NEWS

University students have proposed banning corrupt officials from politics and investigating their wealth.

Thousands of people have rallied in the Serbian city of Novi Sad, as university students who have led more than a year of mass demonstrations pledged to continue fighting against endemic corruption during the tenure of right-wing nationalist President Aleksandar Vucic.

Protesters, chanting “thieves”, accused the government of rampant corruption. University students told the crowd on Saturday that they had drawn up a plan on how to rid Serbia of corruption and restore the rule of law. They proposed banning corrupt officials from politics and investigating their wealth as first steps for a post-Vucic government.

The protest was dubbed “What victory will mean”. Last month, students said they had collected about 400,000 signatures in support of their election bid.

The next protest rally is planned for January 27 in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, organisers said.

Regular student-led protests have gripped Serbia since a November 2024 train station disaster in the northern city killed 16 people, becoming a symbol of entrenched corruption.

Thirteen people, including former Construction Minister Goran Vesic, were charged in a criminal case over the collapse. The Novi Sad High Court dropped the charges against Vesic last month, citing a lack of evidence.

A separate anticorruption inquiry continues alongside a European Union-backed investigation into the possible misuse of EU funds in the project.

Tens of thousands of people marked the first anniversary of the train station roof collapse in Novi Sad in November, observing 16 minutes of silence for the 16 victims of the tragedy.

The protests over the station’s collapse have led to the resignation of the prime minister, the fall of his government and the formation of a new one. But Vucic has remained defiantly in office.

Vucic has denied accusations of corruption and regularly labelled demonstrators as foreign-funded coup plotters, while members of his SNS party pushed conspiracy theories, claiming that the train station roof collapse may have been an orchestrated attack.

Vucic has refused to schedule an immediate early election that students have demanded. Hundreds of people have been detained, or reported losing their jobs or facing pressure for opposing the government.

Vucic came to power more than a decade ago, promising to take Serbia into the EU. But he has since strengthened ties with Russia and China, while facing accusations of curbing democratic freedoms in Serbia and allowing corruption and organised crime to flourish.

The student movement has garnered big support among Serbs who are largely disillusioned with mainstream politicians. Vucic has accused the students of working under unspecified Western orders to “destroy Serbia”.

The U.S. Navy is putting major emphasis on containerized weapons and other systems to make up for limitations in the built-in capabilities of its forthcoming FF(X) frigates. The design’s lack of an integrated Vertical Launch System (VLS), which TWZ was first to confirm, and other capabilities, has prompted questions and criticism. As it stands now, the FF(X)s will have nearly the same armament installed as the Navy’s much-maligned Littoral Combat Ships (LCS).

Navy officials shared new details about the FF(X) design, which is derived from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Legend class National Security Cutter (NSC), at the Surface Navy Association’s (SNA) annual symposium this week, at which TWZ was in attendance. The service rolled out the new frigate program last month. The announcement followed the cancellation of the abortive Constellation class program, which had been intended to address the chronic shortcomings of the LCSs, but had turned into its own boondoggle.

“We are pursuing a design [for FF(X)] that is producible, it has been proven, it is operationally in use today, and it will evolve,” Chris Miller, Executive Director at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), told attendees at the SNA conference yesterday.

The Navy’s FF(X) frigate design, as it exists now, is 421 feet long, has a beam (the width of the hull at its widest point) of 54 feet, and displaces 4,750 tons. It can sail at up to 28 knots, has a range of 12,000 nautical miles, and an endurance of 60 days. For comparison, the Coast Guard says its NSCs are 418 feet in length, have a 54-foot beam, and a displacement of 4,500 tons. The previously planned Constellation class frigate was a significantly larger ship that displaced thousands of tons more.

In terms of integrated capabilities, the ships will have a 57mm main gun in a turret on the bow, as well as a 30mm automatic cannon mounted on the rear of the main superstructure alongside a point defense launcher that will be loaded with up to 21 RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM). They will also feature an AN/ALQ-32(V)6 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block II suite, launchers for expendable Nulka decoys, and an AN/SPS-77 Sea Giraffe medium-range multi-mode surveillance radar. There is a flight deck and hangars at the stern that will allow for the embarkation of helicopters and uncrewed aerial vehicles. The 30mm cannon, RAM launcher, and Sea Giraffe radar are not found on the Coast Guard’s NSCs, which also have an earlier variant of the SEWIP system. Both ships have a standard crew complement of 148.

The biggest difference between the NSC and the FF(X) is the Navy’s plans to use the fantails on the latter ships as a space for containerized weapon systems and other modular payloads.

“We are going to evolve it over time. Everybody keeps asking me, what about this? What about that?” NAVSEA’s Miller said. “You know, my answer back is, I care about getting this ship into production, [and then] learning, adapting, and figuring out what this ship needs to grow into.”

“The vision here is we will have capability in a box,” he added. “I think you all will agree that we have come a long ways in our ability to use shipping containers, and I am excited.”

The Navy says it is looking first at installing launchers for up to 16 Naval Strike Missiles (NSM), a stealthy anti-ship cruise missile with secondary land attack capability already, or as many as 48 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The Navy has also presented the Hellfire armament option as being focused on knocking down hostile drones, though they could be employed against other target sets. As noted, the NSC-based frigates will not have an integrated VLS array, at least initially.

“We developed these [FF(X) requirements based on what we thought we needed in a frigate,” Rear Adm. Derek Trinque, head of the Navy’s surface warfare division, or N96, also said while speaking alongside Miller and other members of a panel yesterday. “There was a lot of desire to put an awful lot of expensive capability into these ships. And that would have been cool, except that wasn’t really what we needed, because we have in the Flight III [Arleigh Burke class] destroyers coming down the ways right now, the large surface combatants that are appropriate for today.”

This is a pronounced shift in thinking from what led to Constellation class program, which explicitly sought a larger and more capable warship to make up for the shortcomings of the Navy’s two classes of LCSs.

The LCS program also notably focused heavily on modular capability packages, or modules, to help give those ships flexibility to perform different mission sets as required. In practice, the Navy has deployed LCSs with largely fixed configurations. More recently, the service has been looking to containerized weapon systems as a way to bolster the still-lacking firepower of those ships.

“I want to distinguish between LCS mission modules and containerized payloads. One of the challenges with LCS mission modules was we were taking systems that did not yet exist and marrying them with a ship that we were just starting to build,” Rear Adm. Trinque explained. For FF(X), “we are going to take existing systems and to all intents and purposes, put them in a box with an interface to the ship’s combat system. That will make this work, and it will allow [for] rapid switch out of capability, [and] rapid addition of capability.”

NAVSEA’s Miller also stressed the benefits containerized payloads would offer in terms of being able to “burn down risk.” A system that does not prove itself or is otherwise found not to meet the Navy’s needs could simply be unloaded from the ship and readily replaced with something else.

It is important to note here that the containerized payloads the Navy is eyeing for FF(X) could include more than just additional weapons. This modularity is seen, in particular, as a way to address the design’s current lack of a built-in sonar array (fixed and/or towed) and other anti-submarine warfare capabilities, which were expected to be another important feature of the Constellation class frigate. In 2022, the Navy also scrapped plans for an anti-submarine warfare missions module for its LCSs.

“We are not walking away from ASW [anti-submarine warfare] at all. We are all in on ASW,” Rear Adm. Joseph Cahill, Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic, another member of the panel at SNA yesterday, declared. At the same time, he put emphasis on the Navy’s workhorse Arleigh Burke class destroyers as the main warship for executing that mission, while also acknowledging how other assets, and not just at sea, could contribute to the anti-submarine fight.

Overall, the Navy has made no secret that its main goal with FF(X) is to get hulls in the water as quickly as possible to start helping make up for shortfalls now in its surface fleets. The hope is that this will also have a positive impact on the naval shipbuilding industry in the United States by jump-starting demand for work that could be spread across multiple yards, as you can read more about here. The service has expressed a clear willingness to trade capability, at least up front, to meet its aggressive timeline goals. The hope is that the first FF(X) will be in the water by 2028.

The schedule for the delivery of the future USS Constellation had slipped to 2029 at the earliest before that program was cancelled. The Navy had awarded the first contract for those ships in 2020. The Constellation class design was also based on a proven in-production frigate, the Franco-Italian Fregata Europea Multi-Missione (FREMM; European Multi-Mission Frigate in English). However, successive changes meant that it ultimately had just 15 percent in common with its European ‘parent.’

“This ship [FF(X)] is done being designed,” NAVSEA’s Miller said yesterday. “We are going to go through a very, very, very – like, on one hand – number of engineering changes to get it to be what we want.”

“This frigate is designed off of a proven blue water modern hull, [the] NSC. That hull is designed following Navy rules, standard structural ship design Navy rules for the Navy,” Rear Adm. Trinque also noted, in part to address separate questions about vulnerability and survivability in using a ship based on design intended for Coast Guard use. “It’s a very, very common rule set that we’re familiar with back to DDG-51 [the Arleigh Burke class destroyer]. That’s how that platform was designed. So, there’s commonality in the robustness of that design, and that’s something that we would leverage and depend on in looking towards the ability to address the vulnerability issue.”

There are still questions about whether the focus on containerized payloads will hamper the FF(X)’s operational utility, even as the Navy works to evolve the design. The missile options the Navy has presented so far are decidedly limited compared to the 32-cell Mk 41 VLS array that was a central requirement for the Constellation class, each of which would also have carried 16 NSMs. TWZ previously explored in detail earlier questions about whether that was even a sufficient number of VLS cells for that ship to perform its expected missions. On top of this, the Navy is looking at major losses in total VLS capacity in its surface and submarine fleets with the impending retirement of the last of the Ticonderoga class cruisers and its four Ohio class guided missile submarines toward the end of the decade.

Though containerized payloads do offer flexibility, any ship can only be configured in one way at a time, on top of only being able to be in a single place at once. As an example, the Navy would not be able to readily re-task an FF(X) at sea and loaded for the surface strike mission to go hunt submarines. The service does see the frigates being deployed as part of larger surface action groups, which would have the benefit of a wider array of capabilities spread across multiple types.

“If one of those things is something that we need to get into the design of the ship [FF(X)], [it] is something that we will go consider,” NAVSEA’s Miller did add yesterday. “We will figure out what has to be done, but we’ll do it in a smart, controlled way. I am trying to control the appetite.”

Integrating a VLS and other capabilities into the existing FF(X) design is certainly a possibility in the future, but it could be a complex and costly proposition if the design is not configured to accommodate those additional features to begin with. The Navy will likely look to build more substantially modified versions of the ship in future ‘flights’ down the line, as it has done with some other classes. Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), which designed the NSC and is now working on FF(X), has done work in the past on other design concepts in this general family that have VLS arrays, as well as expanded suites of sensors and other systems, as seen in the video below.

Patrol Frigate Variants – Information Video

The Navy is also planning to further bolster the FF(X)’s built-in capabilities by deploying them as motherships for future fleets of uncrewed surface vessels, likely offering a distributed arsenal, as well as additional sensors. As TWZ previously wrote:

“In this way, an FF(X) could still call upon a deeper and more flexible array of weapon options without having to have a VLS integrated directly onto the ship. The uncrewed platforms would also be able to operate across a much broader area than any single crewed frigate and present a different risk calculus for operating in higher-risk environments. All of this would expand the overall reach of the combined force and present targeting challenges for opponents. But there are also substantial development and operational risks with this kind of arrangement. As it sits, this kind of autonomous vessel and manned vessel teaming is still in development. Operationally, leaving the ship without, or with very limited, area defense capability is at odds with many future threat scenarios.”

This last point underscores some of the biggest still unanswered questions about FF(X). There does not appear to be any explicit talk so far about options for expanding the frigate’s anti-air arsenal beyond its integrated point defense capabilities and add-on counter-drone interceptors. BAE Systems has been working on a Next Generation Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Launch System (NGELS) based on its modular Adaptable Deck Launching System (ADL) for the U.S. Navy and American allies. Around SNA, the company also put out a computer-generated video showing a containerized launcher firing a surface-to-air missile from an uncrewed surface vessel. There could be other options, but it is unclear how many Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles or other longer-range SAMs in total could be loaded on the FF(X)’s fantail. The ship’s sensor suite may limit just how many aerial targets can be engaged rapidly and what type, as well. A lack of radar illuminators would prevent the use of some legacy anti-air missiles.

The lack of any real anti-air warfare and area defense capability is one of the biggest criticisms leveled at the Navy’s existing LCS fleets, and that imposes limitations on their ability to conduct more independent operations. Anti-air and anti-submarine warfare capabilities would be very relevant, if not critical, for the kinds of missions one would expect to assign to a frigate in a future major conflict, such as convoy escort.

Overall, despite its clear hope that the FF(X)s will eventually take on many roles in a variety of operational contexts, there are signs already that the Navy is looking at a relatively limited mission set for these ships to start, and one that aligns more with how it is employing its LCSs today.

“In 1995, I did counter-drug ops in my first ship, [the Ticonderoga class cruiser] USS Philippine Sea. Using a guided missile cruiser, or nowadays a guided missile destroyer, for counter-narcotics ops is a choice I don’t want the fleet commander to have to go through,” Rear Adm. Trinque said during the panel at SNA. “So there are great photos of [the Arleigh Burke class destroyer] USS Sampson having successfully completed counter narcotics ops in the Eastern Pacific recently, and I think that puts Vice Adm. [John F. G.] Wade [commander of the Eastern Pacific-facing U.S. Third Fleet] in a bad position.”

Adding more blue water hulls to the Navy’s surface fleets would certainly be a boon and offer valuable capacity to help free up larger warships for missions that are more in need of their capabilities, but this will require ships that can perform useful missions. At the moment, the Navy is betting big on the ability to swap out containerized payloads to give FF(X) what it will need to have a meaningful impact.

Eric Tegler contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Remarkable videos have emerged showing the dramatic failure of an Israeli Air Force (IAF) helicopter sling-load operation, involving a CH-53 Sea Stallion carrying a UH-60 Black Hawk, resulting in the transported rotorcraft plummeting to the ground. Fortunately, there were no injuries reported among any of the crew or on the ground, but the incident does illustrate the fine margins involved during these kinds of missions.

WILD FOOTAGE ?

Fresh video shows a damaged Israeli Air Force UH 60 Black Hawk going down during transport near Gush Etzion (close to Jerusalem) pic.twitter.com/abJ4L3M398

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 16, 2026

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the sling-load operation was originally launched to recover an IAF Yanshuf medium-lift helicopter — the local name for the S-70/UH-60 Black Hawk. The Yanshuf had made an emergency landing earlier this week when it encountered bad weather in the Gush Etzion area, directly south of Jerusalem, in the West Bank.

Earlier today, a Yasur (S-65/CH-53 Sea Stallion) heavy-lift helicopter was sent to recover the Yanshuf, using the sling-load method. It’s unclear what exactly went wrong at this point, but the IDF confirmed that the damaged aircraft became detached while being airlifted.

Subsequent images reveal the Yanshuf lying on its side in rocky terrain, with the tail boom broken off, but otherwise largely intact. Nearby is another Yanshuf, which had landed at the crash site, having also been involved in the recovery effort.

The chief of the IAF, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, has ordered a military investigative committee to work out what happened.

The CH-53 has long been a go-to platform for sling-load operations, most prominently with the U.S. Marine Corps. The Marine Corps, in particular, is expected to undertake these types of recoveries both in peacetime and especially during a conflict. For a fight in the Pacific, being able to rapidly pluck stricken aircraft from remote locales is regarded as a critical capability, with the latest CH-53K King Stallion version bringing additional performance in this regard.

The CH-53K was originally cleared to conduct a 27,000-pound external lift, subsequently increased to 36,000 pounds. The CH-53K can also lift heavier objects for longer distances compared to its predecessor. Externally, it is designed to carry up to 27,000 pounds over a distance of 110 nautical miles in a high and hot environment. This is compared to the CH-53E’s ability to carry 9,654 pounds over the same distance.

CH-53K lifts F-35C

Sling-load operations involving aircraft are an especially delicate balance act. As well as the sling being strong enough for the load, the overall set-up of the rig, as well as the pitch and bank attitudes of the aircraft being transported, and its control surface states, where applicable, need to be worked out in advance. Should something go wrong during the flight, there remains the option of jettisoning the load, as in the video below. This could be required if the payload starts moving dangerously outside of parameters, or if there is any issue with the transporting aircraft, such as a loss of power. In this case, we don’t know if the crew deliberately jettisoned the load.

A CH-53E jettisons a CH-47 carried as a slung load during operations in Afghanistan, after it began to swing out of control:

CH-53e lost control over CH-47 Chinook

As to the aircraft involved in the mishap, the Yanshuf (Desert Owl in Hebrew) is the workhorse of the IAF’s rotary-wing fleet. First acquired in the mid-1990s, the fleet comprises ex-U.S. Army UH-60A/L aircraft as well as new-build UH-60Ls, the last of which arrived in 2002. More recently, Israel has ordered ex-U.S. Navy SH-60F Seahawks as its new naval helicopters, which will be used aboard the Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar 6 class missile corvettes.

The Yanshuf has been widely used in the IDF’s various campaigns and has undergone local modifications, including a new self-protection system and hoist. Some of the aircraft have been additionally configured with external fuel tanks and an in-flight refueling probe for longer-range missions. The Yanshuf fleet is split between two squadrons at Palmachim Air Base and Hatzerim Air Base.

As for the Yasur (Petrel in Hebrew), this is very much the veteran of the IAF’s helicopter fleet.

The first S-65s began to be supplied to Israel in 1969, during the War of Attrition. These aircraft were then supplemented by former U.S. Marine Corps CH-53As, delivered in two batches in 1974 and in 1991. In the 1990s, survivors were upgraded to the Yasur 2000 standard and, with no replacement in sight, they were then brought up to the Yasur 2025 standard in the 2000s.

Between them, the Yasur 2000/2025 upgrades brought modernized avionics, structural improvements, new self-protection equipment, communication systems, and terrain-avoidance systems.

Two IAF squadrons were equipped with Yasur helicopters, both operating from Tel Nof Air Base, but these have more recently been combined as a single super-squadron at the same location. Some aircraft have been converted for electronic warfare missions, as you can read about here.

For both the Yanshuf and Yasur, the primary role is troop transport, but they also regularly fly search and rescue and combat search and rescue (CSAR) missions. The latter usually involve carrying teams from the elite Unit 669.

Due to its age, the Yasur fleet is becoming more difficult to operate and maintain, something that has become increasingly apparent in recent years. In November 2019, a Yasur made an emergency landing after a fire broke out on board. Everyone on the helicopter escaped unscathed, but the CH-53 was destroyed. The incident led to the grounding of the entire fleet. In January 2020, two weeks after that grounding was lifted, another Yasur had to make an emergency landing due to a technical issue. Three months later, yet another one of the helicopters suffered a technical fault that forced it to land. More recently, the Yasur has suffered combat attrition, with one example being destroyed by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, with no casualties reported among the dozens of troops (plus crew) on board.

The IAF is now looking forward to updating its helicopter fleet, while retaining and even enhancing its heavy-lift capabilities, through the acquisition of the CH-53K — which will be named Onager (a type of wild donkey).

In 2021, Israel officially selected the CH-53K, which was developed for the U.S. Marine Corps, and which was chosen in favor of a variant of Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook. An initial batch of 12 is on order at a cost of around $2 billion.

“It [the CH-53K] is essential to the IDF’s ability to carry out a wide range of operational activities,” the then Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz said at the time. “The new helicopter is adapted to the [IAF’s] operational requirements and to the challenges of the changing battlefield.”

Once the CH-53Ks arrive, the Israeli Air Force will be even better equipped to carry out heavy-lift rotary transport tasks, including sling-load operations. While we don’t yet know what went wrong in this morning’s sling-load sortie, the incident does underscore the inherent challenges in these kinds of movements. For now, we should be thankful that no one was injured as a result.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Doumbouya was declared victor in the West African country’s first election since he led the 2021 military takeover.

Mamady Doumbouya, a general who led a 2021 military takeover in Guinea, has been sworn in as the West African country’s president.

The Saturday event, which took place in front of tens of thousands of supporters and several heads of state, came after Doumbaya was declared the victor in last month’s election.

The vote was the first since Doumbouya toppled President Alpha Conde four years ago.

Although he initially pledged not to run for president after seizing power, Doumbouya ultimately stood for election against eight other candidates. However, his most prominent opponents remained in exile, with the opposition calling for a boycott of the poll.

The West African country’s Supreme Court later said Doumbouya received 86.7 percent of the vote.

Dressed in a traditional gown, Doumbouya swore an oath to uphold the constitution – which had recently been altered to allow him to stand – during an hours-long ceremony at the General Lansana Conte Stadium on the outskirts of the capital, Conakry.

“I swear before God and before the people of Guinea, on my honour, to respect and faithfully enforce the Constitution, the laws, regulations and judicial decisions,” he said.

Heads of state from Rwanda, The Gambia, Senegal and other African countries joined the event, as did the vice presidents of China, Nigeria, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea, as well as officials from France and the United States.

Assimi Goita, a general who has led neighbouring Mali since a military takeover in 2020, was also in attendance.

The election came after Guineans approved a new constitution in September that permitted members of the military leadership to run for office. It also lengthened presidential terms from five to seven years, setting a two-term limit.

Doumbouya has said the military takeover was justified due to alleged corruption and economic mismanagement under Conde, who in 2010 became the country’s first freely elected president since its 1958 independence.

During four years in power, the military dissolved state institutions and suspended the constitution, as it negotiated with regional bodies, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), over a return to democratic civilian government.

Doumbouya has cracked down on civil liberties, banned protests and targeted political opponents during his time as leader.

With about 52 percent of the population living in poverty, he has promised to tap the country’s vast natural resources, which include untapped iron ore deposits, as well as the world’s largest bauxite reserves.

These are the key developments from day 1,424 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Sunday, January 18:

Fighting

• The General Staff of the Ukrainian military has estimated that Russian forces have lost about 1,225,590 personnel since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
• The office also reported that Russia has lost an estimated 11,569 tanks, 23,914 armoured fighting vehicles, 74,601 vehicles and fuel tanks, 36,261 artillery systems, 1,615 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,278 air defence systems, 434 aeroplanes, 347 helicopters, 108,605 drones, 28 ships and boats, and two submarines. Casualty figures for both sides since the beginning of the war have been difficult to independently verify.
• The Russian TASS news agency reported that Russian forces have captured the settlement of Pryvillya in the Donetsk region and Pryluky
  in the Zaporizhia region, citing the Ministry of Defence in Moscow.
• The ministry said that Ukrainian forces lost about 1,305 personnel in the last 24 hours, and that Russian air defences shot down 214 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones and two long-range Neptune missiles.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry also said that it carried out attacks on Ukrainian energy and transportation infrastructure across 167 locations over the past 24 hours, along with deployment areas for Ukrainian forces and “ammunition depots, assembly workshops, storage sites, pre-flight preparation and launch sites for long-range unmanned aerial vehicles”.

Energy strikes

• Russian forces continued their campaign of strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure over Saturday night, carrying out attacks in the Kyiv and Odesa regions, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy. Ukrainian authorities have characterised the Russian attacks as an effort to weaponise the current cold weather, degrading the country’s energy system.
• Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said in a post on the messaging app Telegram that more than 20 settlements in the Kyiv area were left without power as a result of the strikes.
• The mayor of the city of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, said that constant Russian attacks were straining the energy system of Ukraine’s second-largest city, stating the system that provides residents with essentials, such as heating and electricity, was “constantly operating at its limits”. He said that three people were injured in overnight strikes.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during an energy coordination meeting that the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia are facing the most acute energy challenges. He added that the country must increase energy imports and seek additional equipment from allies.
• The Ukrainian news outlet Kyiv Independent reported that foreign embassies plan to stay in Kyiv despite the power outages, infrastructure issues, and predictions of extreme cold, with weather forecasts predicting temperatures as low as –20 degrees Celsius (–4 degrees Fahrenheit) later this month. The outlet reported that about 80 foreign diplomatic missions are based in Kyiv.
• Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence body has said that Moscow is planning attacks meant to disconnect Ukraine from three nuclear power plants in the coming days. The intelligence agency said those efforts seek to degrade the country’s energy infrastructure and “force Ukraine to accept unacceptable capitulation demands to end the war”.

Peace talks

• A Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United States for peace talks, with Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, saying he was set to meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Secretary of the US Army Dan Driscoll.
• Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Davyd Arakhamia will also take part in the talks in Miami, Florida, on Sunday.
• Zelenskyy said on Friday that the weekend talks would focus on finalising proposals for a future peace agreement on issues such as post-war security guarantees and economic rebuilding.
• Zelenskyy said the delegation would also emphasise the destructive role of continued Russian strikes on Ukraine, adding that the attacks are “constantly worsening” the already strained possibilities of reaching a peaceful settlement to end the war.
• If the Trump administration reaches an agreement with Ukraine on a proposal, the two countries could sign a document at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week. Any such proposal would also have to gain Russian support.

Diplomacy

• The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the Trump administration’s threats to seize control of Greenland and slap tariffs on European allies that defy him should not be allowed to undermine the focus on bringing an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine, which she called the bloc’s “core task”.
• Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev ridiculed European leaders for deploying military members to Greenland as Trump continues to threaten the self-governing Danish territory and NATO member, saying in a social media post targeted at EU chief Ursula von der Leyen that European countries should not “provoke the daddy”.
• French President Emmanuel Macron expressed support for Denmark and Greenland, saying that the concept of sovereignty motivates France’s support for Ukraine and that Europe must take steps to ensure that the continent’s “sovereignty is upheld”.
• Zelenskyy announced Ukrainian sanctions targeting individuals and organisations tied to Russian athletics ahead of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, saying that Moscow uses “sports venues to spread anti-Ukrainian narratives and Russian propaganda”. The Russian national team is banned from competing, but Russian athletes may participate as “neutral athletes”.

Zach Sutton, a mechanical engineer from Detroit, calls his car Bak2Bak. It is built from the front ends of two old Chrysler vehicles, one made in Canada, the other in the United States.

Sutton says he didn’t know the origins of the parts when he bought them, but later found the pairing felt serendipitous. He describes the two countries as close “sister countries” making the hybrid design feel fitting.

The quirky vehicle turns heads on the streets of Detroit. Sutton says the project was never meant to be serious, but fun and accessible, a light-hearted symbol that delivers, as he puts it, “a lot of smiles per gallon.”

Video by Eloise Alanna

The United States has urged Syrian troops to halt their advance through Kurdish-held territory in Syria’s north, amid clashes with Kurdish-led forces over strategic posts and oilfields along the Euphrates River.

The rapid advance of Syrian troops on Saturday came after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed to retreat east of the river, following recent fighting in Aleppo and areas east of the city over stalled plans to merge the SDF into the Syrian state.

Brad Cooper, who heads the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), wrote on X that Syrian troops should “cease any offensive actions in areas” between the city of Aleppo and the town of Tabqa, approximately 160km (100 miles) further east in the Raqqa governorate.

On Saturday, the Syrian Army Operations Command told Al Jazeera Arabic that the military had entered Tabqa, a strategic town near a dam and a military airbase. The SDF denied the claim, saying its forces were “still in their positions” there.

‘Betrayal’

The SDF had said it would pull back from the key towns of Deir Hafer and Maksana, as well as some surrounding villages in the Aleppo governorate, whose residents are predominantly Arab.

Syria’s army took control of the area on Saturday and accused the SDF of violating a withdrawal agreement by targeting an army patrol near Maksana, “killing two soldiers”.

The SDF, meanwhile, accused Damascus of violating the agreement by entering the towns “before our fighters had fully withdrawn”.

Later, Syrian troops advanced further, with state news agency SANA reporting they had expanded into the Raqqa countryside, entering Kurdish-controlled towns and villages, including Hneida, Rajm al-Ghazal, Mansoura and Zur Shamar, and imposing a curfew in the Maadan area, as they raced closer to Tabqa.

The SDF accused Damascus of betrayal. “Heavy clashes continue between our forces and Damascus factions, who violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces during the implementation of the withdrawal provisions,” it said in a statement, adding that parts of Raqqa had been “subjected to artillery shelling and rocket fire”.

But the SDF said in a statement on Saturday that Tabqa was “outside the scope of the agreement” and that it would fight to keep the town, as well as an oilfield in its vicinity.

Reporting from Aleppo, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi said there was ongoing shelling in the Raqqa governorate.

“Judging by the amount of weapons, the amount of long-range artillery, the truckloads of ammunition we saw going in that direction, it is unsurprising,” he said.

“There are fights ongoing for oilfields that were controlled by the SDF, so this is a very ongoing, active theatre of operations, and things are moving very quickly,” he added.

The Syrian Petroleum Company said on Saturday that it had taken over the al-Rasafa and Safyan oilfields from the Syrian Army shortly after soldiers seized the areas of Deir Hafer and Maskana from the SDF.

Unresolved issue

The US has had to recalibrate its Syria policy to balance years of backing for the SDF, with whom it was allied in the fight against ISIL (ISIS), and its support for the new Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces ousted Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.

US envoy Tom Barrack travelled to Erbil in ‌the Kurdish region of northern Iraq on Saturday to meet with Abdi and Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.

The Kurdish region’s authorities welcomed a decree announced on Friday that formally recognises the Kurdish language and restores citizenship to Kurdish Syrians, but said that it needed to be translated into law and enshrined in the constitution.

From Baghdad, Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith said that behind the “conciliatory words” lay the “unresolved issue of how to integrate these tens of thousands of heavily armed, well-trained SDF fighters into the Syrian Army”.

“It was supposed to start last year. It never got going by the end of the year. That’s what led to these clashes earlier in January,” he said.

The Aina handball incident happened with about 10 minutes of the match remaining.

The Forest right-back attempted to control a bouncing ball in his own penalty area while being challenged by Gabriel Jesus and bumped by his own team-mate Elliot Anderson.

The ball hit Aina’s shoulder before striking his arm as the defender tried to turn, prompting Arteta and Arsenal to vehemently appeal for a spot-kick – to no avail.

The Premier League Match Centre on X said: “The referee’s call of no penalty to Arsenal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that the ball was played off Aina’s shoulder first, while his arm was also in a natural position.”

While Arteta was adamant his side had been denied a “clear penalty”, Forest boss Sean Dyche, unsurprisingly, did not agree.

“I think if these start to get given we’ve all got to leave it. I think that’s ridiculous. We’ve got to be careful with those,” Dyche said.

“You may as well cancel football if you’re going to give that [as handball]. The rules have to be careful. You know what they should be looking at? People feigning injury. That’s the new diving.”

Retired Premier League assistant referee Darren Cann told BBC Sport he thought the officials had come to the correct decision, saying: “The arm is close to the body and is in a justifiable position.”

The decision split the watching pundits, with ex-Chelsea winger Pat Nevin telling BBC Radio 5 Live he thought Aina’s arm “moved towards the ball”, but former Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard insisting it would have been “soft” to award a spot-kick for the incident.

CENTCOM says the strike in northwest Syria on Friday killed a man tied to the December attack that killed US troops and an interpreter.

The United States says an air strike in northwestern Syria has killed an al-Qaeda-affiliated leader who had ties to an ISIL (ISIS) member involved in a deadly ambush of US forces last month.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday that an air strike a day earlier killed Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, who was “directly connected with the ISIS gunman who killed and injured American and Syrian personnel” in mid-December.

“There is no safe place for those who conduct, plot, or inspire attacks on American citizens and our warfighters. We will find you,” CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper said in a statement.

Two US soldiers and a military interpreter were killed in the ISIL ambush in the Syrian city of Palmyra on December 13.

Since then, the US has carried out a series of large-scale strikes in Syria in what it says is a response to the deadly attack on US forces.

On Saturday, CENTCOM said US forces and their partners had struck more than 100 ISIL “infrastructure and weapons” sites since the US military launched its retaliatory operation in December.

“Additionally, US and partner forces have captured more than 300 ISIS operatives and killed over 20 across Syria during the past year,” it said.

US President Donald Trump had promised to inflict significant damage on those responsible for the deadly attack on US troops.

“I can tell you, in Syria, there will be a lot of big damage done to the people that did it,” Trump said on December 13.

European and South American leaders say pact sends ‘clear signal’ amid concerns over global tariffs, isolationism.

European and South American officials have signed a major free trade agreement, paving the way for the European Union’s largest-ever trade accord amid tariff threats and deepening uncertainty around global cooperation.

The deal finalised on Saturday between the 27-nation EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc creates one of the world’s largest free trade areas after 25 years of negotiations.

The agreement, designed to lower tariffs and boost trade between the two regions, must now gain the consent of the European Parliament and be ratified by the legislatures of Mercosur members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

“We choose fair trade over tariffs, we choose a productive long-term partnership over isolation,” EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen said at the signing ceremony in Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion.

Paraguay’s President Santiago Pena also praised the treaty as sending “a clear signal in favour of international trade” in “a global scenario marked by tensions”.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said it was a “bulwark … in the face of a world battered by unpredictability, protectionism, and coercion”.

The deal received a greenlight from most European nations last week, despite opposition from farmers and environmental groups, who have raised concerns over a surge of inexpensive South American imports and increased deforestation.

Thousands of Irish farmers protested last week against the agreement, accusing European leaders of sacrificing their interests.

But the leaders in Paraguay said the pact would bring jobs, prosperity, and opportunities to people on both sides of the Atlantic.

Together, the EU and Mercosur account for 30 percent of global GDP and more than 700 million consumers. The treaty, which eliminates tariffs on more than 90 percent of bilateral trade, is expected to come into force by the end of 2026.

The deal will favour European exports of cars, wine and cheese, while making it easier for South American beef, poultry, sugar, rice, honey and soya beans to enter Europe.

Reporting from Paraguay on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Latin America editor Lucia Newman explained that the Mercosur countries make up a “huge area that produces enormous amounts of agricultural [products] and raw minerals” that the EU wants.

“Here in South America, they are very, very keen because [the deal] will open up an enormous market for them in Europe – but with more stringent conditions than they’ve had until now. So that will need some accommodating,” Newman said.

She added that it is critical to note the “geopolitical message” that European and South American leaders were sending to the United States and other parts of the world by signing the deal.

“And that is, that this is a gesture to support multilateralism at a time, as Von der Leyen said, when isolationism and tariffs are trying to rule the world,” Newman said.

Just before the signing ceremony, US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs against several European countries over their opposition to his push to take control of Greenland.

The US leader has refused to rule out taking military action to seize the Arctic island – a semi-autonomous territory that is part of Denmark – fuelling widespread international concern and protests.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has been re-elected to a seventh term, according to official results, winning nearly 72% of the vote to extend his 40-year rule. But opposition candidate Bobi Wine said the results were ‘fake’ and called for non-violent street protests.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deployed a military radar in the Somali region of Puntland as part of a secret deal, amid Abu Dhabi’s ongoing entrenchment of its influence over the region’s security affairs.

According to the London-based news outlet Middle East Eye, sources familiar with the matter told it that the UAE had installed a military radar near Bosaso airport in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region earlier this year, with one unnamed source saying that the “radar’s purpose is to detect and provide early warning against drone or missile threats, particularly those potentially launched by the Houthis, targeting Bosaso from outside”.

The radar’s presence was reportedly confirmed by satellite imagery from early March, which found that an Israeli-made ELM-2084 3D Active Electronically Scanned Array Multi-Mission Radar had indeed been installed near Bosaso airport.

READ: UAE: The scramble for the Horn of Africa

Not only does the radar have the purpose of defending Puntland and its airport from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, but air traffic data reportedly indicates it also serves to facilitate the transport of weapons, ammunition, and supplies to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), further fuelling the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

“The UAE installed the radar shortly after the RSF lost control of most of Khartoum in early March”, one source said. Another source was cited as claiming that the radar was deployed at the airport late last year and that Abu Dhabi has used it on a daily basis to supply the RSF, particularly through large cargo planes that frequently carry weapons and ammunition, and which sometimes amount to up to five major shipments at a time.

According to two other Somali sources cited by the report, Puntland’s president Said Abdullahi Deni did not seek approval from Somalia’s federal government nor even the Puntland parliament for the installation of the radar, with one of those sources stressing that it was “a secret deal, and even the highest levels of Puntland’s government, including the cabinet, are unaware of it”.

READ: UAE under scrutiny over alleged arms shipments to Sudan

Fisheries minister says three employees from ministry on board plane, operated by Indonesia Air Transport.

Indonesian authorities are searching for a plane carrying three government workers and at least seven crew members after contact with the aircraft was lost, officials said.

The fisheries surveillance aircraft had been heading to ‍Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, after departing from Yogyakarta Province, before contact was lost, Andi Sultan, operations chief at the Makassar search and rescue agency, told the news agency Reuters.

He said that air traffic control lost contact with the ATR ‍42-500 aircraft, operated by Indonesia Air Transport, at about 1:30pm (0530 GMT) on Saturday, around the Maros region ⁠in South Sulawesi province.

He declined to comment on the possible cause of the incident.

Maritime affairs and fisheries minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono told a news conference on Saturday that three employees from his ministry were on board the plane, which was operated by Indonesia Air Transport.

Reports on the number of crew members varied. Sultan said there were eight on board, while news agency AFP cited the airline as saying there were seven.

The plane had ‌been chartered by Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, ministry official Pung Nugroho Saksono told state news agency Antara.

Sultan said the search and rescue agency suspected that the plane had come down near the peak of Mount Bulusaraung, with about 400 ‍personnel, including ⁠military and police units, deployed to search for the plane and those on board, though the effort was being hampered by bad weather.

According to unconfirmed Flightradar24 data, an aircraft matching the description was flying eastward over the Java Sea at about 11,000 feet (approximately 3,350 metres) before rapidly losing altitude and dropping off ‌tracking systems.

The ATR 42-500 is a regional turboprop ‌aircraft capable of carrying between 42 and ⁠50 passengers.

Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR said it had been informed of “an accident” involving one of its planes and that its specialists were “fully engaged” to support both Indonesian investigators and the operator.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, has a poor aviation safety record, with several fatal crashes in recent years.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deployed a military radar in the Somali region of Puntland as part of a secret deal, amid Abu Dhabi’s ongoing entrenchment of its influence over the region’s security affairs.

According to the London-based news outlet Middle East Eye, sources familiar with the matter told it that the UAE had installed a military radar near Bosaso airport in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region earlier this year, with one unnamed source saying that the “radar’s purpose is to detect and provide early warning against drone or missile threats, particularly those potentially launched by the Houthis, targeting Bosaso from outside”.

The radar’s presence was reportedly confirmed by satellite imagery from early March, which found that an Israeli-made ELM-2084 3D Active Electronically Scanned Array Multi-Mission Radar had indeed been installed near Bosaso airport.

READ: UAE: The scramble for the Horn of Africa

Not only does the radar have the purpose of defending Puntland and its airport from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, but air traffic data reportedly indicates it also serves to facilitate the transport of weapons, ammunition, and supplies to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), further fuelling the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

“The UAE installed the radar shortly after the RSF lost control of most of Khartoum in early March”, one source said. Another source was cited as claiming that the radar was deployed at the airport late last year and that Abu Dhabi has used it on a daily basis to supply the RSF, particularly through large cargo planes that frequently carry weapons and ammunition, and which sometimes amount to up to five major shipments at a time.

According to two other Somali sources cited by the report, Puntland’s president Said Abdullahi Deni did not seek approval from Somalia’s federal government nor even the Puntland parliament for the installation of the radar, with one of those sources stressing that it was “a secret deal, and even the highest levels of Puntland’s government, including the cabinet, are unaware of it”.

READ: UAE under scrutiny over alleged arms shipments to Sudan

As the U.S. is reportedly moving at least one and perhaps more aircraft carrier strike groups to the Middle East ahead of a potential future attack on Iran, open-source tracking is beginning to show some U.S. Air Force assets may be heading that way as well. As we have seen in the past, large numbers of cargo flights and surging fighters into the region, as well as other aircraft, is a common occurrence when a crisis is brewing in the region, and there have been plenty of them in recent years.

You can catch up with our previous coverage of unfolding events in the Middle East here.

All this comes as President Donald Trump is mulling what to do next after reportedly calling off some kind of operation against Iran. Trump repeatedly threatened the regime over its brutal crackdown on anti-government protestors that has left thousands dead, but relented after being told the killings would stop. He also promised protesters that help was on its way. However, the administration at the moment appears to prefer a diplomatic solution. U.S. military planners have reportedly asked for more time to prepare, while Trump has come under intense pressure from Israel and the Gulf states not to attack over fears of regional instability. It should be remembered, though, that the U.S. was also negotiating with the regime ahead of last June’s Operation Midnight Hammer attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The lack of forces in the region, for both effective offensive operations and especially defensive ones, likely impacted his decision to hold off.

Trump on Friday acknowledged he called off the attack, but denied anyone pressured him to.

“Nobody convinced me, I convinced myself,” he told reporters outside the White House when asked if Arab and Israeli officials convinced him not to attack Iran. “You had, yesterday, scheduled, over 800 hangings. They didn’t hang anyone. They cancelled the hangings. That had a big impact.”

A military operation may be off the table for now, but Trump has not categorically ruled out striking Iran in the future. Should he decide on a kinetic operation, his options run the gamut from surgical strikes on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) forces and their Basij paramilitary troops killing the protestors to a decapitation strike on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to again striking nuclear facilities. Going after Iran’s air defenses and short-range standoff weapons could be another option in order to make future operations less risky.

Iran, for its part, has threatened to attack U.S. bases in the region, potentially much more severely than the one on Al Udeid Air Base last year in response to Midnight Hammer. Israel too, is a factor. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly urged Trump not to attack Iran in part because of the large expenditure of air defense munitions during the 12-Day War last June, leaving Israel vulnerable to potential Iranian barrages.

Regardless, even though the U.S. has tactical aircraft, six warships and some 30,000 troops in the region, it does not appear to be prepared for any major sustained operations against Iran that could radically alter the status quo, or the expected barrage of missiles and drones that would follow. This is a point we made last night.

“There are not enough assets in the Middle East to execute a sustained campaign that will accomplish anything of huge consequence in Iran, TWZ editor-in-chief Tyler Rogoway posted on X. This was never a question. 

Yes, the limited U.S. tactical airpower in the region can do some damage, but you need a complete, fully packaged force in order to really get in there and make a big dent. This requires a huge array of capabilities (see what one major night over Venezuela took) to cover contingencies etc. Even TLAMs are limited in the region, with just three destroyers there and possibly a submarine. Yes, bombers flying global airpower missions could play a significant role, B-52s and B-1s with JASSMs and B-2s could potentially go after hardened regime targets, possibly to decapitate the regime, but those sorties would be very low in number. And if a decapitation strike wasn’t successful then what? Huge contingencies need to be in place for what could come after. 

Above all that, there is not enough capability to robustly deal with the aftermath of U.S. strikes, which could include massive barrages of short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. These systems were left far more intact after the war with Israel as they did not threaten Israel. This continues to be a reality many do not realize. Additional ground based air defenses and fighters would be needed to deal with a major response, as well as naval assets. 

Bottom line here is all this takes time to move and get into place in preparation for something like this. Just in order to mount a major defense, not an offensive operation, it requires a lot of movements. We saw absolutely no movements that indicated such a force was being deployed. We still don’t see those indications. So if an attack was slated to occur, it would have been very limited in nature and would have likely left Iran in a place to respond massively, which we are not ideally prepared for.

Is there room for a very surgical operation likely focused on the regime’s upper echelons, yes, but even then, you need contingencies and capabilities in place if things don’t go right. Very much balancing the risk vs reward.

Taking out some targets using cruise missiles/standoff weapons etc. is certainly doable, but what do you achieve and at what potential cost from a retaliation? What does it actually achieve in real terms on the ground?”

A former high-ranking U.S. military official confirmed our analysis.

“It would be massive,” said the official of the scale of what it would take to attack Iran. “First, we have to get forces there; then we would need to stage and employ them; then we need to sustain them … and we would have to be prepared to do all that for a long time. It would dwarf anything we have likely done in the recent past.”

Clearly, the reported movement of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to the region would boost U.S. striking power when it arrives, likely sometime next week. It’s embarked CVW-9 Carrier Air Wing consists of eight squadrons flying F-35C Lightning II, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, E-2D Hawkeyes, CMV-22B Ospreys and MH-60R/S Sea Hawks. Its escorts, Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay and the Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyers of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 21 bring a large number of missile tubes that could be used to strike Iran. These vessels could also be used in the defense of U.S. targets and those of its allies during a reprisal.

There are also unconfirmed claims that the George H.W. Bush Carrier group is also headed to the region, which would add similar additional capabilities. The carrier left its homeport of Norfolk on Jan. 13. The Navy declined to comment about any ship movements while CENTCOM has declined to talk about any movements of assets to the region.

Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.

This week’s second caption reads: 

07 October 2024, Brandenburg, Freudenberg: Hans-Jürgen Herget, organizer of guided tours of the former GDR Ministry of the Interior’s command bunker, stands in the underground facility. The former command bunker of the GDR Ministry of the Interior near Freudenberg (Märkisch-Oderland) will be open to visitors next weekend (12 and 13 October 2024). “In the event of war, public life in the GDR was to be maintained from this bunker,” explains Hans-Jürgen Herget. According to Herget, around 400 telephone lines led from the facility to the police, the National People’s Army and the State Security, as well as to companies and fire departments. Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Prime Directives!

• If you want to talk politics, do so respectfully and know that there’s always somebody that isn’t going to agree with you. 
• If you have political differences, hash it out respectfully, stick to the facts, and no childish name-calling or personal attacks of any kind. If you can’t handle yourself in that manner, then please, discuss virtually anything else.
• No drive-by garbage political memes. No conspiracy theory rants. Links to crackpot sites will be axed, too. Trolling and shitposting will not be tolerated. No obsessive behavior about other users. Just don’t interact with folks you don’t like. 
• Do not be a sucker and feed trolls! That’s as much on you as on them. Use the mute button if you don’t like what you see.  
• So unless you have something of quality to say, know how to treat people with respect, understand that everyone isn’t going to subscribe to your exact same worldview, and have come to terms with the reality that there is no perfect solution when it comes to moderation of a community like this, it’s probably best to just move on. 
• Finally, as always, report offenders, please. This doesn’t mean reporting people who don’t share your political views, but we really need your help in this regard.

Museveni, 81, secured 71.65 percent support, electoral commission says, after contentious election campaign.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has been re-elected to a seventh term, the country’s electoral commission has announced.

Museveni, 81, won with 71.65 percent of the vote, the commission said on Saturday.

He defeated his main challenger, 43-year-old Bobi Wine, who received 24.72 percent of the vote, according to the official results.

Museveni’s widely expected victory comes after an election campaign that the United Nations said was marred by “widespread repression and intimidation”, including a crackdown on opposition rallies.

Thursday’s election also unfolded amid a nationwide internet blackout that drew widespread criticism.

Bobi Wine, a singer-turned-politician whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, had claimed on social media on Election Day that “massive ballot stuffing” was also taking place.

Bobi Wine said earlier on Saturday that he had escaped a police and army raid on his house.

“Currently, I am not at home, although my wife and other family members remain under house arrest. I know that these criminals are looking for me everywhere, and I am trying my best to keep safe,” he said.

Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, has been accused of overseeing a years-long crackdown on his political opponents.

He said in the run-up to this week’s vote that he expected to easily win re-election with about 80 percent support.

The U.S. Army has confirmed to TWZ that it plans to start fielding its new MV-75 tiltrotors in 2027. This is some five years earlier than originally planned, at least, and three years earlier than what the service was targeting just 12 months ago. The Army has been pushing for some time now to accelerate this program, which it sees as especially critical for any future high-end conflict in the Pacific region.

Bell, a Textron subsidiary, is developing the MV-75, which is based on its V-280 Valor tiltrotor, under the Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program. The service announced Bell had won the FLRAA competition in 2022, at which point the expectation was that the first examples would begin entering service in the mid-2030s. By the start of last year, the target in-service timeline had moved to 2030. The Army subsequently disclosed it was looking to push that further to the left to 2028.

“We’re going to get the MV-75 this year. The acquisitions strategy calls for testing this year and fielding next year,” Col. Dave Butler, an Army spokesperson, has now told TWZ. “We’re getting the best capability for our Soldiers, as fast as we can.”

It is worth noting here that construction of the first MV-75 is underway now and that it has yet to fly. However, the V-280 demonstrator has been extensively flight tested since it made its maiden flight back in 2017. Eventually, the Army plans to replace a significant portion of its H-60 Black Hawk helicopters, including a segment of the special operations MH-60Ms assigned to the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), with MV-75s.

Bell V-280 Valor Multi Domain Operations

TWZ had reached out to the Army for clarification and more details about the MV-75 program schedule after U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George had highlighted efforts to accelerate it at a town hall at Fort Drum in New York on January 12. Fort Drum is home to the 10th Mountain Division. The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, is one of the units the service has designated to spearhead service-wide modernization efforts.

“We have a new tiltrotor aircraft, and it was supposed to be delivered in 2031-2032,” Gen. George told soldiers at Fort Drum. “And we said, ‘No, we need it very quickly.’ At the end of this year, we will actually have those flying and out in formations, in both Compo 1 [the active duty component] and Compo 2 [the Army National Guard], and in our SOF [Special Operations Forces] formations.”

Gen. George begins talking about the MV-75 at around 18:20 in the runtime of the video below from the recent Fort Drum townhall.

ASL SITREP | What’s the latest with quality of life, warfighting, and other Army priorities?

The MV-75 promises a major boost in airmobile assault capability for the Army. The service expects the tiltrotors to offer roughly twice the range and speed of existing Black Hawks. Greater reach and being able to cover those distances faster would be particularly relevant in future operations in the Indo-Pacific region, where operating locations and objectives are likely be dispersed across large areas with limited options for making intermediate stops. The improved performance could also be very valuable in support of a wide variety of mission sets globally. The 101st Airborne Division, the Army’s premier air assault unit, has already been working to get ready to receive its first MV-75s for years now.

There are also plans for a special operations-specific variant of the MV-75. The 160th SOAR has been heavily involved in the aircraft’s development to help get that version into service faster, which has contributed to an increase in the weight of the baseline version, as you can read more about here.

In a report released last summer, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog, included a warning about the potential negative impacts of the MV-75’s increasing weight.

“The preliminary design review also stated that the aircraft’s weight growth is putting certain planned mission capabilities, particularly regarding payload, at moderate risk,” the report says. “While the review noted that FLRAA has a plan to reduce approximately 270 pounds of weight, this falls short of the 2,000-pound reduction needed to reduce the payload risk from medium to low. Program officials stated that they are planning to conduct a system-level critical design review in late fiscal year 2025.”

The GAO report, which had a cutoff date of January 31, 2025, also raised questions about Army efforts at that point to accelerate the program’s overall schedule.

“FLRAA transitioned to the MCA [Major Capability Acquisition] pathway in July 2024 and started system development. However, officials reported that the program’s critical technologies were not fully mature at that time. The program plans for the technologies to be fully
mature at production start – a date that program documentation targets for the first quarter of fiscal year 2029, but also indicates could be as late as the third quarter of fiscal year 2030,” the report explained. “According to our best practices for technology readiness, programs should fully mature all critical technologies in an operational environment by the start of system development. We previously found that MTA [Middle Tier of Acquisition] programs transitioning with immature technologies may risk costly and time-intensive redesign work for the overall effort.”

“DOD’s Office of the Under Secretary of Research and Engineering conducted a system-level preliminary design review and a schedule risk assessment for FLRAA in March 2024,” the report continued. “The review stated that the program is at high risk to meet its planned milestone dates due to various delays, but allowed the program to progress into detailed design. Schedule risk analysis showed that delays for the program’s start of production and initial operating capability could be approximately 18 and 11 months, respectively.”

The GAO report also noted that, at least when it was written, the Army expected to “complete testing of system-level integrated physical prototypes in an operational environment in fiscal year 2028.”

Exactly what the Army has done to be able to shift the MV-75 program schedule so significantly, and what may have been traded in the process, is unclear. The service has touted the use of digital engineering tools, including fully virtualized ‘digital twins’ of the design, as well as open-architecture systems, as having helped reduce developmental risk. In the past, Army Col. Jeffrey Poquette, the FLRAA program manager, has also been open about risks and potential willingness to accept them to a degree in order to accelerate work on the new aircraft.

Historically, tiltrotor designs have been defined by high cost and complexity, in general. At the same time, the inherent combination of capability benefits they offer – point-to-point helicopter-like flexibility together with the range and speed of a fixed-wing turboprop – has led to continued efforts to develop them globally. Companies in China are now actively working on at least one crewed tiltrotor design, as well as two uncrewed ones.

When it comes to the Army, FLRAA has notably survived a major shakeup in aviation priorities in recent years that has seen the cancellation of other major programs. There was talk for a time that the MV-75 might be at risk of being truncated or worse, but the trend line has been very much in the opposite direction in the past year.

“We used to talk about ‘Hey, we got to change by 2030.’ And 2030, in our view, was that arbitrary timeline. And it was based on all these POM [Program Objective Memorandum] and budget cycles and all of those things,” the Army Chief of Staff also said during the recent town hall, speaking more generally. “I think we’ve proven … that we can change more rapidly. We are talking about how we can get better in the next four months, the next six months, and making sure that we are moving as rapidly as possible.”

“You know, I’ve been in the Army, came out of high school in 1982, so a couple of days [after that], and it was always frustrating to me to see tech that was out there and wondering why we had shit that was a decade old when the stuff was out there on the streets,” George added.

It will be an important demonstration of the Army’s ability to more rapidly acquire and field major new capabilities if it can keep to its highly aggressive timeline for MV-75.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Sitting in his Gaza City tent, Mahmoud Abdel Aal expresses his frustration and worries, as conditions in the Palestinian enclave remain unchanged since the implementation of a United States-brokered ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

“There is no difference between the war and the ceasefire, nor between the first and second phase of the deal: Strikes continue every day,” Abdel Aal told the AFP news agency. “Everyone is worried and frustrated because nothing’s changed.”

Israeli attacks have persisted across Gaza, with at least 463 Palestinians killed since the ceasefire began in October last year.

Following US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s announcement of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan on Wednesday, more than 14 people were killed in the coastal territory, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

Amid a landscape of destroyed buildings and rain-damaged makeshift camps, Palestinians convey overwhelming bitterness. Though Israeli strikes have decreased in intensity since the ceasefire, daily bombings continue.

On Friday, an AFP photographer documented members of the Houli family walking through rubble after five relatives died in an air strike on their Deir el-Balah home in central Gaza.

Daily living conditions remain extremely precarious for most Palestinians, with more than 80 percent of infrastructure destroyed, according to the United Nations.

Water and electricity networks and waste management systems have collapsed. Hospitals operate minimally when functioning at all, and educational activities exist only as occasional initiatives. According to UNICEF, every child in Gaza requires psychological support after more than two years of genocidal war.

“We miss real life,” said Nivine Ahmad, a 47-year-old living in a displacement camp in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi area, as she hopes to return to her home in Gaza City.

“I pictured living with my family in a prefabricated unit, with electricity and water instead of our bombed home,” she said. “Only then will I feel that the war is over.”

In the meantime, she urged the world to put itself in the shoes of the Palestinians. “We only have hope and patience,” she said.

Novak Djokovic says he does not think the upcoming Australian Open is “now or never” for his hopes of winning a standalone all-time record 25th Grand Slam title.

Djokovic, 38, has been tied on 24 major victories with Australia’s Margaret Court since his last triumph at the 2023 US Open.

Unsurprisingly, the Serb has showed signs of decline in recent years, yet still managed to reach the semi-finals of all four Grand Slams last year.

Given he is a record 10-time men’s champion in Melbourne, and has had plenty of recovery time going into the first major of the season, the consensus is that the Australian Open represents his best chance of landing the elusive record-breaking title.

“There has been a lot of talk about the 25th, but I try to focus myself on what I have achieved, not what I’m possibly achieving,” Djokovic, who is seeded fourth at Melbourne Park, said.

“I hope it comes to that [winning 25], but 24 is also not a bad number. I have to appreciate that and remind myself of the amazing career I had.”

Djokovic has never made a secret of his desire to achieve even more history, but is now attempting to release some of the “unnecessary” pressure he places on himself to surpass Court.

He starts his latest bid against Spain’s Pedro Martinez in Monday’s night session on Rod Laver Arena.

“I don’t think it’s needed for me to really go far in terms of make-it-or-break-it or a now-or-never type of mentality,” said Djokovic, who is aiming to become the oldest Grand Slam men’s champion in the Open Era.

“Neither does that allow me to excel and perform my best.”

Since the outbreak of war in Sudan, talk of “humanitarian ceasefires” has become a recurring political refrain, invoked whenever the humanitarian catastrophe reaches its peak. However, the ceasefire being proposed today comes in a different and dangerous context. It follows the committing of genocide and ethnic cleansing by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia in the city of el-Fasher in Darfur – one of the most horrific humanitarian crimes in Sudan’s modern history, and indeed in the history of humanity.

El-Fasher, once a symbol of diversity and coexistence, has been turned into a devastated city emptied of its population. In the aftermath of this major crime, the international community has once again returned to proposing a “humanitarian ceasefire” as an option. This calls for a careful political reading that does not stop at moral slogans, but instead unpacks the motives and potential consequences – especially with regard to Sudan’s geographic, social, and political unity.

A path to peace or a gateway to disintegration?

In popular culture, there is a saying: “If you see a poor man eating chicken, then either the poor man is sick or the chicken is sick.” This proverb captures the essence of the legitimate political suspicion regarding the timing of this ceasefire.

Truces for humanitarian purposes, in principle, are meant to alleviate civilian suffering and may pave the way towards ending conflicts. In the case of Sudan, however, what raises alarm is that this ceasefire was proposed after the catastrophe occurred, not before it – after the RSF categorically rejected any humanitarian commitments, including the protection of hospitals and the securing of safe corridors for civilians to flee.

Humanitarian organisations have been operating in most regions of Sudan, including Darfur, despite security complexities and in the absence of a legal, signed ceasefire. This makes the question unavoidable: Why push for a ceasefire now? And in whose interest is this ceasefire being proposed at this particular moment?

This contradiction opens the door to suspicion that the objective goes beyond humanitarian concerns, extending instead to reshaping the political and geographic reality of the country.

Ceasefires in historical experience

Modern history is full of examples where humanitarian ceasefires transformed from de-escalation tools to preludes to fragmentation and secession. In Western Sahara, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and South Sudan, ceasefires were not always bridges to peace; more often, they were transitional stages towards the division of states and the erosion of sovereignty.

In the Sudanese context, specifically, Operation Lifeline Sudan launched by the UN in 1989 stands as a stark example of how humanitarian action was employed as a political entry point, eventually culminating in the secession of South Sudan through a referendum that followed a long process of normalising division.

The current situation, however, is far more dangerous and complex. It does not involve a government negotiating with a political movement holding national demands, but rather an unprecedented scenario in which two parties both claim to represent “the government” within a single state: The legitimate government of Sudan, on the one hand, and the RSF, seeking to establish a parallel entity, on the other.

The trap of disguised political recognition

Negotiation between “two governments” within one state is not only unprecedented in Sudan; it represents a grave political trap aimed at extracting recognition of a de facto force under a ceasefire umbrella.

The mere act of joint signing grants the rebel party parity and legitimacy, fundamentally contradicting the immense sacrifices made by the Sudanese people in defence of the state’s unity and sovereignty.

This path constitutes a direct violation of the core principles for which martyrs fell and women were widowed:

First, the principle of unity: The RSF has violated it by importing foreign elements and mercenaries, exploiting external support to impose forced demographic changes, and attempting to reshape Sudan according to agendas that bear no relation to the national will.

Second, the principle of unified government and constitutional legitimacy: The pursuit of a “parallel government” directly undermines this principle. It deals a blow to the foundations upon which the state has stood since independence, and opens the door to political chaos and institutional fragmentation.

Third, the unity of the military institution: The RSF violates it by receiving weapons and combat equipment from foreign states, and relying on looting and self-financing, completely contradicting any talk of security reform or the building of a unified national army. In practice, it lays the groundwork for multiple armies within a single state.

The ambiguity of negotiations and the absence of transparency

Concern deepens with the total lack of transparency surrounding the truce process. Why are negotiations conducted behind closed doors? Why are the Sudanese people excluded from knowing what is being agreed on in their name? How can foreign states negotiate on behalf of a people bleeding under war and displacement? Who has more right to oversee peace efforts than the people themselves? Are there priorities greater than commanding an ongoing war in which everyone is involved?

More alarming still is that the party “holding the pen” in the political process is the same party “holding the gun”, practising killing and ethnic cleansing – an ethical and political paradox that cannot be accepted.

A comprehensive reading of events suggests that this ceasefire is more likely to be an entry point for dismantling the Sudanese state than a bridge to saving it. It may lead to the entrenchment of division: Zones of influence, multiple armies, different currencies, parallel central banks, competing foreign ministries, and conflicting passports – a state without a state, and sovereignty without sovereignty.

This is a contagious disease that, sooner or later, will infect everyone along the coast, the river’s mouth and its source alike.

Between humanitarian duty and national vigilance

No one disputes the priority of improving humanitarian conditions and protecting civilians. Yet the ceasefire being pushed today may carry temporary stability at the cost of a devastating strategic price: The erosion of Sudan’s unity.

National duty demands the highest levels of vigilance and caution, lest the ceasefire turn into a political trap, pushing the project of state disintegration. While we should fully acknowledge that the crisis has deep, accumulated historical roots, we should remember that history does not forgive those who squander their homeland, nor does it absolve those who trade national sovereignty for foreign dictates.

Hope remains pinned on the awareness of the Sudanese people and their ability to unite in confronting this decisive moment, in defence of one homeland, one army, and one state – one that rejects partition and guardianship, accepting only the will of its people through a system and framework that do not involve seizure by force or the imposition of reality at gunpoint.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.