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Mohamed Salah has become the latest player to sustain an injury weeks ahead of the World Cup, adding to his team’s and supporters’ woes as Egypt return to the tournament after missing out on the previous edition.

Salah suffered a hamstring injury during Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Crystal Palace in the English Premier League on Saturday, with a top Egyptian football official confirming the forward will miss the rest of his club’s season.

The Egyptian talisman is not the only player to have suffered a blow ahead of the global tournament, and joins an increasing list of major players spending the rest of the club football season on the sidelines.

With the World Cup kicking off in less than two months in Canada, Mexico and the United States, several players find themselves in a race against time to overcome injuries and prove their fitness.

Title contenders and former champions Spain, Brazil and Germany will be among those hoping some of their key players recover in time for the tournament, which begins on June 11.

Here are some of the big names who have sustained injuries ahead of the World Cup:

Mohamed Salah: Egypt

The Egyptian and Liverpool forward was in pain as he limped off the field and held his hamstring after being substituted in the league game.

While his club manager Arne Slot refused to say whether Salah would miss the rest of Liverpool’s season, his national team’s director confirmed that the 33-year-old will be out for four weeks.

“We have to wait and see how his injury is and if he is able to return to play,” Slot told reporters after the match.

“What I do know about Mo is that throughout all of these years, he has taken such good care of his body that he will have the minimum time required to recover from an injury,” he added.

However, Egyptian football official Ibrahim Hassan confirmed that Salah’s club season was over.

“He has suffered a hamstring tear and will require four weeks of treatment,” Hassan told the Reuters news agency.

Hassan said Salah would be fit for the World Cup, where Egypt face Belgium, New Zealand and Iran in Group G.

Salah is no stranger to pre-World Cup blows, having injured his shoulder before the 2018 edition in the Champions League final. He missed the Pharaohs’ opening game, but recovered for the remaining two group matches and scored two goals in a campaign that ended at the group stage.

Egypt at World Cup 2026: Belgium (June 15), New Zealand (June 21), Iran (June 26)

Lamine Yamal: Spain

All eyes will be on the award-winning football prodigy, but his World Cup debut has been thrown into doubt after a hamstring injury in his left leg (biceps femoris muscle).

Barcelona announced that Lamine Yamal’s domestic season in Spain is over, but the international forward should be fit to represent Spain at this summer’s World Cup.

The 18-year-old’s participation is still doubtful since it could take four to six weeks to recover as he follows a “conservative treatment plan”.

Yamal was an integral part of the Spain side that lifted the Euro 2024 title with their 2-1 win against England. Then just 16 years of age, he showed speed and guile on the ball that marked him as one of the hottest properties in global football.

Spain at World Cup 2026: Cape Verde (June 15), Saudi Arabia (June 21), Uruguay (June 27)

Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Serge Gnabry: Germany

The 33-year-old first-choice goalkeeper for Germany has spent more time recovering than playing this year after a severe hamstring injury in February sent him into rehabilitation.

German national team coach Julian Nagelsmann told Marc-Andre ter Stegen in March that his chances of playing for the national side were “very slim” and that he had to speed up his recovery to be fit for the tournament in June.

The four-time champions could rely on Oliver Baumann in Stegen’s absence.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Serge Gnabry took to social media this week to announce he would be “supporting the boys from home”. The 30-year-old suffered a torn adductor muscle in his right thigh that also ruled him out of Bayern Munich’s remaining Bundesliga season.

Germany at World Cup 2026: Curacao (June 14), Ivory Coast (June 20), Ecuador (June 25)

Estevao, Rodrygo and Eder Militao: Brazil

Brazil and Chelsea forward Estevao has also been ruled out of the remaining Premier League season after suffering a hamstring injury that left the teen in tears as he was taken off the pitch.

Chelsea’s interim coach Calum McFarlane expressed his hope for the 19-year-old to make it to the Brazilian squad, though he cautioned there was no guarantee yet.

Estevao joined Chelsea from Palmeiras last year and has scored eight goals this season. He was expected to be part of Carlo Ancelotti’s squad for the World Cup after scoring five times in his last six international appearances.

Unlike Estevao, Brazil forward Rodrygo has been decisively ruled out of the World Cup squad due to a torn meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee.

“One of the worst days of my life, how much I always feared this injury,” the 25-year-old wrote in a social media post after the setback in March.

Rodrygo made five appearances for Brazil at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Yet another blow to Brazil comes from a hamstring injury sustained by Eder Militao during Real Madrid’s 2–1 win over Deportivo Alaves.

The 28-year-old defender is set to undergo surgery, and according to reports, will not be available for Brazil’s World Cup campaign as previously expected.

Brazil at World Cup 2026: Morocco (June 13), Haiti (June 19), Scotland (June 24)

Hugo Ekitike: France

France striker Hugo Ekitike has also been ruled out of the World Cup entirely after tearing his Achilles tendon in April during the Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.

He recently underwent surgery, which Liverpool manager Arne Slot said went well, although recovery and a return to the pitch for the 23-year-old could take as long as 2027.

France at World Cup 2026: Senegal (June 16), Iraq (June 22), Norway (June 26)

Wataru Endo and Takumi Minamino: Japan

A question mark lingers over the participation of Japan captain and Liverpool defender Wataru Endo, who has not played since sustaining an ankle injury at Sunderland in February. Liverpool manager Slot recently provided an update, saying the 33-year-old midfielder may return just in time for the end of the season.

Teammate Takumi Minamino is also in the same situation after rupturing his ACL in December.

Japan at World Cup 2026: Netherlands (June 14), Tunisia (June 20), Sweden (June 25)

Mali has been rattled by coordinated attacks carried out by several unidentified ⁠armed groups beginning on Saturday, escalating the political and security crisis in the country, which has been under military rule for most of the past 14 years.

On Sunday, a military source told Al Jazeera that Mali’s Defence Minister Sadio Camara had been killed amid coordinated attacks on military sites across the country, including the capital, Bamako. His residence in Kati was attacked on Saturday.

“The General Staff of the Armed Forces informs the public that unidentified armed terrorist groups targeted certain locations and barracks in the capital and the interior early this morning, April 25, 2026. Fighting is ongoing,” Mali’s military said in a statement on Saturday.

Al-Qaeda-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has claimed responsibility for attacks in Kati, near the capital, as well as the Bamako airport and other locations further north, including Mopti, Sevare and Gao. Tuareg rebels also claimed participation in the latest assaults.

The current military ruler, Assimi Goita, came to power in the 2021 coup on the promise to boost security amid the growing influence of armed groups in one of the most impoverished nations in the world. Goita has yet to make a public statement.

So, what is the latest situation in the country and have the armed attacks been contained?

Here’s what we know:

What happened?

On Saturday morning, Mali’s army said unidentified ⁠“terrorist” groups ⁠had attacked several military positions in ‌Bamako and the country’s interior.

Two loud explosions and sustained gunfire were heard shortly before 6am (06:00 GMT) near Mali’s main military base, Kati, just north of the capital. Soldiers were deployed to block roads, witnesses said.

There was similar unrest at around the same time in the central town of Sevare, and Kidal and Gao in the north.

Gunfire ⁠could be heard near a military camp close ⁠to the Bamako airport, where Russian mercenary forces are based, a resident told the Reuters news agency.

Heavy gunfire was also reported in Kati, where Goita also has his residence, witnesses told the AFP news agency.

AFP reported that Kati residents uploaded images on social media showing their homes destroyed. “We are holed up in Kati,” one resident said.

The military said in a statement it had killed “several hundred” assailants and repelled the assault, which hit multiple sites in or near Bamako. It is unclear how many assailants were killed.

It said the situation was under control, adding that a large-scale sweep operation was also under way in Bamako, the nearby barracks town of Kati and elsewhere in the gold-producing country.

Reporting from Dakar, Senegal, on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque said the scale and coordination of the attack appeared to be unprecedented.

He said, despite the situation having come under control, “there’s an unprecedented level of panic in the military ranks”.

The African Union, the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the United States Bureau of African Affairs have condemned the attacks.

Indications that different armed groups launched a coordinated attack in Mali signal a “very dangerous development”, according to Ulf Laessing, Sahel analyst at the German think tank Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

He told Al Jazeera on Saturday that since the crisis began in 2012, security has been “degrading” every year, and the government has little control over large areas of the country.

Mali’s democratically elected President Amadou Toumani Toure was deposed in a coup led by soldiers in May 2012. His government was accused of failing to handle a Tuareg-led rebellion in the north.

Since then, the country has been experiencing a severe security and political crisis, armed rebellions and two military coups.

Mali is “a vast territory, twice the size of France. Most people live in the south, the north is desert and mountains … it’s impossible to control it, not even the French could do it, let alone the Russians”, Laessing said.

“There’s no military solution”, and armed groups are “entrenched” in the countryside.

“The only good news is, so far, they [armed groups] haven’t been able to control … larger cities,” he added.

Who is behind Saturday’s attack?

The JNIM and Tuareg rebels have claimed responsibility for the attacks.

In a statement published by SITE ‌Intelligence Group, JNIM claimed attacks in Kati, Bamako and in localities further north, including Mopti, Sevare and Gao.

JNIM is the Sahel affiliate of al-Qaeda and the most active armed group in the region, according to conflict monitor ACLED. Since September, JNIM fighters have been attacking fuel tankers, bringing Bamako to a standstill in October 2025.

It also imposed an economic and fuel blockade by sealing off major highways used by tankers transporting fuel from neighbouring Senegal and the Ivory Coast to the landlocked Sahel country.

For weeks, most of Bamako’s residents were unable to buy any fuel for cars or motorcycles as supplies dried up, bringing the normally bustling capital to a standstill.

Despite several months of calm, Bamako residents faced a diesel shortage in March, with fuel prioritised for use in the energy sector.

On Saturday, the JNIM said the city of Kidal was “captured” in an operation coordinated with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a Tuareg-dominated rebel group.

Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesperson for FLA, said on social media ⁠that the group had taken control of multiple positions in Kidal and Gao. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the claim.

Videos posted online and verified by Al Jazeera showed armed men entering the National Youth Camp of Kidal on Saturday.

Al Jazeera’s Haque noted that it seems the FLA is gaining ground in the north of the country.

“There’s video footage circulating on social media showing some of these fighters entering the residence of the governor of Kidal,”  he said.

“Kidal is not the biggest town in the north, but it’s high in symbolism because whoever holds the town of Kidal controls the north,” he added.

Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, deputy director for the Sahel at the International Crisis Group, says Malian authorities appear to have been caught off-guard by the latest wave of attacks.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Dakar on Saturday, Ibrahim said the offensive fits into a broader pattern of escalating violence.

“Even though it is hard to say that it is totally a surprise, I think it is just another dramatic episode in a series of spectacular attacks that we have witnessed in recent years by JNIM attacking the government,” he said.

What role did Russian mercenaries play during the attacks?

Witnesses told Al Jazeera’s Haque that Russian mercenaries were involved in fighting in Bamako, around the airport, where they have one of their headquarters.

“But because there’s been so much pressure on the Russia-Ukraine front, some of these Russian mercenaries are being pulled out from Mali, which is affecting the security situation in Mali now,” Haque said.

Al Jazeera’s Haque said that “the Russian mercenaries seem to have surrendered the town of Kidal or at least the military camp where they were with the Malian forces”.

“The Tuareg fighters had asked them to surrender weapons. It is unclear whether they did that or not but what’s clear is that the Russians are stepping out of the town of Kidal,” he said, adding that “Russian mercenaries not fighting against armed fighters “is something significant”.

In June last year, Russia’s Wagner group said it would withdraw from Mali after more than three and a half years on the ground. The paramilitary force said it had completed its mission against armed groups in the country.

But Wagner’s withdrawal from Mali did not mean the departure of Russian fighters. Russian mercenaries have remained under the banner of the Africa Corps, a separate Kremlin-backed paramilitary group created after Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against the Russian military in June 2023.

Besides Mali, Africa Corps is also active in other African countries, including Equatorial Guinea ⁠and the Central African Republic.

What does all this mean for Mali’s and the Sahel’s security?

Since gaining independence in 1960, the West African country has experienced alternating cycles of political stability and instability, punctuated by rebellions, financial woes and military coups.

In 2012, ethnic Tuareg separatists, allied with fighters from an al-Qaeda offshoot, launched a rebellion that took control of the country’s north.

But fighters from the armed group Ansar Dine swiftly pushed out the Tuareg rebels and seized key northern cities, triggering French military intervention in early 2013 at the request of the government. Ansar Dine and several other groups later merged to form the JNIM.

In September 2013, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was elected as president. His fragile democratic rule ended in 2020. Under his government, the United Nations brokered a peace deal between the government and northern Tuareg groups fighting for an independent Azawad in 2015.

President Keita was deposed in a military coup in August 2020 following months of mass protests over severe economic woes in the country and the advance of armed groups in the north. In September that year, Bah Ndaw, a retired colonel, was sworn in as interim president, with Goita as vice president, to lead a transitional government.

In May 2021, Goita, the leader of the previous year’s power grab and vice president of the interim government, seized power in a second coup. Mali is currently being run by Goita’s military government. Initially, the military government pledged to return to civilian rule in March 2024, but it has not kept the promise.

Goita invited Russian mercenaries to support the military administration in its fight against armed groups in December 2021 after asking the French troops to leave the country. This created a security vacuum. In January 2024, Mali’s rulers also terminated the 2015 peace deal with Tuareg rebels, accusing them of not complying with the agreement. This led to a breakdown in the country’s security situation once again.

In September 2025, the JNIM began a fuel import blockade, crippling life in Bamako.

Mali, along with Niger and Burkina Faso, formally split last year from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

However, earlier this week, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop attended a security forum in Senegal where he said the withdrawal was “final”, but added that the AES could maintain a constructive dialogue with ECOWAS on freedom of movement and preserving a common market.

“Even for the Malian minister to come to this conference signals that they are afraid for themselves and they need to open up,” Adama Gaye, political commentator on the Sahel and West Africa, told Al Jazeera. “It is also an indication that they want to reach out to ECOWAS.”

Gaye added that the Goita-led military government “cannot have legitimacy in their own country”.

“They have been terrible in economic progress, peace and stability,” he added, describing the ongoing situation in Mali as “very dire”.

“These attacks will be another negative aspect to their claims that they can control Mali,” he said.

United States President Donald Trump has cancelled a planned visit to Pakistan by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who had been expected to explore indirect talks, which remain deadlocked over issues that include the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

“If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday, signalling that Washington for now would not send negotiators to Pakistan, the country that is mediating between the longtime adversaries.

With neither Washington nor Tehran showing much willingness to soften their positions, prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough in the US-Israeli war on Iran and securing a lasting ceasefire remain stalled.

The conflict spilled into the larger Middle East region, including Lebanon, causing the worst global energy crisis since the 1970s and risking a global recession.

So what do we know about the talks and where they stand as of now?

What has the US said?

The US president on Saturday told reporters in Florida that he scrapped his envoys’ visit because the talks involved too much travel and expense to consider an inadequate offer from the Iranians.

After the diplomatic trip was called off, Iran “offered a lot, but not enough”, Trump said.

On Truth Social, he wrote that there was “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership.

“Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” he posted. “Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!”

What has Iran said?

In Tehran, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated that his government will not enter negotiations while the US maintains a blockade on Iranian ports.

In a phone call with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday night, Pezeshkian said Washington “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade,” before any new talks can begin, according to the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies.

Meanwhile, during his visit to Islamabad on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held separate meetings with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Sharif.

In a post on Telegram, Araghchi said their discussions covered regional dynamics and Iran’s non-negotiable positions without disclosing specifics. He added that Tehran intends to engage with Pakistan’s mediation efforts “until a result is achieved”.

After departing Islamabad on Saturday, Araghchi travelled to Oman, where he discussed ways to end the conflict with Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, according to state media.

He was then scheduled to continue on to Russia. Iran’s IRNA news agency said Araghchi is expected to return to Islamabad on Sunday for additional talks.

What has Pakistan said?

Despite hardening public positions from Washington and Tehran, Pakistan’s political and military leadership is continuing to mediate, two Pakistani officials said on Sunday, according to The Associated Press news agency. They were quoted as describing the indirect ceasefire contacts as still alive but fragile.

There were no immediate plans for US envoys to return for talks, according to the Pakistani officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, AP added.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Islamabad, said Pakistani officials are underscoring that the expected return of Araghchi to Islamabad is seen as a “hopeful sign”.

“What they hope is that this will in fact be something that can be incremental in the process and will advance forward,” she reported.

What is happening with the ceasefire?

The US-Iran ceasefire began on April 8 after nearly six weeks of US and Israeli strikes on Iran and retaliatory Iranian attacks against Israel and across the Gulf region.

The two sides held talks in Islamabad on April 11 aimed at securing a permanent deal, but they ended after 21 hours with no breakthrough.

After repeated threats of restarting the war if Iran did not heed Washington’s demands, Trump extended the ceasefire on Tuesday without a set deadline, saying he was in no rush to conclude a peace deal with Iran.

While the truce has held for the most part, the two sides continue to accuse each other of violations.

Iranian forces, which have essentially blocked the Strait of Hormuz, have captured commercial vessels, and the US has intercepted or detained ships suspected of violating its naval blockade of Iranian ports just one week after the ceasefire went into effect.

The naval blockade is seen by Iran as a breach of the ceasefire. Tehran has warned that reopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible as long as the blockade remains in place.

The critical waterway has become a central dispute in the conflict. One-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies were shipped through the strait, which links the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, before the war began.

Iran insists on sovereignty over the waterway, which lies within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. It has also floated the idea of levying tolls while Washington demands full freedom of navigation. The Gulf nations, which export most of their petroleum through the strait, have opposed the Iranian plan to impose tolls.

Another key issue is the debate over Iran’s stock of enriched uranium.

The US and Israel are pushing for zero uranium enrichment and have accused Iran of working towards building a nuclear weapon while providing no evidence for their claims.

Iran has insisted its enrichment effort is for civilian purposes only. It is a signatory to the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and Tehran says it has the right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme. But according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog, Iran has enriched uranium to 60 percent, a level that is far higher than what is needed for civilian use.

Leonardo DRS has for the first time shown its Maritime-Mission Equipment Package (M-MEP) integrated on an autonomous unmanned surface vessel (AUSV). The M-MEP is a platform-agnostic suite of systems that are collectively designed to protect vessels from attacks involving single or multiple small to medium-sized unmanned aerial systems (UAS). M-MEP was demonstrated on a Sea Machines Stormrunner USV at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2026 trade event just outside Washington D.C.

Leonardo DRS has adapted its range of ground-based Counter-UAS (C-UAS) systems for sea-based operations under the M-MEP project. The modular design, coupled with an open system architecture, allows for the integration of multiple kinetic and non-kinetic effectors, software-definable sensors, and communication packages. Leonardo DRS says this flexibility ensures that the M-MEPs remain platform-agnostic, capable of being configured across a range of small-to-large USVs of varying sizes from 14 feet in length. The C-UAS sensors and effectors are designed to complement existing naval capabilities.

The M-MEP system utilizes active and passive radars and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) systems, with situational awareness facilitated through real-time data processing and threat assessment, enabling faster decision-making and response. Leonardo DRS says that M-MEP employs a range of non-kinetic electronic warfare systems for the active disruption and neutralization of UAS guidance systems, while integration of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) is intended to help predict and mitigate emerging threats.

TWZ‘s Jamie Hunter spoke with Bo Mancuso from Leonardo DRS about the M-MEP program.

SAS Leonardo DRS v1 for review

Atef Najib, former head of political security in the Deraa province, is charged with ‘crimes against the Syrian people’.

Syria has begun its first public trial of officials who served under longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, 15 years after the start of the civil war.

Trial proceedings opened in Damascus on Sunday for Atef Najib, the former head of political security in southern Syria’s Deraa province.

He is accused of overseeing a violent crackdown on protesters there during the 2011 uprising, and faces charges related to “crimes against the Syrian people”, according to Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA.

Najib, who is a cousin of al-Assad, was the sole defendant in court for Sunday’s preparatory session of the trial set to continue next month.

Charged in their absence are Al-Assad and his brother, Maher, former commander of the Syrian military’s 4th Armoured Division. Along with other former high-ranking security officials also charged in absentia, they are accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking.

Crowds gathered outside the court on Sunday in celebration, as families of victims, including some from Deraa, attended the session.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Mubasher, a spokesman for Syria’s Justice Ministry said holding the trial in public was important to ensure transparency and judicial independence as part of the transitional justice process.

Najib oversaw political security in Deraa when teenagers who scrawled antigovernment graffiti on a school wall in Deraa were arrested and tortured, in a case that became a catalyst for the broader uprising.

Further protests were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiralled into a 14-year civil war that ended with al-Assad’s overthrow in December 2024 in a lightning rebel offensive. Al-Assad then fled to Russia, and most members of his inner circle have also escaped Syria.

The government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has faced criticism over delays in launching a promised transitional justice process following the civil war, in which an estimated half a million people were killed. But authorities now appear to be moving more aggressively to prosecute officials linked to al-Assad.

On Friday, Syrian authorities arrested former intelligence officer Amjad Yousef, the main suspect accused of the 2013 Tadamon massacre in Damascus, when at least 41 people were killed.

In 2022, a leaked video appeared to show Youssef shooting civilians who had been detained and blindfolded, with their hands bound.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Camara’s house in the garrison town of Kati came under attack amid simultaneous attacks across the West African country.

Mali’s Defence Minister General Sadio Camara has been killed amid coordinated attacks on military sites across the country, sources told Al Jazeera.

The news on Sunday came a day after his residence in the garrison town of Kati came under attack during the simultaneous attacks launched by al-Qaeda affiliate and Tuareg rebels on Saturday.

Camara was a central figure in the military government that seized power after back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.

“He was one of the most influential figures within the ruling military leadership and had been seen by some as a possible future leader of Mali,” said Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, who has reported extensively from Mali.

“His death is a major blow to the country’s armed forces.”

Haque said attackers carried out a suicide car bomb assault on Camara’s residence in Kati, a heavily fortified military town about 15km (9 miles) northwest of the capital, Bamako.

“Kati is considered one of the most secure locations in the country, yet fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, along with Tuareg fighters from the Liberation Front of Azawad, were able to launch the attack,” he said.

Gunmen also attacked several locations across Mali, including Bamako, as well as Gao and Kidal in the north, and the central city of Sevare.

“As we speak, people in the garrison town of Kidal can still hear heavy gunfire and loud explosions,” Haque added. “This remains an ongoing operation more than 24 hours after it began.”

Interim President Assimi Goita has come under pressure since the offensive, with analysts saying the authorities appeared to have been caught off guard by the latest wave of violence.

Haque said Goita was “alive and well in a secure location”.

“When the attack took place, he was moved to safety, so he remains in command of the military,” he said.

The African Union, the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the US Bureau of African Affairs condemned the attacks across Mali.

Sanaa, Yemen – It was August 2023, and Enaya Dastor was reading a school textbook while also keeping an eye on her goats as they grazed near her village, Jabal Habashy, in central Yemen’s Taiz governorate.

Whenever the livestock moved away, the then-13-year-old would walk or run to bring them back to the pasture near her house.

That afternoon, she was following them as usual when an explosion rang out.

A landmine had detonated beneath her.

“People gathered around me after the blast, and I was taken to the hospital immediately. It was a horrible moment, ” Dastor told Al Jazeera. Surgeons were forced to amputate her left leg, leaving her with a lifelong disability.

The incident took place more than a year after fighting between Yemen’s government and Houthi forces largely stopped, following a ceasefire in April 2022.

But landmines left behind on former battlefields and front lines continue to kill and injure Yemenis.

The hidden risks have turned fields, roads, and villages into areas of ongoing danger. Landmines and other explosives have killed at least 339 children and injured 843 since the 2022 truce, according to Save the Children. The organisation found that nearly half of child casualties related to the conflict were due to landmines and explosive remnants of war.

‘Sleeping killers’

The parties to Yemen’s conflict planted thousands of mines during the civil war, which began in 2014.

Two months before Dastor’s incident, a boy in a nearby village had stepped on a landmine. One of the boy’s legs was amputated in the explosion, she told Al Jazeera.

“Landmines are sleeping killers, waiting for the innocents to step on them or move them without caution. That is how they wake up to shed blood and take human souls,” said Dastor.

“I used to go with other girls to the pasture. We grazed the cattle and play for hours. We were not aware of the danger, and we did not know when these deadly objects were planted,” she added.

After the landmine explosion took her leg, her family and others fled the village, which had previously been on a front line.

To date, Dastor’s family has not returned. They now live in the city of Taiz.

“I do not want to see another child harmed or hear another landmine explosion. I loathe walking on the soil under which mines were planted,” she said.

In the first half of 2025 alone, 107 civilians were killed or injured, most of them children, according to Save the Children. Included in that number are five children who were killed while playing football on a dirt field in Taiz.

Lost hope

From 2015 through 2021, ground fighting was brutal, and warplanes continuously bombed across Yemen, killing and injuring thousands of civilians.

The landmines have added a lasting layer of danger. A study carried out in 2022 by Yemeni human rights groups found that 534 children and 177 women were killed by mines between April 2014 and March 2022.

In addition, 854 children, 255 women, and 147 elderly people were injured during the same period in 17 Yemeni provinces, with the heavily fought-over Taiz recording the highest number.

In 2018, Mohammed Mustafa lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in Taiz’s Maqbna district. He was only 20 years old. Eight years on, he can still recall the details of that moment.

“I stepped on a landmine when I was walking in a mountainous area at sunset time. After the blast, I looked towards my feet, and I found my left leg was gone,” he told Al Jazeera.

Mustafa was in a rural area with no hospitals nearby. He had to travel five hours by ambulance to the city of Taiz, and the distance he covered to reach a healthcare centre added to his pain.

“I fainted repeatedly on the way to Taiz city. The next day, I woke up in the hospital, and saw my leg amputated up to the knee,” he said.

With support from family, relatives and friends, he recovered. Mustafa is now a member of the Yemeni Amputee Football Federation, a father, and a small business owner.

“My family and friends stood by me, lifted my morale, and accompanied me on outings in the city to help me forget my pain and worry. I realised I was not alone,” he said.

De-mining challenges

Efforts to remove landmines from many areas in Yemen continue. But totally ridding the country of the problem remains complex, particularly as no final deal has been agreed upon to end the war.

Project Masam, a de-mining team funded and initiated by Saudi Arabia, said in a statement in March that, since the project’s launch in July 2018, a total of 549,452 mines, unexploded ordnance, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been removed by March 20, 2026.

During the same period, the project’s teams cleared explosives from 7,799 hectares (19,272 acres) in Yemen. Similarly, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) said early this month it has cleared more than 23,302 square metres (250,820sq ft) of Yemeni land from mines and explosive remnants of war.

Adel Dashela, a Yemeni researcher and non-resident fellow at the MESA Global Academy, focusing on conflict and peace building studies, said that many factors make the de-mining process challenging.

“The mines have been planted indiscriminately in different areas, and some of the territories are under the control of different armed groups, which makes them inaccessible to de-miners,” Dashela told Al Jazeera.

“Other challenges facing the de-mining process in Yemen include the lack of clear maps and the lack of qualified local personnel to handle these mines effectively. There is also a shortage of government’s modern equipment for detecting these devices and explosives,” he added.

Dashela noted that flash floods, such as those Yemen experienced in August 2025, sweep away explosives from one area to another, complicating the clearance process and exposing more people to further risks.

This means many more Yemenis will likely suffer.

The loss of a limb might bring lasting sorrow to landmine survivors, but some, like Dastor, are determined not to dwell on the past. She is focusing on the future.

“Today, I am in tenth grade, and I will finish high school in two years,” she said. “After that, I will enrol in law college and will graduate as a lawyer. I want to defend those who face injustice.”

“The injury has changed how I move or walk, and separated my family from our home,” she said. “But it cannot disable my mind or stop my dreams.”

Ukraine’s attacks on Russia injure at least six people in the region of Vologda and the annexed Crimea.

Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks in several regions have killed at least five people and damaged a ship in the port of Odesa – as Moscow claimed to have intercepted more than 200 Ukrainian drones.

A Russian drone attack killed two men on Saturday in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, according to Governor Oleh Hryhorov. He said civilians were hit in Bilopil close to the Russian border.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian attacks on four districts killed one person and injured four others, Governor Oleksandr Ganzha said.

In the southern region of Kherson, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian shelling wounded seven people.

Further east, Russian forces launched more than 700 attacks on 50 settlements in the Zaporizhia region over the past 24 hours, killing two people and injuring four, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov.

Homes, vehicles and infrastructure were damaged, he added.

In Odesa region, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said Russian forces again targeted port infrastructure.

“The attack damaged port and logistics infrastructure facilities, warehouses, technical equipment, cargo storage tanks, administrative buildings, as well as freight transport,” Kuleba said on Telegram.

He added that a civilian vessel flying the flag of Palau was damaged while loading in port. No injuries to the crew were reported.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down or disabled 124 of 144 drones launched by Russia overnight with impacts recorded at 11 locations.

Russia reports Ukrainian drone attacks

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences destroyed 203 Ukrainian drones between Saturday evening and Sunday morning over Russian regions and the Black Sea.

The ministry said 95 Ukrainian drone control centres were destroyed over the previous 24 hours.

In Russia’s Vologda region, Governor Georgy Filimonov said five people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a nitrogen complex.

In Sevastopol in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia, debris from downed drones struck the cardiology department of a hospital, injuring one person, according to Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev. He said 16 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the city overnight.

Razvozhayev added that drone debris also fell on rail tracks, damaging overhead power lines and causing train delays.

Peace efforts continue

The latest attacks came as diplomatic efforts to end the war, now in its fourth year, remained stalled.

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he signed agreements on security and energy cooperation with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Saturday.

Zelenskyy said Kyiv wanted to draw on its experience defending airspace from Russian attacks. He also said he had discussed the possibility of holding future talks between Ukraine and Russia in Azerbaijan.

“We are ready for the next talks to be in Azerbaijan, if Russia will be ready for diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said.

Edward’s teammate Donte DiVincenzo was also hurt as Minnesota rallied to beat Denver and take a 3-1 NBA playoff series lead.

Ayo Dosunmu came off the bench to score ‌a career-high 43 points on 13-for-17 shooting, and the short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves pulled away for a 112-96 win over the ⁠Denver Nuggets in Game ⁠4 of their Western Conference quarterfinals series on Saturday night in Minneapolis.

The victory, which gave Minnesota a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, came at a steep cost for the Timberwolves, who lost two key starters ⁠due to injury.

Anthony Edwards, a four-time All-Star and the team’s top scorer, left in the second quarter and did not return because of a left knee injury. Earlier, in the first half, Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo injured his right leg on ⁠a noncontact play. Early reports indicated he might have ruptured his Achilles tendon.

Naz Reid added 17 points off the bench for Minnesota. Julius Randle finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, and Rudy Gobert grabbed a game-high-tying 15 rebounds to go along with four points.

Jamal Murray scored 30 points on 10-for-25 shooting to lead Denver. Nikola Jokic finished with 24 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists. ‌However, he shot 8-for-22 from the field and missed all three of his 3-point attempts.

Thunder 121, Suns 109

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a playoff-career-high 42 points to lift Oklahoma City to a road win over Phoenix.

The reigning NBA Most Valuable Player finished 15 of 18 from the floor with eight assists to give the Thunder a commanding 3-0 lead in their first-round Western Conference playoff series.

Oklahoma City have won 11 consecutive first- round games. Playing without Jalen Williams, who suffered a hamstring strain in Wednesday’s Game 2 victory, the Thunder leaned even more heavily on Gilgeous-Alexander.

Dillon Brooks led the Suns with ⁠33 points while Jalen Green added 26 points. Devin Booker scored 16 points, but was ⁠held to 6-of-16 shooting from the floor.

Knicks 114, Hawks 98

Karl Anthony-Towns totalled 20 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds for his first career playoff triple-double as New York earned a victory over host Atlanta and evened their Eastern Conference first-round series at two games apiece.

Towns ensured Game 5 on Tuesday ⁠in New York will not be an elimination game for the Knicks and also ensured the series returns to Atlanta for Game 6 on Thursday. Towns posted his fifth career triple-double ⁠in any game. He also notched the seventh postseason triple-double in New York’s ⁠history. Anunoby led the Knicks with 22 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth career playoff double-double.

CJ McCollum led the Hawks with 17 points but was held to three points after half time. Nickell Alexander-Walker added 15 and hit five 3s, but the Hawks were a dreadful 10 of 41 (24.4 percent) from behind the arc.

Magic ‌113, Pistons 105

Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane scored 25 points apiece as Orlando withstood a fourth-quarter rally to beat visiting Detroit in Game 3 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.

Banchero had 12 rebounds and nine assists for the eighth-seeded Magic, ‌who improved ‌to 7-1 in their last eight home postseason games, including play-in tournament games. Bane was 7-for-9 from 3-point range.

Cunningham scored 12 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter for the Pistons. Tobias Harris scored 23 points, Ausar Thompson had 17 and Duncan Robinson added 10.

Secretary of the Navy John Phelan says his service is looking to wrap up a review of its aircraft carrier plans within the next month or so. The Navy has been taking a deep look at the design and capabilities, and associated costs, of the Ford class as compared to the older Nimitz class. The question has been raised about whether this might point to a major shift in the service’s carrier acquisition strategy on the horizon, including the potential cancellation of planned orders for more Ford class ships and even a transition to a new design.

Phelan talked about the carrier review yesterday at a roundtable on the sidelines of the Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2026 exposition. When asked, Phelan said that there was nothing in particular about the Ford class that prompted the Navy to take a new comprehensive look at the program and that the service is looking for ways to cut costs and be more efficient across the board.

A key question the review has been focused on is “are we getting the appropriate bang for our buck, i.e., how superior is the Ford [class] to the older Nimitz class, etc,” the Navy’s top civilian leader said. “To be honest, we’re reviewing every program, so it’s – carriers [are] just one of them.”

That being said, President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of the Ford class, and its electromagnetic catapults (also known as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS) and weapons elevators in particular, which have faced serious reliability and maintenance issues. Last October, he pledged to sign an executive order that would compel the Navy to go back to using steam-powered catapults and hydraulic elevators on new aircraft carriers, which has yet to materialize. Two months later, in announcing plans for the Trump class “battleship,” the President also said that “we have the Ford class. We’re going to be upping that to a different class of aircraft carrier,” but did not elaborate.

Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS)

Watch the Advanced Weapons Elevators on the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford

Phelan’s comments yesterday about the ongoing review were prompted, in part, by a question about whether the Navy has actually been looking at acquiring a new class of aircraft carrier. There is no indication that this is the case currently. The service has explored alternatives to the Ford class, including smaller designs, on several occasions in the past decade or so.

“What I would say on the carriers is, we are looking at [CVN-]82 and [CVN-]83 to review the costs, the designs, the systems, to make sure that they make sense and they have all the systems and requirements that we want going forward,” Phelan explained. “I think it’s a prudent and practical thing for us to do, given the costs of them, as a percentage of the budget, and how we are thinking about the force design and our needs going forward.”

CVN-82 and CVN-83 are the hull numbers assigned to a pair of future Ford class aircraft carriers currently set to be named the USS William J. Clinton and the USS George W. Bush. Construction has not begun on either of those ships, and the Navy has not even awarded contracts yet to order them. The service is asking for advance funds to support the future procurement of CVN-82 in its newly released budget request for the 2027 Fiscal Year. The budget documents also still show plans to seek funding for CVN-83 in the coming years.

The USS Gerald R. Ford is the only member of its class currently in service. It is now in the midst of a marathon deployment that has lasted some 10 months already, the longest for any carrier since the Vietnam War. In its time at sea so far, the ship and its air wing took part in the mission to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, and more recently supported operations against Iran. Ford suffered a fire in March, underscoring concerns about strains on the ship and its crew, as you can read more about here.

There are three more Ford class carriers in various stages of being built. The second ship in the class, the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), left port for the first time for initial sea trials in January and is set to be formally delivered to the Navy next year.

John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) Successfully Completes Builder’s Sea Trials

Kennedy and all subsequent ships in the class are already set to have notable differences from Ford, including AN/SPY-6(V)3 radars in place of the design’s original Dual Band Radar (DBR). The immensely troublesome DBR is just one of a laundry list of issues that Ford has had to contend with over the years. The Navy has been trying to leverage lessons learned from those experiences to streamline work going forward.

However, Kennedy, as well as the next two ships in the class after that, the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80) and USS Doris Miller (CVN-81), have all continued to suffer further delays. As of last year, the estimated total procurement costs for Kennedy, Enterprise, and Doris Miller were nearly $13.2 billion, almost $14.25 billion, and just over $15.2 billion, respectively, according to the Congressional Research Service.

This, in turn, has created complications for Navy plans to begin retiring Nimitz class carriers. In May, the service announced it was extending the USS Nimitz‘s service life into 2027, in line with the latest delivery schedule for Kennedy.

“So the President knows we’re reviewing it [the carrier plans], and want [sic] us to put in a review,” Phelan said. “And I think, like any businessman, he’s – okay, make sure you look at all these programs, understand the capabilities and what they’re doing.”

The Secretary of the Navy was asked what metrics the service might be looking at in order to assess the comparative capabilities of the Ford class and the preceding Nimitz class. Phelan was given, as an example, statements the Navy has made in the past about the new EMALS catapults offering improved sortie generation rates and reducing wear and tear on aircraft during launches.

“I think you’ll see the sortie rate come out and it will be eye-watering,” Navy Rear Adm. Ben Reynolds said just yesterday at the Pentagon during the rollout of the service’s proposed budget for the 2027 Fiscal Year, according to USNI News. “The capability is just absolutely incredible.”

Reynolds is currently serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget and Director of the Fiscal Management Division within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

USS Ford Launches, Recovers Fighters With Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS)

“So these are all things you’ve heard. These are all the same things I’ve heard,” Phelan said at the roundtable at Sea Air Space. “I go to the Ronald Reagan School of trust, but verify. That’s what I’m doing.”

“Trust me, we measure and monitor a lot of things in the Navy, including that – the airframes and how that works. So I think it’s a function of just understanding it, for example, is the sortie rate generation that much greater? And then what are the cost implications of this electric catapult, and did it really generate the savings?” Phelan continued. “You know, the Navy would like to say we’ve saved $5 billion in terms of savings in number [sic] of men and maintenance. I just need to check that back up, and that’s what I mean by that.”

“I think, like anything, it’s both understanding the cost-benefit analysis of it, because we really want to make sure we’ve got a good handle on the costs,” the Navy Secretary added. “I think one of the things we have to do a better job of in the Navy is kind of what I call total cost of ownership. So what does it really cost to sustain and maintain these things? I think we do a reasonable job at that, to be honest. But the infrastructure needs on these are also costs you have to understand going in.”

As Phelan noted, the Navy has been conducting reviews of major programs across the service. The Navy Secretary has also shown a willingness to curtail high-profile, but seriously underperforming efforts despite high sunk costs. Last November, the service axed the Constellation class frigate program, long touted as a major priority, but which had become mired in delays and at risk of ballooning costs. Earlier this month, the Navy finally abandoned plans to return the Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Boise to active service, closing out a more than 10-year-long saga that had already cost it $800 million.

Yesterday, Phelan was also asked whether the Ford class could be curtailed as a result of the ongoing review. The possibility of truncating the program has been raised in the past.

“It’s too early to say, but we will have carriers. So, carriers are an important component to [sic] the force, and we will need that,” the Navy Secretary said. “I think it’s more, how do we figure out – like, again, this comes back to every program we’re looking at. What can we do to cut costs? What can we do to make this more efficient? What can we do to make the design more simple [sic]? What are the areas where we think we can save or not save?”

Even just cancelling future orders for Ford class ships would have major downstream impacts, including on the shipbuilding industrial base and its many suppliers. At the same time, the Navy’s shipbuilding priorities also now include the Trump class “battleships,” the first of which may cost $17 billion, according to the latest official estimates. If that price point holds, these large surface combatants will be more expensive than a Ford class aircraft carrier.

“These are very important decisions to be made, and you’re locking into very big contracts and very big platforms that are going to be around for a long time. And so I just think we’re trying to make prudent decisions across everything,” he added. “I think what I found a little bit is, I have a lot of people who know how to do finance. I don’t have a lot of people who necessarily understand finance, understand incentives and deal structures, and that’s something we just need to fix.”

How the Navy’s plans for the Ford class, and aircraft carriers in general, may evolve going forward will likely become clearer after the current review is completed.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

US President Donald Trump calls off a planned trip to Pakistan by his envoys, in the latest setback to efforts to end the war with Iran.

Prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough in the US-Israeli war with Iran appear to have dimmed, with negotiations to end the two-month conflict stalled as both Tehran and Washington show little sign of easing their positions.

US President Donald Trump cancelled a planned visit to Islamabad by his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, dealing blows to peace prospects, while Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, left Pakistan at the weekend. There, he presented mediators with a potential framework for ending the conflict.

The US president has said that Washington has received a new peace proposal from Tehran, but it has already been rejected.

The conflict has already pushed energy prices to multi-year highs, stoked inflation and darkened global growth prospects.

Here is what we know on day 58 of the conflict:

In Iran

• Araghchi left for Oman, saying he would return to Pakistan again on Sunday before heading to Russia, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
• According to a statement posted on X by US Central Command (CENTCOM), US forces intercepted a sanctioned ship linked to Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet”.

• The ship, identified as the Sevan, was part of a 19-vessel “shadow fleet” transporting Iranian oil and gas products to foreign markets, the US military said.
• Iran executed a man convicted of being a member of the armed group Jaish al-Adl and carrying out attacks on Iranian security forces, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

War diplomacy

• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by phone that Tehran would not enter “imposed negotiations” under threats or blockade, an Iranian government statement said.
• Pezeshkian said the United States should first remove “operational obstacles”, including its blockade on Iranian ports, before negotiators can lay any groundwork to resolve the conflict.
• Iran’s IRNA news agency is reporting that Araghchi and his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty, “discussed and exchanged views on issues related to diplomacy and ceasefire, as well as the latest regional developments”.
• Araghchi also had a call with Turkiye’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, but the agency did not provide further details.

In the US

• Trump told reporters in Florida that he scrapped the envoys’ visit because the talks involved too much travel and expense to consider an inadequate offer from the Iranians. After the diplomatic trip was called off, Iran “offered a lot, but not enough”, Trump said.
• On Truth Social, he wrote that there was “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership.
• “Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” he posted. “Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!”
• Trump said that the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday was unrelated to the Iran war. “It’s not going to deter me from winning the war in Iran. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, I really don’t think so, based on what we know,” Trump told reporters.

In Lebanon

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered troops to attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, his office said, further testing the three-week ceasefire.
• Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health’s emergency operations centre said two Israeli raids on a truck and a motorcycle in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqif in Nabatieh district killed four people, the Lebanese National News Agency reported.
• Also in southern Lebanon, Israeli soldiers reportedly blew up buildings in the city of Bint Jbeil.

The U.S. Air Force’s budget for the 2027 Fiscal Year looks like it will bring a massive boost for the F-15EX program, with the planned buy now reportedly standing at 267 jets. TWZ was the first to report on the existence of what was then known as the F-15X, and has repeatedly argued in the past that investing in the Eagle II is a very logical decision for the Air Force. This is especially the case as the service looks to a future without its F-15E Strike Eagles, which have borne the brunt of combat operations for decades.

According to Breaking Defense, the Air Force’s fiscal 2027 budget, revealed yesterday, looks to buy another 24 F-15EXs at a cost of $3 billion, but this is just the start, according to the new plan. Ultimately, the service wants to more than double its previous Eagle II buy, which previously stood at 129 jets, with the total having fluctuated in recent years.

The new move is primarily a response to the need to “begin to recapitalize the aging F-15E fleet,” an Air Force spokesperson told Breaking Defense.

The plan will be supported by the Trump administration’s gargantuan defense budget for fiscal 2027, which requests approximately $1.5 trillion in total funding. You can read more about this development in our previous coverage of the budget, which includes munitions, missile defense, shipbuilding, and other programs, as well as aircraft. It’s important to note that this controversial proposal still has to pass through Congress, and some changes to it will be made, at the very least.

When the budget was first rolled out, it included funding sought for another 24 F-15EXs, but didn’t include details on the dramatic change to the planned total fleet size for the aircraft.

Now, the Air Force has made clear that it wants to keep the F-15EX production line open for longer, ensuring that it will receive both fifth-generation F-35As and F-15EXs — the latest iteration of the F-15 that first entered service with the Air Force in 1976. Ultimately, a third line will spin up once the sixth-generation F-47 combat jet enters series production. As for the F-35, these are still being bought in the latest budget request, and they also get a boost, but they are not currently being delivered with radar, as the Block 4 upgrade is in limbo.

Overall, the Air Force expects to see its budget increase by around a whopping 38 percent compared to fiscal 2026, to $338.8 billion. Of those funds, a significant proportion will go into procurement, driving this up by around 30 percent, although that covers all assets, and not just new fighters.

The budget also includes significant increases for weapon system sustainment and flying hours.

At the same time, the Air Force budget includes requests to retire a number of aging aircraft, something that the increased F-15EX numbers will help address.

In particular, for fiscal 2027, the Air Force wants to get rid of 20 F-15Es. These would be the oldest examples, which include the aircraft fitted with the less powerful Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 engines.

Of course, it remains possible that lawmakers will block such a move, although having more F-15EXs to replace these jets should make it a more acceptable proposal.

Additional F-15EXs mean more capability for the Air Force.

While the F-15EX will almost certainly take on a multirole mission once it’s more established in service, the air-to-air mission is currently the priority due to the Air National Guard getting the first of these jets. These units are tasked with the homeland air sovereignty mission, which focuses on intercepting aircraft and shooting down potential barrages of cruise missiles and, now, long-range one-way attack drones. As we have outlined in the past, the F-15EX is ideal for this role, especially, and a much more reasonable proposition for this mission than a more complex fifth-generation platform:

In the homeland defense role, which is the bread and butter of the F-15C/D ANG units, the F-15EX’s payload, range, open architecture, very advanced electronic surveillance and warfare suite, and overall adaptability will be of incredible use over many decades of service. You do not need a stealth fighter to do this mission. In fact, much of what is traded in terms of reliability, performance, and sustainment cost for low observability hinders the homeland defense mission. This includes raw kinematic performance. The F-15 can get places very fast when it needs to and still has fuel left over to do something once it is there, which is critical for quick reaction alert missions.

The customer also seems very happy with the jets.

In its 2025 annual report, the Office of the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) provided an absolutely glowing assessment of the F-15EX, as you can read about here.

In terms of the air-to-air mission set, the report noted:

“Against the level of threat tested, the F-15EX is operationally effective in all its air superiority roles, including defensive and offensive counter-air against surrogate fifth-generation adversary aircraft, as well as basic air-to-ground capability against the tested threats.”

The reference to the F-15EX’s effectiveness against fifth-generation threats is especially notable. While it’s unclear exactly what kinds of threats are being referred to, a fifth-generation fighter will typically have a low-observable design, advanced ‘sensor-fused’ avionics, and generally high performance, among other attributes. In fact, very much the kind of threat that the Air Force would expect to face in a potential conflict with China.

Once the F-15EX takes on more offensive missions, it becomes even more relevant, especially as an F-15E successor, including carrying outsized payloads, among them hypersonic missiles, over long distances, which would likely be critical in a conflict in the Pacific.

But even without these offensive attributes, the Eagle II offers capabilities that are unique in the Air Force.

The F-15EX can efficiently carry 12 AIM-120s today, but that number could be nearly doubled in the future. Smaller air-to-air weapons could expand the F-15EX’s air-to-air magazine depth, too. Laser-guided rockets, now established as an F-15E weapon, would be another obvious candidate to arm the F-15EX, especially for counter-drone work.

Using the F-15EX as an arsenal ship of sorts, especially when equipped with long-range missiles, in cooperation with its stealthy counterparts operating silently and forward, is a tactic, among others, we have long discussed. Equally compelling is the case for the two-seat Eagle II serving as a ‘drone controller’ for the Air Force’s forthcoming Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).

Beyond all this, the F-15EX can carry a lot of payload over a long distance, to include traditional air-to-ground weapons. If the F-15EXs replace F-15Es, they will certainly have a focus on air-to-ground missions, as well.

Just as important as its capabilities and its proven airframe, the F-15EX promises to deliver a lot on the investment. The jets should provide lower operational and sustainment costs compared to both legacy and fifth-generation types, and over many decades.

In the past, Boeing told TWZ that the F-15EX has a 20,000-hour airframe service life. “This has been enabled by running a full-scale fatigue test long enough to show structure that is good beyond 20,000 hours, and structural redesigns purposely implemented by Boeing have addressed known fatigue-critical locations,” the company’s Rob Novotny explained. This is a major benefit of an extremely mature and evolved airframe. It will be able to serve for the better part of a century at common usage rates. When you amortize the unit cost over, in some cases, two and a half times the service life of most fast jets, it offers a very clear value proposition. The cost per flight hour is also well understood after decades of Eagle operations, including years of service of similar advanced variants.

This is not the first time that planned F-15EX numbers have been boosted, after dropping to a low of just 80 aircraft with the slashing of the procurement plan in 2023.

The program was then slated to grow from 98 aircraft to 129 in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal.

That decision came only weeks after President Trump made the surprise announcement that the Michigan Air National Guard, which is losing its A-10 attack jets, will be reequipped with the F-15EX.

At that point, Portland, Fresno, New Orleans, and two squadrons at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, were slated to get the F-15EX. This plan would have required some 90 jets out of the 98-aircraft inventory. Adding Michigan, and based on those squadrons expanding to 21 jets, would require 126 aircraft. That would have left just three aircraft to satisfy test, evaluation, and training requirements.

Increasing the planned buy to 267 jets opens up the possibility of creating 13 squadrons of 21 jets, with three F-15EXs left over. Exactly what final balance the Air Force decides upon remains to be seen, but whichever way you look at it, it’s a major boon for the Combat Air Forces.

It seems almost inevitable that at least some of the additional F-15EXs will be used to replace aging F-15Es.

The possibility of swapping out F-15Es for F-15EXs is something we discussed back in 2020.

In an official Justification and Approval document at the time, the Air Force stated:

“The objective of this program is to rapidly develop, integrate, and field the F-15EX weapon system to refresh/replace aging F-15C/D aircraft. A decision to also refresh F-15E aircraft has not yet been made, but remains an option.”

After four losses in Operation Epic Fury, the relatively small 215-strong Strike Eagle fleet remains in high demand with an enduring commitment in the U.S. Central Command region that leverages many impressive niche capabilities. With just six frontline Strike Eagle squadrons, at least one is always deployed. The F-15E is also capable of delivering nuclear weapons and is the first jet certified to employ the newest variant of the B61 tactical nuclear bomb.

Replacing these critical jets is fast becoming a priority, and one that the F-15EX is uniquely suited to fulfill.

The F-15E shares similar cutting-edge technology as found in the F-15EX. It has been upgraded with the Raytheon AN/APG-82(V)1 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, the new Advanced Display Core Processor (ADCP) II, and it too is receiving the new Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System, or EPAWSS, self-protection system.

With the F-15EX numbers outlined in its fiscal 2027 budget request, the Air Force would be well placed to replace a significant proportion of its Strike Eagle inventory.

As well as the F-15E, the Air Force needs to replace F-16s and A-10s. At least some of the planned retirements of these types could be covered by F-15EXs. Having the line healthy and warm could allow for more Eagle IIs to be bought to cover the F-15E fleet and some F-16 and A-10 retirements beyond the 267 F-15EXs currently planned. This may make even more sense as the F-16 ages and becomes more expensive to operate, in particular.

With the Air Force at large feeling the effects of years of underinvestment in new fighters, and with China presenting a massive pacing challenge, the Air National Guard is now pushing Congress to approve multiyear funding for the acquisition of between 72 and 100 new fighters each year. Again, the Eagle II could help meet this need, although there are limits to what the production line can support, especially with foreign orders.

It remains to be seen exactly how the jets will be fielded and, as noted earlier, Congress will have to approve this budget request for it to be signed into law.

As it stands, however, the F-15EX appears to be going from strength to strength, with the Air Force increasingly enthusiastic about the latest iteration of the iconic Eagle.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

U.S. Navy Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC-21) “Blackjacks” gave TWZ a personal tour of one of its MH‑60S Seahawk helicopters and filled us in on some of key capabilities during the Dubai Air Show in November 2025. 

The MH-60S is a versatile multi-mission, medium‑lift maritime helicopter that is designed for a broad range of missions, such as vertical replenishment (VERTREP) at sea, search‑and‑rescue, airborne mine countermeasures, anti‑surface warfare, and electronic warfare.

The U.S. Navy operates both the MH-60S and the MH-60R variants of the H-60 and the two share a common airframe, General Electric T700 powerplants and many avionics, enabling streamlined logistics, maintenance and training across the fleet while allowing each variant to be customized for distinct operational roles. The MH-60R is primarily configured for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) but it too has anti-surface warfare (ASuW) capabilities and has been used to shoot down drones.

The MH-60S features a modern glass cockpit, twin General Electric T700‑GE‑401C engines and a flexible, modular, mission‑systems suite that supports interchangeable payloads, internal fuel tanks, and advanced mission packages.

“Sikorsky is leveraging its global MH-60R and MH-60S Seahawk users to constantly iterate while we operate, ensuring the aircraft is mission ready and evolves. This commitment to production, sustainment and modernization enables the MH-60R to stay ahead of emerging threats and maintain its position as the premier global ASW platform,” the company commented to TWZ.

Check out the full MH-60S walk-around video below:

U.S. Navy MH-60S Pilot Talks Multi-Mission Roles Of The Seahawk

Contact the editor: Tyler@twz.com

The Sunday Times leads on its interview with the Prime Minister, saying he vowed to fight and win the next general election. The paper describes Sir Keir Starmer as “defiant”, with Labour expecting to suffer heavy losses in elections next month. Separately, the paper notes, allies of the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, are continuing efforts to secure him a route back to Parliament, potentially paving the way for a leadership challenge.

Trump says the shooter has been apprehended and that First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance are ‘in perfect condition’.

Heyerde “Seko” López is a Venezuelan artist and activist with experience in plastic arts, screen printing, photography, graphic design, and audiovisual production. For 13 years he has been a member of Fundación Nativa Crea, a grassroots organization from Guarenas, on the outskirts of Caracas, dedicated to social work and advancing popular power.

What is Fundación Nativa Crea and what does it do?

Fundación Nativa Crea is a sociocultural organization dedicated to bringing together communes, social movements, and individuals in the town of Guarenas. We organize a variety of activities in our territory, ranging from rescuing abandoned spaces and painting murals to offering free workshops on screen printing, music, theater, and circus in local communities and schools.

Nativa is also dedicated to grassroots communication through social media. We’re always doing digital and graphic design and recording in the community to make visible what people are doing. We work to forge the identity of our barrio, our working-class areas, and our communities, so that people can be the protagonists of the revolution we’re building and the path we’re traveling together.

We’re located in Plaza Bolívar in Guarenas, right next to City Hall, because we had the chance to speak with President Chávez and decided to occupy that space, which was a Corpoelec [state electricity company] substation that had been abandoned for 15 years. At the time, we identified 37 abandoned spaces in Guarenas, but that one stood out as the most visible and strategic. We surveyed the area, and the project was born.

How is Nativa’s work organized in practice, and how does it integrate with the local community and the people’s power organizations?

There are six of us now, but we coordinate with other people in the territory and in other parts of the country. We have a set of goals and an action plan. Each person takes on tasks based on their strengths. We have six production units, two of which are currently operational: the auto repair shop, where we fix cars and motorcycles, and the screen printing and communications workshop, where we make T-shirts. We have a brand called “Contestatarixs” to market prints of iconic figures and world-renowned fighters. The other four units are a cultural café that we will soon reopen, a community bakery, a recording studio, and a greenhouse. In fact, we plan to establish a greenhouse in every community council.

In total, there are 15 community councils in our territory, which make up the General José Félix Ribas Commune. Our organization belongs to the Pueblo Arriba Communal Council. In our sector, we’re going to start with a medicinal garden, as well as tomato and onion seeds, and coffee and cacao seedlings, to later coordinate with local farmers. We’re also considering a partnership to grow barley in the nearby campesino settlements and produce craft beer. Why not have a Venezuelan communal beer?

You mentioned the bakery and the café that closed down. What obstacles did they face?

The bakery and the café closed down due to the economic difficulties resulting from the US sanctions. For example, when wheat imports were restricted, it became very difficult for us to acquire the raw materials. Previously, it had been subsidized. Although we were part of a bakery coalition with other grassroots organizations, and we held numerous meetings and coordinated efforts with the government to defend community bakeries, it was not possible to maintain our operations. In Venezuela, wheat is controlled by the owners of the silos. We fought a tough battle between 2014 and 2017, but that coalition practically fell apart, and now only the large, capitalist bakeries remain. But we are creating the conditions to revive this productive unit. We want to build a communal economy. We are going to start creating the conditions, now with more criteria and the lessons learned over these years. After all these battles, I believe we have the necessary experience.

What are the main challenges Nativa has faced over the years?

The main challenge is staying true to our identity as a left-wing organization in the face of the imperialist blockade. Nativa Crea started out as a clothing brand and is now a social organization running a headquarters of 542 square meters. But the hardest part is sustaining ourselves over time. It’s one thing to have an idea, to design a project, and quite another to sustain it –to preserve the ideology, retain the members, and create conditions so that it’s a space where people aren’t exploited and can have free time to organize alongside the pueblo. 

We also knew that, as we asserted ourselves, we would deal some blows to the bourgeois state. Not all mayors, governors, or institutional leaders will want to relinquish their share of power and accept the consolidation of popular power or the communal state. In practice, we have seen that things are not as beautiful as they are in theory. Rather, they are riddled with contradictions. But we have the spirit to fight and move forward. Today, what we do is join forces with different organizations, communal councils, etc., to keep the project moving forward and to help them identify with it. Nativa has always been a space where people can meet, hold workshops, organize politically, and so on.

What would you highlight as Nativa’s main achievements over the years?

Our main achievement has been bringing together different people, from different communes, and ensuring that everyone understands we’re all fighting for the same cause: building the communal state. 

I believe our task is to demonstrate that popular power is the way forward. For example, eight years ago, using the surplus generated by the bakery, we were able to build a sports court. So, we showed that economic activity can take place under decent working conditions, serve the community, and generate a surplus to contribute to the territory where we live. Therefore, if we have productive units –which is what we insist on in the commune –we will be able to achieve autonomy, we will be able to make decisions in the territory, and we will be able to develop what the barrio needs.

Nativa, and you in particular, place a lot of emphasis on the cultural front, especially on graphic design. What is the vision behind this?

Through graphic arts, we shape our identity. Ever since we started creating prints, painting murals, taking photographs, and producing audiovisual works, we’ve always sought to reclaim Venezuelan identity. Not the identity sold to us about barrios in mainstream culture –the glorification of crime or the idea that people dress and speak a certain way. Every town has its identity, every city has its identity, every territory has its identity. So, through the arts, we try to capture that, what we experience, and in this way, people begin to recognize themselves, know where they come from, and also to appreciate things that are nationally, locally, and indigenously produced. It gives new value to their experiences, to what they consume, read, and so on.

You recently hosted an international brigade from Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). What was that exchange like, and how can that feedback help strengthen grassroots organizing?

The MST brought a large group that split into seven brigades spread across different parts of the country. We were assigned one as the representative from the central capital region. This experience has been very important, because we see that our brothers and sisters in Brazil are fighting for the same cause as us: against capitalism and imperialism, and for the unity of the Latin American peoples.

The Landless Workers’ Movement has been raising that banner of struggle –the fight for land and the construction of campesino settlements –for over 40 years. They have very advanced methods, and they are masters of organization and planning. In fact, they are advising us on the various productive units. They believe that we, Venezuelans, need to focus more on planning, sticking to schedules, fulfilling responsibilities, etc. The exchange has helped our communards hear the perspective of comrades from outside, with their experience and organizational skills. They have shared their insights with 10 communes here in Guarenas and are also getting to know the local projects that have been approved through popular consultations.

As someone with many years of experience in grassroots organizing, how do you view the relationship between constituted power (institutions) and constituent power? What is working, and what needs to change?

Chávez, and also our professor Manuel Sulbarán, always told us that we, the working-class people, are the only ones capable of bringing about change and progress in our own country through popular power. So, popular power must continue to develop these methods and strengthen our communes, making them active and productive, and demanding that the state or institutions transfer the responsibilities we can assume and the resources we need. 

For example, in the General José Félix Ribas Commune, the project that won last year’s consultation was focused on the youth to build a soccer field. There was a group pushing for it, but the US $10,000 allocated for the project wasn’t enough. That caused a lot of discontent and led some to think that popular consultations were useless. These are the issues we need to debate and politicize. We explained to them in an assembly that this is a megaproject that cannot be done with just $10,000, so it must be conceived in several phases. We have to keep our spirits up and continue participating.

The soccer field has been a good topic for debate and reflection, because it is also true that the commune has many priorities that are more important than a soccer field. Everything is needed, and sports play a fundamental role, but for example, if the sewer system is damaged, the community will likely prioritize fixing that. That’s why we need to plan and see which projects are proposed through which channels. If we do a better job of categorizing projects by scale and setting timelines, we’ll be able to strengthen our commune. 

But, to answer the question, institutions need to work with us, the pueblo, and understand the priorities of each territory. Perhaps it’s not best for the commune to choose building a sports field because that should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Sports. This ends up giving the commune a responsibility that it should not have to assume, or that it is not in a position to take on. Nor should we be taking on the project of repairing a school when we have a Ministry of Education and a Ministry of Public Works. Obviously, our communards will dedicate themselves to anything that improves the community’s life, but why should the commune burn its only chance to access funding for popular power on unfeasible projects that should, moreover, be the responsibility of the institutions? So we must also demand that those holding constituted power –the government and institutions –fulfill their responsibilities, so that we, as an organized people, can move forward with ours. Another challenge we face is that some people confuse the tasks of the party [PSUV] with the exercise of popular power, and as a result, they sometimes end up dragging the commune into areas that are not its responsibility.

Finally, how does Nativa interpret the current political situation, and what role should the organized people play?

January 3 was a grave moment, a call for reflection, just as the 2002 coup had been, when the people took to the streets to make history. The lesson is the same: the people must understand that only popular power will allow us to overcome this onslaught by the capitalist economic system and imperialist attacks.

Today we must organize ourselves once again, win over all those people who were fighting, or who are fighting out there but scattered. We have to unify the struggles, as President Chávez said at the time: it is very important that we know who we are, what we want to build, in order to move forward in consolidating the Bolivarian Revolution. And beyond Venezuela, we must understand ourselves as a bloc with our neighboring countries. 

For the youth, it is important not to abandon the banners of anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggle and to create our own methods. The past centuries’ revolutionary struggles of Germany and France will not apply here. It is not enough for us to simply “follow the ideas of Lenin, Mao, Che, or Fidel,” although we must certainly read and study them. Chávez put it very clearly: we are going to give birth to the 21st-century revolution; we are going to create it. We’ve only been at this for 20 years, developing different theoretical and political aspects, with different participants sometimes on different wavelengths. But we all know that we have a right to an anti-imperialist revolution that defends life on the planet.

Trump says Tehran did not make satisfactory offer after Iranian foreign minister travelled to Pakistan to present a framework to mediators to end the war.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

The US president was escorted out from the event at a Washington DC hotel by his secret service agents.

United States President Donald Trump has been evacuated from the White House correspondents’ dinner at a hotel in Washington, DC, by his secret service agents.

The evacuation on Saturday evening came after loud sounds were heard inside the banquet hall of the Washington Hilton, where the event was taking place.

Footage from the scene showed Trump and attendees taking cover after the loud noise, after which the US president was led away. Heavily armed agents then take over the head table.

More soon…