hybrid

Moscow is accused of running sabotage and espionage operations across Europe, targeting nations supporting Ukraine.

Authorities in Poland have arrested eight individuals across the country on suspicion of espionage and sabotage.

In a brief statement on social media, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that the case is developing and that “further operational activities are ongoing” without providing further details.

The detentions come amid accusations that Russia is operating a network of spies and saboteurs across Europe.

Referring to the prime minister’s post, the coordinator of Poland’s special services, Tomasz Siemoniak, said that the detained people are suspected of engaging in espionage and planning attacks.

They were arrested due to “conducting reconnaissance of military facilities and critical infrastructure, preparing resources for sabotage, and directly carrying out attacks”, he said.

While Warsaw has not directly linked the arrests, officials have said previously that Poland has been targeted with such attacks in a “hybrid war” waged by Russia to destabilise nations supporting Ukraine.

Several other European countries have also pointed the finger at Moscow as they have suffered similar attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Polish authorities have detained dozens of people over suspected sabotage and espionage over the past three years or so.

Moscow denies the accusations, insisting that they are the result of “Russophobia”.

In May last year, Polish authorities arrested three men for an arson attack. In September, Lithuanian prosecutors broke up a network that they said planned arson and explosive attacks in several European Union states.

The same month, Latvia’s security service announced the detention of a man suspected of passing military intelligence to Russia, and British police arrested three people suspected of running sabotage and espionage operations for Russia.

The United Kingdom has also repeatedly accused Russia of orchestrating sabotage and spy operations on its soil and beyond. The Kremlin has accused London of blaming Moscow for “anything bad that happens”.

Drones increasing concern

This autumn, drone incursions have added to the European security concerns, with Belgium, Denmark and Germany among several countries reporting sightings.

The incursions provoked airport closures in both Germany and Denmark.

“We are at the beginning of a hybrid war against Europe,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said. “I think we are going to see more of it … We see the pattern, and it does not look good,” she added.

Tusk pledged to urgently upgrade Poland’s air defences after NATO forces shot down several drones over his country last month.

The European Union, recognising the inefficiency of using multimillion-euro weapons to battle cheap drones, has reacted to the incursions with proposals to develop a “drone wall” on its eastern borders.

While Danish intelligence does not see an immediate threat of a kinetic war, it claims Russia’s growing belligerence has included repeatedly threatening its warships and helicopters in Danish waters. These details are part of a new Danish intelligence threat assessment released Friday that concludes Russia is in a state of increasingly intense “hybrid war” with NATO. That is just below the threshold of armed conflict and comes at a time of mounting tensions between Moscow and the alliance.

“We have seen several incidents in the Danish straits, where Danish air force helicopters and naval vessels have been targeted by tracking radars and physically pointed at with weapons from Russian warships,” Danish Defense Intelligence Service (DDIS) Director Thomas Ahrenkiel stated at a press conference on Friday.

Russian warships had sailed on collision courses with Danish vessels during their passage through the straits, Ahrenkiel added. In addition, “a Russian warship has been anchored in Danish waters for over a week,” Reuters reported from the press conference. That suggested “possible interference from Moscow if Denmark tried to curb movements of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ of tankers used to circumvent Western sanctions on its oil exports imposed over its war with Ukraine.”

“Russia is using military force to try to intimidate Denmark and force it to abandon compliance with shipping rules in the Baltic Sea,” the Danish intelligence chief warned.

“Russia highly likely sees itself as being in conflict with the West, in which the hybrid means employed are kept below the threshold of armed conflict,” the report notes. “The DDIS assesses that Russia is currently conducting hybrid warfare against NATO and the West. It is highly likely that the hybrid threat from Russia against NATO will increase in the coming years.”

As examples, in addition to the aforementioned threats against its naval assets, Danish intelligence said that Russia “has deployed fighter jets to protect its shadow fleet as it carries Russian oil out of the Baltic Sea and has violated the airspace of NATO states with, for instance, fighter jets, helicopters and attack drones.” 

“The states that have been most affected by Russian airspace violations in recent months are Poland, Estonia, Finland, and Romania,” the report adds.

Russia’s hybrid war with NATO countries goes far beyond these measures, with accusations of cyber attacks, clandestine sabotage operations, widespread GPS jamming and much more.

“Since the spring of 2025, Russia’s aggressive military behavior towards NATO countries has further intensified,” according to the assessment.

The purpose of this “aggressive military behavior” is to test “NATO members’ response capabilities and [cause] concern among member states that NATO is headed towards war with Russia.”

In addition, Danish intelligence states that the threat of continued Russian military provocations and cyber attacks against NATO is classified as “high,” meaning “there are one or more actors that have the capacity for and are specifically planning attacks/harmful activity or that have already carried out or attempted attacks/harmful activity.”

Despite all this, Danish intelligence states that for now, the threat of open warfare with Russia is classified as “none,” meaning “there are no signs of a threat. There are no actors with both the capacity and intention for attacks/harmful activity.”

Meanwhile, European officials are investigating whether the ongoing wave of reported mystery drone sightings over military installations and airports is part of the Russian hybrid warfare efforts Danish intelligence is warning about.

The latest reported incident took place over the Elsenborn military base in the East Cantons section of Belgium, on the border with Germany.

“A Belgian test aircraft designed to detect drones sighted a total of 15,” the Belgian VRT news outlet reported on Friday. “Drones were observed at various altitudes on both the Belgian and German sides of the base. Where the drones came from and who operated them is not yet clear. The Ministry of Defence is investigating the incident.”

We’ve reached out to the Belgian MoD for more details about this incident.

The night before, the Munich Airport was shut down for several hours after drones were spotted nearby, forcing the grounding of 17 flights and the diversion to other airports of another 15, Munich Airport officials explained. The airport resumed flights early Friday morning.

Before these latest incidents, several airports in Denmark and Norway were closed after drones were spotted, which leaders in Denmark characterized as an effort to sow fear in the country.

Concern about these incursions has been so high that a German Navy frigate and counter-drone equipment from several nations were rushed to Copenhagen to protect the skies during a meeting of European Union leaders.

In addition, the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Bulkeley was deployed to the NATO Baltic Sentry operation, which has expanded from protecting critical undersea infrastructure to now defending against drones. It marks the first contribution of a U.S. Navy warship to that effort.

The recent Russian drone incursions into Poland and Romania and violations of Estonian airspace by three MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors have raised suspicions that Russia, which denies involvement, is behind this drone wave. However, there is no conclusive evidence, several European officials state.

“It’s possible,” that there is a Russian connection to the drone incursions, “but there are currently no concrete indications,” Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken said. “That needs to be investigated. Personally, I think these drones are very often an example of a hybrid threat. This is a way to sow unrest. That has been Russia’s pattern for many years.”

Amid the accusations and suspicions, Russian President Vladimir Putin joked about drone incursions.

“Oh, you know, I think we’ve had enough fun with drones for now,” he joshed. “’I won’t do it anymore. I won’t go to France, Denmark or Copenhagen anymore. Where else do they fly?”

As we have explained in the past, it is quite possible that many, if not most of these sightings are mistaken identity. It is a pattern that emerged last year when thousands of people claimed to see drones in the New Jersey region of the U.S. The overwhelming majority of those sightings were airplanes, planets and other benign objects in the sky.

Still, just like in the New Jersey case, we do know that a limited number of the sightings over military bases were confirmed by the government. The reality is that these drone incursions over critical facilities in Europe have been happening for years, but just how much it has exploded in recent weeks is blurred by media reports and sightings not supported by independent analysis or corroborated by sensor data.

Regardless, the drone incursion reports have rattled Europe, especially given that some had to be shot down amid an ongoing brutal war in Ukraine that is spilling over borders more frequently. That this comes as European officials are accusing Moscow of engaging in hybrid warfare speaks to the importance of finding the source of these objects.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that Europe must arm itself to respond to Russia’s hybrid warfare.

“I hope that everybody recognises now that there is a hybrid war and one day it’s Poland, the other day it’s Denmark, and next week it will probably be somewhere else that we see sabotage or we see drones flying,” Frederiksen told reporters on Wednesday.

She was hosting a summit of European leaders as they discussed joint efforts for better deterrence and defence.

French President Emmanuel Macron was also on hand and urged the European Union to proceed with caution in its current confrontation with Russia.

“I think we all have to be very cautious because we are in a time of confrontation with a lot of hybridity,” Macron said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the summit in Copenhagen.

“This is why we have to be strong to deter any aggressions, but we have to remain very cautious and avoid any escalation,” he added.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also warned against overreacting.

“Despite everything, I think we have to think calmly. I think we shouldn’t respond to provocations. We have to equip ourselves, that certainly is true,” she said.

Hybrid warfare involves the use of conventional methods, such as tanks and missiles, as well as nonconventional ones, such as cyberattacks and internet disinformation.

Russia has been “a very aggressive player” for several years, the French president said, citing cyberattacks during elections, its war against Ukraine, the use of nuclear threats and recent airspace violations.

The heads of state and prime ministers of the EU countries were meeting in Denmark’s capital following a series of drone incidents near the country’s airports and military bases over the last week.

Before the meeting, a special radar system was set up at Copenhagen airport to help keep watch. Unidentified drones forced the closure of the airfield a week ago, causing major disruptions.

France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK also sent aircraft, ships and air defence systems to Denmark in advance of the talks.

While the Danish authorities have not identified those believed to be responsible, Frederiksen said, “There is only one country that is willing to threaten us, and it is Russia, and therefore we need a very strong answer back.”

The Danish prime minister appealed for rearmament in the face of growing threats.

“I want us to rearm. I want us to buy more capabilities. I want us to innovate more, for example, on drones,” she said. “When I look at Europe today, I think we are in the most difficult and dangerous situation since the end of the second world war.”

Airspace violations

Serious airspace violations have been recorded in Europe over the last month, but not all nations in the bloc agree on how to respond.

After Russia was blamed for drone incursions into NATO members Poland and Romania, Macron last week said the alliance’s response would have to “go up a notch” in the case of “new provocations” from Moscow.

Macron did not rule out downing a Russian fighter jet if it were to breach European airspace.

“In accordance with the doctrine of strategic ambiguity, I can tell you that nothing is ruled out,” he said in an interview with German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Last month, Poland said it had shot down Russian drones that violated its airspace as Moscow launched a barrage against Ukraine, while Romania’s defence ministry said the country’s airspace had been breached by a drone during a Russian attack on infrastructure in neighbouring Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Macron also alleged that an oil tanker off the French coast had committed “very serious wrongdoings” and linked it to Russia’s shadow fleet, which is avoiding Western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The tanker was sailing off the coast of Denmark last week and was cited by European naval experts as possibly being involved in drone flights over the Nordic country.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leaders and intelligence services believed that Russia could mount an assault elsewhere in Europe in three to five years, and that President Vladimir Putin is intent on testing NATO amid doubts about US President Donald Trump’s commitment to the organisation.

Other defence experts, however, question the readiness of Russia’s military for another large-scale war.

Since 2000, California voters have trudged to the polls to decide policy issues so frequently that they have practically worn paths to the voting booths. They have been faced with a record 86 ballot propositions and, in approving 46 of them, have established a new milestone in direct democracy in the state. With three statewide ballot elections next year, and the Legislature increasingly unable to achieve consensus on the big issues facing the state, the policymaking burden will continue to fall on voters. Indeed, healthcare reform and new waterworks investments, the subjects of a special legislative session, look likely to become ballot measures in 2008.

But creating or changing laws at the ballot box has its flaws. Because voters aren’t policy analysts or constitutional lawyers, the initiatives they back sometimes don’t work in practice. For instance, Proposition 187, which would have banned government services to illegal immigrants, easily won at the polls but was subsequently gutted by the courts. And in 1996, voters passed Proposition 198, which would have created an open-primary system, only to watch the state Supreme Court throw it out.

Rather that depend on either the Legislature or the initiative process to resolve the big issues facing California, there’s a third way. It’s called “hybrid democracy.”

The rise of direct democracy this decade stems in large part from the Legislature’s increasing inability to govern. The reasons are fairly familiar. One is partisan gridlock caused by gerrymandered districts that favor political extremes, conservative and liberal. Another is term limits, which have deprived the Legislature of experienced members with an institutional memory. Add the two-thirds vote requirement in the Assembly and Senate for budget and tax matters, and you have a Legislature with its hands largely tied, leaving more of the big decisions to voters.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has also greatly contributed to this trend of government by ballot measure. No other governor in California history has gone to the voters to accomplish his legislative agenda as frequently as he has. Although the record is mixed on this tactic — all his reform initiatives were rejected in a 2005 special election, but more than $50 billion in fiscal-recovery and infrastructure bonds passed in 2004 and 2006 — it is clear that it resonates with Californians.

Deciding public policy at the ballot box appeals to Californians’ populism, their distrust of government and their concerns about the influence of special-interest groups (though, ironically, many initiatives are the handiwork of special interests). For instance, a statewide survey done by the Public Policy Institute of California in August 2006 showed that six in 10 Californians said they think that voters make better policy decisions than elected leaders, and seven in 10 said it is a “good thing” that voters can make policy and change laws at the ballot box. These attitudes have been on the rise this decade.

Trust in state government, meanwhile, is falling. The institute’s September survey found that only three in 10 adults said they trust the government in Sacramento to do what is right always or most of the time, which is close to the low point reached just before the recall of Gov. Gray Davis in 2003. Solid majorities said they believe that state government is run mainly by special interests and that a lot of taxpayer money is wasted. Only one in three today approve of the way the Legislature is doing its job.

Is there a fix that could restore Californians’ confidence in their Legislature? One suggested solution, Proposition 56, would have lowered the two-thirds vote requirement to a 55% majority. But voters soundly rejected it in 2004, and the concept continues to be unpopular among the state’s distrustful voters.

Extending politicians’ tenures in office also seems an unlikely answer. A term-limits reform initiative on the Feb. 5 primary ballot would lengthen the amount of time a legislator can serve in one chamber. Currently, legislators are limited to three two-year terms in the Assembly and two four-year terms in the Senate. The initiative would allow lawmakers to spend a total of 12 years either in the Assembly, Senate or a combination of both. A majority of voters favors the measure, but they support it only because of its provision that total time lawmakers could serve would drop from 14 to 12 years, according to Public Policy Institute of California surveys. As for reforming the way California draws its electoral districts, voters spurned Schwarzenegger’s 2005 plan, which would have handed the job over to a panel of retired judges.

So ballot initiatives are going to be with us for a while — with all their advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes voters will pass them, only to see them thrown out by the courts. Sometimes (as in 2005) the governor will want them approved, but the voters will say no. Sometimes, bad new laws will be approved at the ballot box.

What works best is “hybrid democracy” — the Legislature and the voters working together. The truth is that voters don’t like to be asked to decide complicated public policy issues that legislators can’t settle. For instance, Schwarzenegger went around the Legislature in 2005 to qualify his reform initiatives, and all of them failed. But when elected leaders can reach a bipartisan consensus on these kinds of issues before placing them on the ballot, voters tend to follow their lead. For instance, in 2004 and 2006, the Legislature and the governor reached bipartisan agreement in placing the fiscal-recovery and public works bonds on the ballot, and the voters passed them.

It’s not always possible to reach bipartisan consensus. Some issues are still going to stymie the Legislature. But where possible, the lesson to legislators should be clear: Work the issues through wherever possible before putting them to voters. Healthcare reform and new water-delivery systems will probably end up on the ballot in one form or another, so lawmakers and the affected interests have every incentive to find common ground on the legislation before it gets there. If they succeed, voters are more likely to approve the measures. Only with this kind of partnership between elected leaders and voters can California move forward.

Any western worth its dusty boots and big-sky openness should know what’s breathtaking about freedom, at the same time grasping how being tamed is an uneasy, clarifying rite of passage. That men have typically led these stories means there’s a lot still to be mined when women tackle this genre — both in front of and behind the camera — and in “East of Wall,” about a struggling ranch matriarch (Tabatha Zimiga) with a headstrong daughter (Porshia Zimiga), writer-director Kate Beecroft has found a worthy modern story of cowgirl hardiness near South Dakota’s Badlands.

That air of independence and restriction applies also to what “East of Wall” itself is: a narrative centered on first-time actors playing versions of themselves in a story shaped from their lives, in this case the joys and sorrows of the Zimigas’ open-plains existence rescuing, riding and selling horses, and dealing with financial uncertainty after the loss of a loved one.

When Chloé Zhao took the docu-fiction approach with her melancholy 2017 neo-western “The Rider,” the blended realism and dramatic choreography achieved something heartbreaking, reawakening the hybrid’s possibilities. Beecroft’s solid-enough first feature isn’t as effortlessly transcendent — the seams show a bit more. But there’s plenty of lived-in warmth in its accumulation of details and it gives needed voice to the concerns of women forging their own way in an environment that isn’t exactly kind on anyone.

Very quickly, we’re swept up in what’s loose, chaotic and appealing about tough, tattooed horse whisperer Tabatha and her rough-and-tumble operation, which includes her own children — Porshia is already a rising rodeo star — and various teenagers from this strapped region’s broken homes, plus her hard-bitten mom (Jennifer Ehle), who enjoys her peach moonshine. There’s an unruly found-family charm that belies what’s isolating and rundown about their situation and Austin Shelton’s vista-friendly cinematography does a good job contrasting that beauty and severity, especially in Tabatha herself, an earthy, battle-hardened goddess with a head half-shaved and half-draped with golden hair, and kind eyes rimmed with mascara. She always looks ready to calm a bronc, knock back a beer or tell you off.

Tabatha’s reputation for breaking wild steeds and supporting wayward kids is legion and her sales methods lean toward the unconventional: TikTok videos that frame horses at full speed against ravishing backdrops, and at barn sales, showcases that spotlight her girls’ performing skills. Money is tight, though, and the sting of her husband’s suicide a year earlier has put a grief wedge between Tabatha and Porshia as each tries to imagine what the future holds. That’s when an observant, dogged Texas rancher with his own baggage (Scoot McNairy) shows up with a tempting lifeline that puts everyone’s ownership of their fate in stark relief.

“East of Wall” lives in that indie space of wanting to respect and vibe equally, which means there’s a little too much slo-mo montage and, considering how invested we are in this family, not enough memorable scene work. But even with the thinnest of narrative framing and some arty touches that feel superfluous, there’s an overall portrait of authentic grit and resilience here, of knowing when to hold on and when to let go, that is well-nurtured by Beecroft’s admiring eye for these renegade women.

Nothing against McNairy and Ehle who play well with the first-timers, but there are moments when you wonder if Beecroft should have straight-up made a documentary, foregoing the harnessing of scripted incident for the rawness of what drew her to these people and this world in the first place. Which is another way of saying mother and daughter Zimiga are real finds, true-to-themselves keepers of a heartland tradition, and fresh faces getting to tell that story in a nontraditional form.

June 17 (UPI) — The 2026 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X sets a new performance standard with a twin-turbo hybrid motor that delivers 1,250 HP and a top speed exceeding 230 mph.

The all-wheel-drive sports car debuted on Tuesday and is the most expensive Corvette ever made with an anticipated retail price starting at $250,000.

The twin-turbocharged motor produces 1,064 horsepower, and the electric AWD adds another 186 HP, with a regenerative energy system powering the about 4,000-pound hypercar, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Its 5.5-liter LT7 V8 produces up to 828 pound-feet of torque that increases to 973 pound-feet when the AWD is running.

An eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission delivers the power to all four wheels using Corvette’s E-Ray hybrid technology.

The mid-engine hypercar can go from 0-60 mph in less than 2 seconds and cover the quarter mile in less than 9 seconds with a top speed exceeding 150 mph.

The AWD smooths out the power delivery for less wear and tear on the rear axle and better handling while turning.

“You’ll feel that coming out of every corner, the car clawing you out,” ZR1X lead development engineer Keith Badgley told Motor1.

Corvette’s 2024 hybrid E-Ray created the platform for the ZRX1 with a 6.2-liter V8 engine with an electric motor, although the new Corvette has a slightly smaller motor that delivers more power.

“We saw the capability of the E-Ray and how we could take advantage of it,” Badgley told Motor1. “The design and structure of the ZR1s were always being designed to handle performance at the pinnacle.”

Chevrolet is building the ZR1X at its Bowling Green, Ky., plant, and a final selling price will be announced later this year.

The 2025 ZR1 is Corvette’s costliest current-production model with a $175,000 starting point that goes up with additional goodies added.

The retail price is typically much lower than the actual selling price.

Chevrolet dealer and NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner Rick Hendrick last year paid $3.7 million for a 2025 ZR1, the Detroit Free Press reported.