith. “We’re also looking at a layered effect of using cyber and space to create a pulse for us to be able to penetrate,” he added.
There’s also just the matter of being able to fly longer and do so faster. The 160th is already well known for conducting long-duration flights in challenging and hostile environments. The unit’s MH-60Ms and MH-47Gs are capable of being refueled in flight to extend their range. Night Stalkers typically fly their missions at extremely low altitudes and under the cover of darkness, using terrain to help mask their ingress and egress.
“Leveraging the cover of darkness, leveraging weather, flying at low altitudes, and flying where the enemy systems are not. That seems somewhat obvious, but that is really driving the basis of our Night Stalker fundamentals, [and] mission planning to create those contingencies so we can buy down a number of the risk,” Col. Smith said.
However, historically, 160th operations have often been punctuated by stops at temporary forward arming and refueling points (FARP) along the way, to and from objectives. Smith says extending the range of his fleets will be key to future operations in denied areas because of the vulnerabilities that landing in the middle of a mission creates.
A Night Stalker MH-60M seen during FARP training. US Army Sgt. Robert Spaulding
“One of the things we’ve learned is, if you go to ground, you’re vulnerable,” he said. “And so we have leveraged our aerial refuel[ing capability] to get after that, and we look at some of our collapsible fuel systems inside the aircraft to do that.”
There is a question here that is increasingly facing the entire U.S. military, about how existing non-stealthy aerial refueling tankers will be able to support any fixed or rotary-wing aircraft operating deep in high-threat areas. The U.S. Air Force, which currently provides the bulk of aerial refueling support to the 160th, has separately been looking at ways to get after that problem set, as you can read more about here.
This is also where the future special operations version of the MV-75A, which is set to offer the 160th an important boost in speed and range, especially over its MH-60Ms, could also come into the picture. Those tiltrotors are also expected to have aerial refueling capability. Questions do also remain about what the final special operations configuration of the MV-75A may look like, though we know the core design is already being developed with specific features to make it more readily adaptable to that role.
Bell’s V-280 tiltrotor, from which the MV-75A is being derived. Bell
“That’s a great question, and we don’t know, and that’s why we’re actually having that conversation,” Col. Smith told TWZ‘s Howard Altman after the panel when asked for more information about what the special operations configuration of the MV-75A might look like. “We have not determined what that looks like. Is it the version that we’re all in lockstep with, is that going to be the version? possibly. Is [sic] there some minor modifications? potentially.”
What is clear is that the 160th SOAR is looking hard at ways to ensure that it can bring its unique skill sets and otherwise survive, even in more contested environments, while taking part in future high-end fights.
Qatar are the headline news in the latest group of confirmed entrants for next year’s FIFA 2026 World Cup following the most recent round of qualifying matches.
The hosts of the 2022 edition of the global showpiece event reached the finals for the first time through the qualification route, when they beat the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.
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South Africa also clinched a tight group, with fellow African giants Nigeria pushed to the playoffs, on a tense final day of group stage qualifiers on the continent. This came a day after Cape Verde’s first qualification for the World Cup finals.
The European teams still have some way to go to finish their qualifying groups, but the picture has become far clearer with some progress already made.
Al Jazeera Sport takes a close look at how the qualifying process stands around the globe:
Which teams are in the FIFA World Cup 2026?
After the latest round of qualifying matches, here is a breakdown of the confirmed contenders from each of the six regions:
Hosts: Canada, Mexico, United States
Asia: Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay
Who can still qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026?
Africa: Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Nigeria will play off for the final intercontinental spot from the continent. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has yet to announce the dates for those matches.
Asia: The UAE and Iraq will vie for one intercontinental playoffs spot when they compete over two legs in the final stage of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers in November.
Europe: 53 of the 54 European teams vying for 16 qualification spots can still confirm their berths, alongside England, as their first-round matches will run until November 18.
North, Central America and the Caribbean: With the World Cup host nations taking three spots, only three are left up for grabs. They will be decided on November 18. Bermuda, Costa Rica, Curacao, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have all advanced to the third round. The three second-placed teams from each group will then fight for the intercontinental playoffs spot.
Oceania: New Caledonia have qualified for the intercontinental playoffs.
South America: Bolivia have qualified for the intercontinental playoffs, having missed out on one of the six automatic qualifying positions.
Which major teams have been eliminated from qualification?
Peru and Chile, who were third-place finishers in 1962, were the biggest names to miss out from the South America qualifiers, where Venezuela were also eliminated.
Although not considered a powerhouse in Asia, China will be disappointed not to reach their first finals since 2002.
Angola, Libya, Mali and Namibia will be among those disappointed to be eliminated from the African qualification.
Indonesia were hoping to reach only a second World Cup, and made a valiant run to the fourth round of AFC qualification. But they will be disappointed not to have gone one step further following their Dutch recruitment drive, which included their coach, Patrick Kluivert.
Bahrain, who topped their 2023 AFC Asian Cup group stage ahead of South Korea, only to be eliminated by Japan in the round of 16, will be deflated to have missed out on the chance to showcase their skills on the global stage. Palestine were only seconds away from reaching the fourth round of the AFC qualifier and, following their historic run to the knockout stage of the last Asian Cup, will also be disappointed not to have at least gone one step further in their continental qualifiers.
When will all the teams for the FIFA World Cup 2026 be confirmed?
European qualification rounds stretch beyond the current group stages to March, while the intercontinental playoff final is scheduled for the same month, so the final 48 teams for the World Cup will not be known until less than three months before the tournament. March 31, 2026, is when all qualification will come to an end.
When and where is the draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026?
The World Cup draw, as revealed by US President Donald Trump in August, will take place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
“It’s the biggest, probably the biggest event in sports, I guess,” said Trump, who made the announcement in an Oval Office event where he was joined by Vice President JD Vance and FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Trump also did not rule out overseeing the draw himself.
When is the FIFA World Cup 2026 scheduled?
The tournament begins in Mexico City on June 11, and ends with the final in New Jersey on July 19.
Israel has imposed new restrictions on aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip and will not open the Rafah crossing as planned, while Israeli forces killed several people in the Palesitinian territory as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire came under growing strain.
Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, confirmed the UN had received the note from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza.
The COGAT note said no fuel or gas will be allowed into the war-torn enclave except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud noted that allowing 300 trucks of aid each day was “not nearly enough” for famine-stricken Gaza.
“Three hundred is not enough. It’s not going to change anything,” he said.
Israeli authorities also announced the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed.
The restrictions came hours after Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians in attacks in northern and southern Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
At least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza City, and three others were killed in Khan Younis.
Sources from al-Ahli Arab Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic on Tuesday that Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinians in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it opened fire to remove a threat posed by people who approached its forces in northern Gaza.
The attacks come four days after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect, preparing the way for an exchange of captives and partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
The ceasefire is the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s proposal for ending Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed at least 67,913 people and wounded 170,134 since October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities. The remains of thousands of other people are estimated to be under the rubble in Gaza.
At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 others were taken captive.
(Al Jazeera)
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hamas and Israel carried out an exchange on Monday that saw the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails and 20 Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip. Some 154 prisoners were exiled to Egypt.
Hamas was also due to return the remains of 24 dead captives on Monday, but the group only handed over four coffins.
Trump’s ceasefire plan provided a mechanism if that handover didn’t happen, saying Hamas should share information about deceased captives and “exert maximum effort” to carry out the handover as soon as possible.
Hamas said that it would transfer the remains of four more deceased Israeli captives on Tuesday, and the Israeli military said that the Red Cross had received the bodies.
The Israeli military accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire “regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages”.
Trump noted the delay in handing over the remains of the deceased captives in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED! Phase Two begins right NOW!!!” he wrote.
Hamas has previously said recovering the bodies of some captives could take more time because not all sites where they were held are known, and because of the vast Israeli destruction of the enclave.
“The headline here is, Israel is already starting to put threats of restricting aid going into Gaza for what they say is the slow work by Hamas to get the bodies of the deceased captives back to Israel,” Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said, reporting from the UN.
Israel unilaterally broke the last ceasefire in Gaza. AJ+ spoke to journalist and analyst Omar Rahman about what might make this deal different. #Gaza#Ceasefire#Israel#PeaceDeal#Palestine
The UN and the International Red Cross called for all crossings into Gaza to be opened to allow desperately needed aid into the enclave. The UN had 190,000 metric tonnes of aid waiting and ready to go into Gaza, OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said on Tuesday.
UNICEF spokesman Ricardo Pires, meanwhile, said the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had 1,370 trucks ready to enter Gaza.
“The level of destruction, again, is so huge that it will take at least 600 trucks a day, which is the aim that we have,” he said. “We’re far from that.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) also stressed the need to send more aid into Gaza.
“We need to scale up the delivery of medical supplies because the pressure on hospitals is not going to ease overnight,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters.
“We need really to bring as many supplies as we can right now to make sure that those health workers who are still providing healthcare have what they need.”
The US has struck another vessel off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people, President Donald Trump has said.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the vessel belonged to “narcoterrorists” and that it was “trafficking narcotics.”
This is the fifth strike of its kind by the Trump administration on a boat accused of trafficking drugs on international waters since September. In total, 27 people have been reported killed, but the US has not provided evidence or details about identities of the vessels or those on board them.
Some lawyers have accused the US of breaching international law, and neighbouring nations like Colombia and Venezuela have condemned the strikes.
In his Truth Social post, Trump said “intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known” route for smuggling.
He also posted an aerial surveillance video showing a small boat on water that is struck by a missile and explodes.
Trump did not specify the nationality of those on board, or what drug smuggling organisation they are suspected of belonging to. He added that no US military personnel were injured.
The strike comes after a recent leaked memo sent to Congress, and reported on by US media, that said the administration determined the US was in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.
The US has positioned its strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels as self-defence, despite many lawyers questioning their legality.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The U.S. Army continues to lag behind global trends when it comes to fielding drones and systems to counter their use by hostile forces, according to a top general overseeing soldiers in Europe. Units forward-deployed in the European theater are trying to break a cycle of seemingly endless experimentation to actually operationalize relevant capabilities, especially within smaller units, buoyed now by major U.S. military-wide initiatives.
Army Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, commander of V Corps, talked about issues relating to drones and counter-drone capabilities at a panel discussion at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual symposium yesterday. TWZ‘s Howard Altman was in attendance and had a chance to talk further with Costanza immediately afterward. From World War II through the Cold War, and for years afterward, V Corps was a key component of the Army’s presence in Europe. Inactivated in Germany in 2013, it was reestablished at Fort Knox in Kentucky in 2020, and a forward headquarters in Poland was subsequently stood up.
A soldier assigned to 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which falls under the command of V Corps, launches a quadcopter drone during training. US Army
“We’re behind. I’ll just be candid. I think we know we’re behind,” Costanza said in response to a direct question at the panel from our Howard Altman. “We’ve been talking about counter-UAS [uncrewed aerial systems] and UAS capability for a better part of a decade, since, really, we watched the war in Armenia and Azerbaijan go on, and saw very much the beginning of the drone UAS capabilities.”
A Stryker light armored vehicle fitted with a counter-drone sensor system assigned to 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which falls under V Corps. US Army
The propaganda video below from the State Border Service of Azerbaijan highlights how much of a fixture kamikaze drones were in the 2020 war between that country and Armenia.
“We aren’t moving fast enough,” Costanza continued. “And it really took Russia’s invasion of Ukraine [in 2022], and the way they’re innovating, and Ukrainians are innovating, to realize, hey, we need to move fast.”
A Ukrainian drone from the 79th Air Assault Brigade drops a 40mm HEDP grenade on a Russian UR-77 Meteorit, causing a catastrophic payload explosion. pic.twitter.com/SsaQCKXsNL
Many were surprised yesterday by the news that a Russian fiber-optic FPV drone flew into Kramatorsk and attacked a car.
But there is nothing surprising here. The war of 2025 is already very different from the war of 2024. From LBZ to Kram — 20 kilometers. Enemy FPVs can fly even… pic.twitter.com/hTfhJFPcxZ
“I think we do,” Costanza also said when asked specifically if the U.S. military needed a capability broadly in line with the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 long-range kamikaze drone. The Shahed-136 has become something of a household name as a result of Russia’s heavy use of variants and derivatives, including types it now produces domestically, in attacks on Ukraine. Last month, TWZ laid out a detailed case for why the U.S. military should already be buying tens of thousands of Shahed-136 clones, which you can find here.
A view inside a Russian factory producing versions of the Shahed-136 kamikaze drone. Russian Media
As part of his response to the questions from our Howard Altman, Costanza highlighted Project Flytrap as a prime example of efforts underway to try to reverse these trends. Flytrap is an ongoing series of Army-led training events in Europe focused on counter-drone capabilities and tactics, techniques, and procedures to go with them.
“I think Flytrap is the start point to that, right? So I think Flytrap is taking the capabilities we have right now, identifying how we layer those capabilities, and then taking that, giving it back to the Army, and saying, here’s how you do it now, go make the acquisition purchase,” Costanza said. “Flytrap is just really trying to figure out what the systems are that we need. The scope and scale piece goes back to the Army.”
Members of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment aim a counter-drone jammer during a Project Flytrap event. US Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Saunders
“What we learned is that there’s really no one system solution. It takes a layered approach. And you know, the way to think about it is, you have to detect what’s in the air, what’s a threat. You have to decide what you’re going to do about it, and that you need the means to actually do something about it,” Col. Donald Neal, commander of the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which falls under V Corps, also said yesterday while speaking alongside Costanza. “There’s no one system solution to protecting the air above you.”
A key “challenge has been getting the network straight, being able to have the data in a cloud-based environment that we can process it in a way that’s integrated, not just with the counter-UAS systems, but the larger, integrated air and missile defense network, and how we do that. So we’re working through that,” Costanza further noted. “What we need to do now is take those systems, integrate them with an AI [artificial intelligence] capable, data-driven mission command system, [and] sync it all together, not just [for the] U.S., but across all our NATO partners.”
The 2nd Cavalry Regiment has been taking a leading role in Project Flytrap, as well as separate but adjacent efforts to step up the fielding of uncrewed aerial systems, including weaponized types, within the service’s own formations.
Stryker light armored vehicles assigned to 2nd Cavalry Regiment seen configured for a Project Flytrap event. US Army Sgt. Alejandro Carrasquel
“2nd Cavalry Regiment is standing up what they call Delta Company,” Costanza noted during the panel. “It’s taking all the different systems that can have effects, lethal, non-lethal – so not just kinetic, but EW [electronic warfare] – counter-UAS, [as well as] UAS, [and] creating one organization to synchronize those capabilities faster than what we’re able to do right now.”
The Army has already been experimenting with similar units, which have been referred to as Strike Companies and Multi-Purpose Companies (MPC) in the past, outside of 2nd Cavalry, which you can read more about here.
“I think Putin feels he’s in conflict with NATO right now,” Costanza told our Howard Altman in the interview after the panel. “I think he’s just going to continue to ramp that up until we stop it, and NATO knows that, but we still haven’t done that yet.”
US Army Gen. Charles Costanza, head of V Corps, meets with soldiers. US Army Spc. Sar Paw
When it comes to the broader issue of the Army lagging in the fielding of drones and counter-drone systems, Project Flytrap and the other work V Corps is involved in are clearly aimed at operationalizing new capabilities. The Pentagon has publicly lauded Flytrap as an example of the services moving to act on the new direction from the Secretary of War intended to address increasingly worrisome capability and capacity gaps that extend well beyond American forces in Europe.
In July, the Pentagon announced a sweeping array of policy and other changes structured around the central goal of getting huge numbers of drones, including weaponized types, into the hands of units, especially smaller ones, across the entire U.S. military. In August, Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) stood up as the newest U.S. military organization intended to act as a focal point for the accelerated development and fielding of counter-drone systems for use on the battlefield, as well as to defend facilities and assets within the homeland.
At the same time, what Gen. Costanza talked about yesterday still sounds very much like the kinds of test and evaluation efforts that have been going on for years already. As he himself acknowledged, much of the work that has been done to date has not translated into major new operational capabilities, even as Ukraine and Russia, and many other countries globally, particularly China, have pushed ahead. The Army faced pointed criticism in July after touting the test of a grenade-dropping drone in Europe, a capability that has been in daily use for years now on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Grammy-winning R&B singer D’Angelo has passed away at age 51 following a “prolonged and courageous battle with cancer”, according to a statement from his family.
On Tuesday, his loved ones released a statement announcing his death. “The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life,” it read.
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“We are saddened that he can only leave dear memories with his family, but we are eternally grateful for the legacy of extraordinarily moving music he leaves behind.”
D’Angelo, whose real name was Michael Eugene Archer, was best known for his silky vocals during the 1990s and 2000s, with his record Voodoo earning him the 2001 Grammy for Best R&B album.
His hit single from that album, Untitled (How Does It Feel), not only won him another Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, but it also catapulted him into the mainstream spotlight with its steamy music video, featuring a shirtless D’Angelo singing directly to the camera.
The music publication Rolling Stone has ranked Voodoo as one of its best albums of all time.
News of his passing prompted an outpouring of remembrances from fans, including fellow musicians.
“I never met D’Angelo but I love him, respect him, admire his gift. This loss HURTS!!” singer-songwriter Jill Scott wrote on the social media platform X, adding: “R.I.P. GENIUS.”
Another musician, rapper Doja Cat, offered condolences to D’Angelo’s loved ones. She called him “a true voice of soul and inspiration to many brilliant artists of our generation and generations to come”.
D’Angelo performs at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 6, 2012 [Cheryl Gerber/Invision via AP Photo]
In his music, D’Angelo blended hip-hop grit, emphatic soul and gospel-rooted emotion into a sound that helped spearhead the neo-soul movement of the 1990s.
Earlier this year, the Virginia native celebrated the 30th anniversary of his debut studio album Brown Sugar, a platinum-selling offering that produced signature hits like Lady.
That 1995 album earned him multiple Grammy nominations and cemented him as one of R&B’s most original new voices.
D’Angelo’s sultry vocal style — a mix of raspy texture and church-bred fluidity — set him apart from his peers. That voice became inseparable from the striking visuals of the Untitled (How Does It Feel) music video.
Its minimalist aesthetic became a cultural touchstone, igniting conversations around artistry, sexuality and vulnerability in Black male representation.
Beyond his own catalogue, D’Angelo’s artistry shone in collaborations. He memorably duetted with Lauryn Hill on the soulful ballad Nothing Even Matters, a highlight of her landmark 1998 album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
He also contributed to The Roots’ 1996 album Illadelph Halflife and was part of the supergroup Black Men United, which yielded one song, U Will Know, for the film Jason’s Lyric in 1994. D’Angelo wrote and co-produced the single.
D’Angelo received multiple Grammy nominations and two wins for his album Voodoo [Charles Sykes/Invision via AP Photo]
D’Angelo was in a four-year relationship with Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone in the 1990s.
The pair met while he was finishing the album Brown Sugar and bonded over their similar backgrounds: Both are from the South and both grew up in the church. Stone worked on the album with D’Angelo, and the pair co-wrote the song Everyday for her 1999 debut album, Black Diamond.
Stone described D’Angelo as her “musical soul mate” in an interview with The Associated Press in 1999, adding that their working relationship was “like milk and cereal”.
“Musically, it was magic,” Stone said. “It’s something that I have not been able to do with any other producer or musician.”
They had a son together, the artist Swayvo Twain, born Michael Archer Jr. Stone died earlier this year in a car crash. She was 63.
D’Angelo also has a daughter, Imani Archer.
Among the tributes to D’Angelo’s artistry on Tuesday was a social media post from Tyler, the Creator, who reminisced about combing his local music store on his ninth birthday.
“I had $20 in birthday money and my eyes set on leaving with one thing. VOODOO by D’Angelo,” Tyler, the Creator, wrote on Instagram. “I had no idea that would help shape my musical dna.”
“I couldn’t understand how someone could write something so simple but personal but broad but genius,” he continued. “Thats how special he was.”
The actor and musician Jamie Foxx, meanwhile, offered his memories of seeing D’Angelo perform live at the concert venue House of Blues.
“Your voice was silky and flawless,” Foxx wrote on Instagram, addressing the late D’Angelo directly. “I was also in pure awe of your talents…. roaming around on each instrument, displaying your expertise in every note and every song.”
Foxx added that D’Angelo would be missed forever. “That’s why today real tears run down my face.”
Recent battlefield gains by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) may turn the tide in Kordofan, analysts have told Al Jazeera.
Sudan’s devastating war between the SAF and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has raged for two and a half years, resulting in massive displacement and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.
Yet SAF’s capture in September of the strategic city of Bara, which the RSF was using for logistics, supplies, and as a muster point for reinforcements, is seen as a sign that SAF may have swung the pendulum in its favour.
Why is Bara important?
Bara lies about 350km (217 miles) southwest of the capital Khartoum along the “Export Road” used to truck goods from Khartoum to el-Obeid, capital of North Kordofan State.
It also exports its own agricultural products and livestock to the rest of Sudan.
The Khartoum-el-Obeid connection is vital because from el-Obeid, roads lead outwards to South Sudan and Sudan’s east and Darfur in the west.
From Khartoum, roads lead northeast to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the wartime government was until recently. Roads also lead north to Egypt and east to Eritrea and Ethiopia.
SAF took el-Obeid in February, after a two-year RSF siege, and took Khartoum in March, so taking Bara gave it solid control over the Export Road to use as a supply route, independent Sudanese military and political analyst Akram Ali told Al Jazeera.
(Al Jazeera)
Bara and el-Obeid lie near the westernmost reaches of SAF control, well to the east of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the last city SAF holds in the vast western region. Between the two is a stretch of RSF control – and siege on el-Fasher – that SAF has to breach.
For the RSF, keeping Bara and a foothold in Kordofan was important because it allowed it to put pressure on SAF, which holds territory to the north, and to link the areas it controls in Kordofan and Darfur to South Sudan, links it uses to move weapons and fighters.
How did SAF take Bara?
The army launched an offensive on Bara from the south on September 11, while RSF defences were concentrated on the eastern side, analyst Abdul Majeed Abdul Hamid said.
SAF sent continuous drone strikes against RSF targets, then launched the Darfur Track Armed Struggle Movement, an assault force known for mobility and speed, from el-Obeid.
The force successfully engaged and defeated the RSF unit defending Bara, then entered the city with heavy firepower, according to a military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The officer said the operation relied on speed and keeping the RSF occupied on several fronts to prevent it from sending reinforcements.
Most of Bara’s civilians supported SAF, according to Abdul Hamid, and the RSF quickly retreated.
The operation cut off RSF supply and military support lines, he added, isolating their remaining positions in areas such as al-Khuwei to the west and al-Nahud to the east.
For the RSF, keeping Bara and a foothold in Kordofan was important because it allowed it to put pressure on SAF, which holds territory to the north, and to link the areas it controls in Kordofan and Darfur to South Sudan, links it uses to move weapons and fighters.
Losing Bara also meant that the RSF could no longer keep the city of el-Obeid under siege.
Will the RSF lose the Kordofans?
The RSF announced in February this year that it had entered an alliance with the Southern People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). South Kordofan includes the Abyei region, disputed between Sudan and South Sudan. The SPLM-N controls the vast, isolated Nuba Mountains region in South Kordofan, right up against the border with South Sudan.
However, despite that new stronghold, analysts told Al Jazeera that losing control over the Export Road spells a serious deterioration in the RSF’s power in the Kordofans.
“The army’s entry into el-Obeid marked the beginning of their actual collapse,” said Ali.
Widespread disease outbreaks have overwhelmed hospitals in war-torn Sudan [Screengrab/Al Jazeera]
An army unit called “Al-Sayyad” – named after a commander killed in the early days of the war – had moved from Rabak, capital of White Nile State, in a campaign that eventually reached el-Obeid.
Political analyst Ahmed Shamukh said liberating Bara opens the door to reactivating the SAF air base in el-Obeid, the largest in Kordofan, after two years of inactivity, “significantly [enhancing] the logistical and combat capabilities of the Sudanese army” and helping SAF’s campaign to expel RSF from the Kordofans.
Taking back all of Kordofan would allow SAF to work towards liberating Darfur, Abdul Hamid said.
“The army has combat experience and personnel capable of liberating Kordofan with the same capabilities it used to retake the cities of central Sudan and the capital,” Abdul Hamid continued.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 10 million in what has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
According to the UN, a total of 24.6 million people face acute food insecurity, while 19 million people lack access to safe water and sanitation.
The Indonesia government said last week it will not grant visas to Israeli gymnasts for the World Championships.
Published On 14 Oct 202514 Oct 2025
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport has rejected appeals by the Israel Gymnastics Federation to be allowed to compete at a world championships in Indonesia this weekend.
The CAS also turned down Israel’s request to force the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to guarantee Israel’s participation, or alternatively cancel or move the artistic worlds, set to start on Sunday in Jakarta.
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The Indonesian government last week said it will not grant visas to Israeli gymnasts, and the Swiss-based CAS said on Tuesday that FIG stated it has no control over Indonesia’s visa policies.
In its reaction to Indonesia’s move, the FIG did not threaten to take the event away from Indonesia as stipulated in its statutes for cases where the host refuses to issue visas. Israel wanted the FIG “taking note” of the government statement to be annulled, but CAS also rejected that on Tuesday.
Indonesia’s decision to deny visas came after Israel’s planned participation sparked intense opposition in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, which has long been a staunch supporter of Palestinians.
Israel is among 86 countries registered to compete at the worlds, with a team featuring 2021 Olympic gold medallist and defending world champion Artem Dolgopyat in the men’s floor exercise.
Now its participation is in doubt, even though the Israeli federation said in July that it had been assured by Indonesian officials that it would be welcome at the worlds. That would have gone against Indonesia’s longstanding policy of refusing to host Israeli sport delegations for major events.
The gymnastics spat is the latest example of how the global backlash against Israel over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza has spread into the arenas of sport and culture.
‘Legendary’, ‘pure class’ and ‘on another level’ are just some of the terms used to describe Kevin de Bruyne this week.
The Belgian is enjoying one of his best starts to a season since moving to Napoli on a free transfer this summer which begs the question, did he leave Manchester City a year too early?
The exodus of senior City players in the past year has been well documented, with the likes of Ederson, Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan and Kyle Walker all leaving for pastures new.
De Bruyne was also deemed surplus to requirements – despite 16 trophies and more than 400 appearances – and the midfielder, reluctant to leave, joined Napoli when his contract expired in June.
“I was a bit surprised but I just have to accept it,” said De Bruyne back in April. “Honestly, I still think I can perform at this level like I’m showing, but I understand clubs have to make decisions.”
It turns out the 34-year-old was correct in his self-assessment.
When Jibrin Kolo Adamu talks about how the HumAngle Accountability Fellowship changed his life, his eyes light up with purpose. “The fellowship was impactful because I am currently working because of the skills I acquired from it,” he said.
He added that “I learnt the art of human storytelling, and it helped me to win several grants and partnerships for my organisation. I now lead advocacy programs because of the HumAngle training.”
Jibrin is one of many young journalists and advocates from Borno State who have passed through the HumAngle Accountability Fellowship. The fellowship program was launched in 2022 with support from the MacArthur Foundation to promote transparency, accountability through storytelling, and community-driven advocacy initiatives. Over the past three years, five cohorts have been trained, with fellows drawn from the northern, central, and southern federal constituents of Borno state.
For many of them, the fellowship was a turning point.
Halima Bawah, a fellow from central Borno, said the training gave her the courage to start her own organisation. “I launched an advocacy group promoting renewable and sustainable climate action solutions. Now my company provides climate-smart solutions, recycling plastic waste, and offering consultations to other organisations,” she explained proudly.
Rukkaya Ahmed Alibe, who works with a radio station in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State, said the fellowship transformed her broadcasting career. “I have integrated human-centred storytelling into my radio programs. It has made my work more impactful and connected to the people. I now produce stories that give voice to local communities,” she said.
Another alumnus, Abubakar Mukhtar Abba, from central Borno, shared how the fellowship inspired his journalism journey. “I had no background in journalism, but the fellowship gave me everything in six months. I am now a freelance journalist reporting important stories about the humanitarian crisis in the region. My stories are driven by the question of accountability and how it affects the lives of ordinary people. All thanks to HumAngle,” he said.
The fellowship aims to build a new generation of journalists and advocates who use storytelling to demand accountability and amplify community voices in conflict-affected areas.
Speaking during an alumni roundtable session held on Oct. 11 in Maiduguri, Angela Umoru-David, HumAngle Foundation’s Director, said the engagement was an opportunity to see how far the fellows have come. “Engaging with the alumni was an opportunity to experience first-hand the impact the fellowship had on the participants. We have achieved exactly what we hoped for: a network of young people pushing locally-driven solutions and demanding accountability,” Angela said.
According to Angela, many alumni are now leading organisations, winning international fellowships, and pursuing advanced studies abroad. “We have an alumnus pursuing a PhD in security studies in China, another starting a waste management and environmental protection company, and many others representing their communities on global platforms,” she added.
Salma Jumah, Senior Programme Officer of the Foundation. Photo: Usman Abba Zanna/HumAngle
The stories of progress from the fellows are not limited to Borno State alone. Across Adamawa and Yobe, the fellows have similar stories. During a similar roundtable held in Yola, the Adamawa state capital, in September, fellows said HumAngle had been a major influence on how their careers are blossoming currently, expressing their willingness for collaborations in the future.
“The support HumAngle gives us goes a long way,” Habila Albert, a member of the second cohort of the fellowship noted. Fellows from Damaturu in Yobe also highlighted stories of collaboration within each other.
Salma Jumah, Senior Programme Officer of the Foundation, noted that the fellowship’s success reflects the power of knowledge and collaboration. “The learning session with the Accountability Fellows has shown us that they have built a strong network and a remarkable trail of impact. Hearing from participants across all cohorts, we’ve seen significant accomplishments and stories of change that speak to the strength of this community,” Salma said.
From classrooms to radio stations, and from local advocacy groups to international platforms, the fellows of the HumAngle Accountability Fellowship continue to inspire change and promote accountability and transparency in both private and public sectors across northeastern Nigeria.
The HumAngle Accountability Fellowship, launched in 2022 with support from the MacArthur Foundation, has had a transformative impact on young journalists and advocates in Borno State, Nigeria. Participants, like Jibrin Kolo Adamu, have acquired storytelling skills that have advanced their careers, aiding Jibrin in securing grants and leading advocacy programs. The fellowship aims to build a new generation of professionals who use storytelling to demand accountability and amplify community voices in conflict zones.
The program has also inspired fellows like Halima Bawah to start advocacy groups and others to integrate human-centered stories into media. Angela Umoru-David, HumAngle Foundation’s Director, emphasized the program’s success, seen through alumni leading organizations, winning fellowships, and pursuing advanced studies. Fellows across northeastern Nigeria continue to collaborate, highlighting the fellowship’s role in fostering a strong network committed to promoting transparency and accountability in various sectors.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
AeroVironment has unveiled a new member of its Switchblade family of loitering munitions, the Switchblade 400. It is designed to offer similar capabilities, especially when it comes to destroying enemy tanks and other heavy armor, to the larger Switchblade 600, but in a package that a single individual can employ. It is also sized to fit into U.S. military standard Common Launch Tubes (CLT), which are typically used to fire precision-guided munitions and small uncrewed aerial systems from crewed and uncrewed aircraft, primarily within the special operations community.
Todd Hanning, product line director for what AeroVironment is currently calling its Mojave systems, which includes the Switchblade 400, talked about the new offering with TWZ‘s Howard Altman on the show floor at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual symposium today. The Switchblade 400 was originally developed to meet a U.S. Army requirement under the service’s Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) program. LASSO is also part of a larger effort that the service calls its Lethal Unmanned Systems Directed Requirement (LUS DR). The Army has already been buying Switchblade 300s, which are smaller than the new 400 version, as well as the bigger 600s, to meet its LASSO/LUS DR needs.
The Switchblade 400. AeroVironment
Hanning explained that the core Army requirement that led to the Switchblade 400 was a total weight of 40 pounds for the All-Up-Round (AUR), which consists of the loitering munition and its launch tube. AeroVironment’s website says a single individual can carry the weapon and have it ready to launch within five minutes. The Switchblade 600 is available in a man-portable form, but is designed for employment by a team and takes twice as much time to set up.
Switchblade 400 needed to be a “single soldier lift,” Hanning said. “Switchblade 600, coming in at about 67 pounds, so right out of the gate, we’ve got to shed about 30 pounds off this thing. Yet we still want the same lethality for [sic; as] a Javelin.”
Images from a Switchblade 400 test launch. AeroVironment
The Switchblade 600 notably features an anti-armor warhead based on the one in the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). AeroVironment also unveiled a Block 2 version of the Switchblade 600 today, which offers greater endurance and a new secondary payload bay for added flexibility, as well as improvements to its artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven automated target recognition capabilities.
Hanning said that the Switchblade 400 and Switchblade 600 Block 2 reflect a new modular, open-architecture approach AeroVironment is taking, which offers benefits when it comes to manufacturing and supply chains. The “same avionics, … the same camera architecture, same motor, [and] same power technology” are used in both models.
Overall, Switchblade 400 is “how do we take, really, a Block 2 [Switchblade 600], the next-gen, take 30 pounds out of it, and still do the same mission,” Hanning added. “Now you’re losing a little bit of endurance, right? We had to pull two cameras out, but you still have a gimbaled payload with probably the best optics out there on this kind of a platform, you’ve got the Javelin [warhead], you’ve got some new battery technology, and it’s very lightweight.”
A graphic showing the latest variations of the Switchblade family, including the new Switchblade 400. AeroVironment
AeroVironment’s website says Switchblade 400 has a maximum endurance of 35 minutes, and a speed profile that allows for 27 and 15 minutes of loiter time after reaching target areas 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) and 21.7 miles (35 kilometers) away, respectively. The company also says it can reach out to around 40 miles (65 kilometers) by handing off control to an operator closer to the target.
This all puts Switchblade 400 roughly in between current-generation Switchblade 300s and Switchblade 600s in terms of range and endurance, but with the ability to engage the same kinds of targets as the latter. Switchblade 300s have much smaller warheads weighing just under four pounds. Switchblade 400 also gives a single user a major boost in capability over a Javelin, which has a demonstrated maximum range of just under two and a half miles (4,000 meters) in its latest man-portable configuration, and no ability to loiter.
Hanning used the breadth of targets that Ukrainian forces have been using Switchblade 600s against to underscore the capabilities on offer. Ukraine has received tranches of both Switchblade 300s and 600s.
“They were shooting some tanks early on, but now you’re seeing them take out surface-to-air missile batteries constantly,” he said. “They’ve taken out some trains. A lot of command elements. But mostly what you’re seeing is those high-value assets, those mobile surface-to-air missile batteries.”
” We had feedback from our partners in Ukraine that they had expended some $36 Million of Switchblade [600] munitions. We have received some input from others that $100K per munition is too expensive when they would like a $2K quadcopter.
It is worth noting here that AeroVironment has been securing sales of Switchblade 300s and 600s to a growing number of countries beyond the United States and Ukraine in recent years. Last year, the U.S. government notably approved the potential sale of 720 Switchblade 300s to Taiwan. The Taiwanese armed forces have been stepping up their acquisition of a growing array of one-way attack drones as part of a larger strategy to challenge a potential intervention from the mainland, as you can read more about here.
That being said, lessons learned from the particular drone-heavy war in Ukraine have been very important for AeroVironment, according to Hanning.
“We take lessons learned from all of the systems that are in Ukraine, and rapidly inject that technology into the 400 and the 600 Block 2,” Hanning said. “So launching in different environments, on different ground surfaces, that was one. Tactics for range and for how you engage the target. So we’re engaging from higher altitudes. We’re engaging faster. We have different communication modes, silent modes, things like that.”
Hanning said the silent mode referred to here involves operating, at least for a time, without emitting signals that enemy forces could detect. He noted that members of the Switchblade family are designed around concepts of operations that involve a human at least ‘on-the-loop’ during any endgame attack run, despite their highly automated targeting capabilities.
In general terms of controlling Switchblades after launch, “we are running Silvus radio[s], but we are agnostic to radios. So we’ve also integrated an L3Harris radio. We did that about two weeks ago. Very easy,” he added. “So, we’re looking to, how can we shed weight at the soldier level so that we’re using all the common systems that they’re already carrying. So, if that’s a PRC radio that they’re already carrying, if we can leverage that for our C2 [command and control] scheme, then that’s what we’d want to do. … that’s part of that whole modular, open system architecture.”
Switchblade 400s, as well as 600s, could make use of their modularity in other ways going forward. Hanning highlighted the possibility of different warhead options by mentioning a test involving a different type supplied by a company called Corvid Technologies.
“We’re really open to whatever the DoD wants. When a lot of people come to us and say, ‘use my thing,’ and I’m like, well, what does the Army think about that?” Hanning said. “We need to know what they want versus what a vendor wants you to want. And so the best way to do that is to just be very open, hear the voice of the customer, and have the ability to integrate things.”
“When you start doing mixed payloads, you definitely want to play with some [things], maybe a smaller warhead, with some electronic warfare packages, things like that,” he continued. CACI is set to supply an electronic warfare package for testing on Switchblade 400 later this month.
AeroVironment’s emphasis on flexibility has already extended to launch modes. Launchers integrated into crewed and uncrewed armored and other ground vehicles, offering indirect fire and reconnaissance capabilities, have been put forward. The Switchblade 300, at least, has been test-launched from maritime platforms. Last month, General Atomics also announced a test launch of a Switchblade 600 from one of its MQ-9 Reaper drones.
An MQ-9 Reaper launches a Switchblade 600 during a test. General Atomics
A Common Launch Tube. SystimaCLTs seen loaded into launchers built into the rear cargo ramp of an AC-130W Stinger II special operations gunship. USAF
When it comes to the Army requirement that drove the initial development of the Switchblade 400, the service is currently evaluating four different options, according to AeroVironment’s Hanning. A downselect of some kind is expected to come in time, but it’s unclear whether the service might choose to further pursue multiple entrants.
Whether or not the Army ultimately acquires Switchblade 400s, it looks to be a significant new addition to this family of loitering munitions, which is seeing growing popularity globally.
Donald Trump says there is peace in the Middle East, after signing the Gaza ceasefire deal. But when asked about a two-state solution, Trump suggested he hadn’t focused on long-term solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Analysts say there will be no lasting peace in the Middle East, without a Palestinian state.
The October 13, 2023, attack in southern Lebanon killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six other reporters.
Published On 14 Oct 202514 Oct 2025
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The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Lebanon to continue its pursuit of justice over a deadly Israeli strike two years ago that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six other reporters.
The rights group said in a statement on Monday that it welcomed a move by Lebanon’s Ministry of Justice to investigate legal options to press charges against Israel for crimes against journalists.
Reporters Without Borders also welcomed that “Lebanon is finally taking action” as Israel is accused of targeting a large number of journalists during its military aggression in Gaza and Lebanon.
Issam Abdallah, a videographer for the Reuters news agency, was killed in the October 13, 2023, attack by an Israeli tank on southern Lebanon near the Israeli border. Two Al Jazeera reporters were among those injured.
HRW said Lebanon’s announcement last week that it was looking at legal options to pursue the matter presented a “fresh opportunity to achieve justice for the victims”.
Ramzi Kaiss, the NGO’s Lebanon researcher, said the country’s action to hold Israel accountable is overdue.
“Israel’s apparently deliberate killing of Issam Abdallah should have served as a crystal clear message for Lebanon’s government that impunity for war crimes begets more war crimes,” he said.
“Since Issam’s killing, scores of other civilians in Lebanon have been killed in apparently deliberate or indiscriminate attacks that violate the laws of war and amount to war crimes,” Kaiss asserted.
Journalists place their cameras on the grave of Lebanese photojournalist Issam Abdallah during his funeral in his hometown of Khiam on October 14, 2023 [Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]
‘War crime’
The October 2023 attack wounded Al Jazeera cameraman Elie Brakhia and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, Reuters journalists Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, and the AFP news agency’s Christina Assi and Dylan Collins.
Assi was seriously wounded and had to have her right leg amputated.
HRW said an investigation by the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had found that an Israeli Merkava tank had fired two 120mm rounds at the group of clearly identifiable journalists.
The journalists were removed from the hostilities and had been stationary for more than an hour when they came under fire, the report said. No exchange of fire had been recorded across the border for more than 40 minutes before the attack.
The NGO said it had found no evidence of a military target near the journalists’ location and, because the incident appeared to be a deliberate attack on civilians, it constituted a war crime.
A journalist’s car burns at the site where Reuters videojournalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six others were injured in an Israeli tank attack in southern Lebanon on October 13, 2023 [Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters]
‘Premeditated, targeted attack’
Morris Tidball-Binz, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said on Friday that the attack was “a premeditated, targeted and double-tapped attack from the Israeli forces, a clear violation, in my opinion, of [international humanitarian law], a war crime”.
Reporters Without Borders urged Beirut to refer the case to the International Criminal Court, saying on Friday: “Lebanon is finally taking action against impunity for the crime.”
In February, the Committee to Protect Journalists said a record 124 journalists had been killed in 2024 and Israel was responsible for more than two-thirds of those deaths.
Wage growth in the UK cooled slightly over the summer, as unemployment ticked up marginally.
Average wage growth was 4.7% in the three months to August, down from 4.8% over the three months to July, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The national unemployment rate rose slightly from 4.7% to 4.8%.
Analysts said the data indicated that the UK jobs market was stabilising after a year of volatility.
Job vancancies fell by 9,000, or 1.3%, in the three months to September, and the ONS said this was the 39th consecutive period in which job openings had fallen compared to the previous three months.
Liz McKeown, the ONS’s director of economic statistics, said: “After a long period of weak hiring activity, there are signs that the falls we have seen in both payroll numbers and vacancies are now levelling off.”
Youth drive unemployment
Ms McKeown said the ONS was seeing different patterns among age groups, adding “the increase in unemployment was driven mostly by younger people.”
There was a quarterly drop in the number of people who were economically inactive because they were students or retired, but this was largely offset by a rise in economic inactivity for other reasons, including long-term illness and for other reasons.
Danni Hewson, AJ Bell’s head of financial analysis, said the figures were creating “a clearer picture of a labour market that’s soft, with younger workers facing the biggest challenges”.
She said the decision by Chancellor Rachel Reeves to raise employer national insurance “made it more expensive for employers who had lots of part-time staff, many of them being younger workers dipping their toe in the labour market for the first time”.
“The fact the ONS has found that the rise in unemployment in the three months to August was driven mostly by younger people suggests those warnings have become reality,” Ms Hewson said.
“Making it harder to find these types of jobs could have a marked impact on their relationship with work in the future.”
The ONS has said the unemployment rate should be treated with caution and it is taking additional steps to address concerns about the quality of the data.
‘Steady labour market’
Annual growth in workers’ average earnings was 6% for the public sector and 4.4% for the private sector.
Private sector earnings growth was the lowest in four years but was still ahead of inflation.
The ONS said the public sector annual growth rate is affected by some public sector pay rises being paid earlier in 2025 than in 2024.
Chris Hare, the senior UK economist at HSBC, said the data indicates “a fairly steady labour market”.
“I think we’re probably seeing fairly soft demand for labour in the economy,” he said, adding that it should lead to “a gradual easing in broader cost pressures in the labour market and an easing in wage growth”.
The number of people who were made redundant between June and August increased from the same period last year, to 3.8 per 1,000 employees in June to August 2025.
The ONS also revised the previous figure for wage growth, bringing it up from 4.7% to 4.8%.
This figure will likely be used to calculate the increase to the state pension for next year.
Under the triple lock policy, the state pension is increased by the highest of wage growth, inflation or 2.5%.
‘Paltry’ real wage growth
Inflation currently stands at 3.8%, meaning that real wage growth – how much better off workers are when accounting for rises in the cost of living – is 0.9%.
Responding to the figures, the Liberal Democrats said that real wage growth is barely keeping up with inflation.
Similarly, the Resolution Foundation said real wage growth was “paltry”, and that real weekly wages have only increased by £1.50 since last September — “barely enough to cover the cost of a Greggs sausage roll”.
Charlie McCurdy, an economist at the think tank, said: “The UK’s longstanding weakness in the jobs market has finally caught up with pay packets.
“The deteriorating labour market, coupled with persistently high inflation, means that cost of living pressures are likely to build over the autumn.”
It was a sombre Thursday afternoon in Alesi, a community in Ikom Local Government Area (LGA) of Cross River State, in South South Nigeria. Inside the village head’s palace, men and women gathered in silence, their faces drawn with grief. Some stared blankly ahead; others fought back tears.
“We have lost another son. Our hearts are heavy, our eyes are bleeding. Our people are continuously being killed as a result of boundary disputes, and we are increasingly being forced to take up arms,” Nzan Osim, a community leader, addressed the mourners.
A day earlier, Fidelis Akan, a cocoa farmer from Alesi, was beheaded on his farm, close to the boundary with Ochon, a neighbouring community in Obubra LGA. His elder brother, Lawrence Akan, said Fidelis had gone to the farm with his daughter that morning to harvest cocoa when they heard gunshots.
“As they came out to see what was happening, a group of boys, allegedly from Ochon, caught them. When they found out that he was from Alesi, they beheaded him,” he narrated. Fidelis’ daughter escaped and raised the alarm. His body was later recovered and buried the same day, leaving behind a wife and six children.
In the aftermath, angry residents allegedly set fire to a truck loaded with cocoa, believing it belonged to an Ochon farmer.
Lawrence Akan at the palace in Alesi. Photo: Arinze Chijioke/HumAngle
A long battle over land
Since 2022, Alesi and Ochon have become flashpoints for deadly clashes, rooted in a long-running boundary dispute and the struggle for farmland to cultivate cocoa, one of Cross River’s most valuable crops.
Yet, for decades, both communities coexisted peacefully, trading and even intermarrying across the boundary without violence. Many locals believe the recent tensions are being driven by increased competition for farmland and the growing economic value of cocoa.
The disputed land falls within the Ukpon River Forest Reserve, a protected area established by the state government in 1930 to preserve forest resources and biodiversity. Both communities continue to claim ownership of the area, with residents of Alesi accusing their Ochon counterparts of trespassing and attempting to seize land around Adibongha, the nearest clan to the boundary.
The tension has often turned violent. In July, several houses were burnt and many families were displaced after an attack on Adibongha, according to Kelvin Eyam, a resident.
“We have documents to prove our claim, but the Obubra people don’t want us at the boundary. They want to seize the entire land. The boundary is clearly marked at the centre of the river. There’s even a document that shows this, but attempts have been made to wipe it out,” said Nzan, a community leader from Alesi.
The traditional ruler of Obubra, Robert Mbinna, disagrees and insists it is Alesi that has been trespassing and illegally occupying their land. “There is a court order to that effect,” he said, adding that his own people have also lost lives in the crisis.
While both sides referred to documents supporting their claims, they did not present any to HumAngle for verification.
Beyond the legal arguments, residents say the human toll continues to rise. “A lot of people have been maimed, kidnapped and not seen till today. We dread to see one another and no longer enter the same vehicle with those from Obubra,” Nsan added.
Aside from the lives lost, the protracted crisis between these communities is also impacting the livelihoods of residents. Farmers say vast farmlands have been abandoned for fear of attacks, while others have watched their cocoa trees destroyed in the clashes.
Daniel Eguma, a cocoa farmer from Ukanga in Ikom, is one of them. Just a day before Akan’s brutal murder, he escaped from Okokori, a community near the boundary where he would always pass the night after working on his farmland.
“I slept at a primary school field and made arrangements with a driver who took me away at 3 a.m. after I heard of an impending attack. I left behind my six hectares of cocoa farmland and a motorcycle,” he told HumAngle.
Daniel Eguma cannot go back to his farm for fear of being killed. Photo: Arinze Chijioke/HumAngle.
Daniel was already planning to harvest his cocoa in a week, but he cannot go back to his farm again. Usually, when criminals notice that farmers have abandoned their farms, they go in and steal. He said he could not even begin to estimate the value of what he has lost — but after years of labour and investment, it is substantial.
‘The Prevent Council’
As violence persisted despite repeated police deployments, civil society actors began searching for ways to prevent further bloodshed.
Nine months after at least eight people were killed and about 2000 displaced following a clash between the communities in March 2022, the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), a non-profit organisation, launched the Prevent Council initiative. The project aimed to strengthen community peacebuilding structures by engaging traditional rulers as positive influencers and conflict mediators in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and Delta states.
PIND says it currently has 10,113 peace actors in its network, who have intervened in over 2000 conflicts since 2013.
In Cross River, at least 25 traditional rulers and community leaders in five LGAs, including Ikom and Obubra, were trained and made peace ambassadors. PIND’s Executive Director, Tunji Idowu, said that the initiative recognised the critical role that traditional rulers play in maintaining peace and security within their communities.
“The central goal of the Prevent Council is to promote and sustain social cohesion and peaceful coexistence in society with no one left behind. It emphasises that sustainable peace must involve multilateral engagements with traditional institutions as critical positive influencers and conflict mediators in their respective states and communities,” Tunji explained.
Participants received training on early warning and response, conflict mapping, mediation, and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).
Between 2023 and 2024, PIND peace ambassadors intervened when clashes erupted between Alesi and Ochon. Using their training manuals, they engaged both sides to de-escalate tensions.
Some Alesi residents at the village head’s palace. Photo: Arinze Chijioke/HumAngle
“We went into the communities where we spoke with elders and youths about the need to embrace peace,” said Agbor Clement, a participant from Ikom LGA.
However, since the return of the violence this year, both Agbor and Mbinna, a participant from Obubra LGA, admit that their effort have not tackled the root causes. Agbor noted that Ikom also shares boundaries with Boki and Etung local government areas; however, there have been no reported boundary disputes, as the borders are properly demarcated.
Local government officials agree. According to Daniel Eyam, a Special Adviser on Political and Executive Matters to the Ikom LGA chairperson, although PIND’s activities are well-intentioned, the system itself prevents peace from taking root.
“In communities, when there is a land dispute, you go to the elders because they are the custodians of facts that pertain to the disputed area, and when they speak the truth, matters are resolved. Sadly, many of them have refused to do that,” he said.
Daniel stressed that beyond offering training, PIND should push relevant agencies to speak the truth and take action.
Daniel Eyam says elders are refusing to speak the truth about the disputed area. Photo: Arinze Chijioke/HumAngle
Another challenge facing PIND’s Prevent Council is a lack of resources to enable peace ambassadors to respond immediately during conflict situations.
“We were supposed to meet with stakeholders after the latest crisis, but we are handicapped because our work usually ends after training,” said Victor Okim, a PIND ambassador in Obubra. “We cannot go into the communities to drill down on what we have learned because we don’t have the resources. There is no continuous monitoring and evaluation of Prevent Council activities.”
“If we have the support that we need, we can do more because we are part of them, and they trust us so much to listen when we speak,” he added.
Nkongha Daniel, the PIND Coordinator for Ikom, said women are often the biggest losers in crises because they lose their husbands and children. She suggested the foundation invest more in training women on how to respond in times of crisis.
PIND did not respond to interview requests, so it remains unclear whether the organisation is aware of the renewed violence or has taken steps to address these challenges. However, in its Niger Delta Weekly Conflict Update for March 2022, it recommended stronger collaboration between stakeholders and the state government to tackle the root causes of land conflicts and redress historical grievances.
Government efforts fall short
On July 30, the Cross River State Government ordered the immediate suspension of all farming activities on the disputed land, saying it was part of its efforts to bring peace to the area until proper boundary demarcation was carried out.
Community leaders and stakeholders of the two warring communities met in Calabar, the state capital, with the Deputy Governor, Peter Odey, and other government officials, including Anthony Owan-Enoh, who is overseeing an eight-person Peace Committee that was inaugurated to identify the root causes of the conflict and recommend a sustainable resolution framework.
Community leaders and stakeholders from Ikom and Obubra after a meeting with the Cross River State Deputy Governor on July 30. Photo: Cross River Watch
During the meeting, community leaders were instructed to submit all relevant documents relating to the crisis on or before Aug. 1. HumAngle confirmed that the papers were submitted, and a follow-up review meeting was slated for Aug. 13 to assess compliance, monitor the committee’s progress, and tackle emerging issues.
However, several community leaders noted that no meaningful progress has been made.
“They gave us two weeks to stay off our lands, saying they were coming to carry out boundary demarcation. But after the visit, nothing happened. We have not been told whether we can return to our farms,” said Kelvin Eyam, a community leader from Alesi, lamenting that the government appears indifferent as violence continues.
Nzan says government watches as lives are lost: Photo: Arinze Chijioke/HumAngle
Nzan claimed that on Sept. 4, the Secretary to the State Government asked both parties to provide surveyors for an urgent meeting with the state’s Surveyor General. However, when he called to find out the outcome of the meeting the next day, he was informed that it didn’t hold because the surveyor from Obubra could not come.
“This is what has been happening, and the government continues to keep calm, give us excuses and watch lives get lost,” he lamented.
Neji Abang, a member of the Peace Resolution Committee for the Ikom-Obubra communal conflict, said that the committee visited both communities shortly after its inauguration to conduct fact-finding. According to him, the state’s Surveyor-General was invited and subsequently deployed a technical team to the disputed boundary.
“We had a meeting where they presented their findings, and the chairman of the committee had invited 10 representatives from each of the communities to the meeting,” he said.
But the presentation was rejected by the Alesi delegation, who argued that the demarcation was different from the original boundary record in their possession. They claimed the survey relied on a previous court judgment that had awarded the disputed area to Ochon and therefore demanded a fresh exercise.
Neji also confirmed Nzan’s earlier account that Obubra failed to bring its own surveyor, despite a directive from the committee chairperson instructing both communities to provide independent surveyors to work alongside the state’s team at the disputed site on Sept. 3.
When asked why the state government had not formally demarcated the boundary despite having records of all boundaries in the state, Abang said, “That is what we will eventually do if it addresses the crisis.”
A map showing the Ukpon Forest Reserve. Source: Medcrave
What’s the way out?
As government interventions stall, community members and peace ambassadors are proposing alternative paths toward a lasting solution.
Members of the PIND Prevent Council noted that it is also important to look into training community members on livelihoods and alternative means of survival because the conflicts are often rooted in economic struggle.
“Young people can be empowered through skills acquisition programs and grants so they can look away from cocoa, which is a major reason why there is a struggle for land,” Nkongha explained. “Many of the youth are jobless and turn to hard drugs, hence they become willing tools for conflict.”
Nkongha Daniel says economic empowerment could address boundary conflict: Photo: Arinze Chijioke/HumAngle
She explained that Ikom and Obubra, for instance, are big producers of garri, plantain, palm oil, yams, and groundnuts.
“We can establish industries that process these crops where young people can be employed to work and earn for themselves,” she noted.
For Agbor, another way out of the conflict will be for the government to take over the disputed area and set aside days when farmers on each side can go and harvest their crops, accompanied by security operatives.
Emmanuel Ossai, a peace and conflict expert who has researched violence in the region, said that interventions, like that of PIND, need to consider widening existing partnerships by involving more strategically placed youth, traditional, religious, and women leaders across the communities in conflict management training regularly.
“There might be several possible reasons for the violence that are not under PIND’s direct control, but expanding partnerships and training more local leaders in conflict management would be helpful,” he suggested.
Emmanuel added that regular follow-ups are necessary after training to assess whether community leaders are applying the conflict management skills they acquired to achieve greater impact.
This story was produced under the HumAngle Foundation’s Advancing Peace and Security through Journalism project, supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Leading opposition candidate unilaterally declares himself the victor, and calls on incumbent Paul Biya to concede.
Published On 14 Oct 202514 Oct 2025
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Cameroon opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary has unilaterally declared victory in the country’s presidential election.
Tchiroma made the statement in a nearly five-minute speech posted to social media early on Tuesday. Although official channels have not declared results, he urged long-term incumbent, 92-year-old President Paul Biya, to call him to concede.
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“The people have chosen, and this choice must be respected,” Tchiroma demanded in the video.
However, the government warned earlier this week that only results announced by the Constitutional Council can be considered official. The body has almost two weeks to make the announcement.
A former government spokesman and ally of Biya for 20 years, Tchiroma was considered the top contender to unseat Biya in Sunday’s elections.
After he resigned from the government in June, his campaign drew large crowds and key endorsements from a coalition of opposition parties and civic groups.
But Biya – in power for 43 years and the world’s oldest serving head of state – has been widely expected to secure another seven-year term in office, given his tight grip on state machinery and the fragmented nature of the opposition.
Cameroon’s government has not responded officially to Tchiroma’s declaration.
However, Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji warned recently that only the Constitutional Council has the authority to announce the winner, and that any unilateral publication of results would be considered “high treason”.
Cameroon’s electoral law allows results to be published and posted at individual polling stations, but final tallies must be validated by the Constitutional Council, which has until October 26 to announce the outcome, the Reuters news agency reported.
Issa Tchiroma Bakary casts his vote in Garoua, Cameroon, on Sunday [File: Desire Danga Essigue/Reuters]
‘Honour’ the ballot box
In the video, filmed in his northern hometown of Garoua in front of the national flag, Tchiroma urged Biya to “honour the truth of the ballot box”, and to concede and offer congratulations.
Doing so, he said, would be a mark of Cameroon’s political maturity and the strength of its democracy.
The election results, he said, represent “a clear sanction” of Biya’s administration and marked “the beginning of a new era”.
Tchiroma also thanked rival candidates “who have already congratulated me and recognised the will of the people”.
He called on government institutions and the military to recognise his victory and “stay on the side of the republic”.
“Do not let anyone divert you from your mission to protect the people,” he said.
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BBC News/Tony Jolliffe
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