Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

In 2020, Austin Doctor wrote, “The Looming Influx of Foreign Fighters in Sub-Saharan Africa,” in which he predicted the region would see an influx of foreign fighters to aid Islamist extremist groups. Six years later, we asked Austin to revisit his arguments.Image: African Union Mission in Somalia (Photo by Abukar Albadri)In your 2020 article, you forecasted an influx of foreign fighters into sub-Saharan Africa within a year. Six years later, how has that forecast held up? Did the anticipated surge materialize on the scale you expected? Why or why not?There are far more foreign terrorist fighters, who hail from a…

UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov recently revealed why his late father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, once kicked 50 students, including Islam Makhachev, out of the gym.Makhachev was Abdulmanap’s favorite student, and in previous interviews, “The Eagle” has revealed that his father always believed in Makhachev and often praised his work ethic and discipline.Abdulmanap told Makhachev he would grow into a great UFC champion and that he needed to keep training to reach the top. Makhachev lived up to Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov’s prediction, but before becoming a two-division UFC champion, he was once thrown out of the gym. Why did Khabib Nurmagomedov’s father…

Aldershot, UK. Rheinmetall and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) have successfully delivered an autonomous logistics training programme to British Army personnel, culminating in the first UK HX autonomous convoy operated by British soldiers using the UK Advanced Land Autonomy Centre of Excellence (ALACoE) PATH Kit. Delivered over two weeks at the Combat Service Support Trials and Development Unit (CSS TDU) in Aldershot, the programme prepared personnel from 8 Squadron, 27 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) for participation in Project Convergence Capstone 6 (PCC6) as part of Project MAIA, the British Army’s initiative to explore and evaluate autonomous systems for…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to keep pulling over vehicles, signaling his opposition Wednesday to plans announced just a day earlier to suspend most traffic stops following another string of fatal shootings. It’s not clear whether ICE will quickly reverse course and resume most stops, which have been a key tool in Trump’s immigration crackdown. Ending those stops, Trump wrote, would be “playing right into the criminal’s hands.” “We CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump wrote Wednesday on his social media site.…

JERUSALEM — Elbit Systems detailed a new maritime concept centered on its Hermes 650 Spark unmanned aircraft, envisioning the conversion of commercial vessels into dedicated platforms for unmanned aviation, the Israeli company said this week.Each platform would carry between nine and 12 Hermes 650 Spark aircraft along with the deck infrastructure, control systems and mission support needed to operate them. Elbit described the approach as an alternative to acquiring a traditional aircraft carrier, aimed at giving naval forces extended maritime reach without the associated cost and complexity.The Hermes 650 Spark is built around a front-mounted engine that provides a wider…

Zuffa Boxing has booked its biggest fight to date official. Many had been speculating what would be next for Ryan Garcia, and the answer is a clash with Conor Benn on an event promoted by Zuffa Boxing. UFC CEO Dana White made the announcement on his X page. During his announcement, White revealed the date and location for the grudge match. “It is official. Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn is signed and taking place Sept. 12 live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas,” White revealed. “Garcia is the world welterweight champion, Ring Magazine’s fifth-ranked welterweight in the world. He has…

PARIS — MBDA, Europe’s largest missile maker, appointed Airbus Defence and Space executive Jean-Brice Dumont as its new chief executive officer effective Nov. 1 to succeed Eric Béranger, who has led the maker of the Meteor air-to-air missile and Aster air-defense missile since June 2019.The executives will start a handover process in October to ensure “a seamless transition,” MBDA said on Wednesday. The company didn’t provide a reason for the departure of Béranger, who has overseen seven years of transition during which MBDA nearly doubled its sales to €5.8 billion (US$6.6 billion) in 2025 and more than doubled its order…

A NATO MMF Airbus A330 MRTT. (NATO) There are currently two initiatives designed to provide NATO Alliance and participating partner countries with strategic airlift capabilities: the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) and the Multinational Multi-role Tanker Transport (MRTT) Fleet (MMF). The first unit established to give NATO Allies and partners access to strategic airlift is the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC). It procured three Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft for a group of 12 NATO Allies, including Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United States. The SAC’s operational branch, the military Heavy Airlift…

At a recent defense conference I was at, a senior military leader stood before a packed auditorium and made a compelling argument. America’s competitive advantage, he explained, was not its aircraft, ships, satellites, or weapons systems; it was its people. More specifically, it was their ability to think creatively and adapt faster than our adversaries. The audience nodded in agreement. Then the conference returned to discussing artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, hypersonics, acquisition reform, and modernization. Nobody seemed to notice the contradiction. If adaptive thinking is truly our competitive advantage, why do we spend so little time discussing how to create…

What does the biggest submarine in the world actually look like? Picture an underwater vessel stretching nearly 175 meters (574 feet) long, longer than one and a half football fields, and displacing almost 48,000 tons beneath the waves. These aren’t just oversized warships.They’re floating cities designed to remain hidden underwater for months while carrying some of the most powerful weapons ever deployed at sea.Building the largest submarines ever built wasn’t simply about making them bigger. Every extra meter of hull created room for more ballistic missiles, larger nuclear reactors, greater food supplies, and better living conditions for crews expected to…