By Sean Rayment Critical gaps across European NATO militaries risk undermining deterrence against Russia, according to a new report on collective defence by the Council on Geostrategy. Entitled Collective Defence, the Strategic Defence Review, and Capability Gaps, the report highlights shortfalls across air, sea and land power, and argues that without urgent reform and integration, European allies could struggle to respond effectively to future crises on the continent. In a foreword to the report, General Sir Richard Barrons, who also co-authored the 2025 Strategic Defence Review, warns that “hope and denial” have too often replaced coherent strategy in European defence planning.…

Germany is preparing to spend €377 billion on military equipment including an arsenal of cruise missiles that can reach Moscow, according to a leaked document. The country’s defence budget, which has been exempted from the constitutional limits on public borrowing, is rising rapidly and due to hit 3.5 per cent of national Gross Domestic Product  by 2029, or about €152 billion a year. The 39-page document lays out €377 billion in desired buys across land, air, sea, space and cyber. The list includes the purchase of 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles with have a range that would allow them to destroy…

Scientists working at a military base which was at the heart of the Skripal nerve agent probe fear their personal details may have been stolen by cyber criminals.Workers at the Defence Scientific Technical Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, Salisbury, were alerted to the security breach this month by union officials.The base had been key in determining that it was Novichok which had been used in the attempted murder of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018.Other victims of the hack include technicians and engineers at the defence company BAe Systems, the electronics firm Siemens,…

By Sean Rayment Russian cyber hackers have breached security at some of the country’s most sensitive military bases, including an RAF station where US nuclear weapons are stored. The Russian group known as Lynx has targeted numerous RAF and Royal Navy bases using a tactic called a “gateway attack”. The bases whose security was breached include RAF Lakenheath, where the US B61-12 thermonuclear gravity bombs are believed to be housed. Other bases penetrated include RAF Portreath, a top-secret radar station that forms part of NATO’s air defence network, and RAF Predannack, now home to the UK’s National Drone Hub. Last…

By Staff Writer Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Vladimir Putin of abandoning planned peace talks after the United States decided against sending long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv, suggesting Moscow’s interest in diplomacy evaporated the moment the missile threat was taken off the table. The move has led to claims that Vladimir Putin used the prospect of talks with Donald Trump as a ruse to buy time and halt the possible delivery of Tomahawks, which Kyiv has described as a crucial deterrent against Russian strikes. After Russia abruptly pulled out of the talks, Zelensky said Moscow’s behaviour showed its…

By Sean Rayment The EU has agreed to move forward with plans for a drone wall at the heart of its eastern defences as momentum grows for a €140bn loan to Ukraine based on Russian frozen assets. After a meeting with ministers from ten mostly Central and Eastern European member states plus Ukraine, the EU’s defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said a drone wall to protect against incursions from the skies was an immediate priority and a core element of the bloc’s eastern flank defences. With the Russian threat growing through both drone and fighter incursions in recent weeks, Europe is…

By Ben Farmer An army commander has been sworn in as Madagascar’s new president after weeks of “Gen Z” youth protests ended in a military takeover. Colonel Michael Randrianirina formally took charge of the Indian Ocean nation only four days after his predecessor, President Andry Rajoelina, fled the country on a French military plane. The rapid power grab has been condemned by the African Union and the United Nations and is the latest in a string of coups to befall former French colonies in Africa in recent years. Colonel Randrianirina has pledged to uphold the constitutional order and abide by…

By Sean Rayment Hundreds of young people gathered in St Petersburg to sing an outlawed song calling for Vladimir Putin to be overthrown. In a rare moment of public dissent, the crowd joined street musicians in a central square on Tuesday night to shout anti-war lyrics that have been branded “extremist” under new Russian censorship laws. “Where have you been for eight years, you f—— monsters? I want to watch ballet, let the swans dance,” the crowd chanted in Russian in the busy thoroughfare. “Let your grandpa tremble with excitement for Swan Lake.” The song, titled Co-operative Swan Lake by Noize MC, a…

By Andre Pienaar The attackThe Syrian Popular Resistance (SPR) announced that it and “allied forces” had targeted US positions south of Hasakah City with unspecified weapons. Syrian social media channels circulated videos showing air defence systems activating over al Shaddadi Base in Hasakah Province, suggesting US troops engaged in defensive fire. The United States has not confirmed the incident. Analysts caution that neither the SPR’s claim nor the footage can yet be independently verified. Militia’s evolutionFormed in December 2024, immediately after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the SPR emerged to oppose the Syrian transitional government. Until now, its operations had…

By Andre Pienaar When the United States announced its new reciprocal tariff framework earlier this year, critics rushed to focus on the headline numbers: 30 per cent tariffs on South Africa, 40 per cent on Mauritius, 47 per cent on Madagascar, even 50 per cent on Lesotho. Yet beneath the noise lies a far more consequential fact: the majority of African nations have been anchored at the minimum tariff rate of 10 per cent. This is not a bureaucratic accident. It is a deliberate policy choice by Washington that reflects both pragmatism and partnership. By granting more than thirty African…

By Ben Farmer, A catastrophic spill of more than a million tons of acid waste at a copper mine in Zambia has become a geopolitical flashpoint as China and America jockey for minerals and economic influence. A torrent of mining waste cascaded across farmland and into the river system when a storage dam, at Sino-Metals Leach Zambia’s facility near Kitwe partially burst in February. As the waste from known as tailings flooded from the Chinese state-owned mine into the Mwambashi and Kafue rivers, the acidity killed large quantities of fish and ruined crops. The mine and government have since been…

By Sean Rayment Russia has been targeting and attempting to jam British military satellites, according to the head of the UK Space Command.Maj Gen Paul Tedman has for the first time set out the level of interference from Moscow against the UK’s space-based assets.He said Russia had also been trying to jam the UK’s military satellites with ground-based systems every week.Last month Germany’s Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, said Russia had been shadowing satellites used by their military.Gen Tedman gave details of how Russia was doing the same to the UK. “They’re interested in what we’re doing and flying relatively close,”…