Who Was Behind the Drone Attack Against Indian Separatist Outfits in Myanmar?

Rajeev Bhattacharyya

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The small camp of United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) at Taga, near the Chindwin River in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region, 

had an unusual visitor sometime in the second week of April. His stay coincided with the celebration of the traditional Assamese Bihu festival in the camp; 

he also held a series of meetings with senior functionaries of other separatist rebel groups that had camps in that region. 

The visitor quietly slipped away two weeks later via a meandering route – long before the Indian security agencies received information about the episode.

The visitor was none other than Paresh Baruah, the chief of the ULFA(I), which is a banned separatist outfit in India.

The ULFA(I) became active in Assam in the early 1980s with the objective of gaining independence from India. Baruah is one of the most wanted men in India, 

who has dodged at least five assassination attempts over the past three decades. He is believed to have traveled to Taga in Myanmar from Yunnan in China after a gap of seven years.

Almost three months after his visit to Taga came a drone attack. In the early hours of July 13, two ULFA(I) camps and one camp of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur were hit in Myanmar’s “Naga Self-Administered Zone.” 

The camps were around 10-15 kilometers from the border with India. Three functionaries of the ULFA(I), including Nayan Asom who headed the Lower Council, were killed and 19 were injured.

Nuclear Powers, Conventional Wars

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The past two months have witnessed a remarkable spike in warfare involving nuclear powers. From May 7 to May 10, India and Pakistan exchanged artillery fire, bombs, 

cruise missiles, and drones in their most intense round of combat since 1999. Then, on June 1, Ukraine executed a sophisticated covert operation, 

deploying drones positioned deep within enemy territory to attack bombers that Russia might depend on if it were ever to launch a nuclear strike—an unprecedented direct assault on a country’s means of nuclear deterrence. 

And on June 13, 200 Israeli aircraft carried out a surprise attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and strategic targets. Iran retaliated by sending hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones toward Haifa, Tel Aviv, 

and military installations in the heart of Israel. Although only a few dozen breached Israeli and U.S. air defenses, Iran’s response amounted to the largest military attack ever launched on the homeland of a nuclear power.

These clashes are the latest examples of an overall rise in conflicts that carry risks of nuclear escalation. First, nonnuclear powers are attacking nuclear powers in unprecedented and aggressive ways. 

Even more concerning, nuclear powers are directly trading blows. These trends raise concerns that the eight-decade moratorium on large-scale war between nuclear powers has ended. 

Although it is too early to tell whether another great-power war is on the horizon, the dangers of nuclear escalation are unmistakable. 

Clashes involving nuclear powers now echo the Cold War’s most dangerous moments. A realistic possibility is that today’s clashes become a new normal, with an elevated risk of events spinning out of control.

ASEAN is collapsing, and nobody wants to admit it

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For decades, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — known as ASEAN — has been treated in Washington and other capitals as a bedrock of regional stability. 

It has been a model of consensus-driven diplomacy and a potential counterweight to Chinese dominance in the Indo-Pacific.

But in 2025, that image is becoming dangerously outdated. ASEAN is no longer a coherent political bloc. Fragmented by internal crises, 

paralyzed in the face of regional threats, and unable to coordinate a meaningful response to the great power rivalry unfolding around it, ASEAN is collapsing — slowly, quietly, but unmistakably.

The crisis is perhaps most vivid in Myanmar, where the military junta that seized power in 2021 is now fighting for its survival. 

The country is in open civil war. Resistance groups have taken control of large parts of the borderlands, 

while the regime continues to commit war crimes and ignore every diplomatic overture. ASEAN’s so-called Five-Point Consensus — once touted as a pathway to peace — has become a dead letter.

The bloc has refused to suspend Myanmar’s membership, despite growing international pressure. Its only action has been to exclude the junta from high-level summits, 

Myanmar is not the only fracture. Thailand, one of ASEAN’s founding members and once seen as a stabilizing force in the region, 

is now consumed by its own political drama. After the 2023 general election, the progressive Move Forward Party won the most seats, 

Will China Abandon Its Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy for Iran

James Durso 

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After the recent attacks by Israel and the United States, Iran will likely upgrade its conventional defensive and offensive capabilities with China’s help.

Despite the well-publicized Iran–China 25-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Chinese officials, 

including Foreign Minister Wang Yi, temporized by criticizing Israel’s actions and expressing concern over regional instability; 

President Xi Jinping urged both sides to cease hostilities and proposed a four-point peace framework, avoiding direct blame on Israel. 

China maintained economic ties with Iran, but refrained from providing weapons or direct assistance, consistent with its non-interventionist foreign policy.

Despite China’s low-key approach, plane watchers claimed regularly-scheduled CARGOLUX flights from China to Europe “went dark” as they passed over Tehran. 

It is doubtful the carrier, CARGOLUX, a leading air cargo carrier, would take the sanctions risk of delivering weaponry to Iran, whatever China may have offered to pay.

Though Russia was criticized for failing to provide Iran with the S-400 air defense system (supplied to China, Belarus, Algeria, and Turkey) and the Su-35 combat aircraft (supplied to China, India, Egypt, and Indonesia), 

Moscow can be excused as it is fighting NATO in Ukraine. That said, Iranians won’t forget they came to Russia’s aid in Ukraine by supplying the Shahed-136 drone with full technology transfer that allowed localized production, and ballistic missiles.

Nvidia says it will restart AI chip sales to China

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US technology giant Nvidia says it will soon resume sales of its high-end artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China.

The US government has assured the firm that it will grant the licences needed to restart exports to the world's second largest economy, the company said in a blog post.

The move reverses a ban on sales of Nvidia's H20 chips to Beijing, which was imposed by US President Donald Trump's administration in April over concerns that they could be used by the Chinese military.

The chips have been a key focus of export controls aimed at keeping the cutting-edge technology out of Beijing's hands as the AI race between the US and China heats up.

The US Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.

The H20 chip was developed specifically for the Chinese market after US export restrictions were imposed by the Biden administration in 2023. Its sale was effectively banned by the Trump administration in April this year.

The announcement came as trade tensions between Beijing and Washington have been easing.

In May, the two governments agreed a temporary truce in their tariffs war.

They set a 12 August deadline to reach a longer term deal over the high tariffs imposed on each other since Trump returned to the White House this year.

In recent weeks, Beijing has relaxed trade controls on rare earth exports, while the US has lifted restrictions on chip design software firms operating in China.

Beijing’s Dominance of the South China Sea Is Not Inevitable

Ben Bland

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As a heavily laden, Danish-owned container ship leaves Singapore’s port and enters international waters, it pings China’s Zheng He vessel identification system, 

providing an update on its cargo and intended route through the South China Sea to Shanghai. Despite long-standing fears about China’s threat to freedom of navigation, 

Beijing still allows all commercial ships unrestricted access to these critical global trade routes, so long as they adopt Chinese monitoring technology. Foreign navies, 

by contrast, are severely curtailed in these waters, with control maintained through China’s unrivalled navy and coast guard, plugged into a sprawling network of unmanned ships, drones, sensors, and satellites.

The year is 2035. And this vignette reflects a hypothetical scenario of Chinese dominance of the South China Sea that we recently presented to policymakers and maritime experts in Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom in a “back-casting” exercise.

Exclusive: China-linked hackers target Taiwan's chip industry with increasing attacks, researchers say

A.J. Vicens

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July 16 (Reuters) - Chinese-linked hackers are targeting the Taiwanese semiconductor industry and investment analysts as part of a string of cyber espionage campaigns, researchers said on Wednesday.

While hacking to steal data and information about the industry is not new, there is an increase in sustained hacking campaigns from several China-aligned hacking groups, researchers with cybersecurity firm Proofpoint said in a new analysis, opens new tab.

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“We’ve seen entities that we hadn’t ever seen being targeted in the past being targeted,” said Mark Kelly, a threat researcher focused on Chinese-related threats at Proofpoint.

The previously unreported hacking campaigns were carried out by at least three distinct Chinese-linked groups primarily between March and June of this year, with some activity likely ongoing, Proofpoint said. 

They come amid rising restrictions by Washington on exports to China of U.S.-designed chips that are often manufactured in Taiwan. China's chip industry has been working to replace its dwindling supply of sophisticated U.S. chips, especially those used in artificial intelligence.

The researchers declined to identify the hacking targets, but told Reuters that approximately 15 to 20 organizations ranging from small businesses, 

analysts employed by at least one U.S.-headquartered international bank, and large global enterprises faced attacks.

Major Taiwanese semiconductor firms include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW), opens new tab, MediaTek (2454.TW), opens new tab, 

China’s Exploitation of Scam Centers in Southeast Asia

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Chinese criminal networks operate industrial-scale scam centers across Southeast Asia that steal tens of billions of dollars annually from people around the world—a massive criminal enterprise that rivals the global drug trade in scale and sophistication.

The Chinese criminals behind scam centers have built ties—some overt, some deniable—to the Chinese government by embracing patriotic rhetoric, supporting China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), 

and promoting pro-Beijing propaganda overseas. As a result, Chinese crime syndicates have expanded across Southeast Asia with, at a minimum, implicit backing from elements of the Chinese government.

The spread of China-linked scam compounds in Southeast Asia is fueling corruption and violence, promoting human trafficking, undermining the ability of governments in the region to control what happens in their territory, and promoting human trafficking.

China is exploiting the problem of scam compounds to increase its leverage over Southeast Asian governments, conduct intelligence and influence operations, and expand its security footprint in the region.

Beijing has selectively cracked down on scam centers that target Chinese victims, leading Chinese criminal organizations to conclude that they can make greater profits with lower risk by targeting citizens of wealthy countries such as the United States.

Americans are now among the top global targets of China-linked scam centers, with an estimated $5 billion lost to online scams in 2024 alone—a 42 percent increase over the previous year.

Is China’s Military Ready for War?

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Anew wave of purges has engulfed the senior leadership of China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army. Since the 20th National Party Congress in October 2022, 

more than 20 senior PLA officers from all four services—the army, navy, air force, and rocket force—have disappeared from public view or been removed from their posts. 

The absences of other generals have also been reported, which could foreshadow additional purges.

Most notably, since the fall of 2023, three of the six uniformed members of the party’s Central Military Commission, 

the top body of the Chinese Communist Party charged with overseeing the armed forces, have been removed from their posts. The first to fall was Defense Minister Li Shangfu, 

who was removed in October 2023 and expelled from the CCP in June 2024. Then, this past November, Miao Hua, the director of the CMC’s Political Work Department, 

which manages personnel and party affairs, was suspended for “serious violations of discipline” before being formally removed from the CMC last month. 

And most recently, the Financial Times reported that He Weidong, the second-ranked vice chair who has not appeared in public since early March, had been purged.

Never before has half the CMC been dismissed in such a short period. Even stranger is the fact that all three generals had previously been promoted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping; 

they were appointed to the CMC itself in 2022, after Xi consolidated his control over the party at the 20th Party Congress. 

How China’s Patriotic ‘Honkers’ Became the Nation’s Elite Cyberspies

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In the summer of 2005, Tan Dailin was a 20-year-old grad student at Sichuan University of Science and Engineering when he came to the attention of the People’s Liberation Army of China.

Tan was part of a burgeoning hacker community known as the Honkers—teens and twentysomethings in late-’90s and early-’00s China who formed groups like the Green Army and Evil Octal and launched patriotic cyberattacks against Western targets they deemed disrespectful to China. 

The attacks were low-sophistication—mostly website defacements and denial-of-service operations targeting entities in the US, Taiwan, and Japan—but the Honkers advanced their skills over time, and Tan documented his escapades in blog posts. After publishing about hacking targets in Japan, the PLA came calling.

Tan and his university friends were encouraged to participate in a PLA-affiliated hacking contest and won first place. The PLA invited them to an intense, monthlong hacker training camp, and within weeks Tan and his friends were building hacking tools, studying network infiltration techniques, and conducting simulated attacks.

The subsequent timeline of events is unclear, but Tan, who went by the hacker handles Wicked Rose and Withered Rose, then launched his own hacking group—the Network Crack Program Hacker (NCPH). 

The group quickly gained notoriety for winning hacking contests and developing hacking tools. They created the GinWui rootkit, one of China’s first homegrown remote-access backdoors and then, experts believe, 

used it and dozens of zero-day exploits they wrote in a series of “unprecedented” hacks against US companies and government entities over the spring and summer of 2006. They did this on behalf of the PLA, according to Adam Kozy, who tracked Tan and other Chinese hackers for years as a former FBI analyst who now heads the SinaCyber consulting firm, focused on China.

What Underlies High US Tariffs on Bangladesh

Shafi Md Mostofa

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On July 8, the U.S. imposed a revised 35 percent tariff on Bangladeshi goods. “Please understand that the 35% tariff is far less than what is needed to eliminate the Trade Deficit disparity we have with your Country,” 

Trump wrote in a letter to Muhammad Yunus, chief advisor of Bangladesh’s interim government. Earlier in April, the U.S. had imposed a 37 percent tariff, increasing it from 15 percent.

To understand the implications and politics of tariffs, a comparative look at Bangladesh’s business competitors is essential. Bangladesh exports around $8 billion worth of goods to the United States — the highest volume to a single country. 

Over $6 billion of that consists of garments, meaning the industry would be heavily impacted. Vietnam is Bangladesh’s key competitor, and the United States has offered them a reduced tariff rate of 20 percent.

Finance Advisor Salehuddin Ahmed noted that Bangladesh’s trade deficit with the U.S. is only about $5 billion, while that of Vietnam’s with the U.S. 

stands at $125 billion. “Even so, the U.S. has agreed to offer Vietnam some concessions,” he said. Bangladesh has a “much smaller deficit,” he pointed out, 

adding that “there is no justification for imposing such a high tariff on us. We will continue to negotiate.”

Clearly, politics are at play. This is evident from the statement of Power and Energy Adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan. “Not just tariffs, there have been discussions on non-tariff barriers as well

They [the U.S.] are prioritising their national security… A framework is being worked out in this regard, and the matter is under discussion”, he said.

The Russia-China-India ‘Troika’ is Here

Stephen Blank

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Key Points and Summary – A new strategic “Troika” aligning Russia, China, and India is on the verge of becoming a reality, 

signaling a major geopolitical victory for Moscow and Beijing and a significant setback for Washington.

This emerging bloc is not an inflexible anti-American alliance but a pragmatic convergence of interests.

Driven by Russia’s need for support, China’s desire to neutralize a potential threat, and India’s quest for strategic autonomy amid its own complex rivalries, 

the partnership effectively shatters the long-held American foreign policy goal of splitting Russia from China, 

creating a formidable new power center in global politics.

A New ‘Axis’? The Geopolitical Earthquake of the Russia-China-India Troika

Virtually every recent assessment of Russo-Chinese relations in 2025 has discerned their growing closeness. Indeed,

Russia’s visible dependence on China to finance and prosecute its war with Ukraine is increasingly clear. At the same time, 

both Russia and China regularly proclaim their friendship and the identity of their views on significant issues in international politics and the necessity of closer coordination. 

Foreign Minister Wang Yi told European officials that China cannot afford a Russian defeat in Ukraine, lest it have to confront the full brunt of US power. 

The growing intimacy and scope of their joint military relations and exercises also warrant serious attention and scrutiny from observers.

Beijing Learning Lessons From Russian Response to Financial War

Sunny Cheung

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Beijing has tracked Russia’s response to what it perceives as financial warfare from the United States and its allies and has begun mitigating its vulnerabilities and building an offensive toolkit in response. 

Chinese experts take confidence from Moscow’s resilience in face of more than 21,000 sanctions imposed since February 2022, and also quietly praise Russia for accelerating the internationalization of the renminbi (RMB).

The PRC now is prioritizing financial security over maximizing investments returns, pursuing reserve diversification, capital controls, anti-sanctions legal instruments, 

and accelerated development of alternative infrastructures like the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and a digital currency–based settlement platform, Project mBridge.

Dedollarization has been helped by Russia’s use of the RMB for energy, commodities, and bond issuance, as well as for some trade with partners like India and Brazil. 

Hong Kong also plays a central role, and has become a testing ground for Beijing’s financial reforms.

Despite progress, the RMB accounts for a small proportion of global payments. Without full capital account liberalization, 

its credibility and usability remain constrained—posing a core dilemma between financial openness and domestic control that Beijing has yet to resolve.

Three years after the United States and its allies imposed sweeping financial sanctions on Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 

Sparring in space' – BBC gains rare access to US base tracking global missile strikes

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There's a short sharp shout: "Launch Yemen!" The men and women in uniform sitting in front of computers all respond in unison, "Copy, launch Yemen."

In the US Space Force, they're called Guardians, not troops. Staring into their screens at a base in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, 

they're able to track a missile launch from anywhere in the world - and follow it from its launch site to its likely point of impact.

We're the first international journalists to be allowed inside the US Space Force's missile warning and tracking operations room at Buckley Space Force base, a nerve centre where Guardians are on alert 24/7.

They're surrounded by giant monitors which provide maps and data sent from a constellation of military satellites in space.

These Guardians are the first to detect the infra-red heat signature when a missile is launched. Moments later there's another shout – "Launch Iran" - followed by a chorus of "Copy launch Iran."

This time, it's a drill. But last month they were doing it for real – when Iran fired a salvo of missiles towards the US military base at al-Udeid in Qatar, in response to US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Colonel Ann Hughes describes the mood on that day as "heavy". Unlike most launches, they'd been warned about that one in advance. 

They were able to track those Iranian missiles and then feed that information to the air defence batteries on the ground.

Ultimately we saved the entire installation and the personnel that were there," she says, expressing relief.

US-China spy wars intensify under Trump 2.0 as tech competition heats up

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When the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week arrested a suspected Chinese hacker for allegedly stealing sensitive American research on Covid-19 vaccines in 2020, 

the head of America’s top law enforcement agency hailed the episode as “manhunting” the Chinese Communist Party.

The CCP’s relentless attacks on our institutions will not go unanswered,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on social media.

The FBI will hunt down those who threaten our national security – wherever they hide,” he wrote, adding, “huge ... manhunting the CCP.”

Then, soon after the FBI announced taking 33-year-old Chinese national Xu Zewei into custody at Milan’s Malpensa Airport, 

China’s Ministry of State Security made a similarly dramatic announcement, saying it had disrupted three foreign espionage plots. It also warned government workers to remain alert.

In one of the cases publicised by the MSS, a provincial official identified as “Li” was allegedly seduced by a foreign intelligence agent while abroad, 

then blackmailed, using intimate photos, and coerced into stealing “confidential” documents when back in China.

Foreign spies have become increasingly aggressive in infiltrating China and stealing secrets,” the MSS said in a statement that did not name any particular country but blamed “a weakened sense of discipline” among officials for recent lapses.

The World Is Entering a Dark New Era of Hydroterrorism

Abdoulie Ceesay

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Water has long been a tool of warfare, but in recent years, the world has entered a dark new era of hydroterrorism. Around the globe, 

from Yemen to Ukraine, this critical resource is increasingly being used as a tool of control. According to the Pacific Institute, 

global water-related violence surged by more than 50 percent in 2023 alone. Yet international institutions still treat water as a development or an environmental issue—not as the national security flashpoint it has become.

Fair-weather frameworks, such as the United Nations’ Water Convention and the Integrated Water Resources Management approach, 

won’t survive the coming storms, and as climate shocks intensify, ignoring this threat is nothing short of negligent. Climate-driven water stress breeds desperation, 

especially in places where corrupt or absent governments create a vacuum. And extremist groups step into this void, offering a distorted sense of order.

The United States Can’t Have a Manufacturing Renaissance Without Innovation

Michèle Flournoy and Tal Feldman

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U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office promising a full-scale manufacturing renaissance in America. But the administration’s approach—defined by flashy deals, 

deep budget cuts, and chaotic trade policy—is actively undermining the foundations of U.S. long-term competitiveness.

Yes, there are promising headlines. Texas Instruments is spending $60 billion on fabs in Texas and Utah, 

Nvidia projects $500 billion in U.S.-built AI server output, and TSMC has pledged $165 billion for new chip plants in Arizona.

Michèle Flournoy is a co-founder and managing partner of WestExec Advisors. She served as U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy from 2009 to 2012. X: @micheleflournoy

Tal Feldman is a J.D. candidate at Yale Law School focusing on national security and a former AI engineer for the U.S. government.

A new type of rifle bullet in Ukraine could give infantry a better way to survive unjammable drone attacks

Matthew Loh

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Drone warfare is driving the creation of a new type of bullet in the Ukraine war.

A Ukrainian version is designed to fire from a NATO rifle and spread pellets to kill drones from afar.

With unjammable drones on the battlefield, troops need ways to defend themselves with physical force.

Anti-drone rifle bullets are emerging in the Ukraine war, potentially giving ground troops a safer option against the cheap drones that are now the battlefield's No. 1 killer.

While Russian troops were seen experimenting with such ammo since at least last year's winter, Ukraine's defense innovation program debuted its own version in late June.

Brave1 published a video of a soldier filling a cartridge with black and grey-tipped 5.56mm rounds, before loading it into a CZ Bren 2 assault rifle and firing at a drone in a test range.

"The goal is for every infantryman to carry these NATO-codified cartridges, enabling them to react quickly to aerial threats," the government organization wrote, adding that the bullets "dramatically increase the chances of downing FPV drones."

However, United24 Media, an outlet run by the Ukrainian government, wrote that the bullets use a "custom-designed warhead that creates a dense and rapid fragmentation effect upon firing."

In short, the tech would allow soldiers to fire a bullet that travels some distance before dispersing a spread of pellets to strike a first-person-view drone or quadcopter.

That could allow infantry to start shooting at attack drones from a safer distance, compared to the last-resort measure of trying to down the threat with a shotgun, which is now the norm across Ukrainian units.

Red Lines and Black Boxes: Iran, Deterrence, and the Weaponization of Uncertainty

Siamak Naficy 

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In the shadow of Israel’s air campaign and amid the policy whiplash of the Trump administration’s return to the scene, Iran finds itself cornered, battered, and yet, utterly unmoved. 

The Islamic Republic has absorbed military strikes on critical infrastructure, watched its economy plunge further into crisis, and received a vague threat from Washington that may or may not be real. And yet Tehran’s red lines, particularly on uranium enrichment, remain firmly in place. Why?

Because in Iranian strategic culture, compromise with a heavy-handed force isn’t pragmatism—it’s weakness. And weakness invites destruction. It’s dangerous to confuse tactical success with strategic victory—legitimacy is fluid, 

and humiliation can be politically generative. Deterrence doesn’t die with generals, political bureaucrats, or nuclear scientists. Deterrence is a wicked problem—it adapts, 

it mutates. Likewise, regimes don’t always end when their air defenses fall. They end when people stop believing in their necessity and legitimacy.

Iran’s security doctrine has rested on two assumptions: first, that the international system is inherently hostile to its regime; and second, that no foreign partner—no matter how transactional—can be counted on when it matters.

Too often, American policy assumes that pain is a useful teacher. The US assumes that when punished sufficiently, 

states will moderate their behavior to meet American interests. But for Iran’s leadership—steeped in revolutionary paranoia, grievances both real and imagined, 

as well as the memory of abandonment during the Iran–Iraq War, pain is not deterrence. It is confirmation. Each new military humiliation, each economic blow, simply proves the point: the West cannot be trusted, and only self-reliance ensures survival.

Information Management Driving Decision Supremacy

Michael Kidd,  Violet Johnston 

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In today’s complex and fast-paced battlespace, the ability to make swift, informed decisions is often the difference between success and failure. 

Yet, many organizations, including those responsible for transatlantic defense interests, have lost their way regarding Information Management (IM). 

This allows this critical discipline to devolve into a mere support function—a service desk for troubleshooting computer issues—rather than the operational enabler it must be. 

This drift from its core purpose undermines IM’s potential to accelerate the decision cycle, leaving commanders without the timely, actionable information they need to maintain a strategic edge. Meanwhile, 

our adversaries recognize the power of information supremacy and rapidly advance their capabilities, potentially outpacing us in areas that matter most. We explore the organization, processes, 

and infrastructure necessary to reclaim IM as a warfighting advantage. This will reignite its role as a force multiplier driving operational success. The stakes are too high for complacency; it is time to act with urgency and purpose.

Historic commanders could count on military genius to effectively cut through Clausewitz’s Fog of War, forming a quick, intuitive understanding of the battlefield; 

however, modern commanders deal with operational problems of greater complexity and constant evolution. 

Undoubtedly, Napoleon Bonaparte and Gustavus Adolphus were military innovators, but their span of control and available data pale compared to Dwight Eisenhower or Georgy Zhukov.

Kill Russian soldiers, win points: Is Ukraine's new drone scheme gamifying war?

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Men and equipment being hunted down along Ukraine's long, contested front lines. Everything filmed, logged and counted.

And now put to use too, as the Ukrainian military tries to extract every advantage it can against its much more powerful opponent.

Under a scheme first trialled last year and dubbed "Army of Drones: Bonus" (also known as "e-points"), units can earn points for each Russian soldier killed or piece of equipment destroyed.

And like a killstreak in Call of Duty, or a 1970s TV game show, points mean prizes.

"The more strategically important and large-scale the target, the more points a unit receives," reads a statement from the team at Brave 1, which brings together experts from government and the military.

"For example, destroying an enemy multiple rocket launch system earns up to 50 points; 40 points are awarded for a destroyed tank and 20 for a damaged one."

Each uploaded video is now carefully analysed back in Kyiv, where points are awarded according to a constantly evolving set of military priorities.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation, shows the BBC's Paul Adams how the system works

Israel levelling thousands of Gaza civilian buildings in controlled demolitions

Benedict Garman, Matt Murphy & the Visual Journalism team

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Israel has demolished thousands of buildings across Gaza since it withdrew from a ceasefire with Hamas in March, with entire towns and suburbs - once home to tens of thousands of people - levelled in the past few weeks.

Satellite images show massive amounts of destruction in several areas which Israel's military command claims to have under "operational control".

Large swathes of it have been caused by planned demolitions, both to already damaged buildings and ones that appeared largely intact.

Verified footage shows large explosions unleashing plumes of dust and debris, as Israeli forces carry out controlled demolitions on tower blocks, schools and other infrastructure.

Multiple legal experts told BBC Verify that Israel may have committed war crimes under the Geneva Convention, which largely prohibits the destruction of infrastructure by an occupying power.

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said it operated in accordance with international law; that Hamas concealed "military assets" in civilian areas, and that the "destruction of property is only performed when an imperative military necessity is demanded".

Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare

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This revelatory and dramatic history of disinformation traces the rise of secret organized deception operations from the interwar period to contemporary internet troll farms

We live in the age of disinformation--of organized deception. Spy agencies pour vast resources into hacking, leaking, 

and forging data, often with the goal of weakening the very foundation of liberal democracy: trust in facts. Thomas Rid, 

a renowned expert on technology and national security, was one of the first to sound the alarm. More than four months before the 2016 election,

he warned that Russian military intelligence was "carefully planning and timing a high-stakes political campaign to disrupt the democratic process. But as crafty as such so-called active measures have become, they are not new.

The story of modern disinformation begins with the post-Russian Revolution clash between communism and capitalism, which would come to define the Cold War. In Active Measures, 

Rid reveals startling intelligence and security secrets from materials written in more than ten languages across several nations, and from interviews with current and former operatives. 

He exposes the disturbing yet colorful history of professional, organized lying, revealing for the first time some of the century's most significant operations--many of them nearly beyond belief.

A White Russian ploy backfires and brings down a New York police commissioner; a KGB-engineered, anti-Semitic hate campaign creeps back across the Iron Curtain; 

the CIA backs a fake publishing empire, run by a former Wehrmacht U-boat commander, that produces Germany's best jazz magazine. Rid tracks the rise of leaking, 

Geopolitical and Strategic Implications of the Arakan Army’s Ascension in Myanmar’s Rakhine State

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The Arakan Army (AA), an ethno-nationalist rebel group, is one of the most prominent militias in Myanmar. 

The AA now controls about 90 percent of the territory and at least 14 of 17 townships in Rakhine State (Myanmar Now, 

December 30, 2024; Narinjara News, April 11, 2025, November 16, 2024; Fulcrum, January 13). [1] [2] The group has consistently reiterated its aim to gain greater autonomy and rights for Rakhine State and its people. 

Moreover, Rakhine’s borders with Bangladesh, its geo-strategic position in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as the presence of significant Indian and Chinese infrastructure investments in the state, 

make the AA one of the most consequential non-state actors in Myanmar. However, the group’s true motives remain unclear, 

especially considering its tendency to govern Rakhine as a proto-state and persecute the local Rohingya Muslim minority (Daily Star [Bangladesh], April 29, 2025, August 28, 2024).

The AA is the most significant threat to Myanmar’s junta (The Irrawaddy, September 10, 2024). The insurgent group has strengthened its control over local communities by establishing parallel governance in the administrative, judicial, 

health, and other public service systems (Center for Arakan Studies, July 3, 2024). In order to advance its political influence, 

the AA formed the United League of Arakan in 2015 to push its political goals alongside military actions (Transnational Institute, April 4). 

The group now stands behind a pseudo-government in Rakhine State called the Arakan People’s Revolutionary Government (APRG).

The Army has a novel solution to its drone problem: Shoot them with tanks

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The Army's latest field manual for tank operations is loaded with new tactics and procedures for drone warfare.

But the best tactic, the manual says, is to shoot them with a tank. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Hoffert.

Not quite, but that describes some of the reaction after the service released its latest update to its “Tank Platoon” manual, known as ATP 3-20.15, late last week, and a set of diagrams deep in the appendix caught the eye of many online. It’s not hard to see why.

Taken by themselves, the diagrams do come across as a bit… optimistic. They present an extremely simplified vision of a hypothetical tank-vs-drone encounter, a subject that combat in Ukraine has proven is neither simple nor hypothetical for armor formations. 

In the diagrams, a squad of M1 Abrams main battle tanks aim at a passing drone — which the Army calls an unmanned aircraft system or UAS — and shoot it down with fire from their main 120mm cannon. 

The course of action instructions alongside the diagram suggest that crews employ the M1028 120mm canister rounds for the takedown.

The M1028 is a fairly awful weapon to contemplate, a 120mm shell stuffed with over 1000 tungsten projectiles designed to scatter like grapeshot and mow through dismounted infantry or,

 in this case, clip a fragile drone in its wide field of disbursement. At least that seems to be the thinking here.

Gunners should lead a straight-flying UAS, the manual says, by that most All-American of distance estimates, “one-half football field.”

A second diagram addresses the quadcopter variety of drone, which are rarely seen flying straight and narrow but instead loop and dive directly at their targets. For those, the diagrams say, aim “slightly above helicopter body.”