Just hours ago, the Saudi Aramco refinery at Jazan on the Red Sea was engulfed in flames after a Houthi missile and drone attack. Strikes at the heart of the Saudi’s energy infrastructure on the Red Sea, which acts as the remaining primary lifeline of energy exports out of the region, threaten to drastically impact global oil prices further, a concern we have been raising for some time. In the wake of the attack and additional fighting in the Persian Gulf, oil prices surged toward the $100 per-barrel mark.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a qualitative, large-scale military operation, targeting the Aramco company in Abha, Najran and the Economic City, Aramco in Jizan, and Khamis Mushait Air Base with dozens of ballistic missiles and drones,” Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree stated on Telegram. “The strikes were precise, by God’s grace, and direct, causing major damage to those facilities.”

Saree claimed that the strikes were “in response to the Saudi aggression that targeted our people and our country with 121 air strikes over the past three days.”

Saudi officials confirmed Houthi attacks and said they would retaliate.

“The terrorist Houthi Militia’s senseless attacks, the latest of which targeted civilian and economic sites in the cities of (Abha, Khamis Mashait, Jazan and Najran) resulting in injuries to (73) civilians, including women and children, constitute a blatant violation of the Kingdom’s sovereignty and a direct threat to the security and safety of its citizens and residents,” anti-Houthi coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki stated on X. 

“The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition will take all necessary operational measures to deter this Terrorist Militia and resolutely confront its hostile approach, in defense of the Kingdom’s sovereignty, the preservation of its national assets and the safety of its citizens and residents,” Al-Maliki added. “The Command will also take all necessary measures and actions to respond to the sources of the threat and neutralize its danger.”

“…several energy sector facilities and installations in the southern region of the Kingdom were targeted this morning,” the Saudi Ministry of Energy stated on X. The attacks “caused fires at several locations, leading to a temporary halt in some operations,” the ministry added. “Specialized field teams have begun containing the fires, securing the sites and assessing the damage.”

Videos on social media this morning showed the Saudi Aramco facility still burning after the attacks.

Data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) indicates a large amount of ongoing thermal anomalies in and near the massive Jazan refinery.

The Houthi attacks inside Saudi Arabia came amid increased fighting in Yemen between the rebels and anti-Houthi forces backed by Riyadh.

The conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis grew out of a civil war in Yemen that erupted in 2014. It expanded a year later when a Saudi-led coalition joined forces with the government ousted by the Houthis and raged on until the parties reached a tenuous ceasefire in 2022. The Saudis held off on getting involved in the recent Red Sea conflict which saw the U.S. and coalition warships duking it out with the Houthis, and eventually led to a U.S.-led air campaign over Yemen. Tensions, however, reignited after that conflict ended when the Houthis joined the U.S.-Iran conflict on the side of their major supporter. The Houthis recently imposed a blockade on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, and began striking Saudi ships in the Red Sea as well as refineries.

As we have frequently detailed, Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure put further pressure on oil exports from the Middle East, already drastically affected by the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the resumption of the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports. Saudi Arabia has diverted millions of barrels of oil per day through pipelines to its Yanbu port on the Red Sea in an effort to minimize the energy shortages due to the hostilities near the Persian Gulf. This also raised the specter of the U.S. having to get as involved as it did during the previous Houthi campaign against shipping that ended last September, which could pull resources away from Iranian-focused operations, if supporting such an operation is even possible at all at this point. The bottom line here is that if the Houthis stop Saudi oil from transiting through the Bab el Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal, this last lifeline of energy to Europe and Asia and beyond would be severed. This would drastically exacerbate an already ballooning oil crisis.

The Houthi strikes on Tuesday followed a spike in attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Last week, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it destroyed three Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) oil tankers after the Iranians fired ballistic missiles at U.S. warships.

On Tuesday, “American forces have struck multiple Iranian tankers tied to the IRGC in response to more attempted missile attacks on a U.S. Navy warship,” a U.S. official told TWZ.

The CENTCOM strikes are part of the Trump administration’s new tanker-for-a-tanker policy of hitting Iranian vessels in response to Tehran’s attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This marks a change from previous incidents where ships were only attacked for running the ongoing U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports. The sinking of one of the Iranian tankers in the most recent strikes is another escalation. Previous incidents following major combat operations during Epic Fury involved U.S. forces disabling Iranian transport vessels, not sinking them.

“Following Iran’s failed attacks, CENTCOM permanently disabled the IRGC crude oil carriers M/T Downy off the coast of Kharg Island and M/T Stark 1 near Jask,” the command stated on X on Saturday. “American forces also completely destroyed the unladen crude oil carrier M/T Kylo (also known as the “Noxen”) in the Gulf of Oman, striking the vessel in multiple critical locations to render it inoperable after the crew was directed to abandon ship.”

The three Iranian crude oil tankers “are part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies,” the command added. “Iran has no means by which to defend them.”

“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost —taking out three of yours,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”

In addition to the tanker attacks, CENTCOM is maintaining its naval blockade of Iranian ports. “As of Sept. 6, U.S. forces have redirected 92 commercial vessels, disabled 3 and boarded 2 to ensure strict compliance,” the command stated on X.

As these events unfold, the price of oil is rising further, as we noted earlier in this piece. As of noon on Tuesday, the per barrel price of Brent crude was trading at nearly $98, a $10 per barrel gain from Aug. 26, according to OilPrice.com.

Analysts said the price reflected “the market’s recognition that there is no end in sight for the conflict in the Middle East, which has disrupted oil flows through two vital arteries: the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea,” The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

“Oil market participants are now pricing in a more prolonged disruption to shipping flows,” Hamad Hussain, a senior economist with Capital Economics, a research firm, told the publication. “They and other analysts have raised oil price estimates, based on an expectation of increased disruptions.”

Amid the strikes on oil-related targets, Iran claimed it captured an Anduril Dive-LD UUV and is in the process of reverse-engineering it. The IRGC released video and images of the device.

The IRGC “captured one of the most modern intelligent and unmanned submarines of the terrorist U.S. military at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz at dawn today, in a complex operation involving intelligence and operational surveillance,” the organization claimed.

The vessel “possesses the latest technology in the field of underwater systems in the world and was delivered to the fleet of the terrorist U.S. military in 2025,” the IRGC added.

Asked if Iran captured a UUV, a U.S. official denied that the Iranians obtained anything sensitive.

“An underwater drone operated by U.S. forces malfunctioned more than a day ago,” a U.S. official told us. “It was surveying regional waters in support of ongoing operations. The defective drone was an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment. U.S. operations in area waters continue.”

The Dive-LD can be configured for demining operations. Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, recently stated that: “We have successfully cleared sea mines in the strait’s international shipping lanes that were laid months ago by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Internationally recognized transit routes in the strait are free of Iranian sea mines, thanks to the incredible work of the U.S. military.”

It is unclear whether the Dive-LD system was used in those operations; however Financial Times last week reported that the U.S. sent “Navy Seal divers, robot boats and specialized underwater craft into the perilous strait for a four-month mine-clearance mission.”

“The fraught process of explosive device disposal was carried out underwater and in darkness in an attempt to eliminate a crucial factor deterring ships from carrying vital cargoes through the strait since the US and Israel attacked Iran in February,” the publication added.

As the Houthi-Saudi exchanges continue and the Strait of Hormuz is still heavily contested, there appears to be no real movement toward a diplomatic solution.

U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed that the U.S. will defeat Iran.

“Oil prices will drop precipitously, like everything else is dropping (but more!), when we WIN the war with Iran,” the president stated on his Truth Social site. “Three Dollars a gallon, but ultimately, below Two Dollars a gallon. It will all happen quickly, and Iran will never have a Nuclear Weapon. MAGA!”

Iran, for its part, said it will continue fighting.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always opposed war and has considered the preservation of the people’s interests and regional security to lie in refraining from igniting conflict,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on X. “However, just as it has boldly risen to defend against aggression up to this day, it will continue this resistance with full strength until the aggressors are brought to complete regret and will remain the guardian of the rights of the great Iranian nation.”

Should there be a resolution to this conflict, U.S. military and intelligence officials have had “recent quiet discussions about cutting the number of people and facilities typically stationed in Middle East,” CNN reported.

That’s it for now. We’ll update this story when new details emerge.

UPDATE: 6:25 PM Eastern:

CENTCOM said it “destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers, Sept. 8, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the past two days.”

“The U.S. warship successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks and continued to patrol regional waters. No American personnel were harmed,” the command added on X. “In response to Iran’s most recent failed attacks, CENTCOM destroyed the IRGC crude oil carriers M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1, and M/T Riesco in the Gulf of Oman as well as M/T Derya near Kharg Island. American forces directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable. Iran has used the tankers as part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies. Iran has no means by which to defend these vessels.”

In the wake of the CENTCOM strikes, Iran launched a new wave of ballistic missile attacks, a Jordanian source confirmed to us. The official Iranian Fars media outlet said Muwaffaq Salti Air and Prince Hassan air bases were targeted.

Video has emerged on social media of interceptors in Jordan defending against the attack.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

The post Saudi’s Remaining Energy Lifeline To The World Under Threat After Successful Houthi Strikes (Updated) appeared first on TWZ.

Poland has unveiled a full-sized demonstrator of a new heavy infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) intended to put more armor and firepower between mechanized troops and the increasingly lethal threats of the modern battlefield. The unveiling comes as Poland undertakes a sweeping modernization of its armored forces, driven in large part by the threat posed by Russia.

Huta Stalowa Wola, part of state-owned Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa, presented the Ciężki Bojowy Wóz Piechoty (CBWP), or Heavy Infantry Fighting Vehicle, at the MSPO defense exhibition in Kielce, Poland, today. The vehicle, commonly referred to as Ratel (honey badger), is the latest step in a Polish effort to develop a heavily protected tracked combat platform that can complement the lighter, amphibious Borsuk (badger) infantry fighting vehicle.

“The demonstrator presented today confirms that Polish companies possess the expertise to design and develop advanced combat platforms that meet the demands of the modern battlefield,” Adam Leszkiewicz, president of PGZ’s management board, said during the unveiling.

At approximately 40 tons, the CBWP is about 12 tons heavier than the roughly 28-ton Borsuk (and adds an axle, for seven road wheels on each side), the result of a fundamental difference in design philosophy.

Borsuk was conceived as a relatively lightweight IFV able to operate alongside mechanized infantry while retaining the ability to swim. The CBWP instead prioritizes protection and battlefield survivability, placing it in the growing category of heavy IFVs being developed and operated by NATO countries and others.

The vehicle will have a three-person crew and carry up to eight infantrymen. Its primary role is to transport those troops safely into contested areas while providing direct fire support once they reach the objective.

The war in Ukraine has demonstrated how quickly armored vehicles can be exposed to anti-tank guided missiles, mines, artillery fragments, loitering munitions, and small drones. Even vehicles that survive direct attacks can be functionally disabled by damage to tracks, sensors, or external equipment.

A Ukrainian M2A2 Bradley engaging and damaging a Russian T-90M in a close-range fight. After a mission kill, the T-90M is subsequently finished by an FPV drone:

While Ukraine has shown that armor is increasingly easy to find and attack, and thus less relevant, Warsaw is far from convinced that armored vehicles are now irrelevant, with multiple acquisition projects underway. However, Ukraine does change what these vehicles need to be able to do and how they must be employed to have a chance of survival. In certain circumstances, when properly concealed, dispersed, and integrated with counter-drone capabilities, armor is still seen as important for protected mobility and firepower by militaries around the globe.

According to PGZ, the CBWP’s design therefore puts considerable emphasis on survivability. It incorporates advanced ballistic and mine protection designed to meet relevant STANAG standards. It also uses specialized mine-resistant seats intended to reduce the effects of explosions beneath the hull.

The protection architecture can be supplemented by an active protection system (APS). If integrated on a production vehicle, such a system could provide another layer of defense against incoming anti-tank weapons, and potentially small drones, although PGZ has described the APS as an optional component rather than specifying a particular production configuration.

For detecting threats, the vehicle can employ laser-warning equipment including the OBRA-3 system, integrated with smoke grenade launchers. A laser warning can provide the crew with an indication that the vehicle has been illuminated by a rangefinder or targeting system, potentially allowing it to react before an anti-tank weapon is launched.

A video showing a test of the OBRA-3 protection system on a Polish Rosomak wheeled armored fighting vehicle, with a smoke screen being generated to blind hostile optics. The view is from the driver’s compartment:

The CBWP will also carry an integrated nuclear, biological, and chemical protection system, allowing the crew and embarked infantry to operate in contaminated environments.

Firepower comes from the ZSSW-30 remotely operated turret, one of the most important locally developed systems in Poland’s current armored vehicle modernization effort.

The turret is equipped with a 30mm cannon armed with programmable ammunition, plus Rafael Spike anti-tank guided missiles. Together, the weapons are intended to give the CBWP the ability to engage armored vehicles, infantry, and other battlefield targets while also providing a degree of capability against aerial threats. In particular, the programmable ammunition provides greater flexibility against different target types — such as drones — by allowing the projectile’s effects to be tailored to the engagement.

The inclusion of Spike missiles gives the vehicle an extended-range anti-armor option beyond the effective range of its automatic cannon. Much more than a traditional anti-tank guided missile, Spike provides an indirect-fire capability including the option to loiter over a particular area and search for targets, among other attributes.

The ZSSW-30 also gives Poland a degree of commonality across its growing fleet of modern armored vehicles, with the system already being introduced on Borsuk and on some Rosomak wheeled armored fighting vehicles.

The CBWP reflects a trend for fighting vehicles that blur the boundaries between traditional IFV and infantry-support concepts. It is expected to carry a relatively large infantry squad while possessing the sensors and weapons necessary to remain directly involved in combat alongside those troops. At the same time, its high level of protection makes for a notably large vehicle.

The new vehicle is just one part of Poland’s broader military modernization.

Warsaw has embarked on one of NATO’s most ambitious efforts to expand and modernize its ground forces, with major acquisitions of two different types of main battle tank, artillery, rocket systems, and infantry fighting vehicles. Poland is simultaneously expanding domestic production capacity, seeking to ensure that at least part of the equipment needed for a larger army can be produced and sustained within the country.

The Borsuk program is central to that effort and is intended to replace Poland’s aging Soviet-designed BWP-1 (the Polish version of the BMP-1).

The heavier CBWP offers even more capability, but its heavier weight comes with tradeoffs. It will be inherently less flexible than a lighter amphibious IFV, and more costly. In return, it will give Polish commanders another option for missions where survivability matters more than swimming capability or rapid deployment.

Such a vehicle would be particularly important for units operating in heavily contested areas, where the threat from mines, anti-tank weapons, and drones makes protection a higher priority. This provides some indication of what Polish planners expect a conflict with Russia on Europe’s eastern flank to look like. However, lessons from Ukraine show that, whatever its quality, an armored fighting vehicle will only be as survivable as the network and tactics around it.

Still, the CBWP remains some distance from operational service.

PGZ currently has one operational demonstrator, intended for factory trials. The company plans to subsequently construct two fully functional prototypes, with both expected to be ready in 2027.

Those vehicles will then undergo intensive testing with the Polish Armed Forces. The results could lead to changes in the protection architecture, turret integration, or other elements before a production configuration is finalized.

PGZ has indicated that it could be ready for production as early as 2029, but that timeline is not yet a firm procurement schedule. It will depend on the results of testing, any modifications required during development, and negotiations with the customer.

Poland has been reported to be considering a requirement for up to 700 CBWP vehicles. In addition, Poland has so far contracted for 257 Borsuk IFVs, with another roughly 1,000 Borsuk-family combat and specialized vehicles envisioned under a broader framework agreement.

If the program succeeds, Poland will ultimately field a highly capable two-tier tracked IFV force in which the CBWP equips units expected to operate in the most dangerous portions of the battlefield.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The post This Is Poland’s New Heavy Infantry Fighting Vehicle appeared first on TWZ.

Russia is displaying some of its newest air-launched precision weapons in public for the first time at the El Alamein International Airshow in Egypt this week. The S-71K Kovyor and related S-71M Monokhrom, and the S8000 Banderol, reflect Russia’s effort to field larger numbers of relatively inexpensive standoff weapons alongside its more sophisticated and costly missile types. As such, their development and early employment are closely tied to the war in Ukraine, but they also reflect wider global interest in these kinds of weapons.

The weapons, seen in the tweet embedded below, comprise, clockwise from top left: S-71K Kovyor, an unknown smaller guided munition, S8000 Banderol, and S-71M Monokhrom:

For Russia, the requirement has become increasingly important as the war in Ukraine has evolved into a prolonged contest in which industrial capacity is as critical as technology. Russia has expended huge numbers of cruise and ballistic missiles against Ukrainian targets while also developing an enormous strike-drone campaign. At the same time, Ukrainian air defenses have become progressively more capable, forcing Moscow to use combinations of missiles, drones, decoys, and different flight profiles to penetrate or saturate the defensive network. One lesson is the fact that a weapon does not necessarily have to be as capable as a high-end cruise missile if it can be manufactured in much greater numbers and still present a credible threat to the target.

The S-71M, which TWZ previously reported on in detail after Ukrainian intelligence obtained an example, is a compact, turbojet-powered weapon with a distinctly angular airframe intended to reduce its radar signature. Imagery from Egypt gives a better look at its front end, including a faceted nose flowing into a broad central fuselage. The nose has at least one optically flat transparency for an infrared or TV seeker. Its wings are sharply swept and fold against the belly of the weapon for carriage, while the rear of the weapon terminates in an inverted-V tail arrangement. The overall shape is notably different from Russia’s more conventional cruise missiles of the past.

Ukrainian analysis found that the S-71M incorporates an OFAB-250-270 high-explosive fragmentation bomb as its warhead and relies primarily on inertial guidance, rather than carrying a sophisticated terminal seeker, although the seeker window raises questions about that.

Ukrainian intelligence also described its construction as being relatively straightforward, with fiberglass composite material making up much of the outer structure and no evidence identified of specialized radar-absorbing coatings.

As we noted previously, the weapon appears intended as a less expensive, but still survivable standoff weapon option that can be produced in significant numbers.

The S-71M has been tested from the Su-57 Felon fighter, also present at El Alamein. In a press release, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), responsible for the Su-57, said that the S-71M and the S-71K displayed alongside it “were designed for fifth-generation fighters,” although there is no reason why they couldn’t be launched from a wide variety of platforms.

A Su-57 performing at El Alamein, with one of its main internal weapons bays apparently loaded with Kh-69 standoff missiles:

Regardless of launch platform, the nature of the war in Ukraine makes the S-71M particularly useful. Russia has increasingly relied on extemporized glide bombs for attacks against targets relatively close to the front, but those weapons require the launching aircraft to operate within a certain distance of Ukrainian defenses. At least in their earlier iterations, such weapons were also crude and prone to failure. Longer-range cruise missiles offer considerably greater standoff but are more complex and expensive. The S-71M sits somewhere between those categories, providing an air-launched, powered weapon with a relatively large warhead and some degree of low observability without the cost and complexity of a full-size, truly stealthy cruise missile.

The S-71K appears to represent a more capable version of the basic concept. Public information remains limited, but the weapon has been associated with electro-optical guidance and greater onboard processing, potentially giving it a capability to deal with targets in a more flexible manner than the largely pre-programmed S-71M. Exactly how that capability is employed, and how autonomous the weapon actually is, remain less clear from the imagery and information released to date.

As displayed at El Alamein, the S-71K retains the overall faceted, low-observable appearance of the S-71M but has a visibly different airframe and wing arrangement. Its body is notably broad and compact relative to its length, with folding wings that are relatively thick, and a more refined inverted-V tail giving it more the appearance of a small uncrewed aircraft than a conventional air-to-surface missile.

Meanwhile, the Banderol represents a somewhat different path to the same general problem. Ukraine’s intelligence service previously obtained and analyzed an example of the small jet-powered cruise missile, which TWZ reported on last year. The weapon is considerably smaller than Russia’s principal cruise missiles and has been associated with launch from drones and helicopters. Its reported range of around 500 kilometers (311 miles) and relatively small warhead make it something of a complementary system intended to provide another, more economical way of putting a precision weapon onto a target from the air.

In terms of its appearance, the Banderol is more conventionally missile-like, with an ogival central fuselage, a pointed nose, and sharply swept folding wings. Its proportions underline just how small it is compared with Russia’s better-known air-launched cruise missiles.

The Banderol is particularly relevant in the context of the economics of the Ukraine conflict. Russian forces have increasingly used combinations of relatively inexpensive one-way attack drones and more expensive cruise and ballistic missiles. The drones can be produced in large numbers and used to complicate air-defense operations, while the more capable missiles provide greater speed, range, payload, or penetration capability. A small turbojet-powered weapon such as Banderol offers another point on that spectrum.

At least one image has recently emerged showing a Banderol carried by a Russian Mi-28NM Havoc attack helicopter. This would be in line with unconfirmed reports from Ukraine last month that Russia was using the Mi-28 as an additional launch platform for the weapon, including firing them from over the Sea of Azov to attack targets around Odesa.

Its reported use also illustrates how the distinction between a cruise missile and a large one-way attack drone is becoming increasingly blurred. The Banderol incorporates a conventional missile-like airframe and jet propulsion but has been associated with drone operations and makes extensive use of commercially available components. TWZ’s earlier examination of the weapon also highlighted the extent to which modern Russian weapons programs can combine relatively simple airframes with foreign-sourced electronics and propulsion technology.

Seen together at El Alamein, the three weapons provide an unusually useful snapshot of where Russian air-launched strike development is heading. They are presented alongside a fourth, so-far unidentified munition. This unnamed weapon is notably short and fat, with a cruciform tail, and an optical window in the nose. Its overall size and shape suggest it may have been developed specifically to arm drones.

The appearance of the weapons at an arms fair underscores the fact that Russia is not the only country confronting the problem of producing and fielding sufficient precision weapons at an acceptable cost. The growing interest in lower-cost cruise missiles, loitering munitions, attritable aircraft, and other forms of expendable precision strike is now evident well beyond Russia.

Russia is also clearly trying to make these weapons harder to intercept, an increasingly important consideration as Ukrainian air defenses have demonstrated an ability to shoot down even glide bombs in some circumstances. The S-71K in particular incorporates unusually pronounced low-observable shaping, suggesting that survivability was also a central requirement from the outset.

There is, however, a significant complication to Russia’s attempt to turn its wartime experience into an export opportunity. Buying any kind of weapons from Moscow has become considerably more difficult because of sanctions, restrictions on access to foreign technology and financing, and the wider political risks associated with maintaining a Russian defense relationship. Those factors matter just as much to a prospective customer as the performance of the weapon itself.

Author’s note: earlier reporting on the S-71 family appears to have transposed the S-71K and S-71M versions. Most authoritative accounts now indicate that the more refined, more stealthy version is the S-71K Kovyor (meaning carpet), while the simpler weapon is the S-71M Monokhrom.

Update, September 9:

Rostec, the Russian state-owned defense conglomerate, has provided more details of the weapon identified at El Alamein as the Banderol. Rostec calls this weapon the ‘Dan-T’ loitering munition, which is an export designation for Banderol.

According to Rostec:

The ‘Dan-T’ munition operates on a ‘fire-and-forget’ principle and is adapted for launch from Russian and foreign aircraft and helicopters. The munition is equipped with a compact jet engine and can strike targets at a range of hundreds of kilometers. The ‘Dan-T’ features a special flight mode designed to evade enemy air defence systems.

Rostec adds that the Dan-T has been combat-tested in the war in Ukraine, where it claims there have been “hundreds of successful launches” against enemy targets in the Special Military Operation zone. “We expect this munition to attract widespread interest from foreign customers,” said Rostec.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The post Russia’s New Stealthy Lower-Cost Air-Launched Standoff Weapons On Display In Egypt appeared first on TWZ.

Non-German suspects account for nearly half of all violent crime in the German state of Bavaria, with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party now calling for remigration for all criminal migrant suspects.

The Interior Ministry data was released in response to a request from AfD state parliament member Martin Böhm. It revealed that police recorded 20,367 suspects in violent offenses in 2025 and about 47 percent did not have German citizenship.

Remarkably, foreigners are responsible for this massive amount of serious crime despite making up only 15.5 percent of Bavaria’s population.

Syrians were the largest group of non-German suspects, at 1,284, followed by Turks with 799, Ukrainians with 797, Afghans with 784, Romanians with 687, Iraqis with 428, Bulgarians with 350, Poles with 328, Kosovars with 319, and Italians with 250.

A different ranking appears when the figures are adjusted for population. The suspect burden figure, or TVBZ, measures how many suspects police identified per 100,000 people in a group over one year.

Ukrainians had the highest TVBZ, at 555. Turks followed at 445 and Romanians at 435. The figure for German citizens was 106. That means Ukrainians, for instance, are more than five times more likely to commit a violent crime than Germans.

The government did not calculate a TVBZ for other nationalities because each had fewer than 100,000 residents.

“For smaller population groups, the crime rate would have to be mathematically extrapolated to 100,000 people,” the state government wrote. “However, since the relationship between population size and crime burden is not strictly linear, an error would occur in the TVBZ calculation, which is greater the smaller the population group. For this reason, the TVBZ are only calculated for non-German citizens who have a population share of over 100,000 people.”

When it comes to murder and manslaughter, there were 411 suspects in Bavaria and 177 were non-Germans, equaling 43.1 percent of all murder and manslaughter suspects. The TVBZ for Germans was 87, while Turks had a TVBZ of 478 and Ukrainians with a TVBZ of 499.

In cases of rape, sexual assault and sexual assault in particularly serious cases, including those resulting in death, police registered 1,288 suspects in Bavaria. Of those, 551 were foreigners, equaling 42.8 percent.

It must also be noted that for all German suspects counted in this data, the Interior Ministry does not release if they have a foreign background.

Böhm said the figures show that violent crime in Bavaria is an imported problem to a “far too high” extent.

“No amount of sugarcoating or trivialization will help. The numbers speak for themselves,” he told Junge Freiheit, which exclusively received the figures.

“The AfD therefore demands: decisive action by the judiciary, an end to mass naturalizations and rigorous remigration of foreign violent criminals,” Böhm said.

The post Germany: Migrants responsible for 47% of all violent crime in Bavaria appeared first on Remix News.

After a historic democratic victory for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, a top Christian Democrat (CDU) politician, Hendrik Wüst, is now calling for the first concrete steps towards a possible ban of the AfD party.

“I said something today, but I don’t think any CDU member has said it publicly yet: That I am in favor of appointing this working group, which will then do this work,” said North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister-President Wüst.

Wüst has already repeatedly referred to the AfD as a “Nazi party.” North Rhine-Westphalia itself faces a state election in April 2027.

Wüst made the remarks on Monday evening in Berlin to a mostly left-leaning audience during a talk hosted by “transformation researcher” Maja Göpel. He presented this working group as a prerequisite before any application to Germany’s top court, the Federal Constitutional Court, for an outright ban of the AfD.

While the AfD nearly obtained an absolute majority with 43.8 percent in the Saxony-Anhalt election, Wüst’s own party saw a historic crash, with its support cut in half to 17.2 percent. The results have reportedly sent CDU leadership, along with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, into a potential existential crisis.

Wüst apparently does not like that voters are moving away from his party and now wants this working group to examine the AfD in preparation for a potential ban, but he says other outcomes are possible besides a ban.

Beyond his position as minister-president, there is also speculation that Wüst himself is a strong front-runner to replace Merz should he step down. Merz himself has rejected a ban of the AfD, saying that it “smacks too much of the elimination of political rivals.”

Besides the Bundestag and the federal government, the Bundesrat, of which Wüst is a member as head of a state government, can also launch such proceedings. However, the final decision on a ban is ultimately made by the Constitutional Court.

Wüst framed the outcome of that review as a constitutional duty. If the working group’s examination reveals that the AfD could be banned, that would be a “command to protect this constitution.” As reported by Die Welt, Wüst added: “If, after an examination, the following is on the table: This party can be banned, then this ban procedure must be initiated. For me, that’s relatively clear. But step by step.”

Earlier the same day, at a campaign event in Berlin, he had already warned against underestimating the AfD after its result in Saxony-Anhalt.

“We must not be naive and believe that the AfD would somehow change course. They have a plan with this country, and it’s not a good plan,” he said.

Wüst was careful to say that it is not a foregone conclusion that such a working group would recommend a ban.

Wüst said the working group should “not operate with the politically predetermined goal” but rather “examine this party and the possible legal consequences.”

“That could be a ban, that could also be something else,” said the CDU politician.

The post Germany: After AfD victory, top CDU politician calls for first steps towards AfD ban appeared first on Remix News.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that only “idiots and traitors” could celebrate the recent historic victory of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt, prompting a sharp backlash after his post on X.

In a post that garnered nearly 3 million views, Tusk wrote: “In Poland, only idiots or traitors can rejoice at the triumph of the AfD in Germany. Quite a few of them have gathered in Confederation and PiS.”

W Polsce tylko idioci albo zdrajcy mogą się cieszyć z tryumfu AfD w Niemczech. Trochę się ich nazbierało w Konfederacjach i PiS.

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) September 6, 2026

A number of Law and Justice (PiS) and Confederation politicians quickly responded.

“I understand that frustration. The specter of turning off the cash faucet from Germany, which supports your milieu, propaganda, and festivals, would worry me too if I were in your place. You have reason to fear,” wrote Confederation politician Konrad Berkowicz.

Some critics of Tusk’s statement took a more measured approach. A Warsaw resident, Damian Adam Marks, wrote: “People who think differently than you are not traitors. Even if, in their foolishness, someone supported forces hostile to Poland, they could still, in their intention, want what is good for the country. It simply doesn’t concern you. What matters exclusively is creating the boundary of us and them. You must point out the enemy.”

Some in the AfD are looking to assure the Polish right that

the AfD is a party they can work with. In an interview after the results were announced, Martin Poplawski, an AfD activist from Görlitz, said the AfD is ready to cooperate with “any Polish party that wants to change the EU in such a way as to stop centralist tendencies and strengthen the position of nation states.”

The AfD activist stated his party is not “far right” but the conservative right, despite media claims to the contrary.

“I can tell you what it looks like from my perspective. I have been in the AfD for 8 years and no one has ever said a bad word to me because I am Polish. What’s more, no one even looked at me askance,” said Poplawski.

Poplawski was also asked, among other things, about Polish-German relations and Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Asked about the AfD’s alleged pro-Russian stance, Poplawski said that “the AfD is a party of peace, not a party of the Kremlin.”

“We do not question the fact that Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine, but we cannot allow this war to spill over into Europe. We also advocate dialogue, including with Moscow. This war can only be ended at the negotiating table. The alternative is the annihilation of Europe,” he stated.

In a post-election interview, Dr. Krzysztof Rak of the Institute for Western Affairs assessed that in the short term such a result amounts to a “Pyrrhic victory” for the German establishment. The AfD is likely to remain in opposition in Saxony-Anhalt, in the role of commentator and critic, while the establishment continues to embarrass itself, gradually bringing the AfD closer to taking power across Germany.

The post Anger grows after Polish PM Tusk condemns supporters of AfD as ‘idiots or traitors’ appeared first on Remix News.

The mother of a disabled woman is outraged after a rape complaint was dismissed against 40-year-old Moroccan man serving as the daughter’s caregiver in a care facility near the French city of Toulouse. In addition, prosecutors dismissed the sexual assault allegations involving two other disabled female victims at the same facility.

The mother, Nathalie Muet, is openly publicizing a case in where she says her 23-year-old quadriplegic daughter, Mayline, was raped at an Association for the Protection of Disabled Children (ASEI) center in Ramonville-Saint-Agne.

Speaking to French newspaper La Dépêche, she called the decision “incomprehensible.”

The rape complaint was first filed on Mayline’s behalf in July 2025 and was dismissed on Aug. 1. Muet is now speaking up about the dismissal and exploring different legal options, including an appeal, after prosecutors dropped the case.

Within 24 hours, Noelia Castillo Ramos will be euthanized in Spain.

In 2022, Noelia suffered a gang rape in a supervised care center.

This completely shattered her life. She attempted suicide, jumping from a 5-story building, which left her a paraplegic.

Her father has… pic.twitter.com/hOIW1j8o2u

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 25, 2026

The mother points to what she says is clear evidence that requires a criminal trial. In fact, Mayline is not the only woman who has filed a criminal complaint. The Moroccan was indicted in a total of three cases involving the sexual assault of young women, including Mayline.

One of the key pieces of evidence the mother cites is the medical report. The report notes the absence of traumatic injuries, while specifying that the genital examination was incomplete and that “the hymen could not be visualized.” However, the medical expert considered the exam “compatible with acts of anal penetration,” as reported by the mother.

However, there is additional evidence, according to the mother. She says Mayline herself was terrified to go back to the facility due to the rape.

“She was screaming and didn’t want to go back to that center again,” Nathalie Muet said to French newspaper Midi Libre, adding that she gathered information from her daughter, despite Mayline’s significant communication difficulties, about what she allegedly suffered.

The mother stated that it was not just one incident either, but that Mayline was the victim of “repeated” sexual touching by the caregiver.

The accused man was dismissed from his post and placed in pre-trial detention. He was released at the end of 2025 and denies any accusation of rape. In Mayline’s case, as in two other similar cases, the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office concluded after more than a year of proceedings that the offenses were not sufficiently constituted.

For Nathalie Muet, the medical report’s conclusions justify further investigation.

“There is still evidence to be found and educators who may not have said everything,” she said.

Mayline left ASEI in 2025 for another specialized care facility in Gratentour.

The post France: Moroccan caregiver allegedly raped disabled 23-year-old women, mother outraged after case dismissed appeared first on Remix News.

On 2 September, Norwegian authorities detained Russian state-owned research vessel Professor Molchanov at Barentsburg in Spitsbergen (Svalbard), following a lawsuit filed by Ukraine’s Naftogaz.

At first sight, the detention of the Russian research vessel appears as a routine event in Norway’s long-standing strategy to oust Russia from Spitsbergen and establish absolute sovereignty of the archipelago—free from the legal restrictions stipulated by the 1920 Spitsbergen (Svalbard) Treaty. At closer sight, it opens a loophole for expropriating Russian property on the archipelago. But more importantly, trying to accommodate the current geopolitical situation to its national legal proceedings and violating the 1920 Treaty by placing national law above international law, Norway has driven itself into a legal trap.

Article 32 of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) states that state-owned vessels operated for non-commercial purposes enjoy sovereign immunity from foreign jurisdiction. Naftogaz, long pursuing Russian assets, claims that the research vessel’s visits to Spitsbergen had predominantly commercial purposes.

Norway portrays the incident as a purely technical matter based on national legislation. According to the Norwegian Ministry of Justice, its decision followed the 2023 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague as an enforcement of an approximately $4.22bn arbitral award from the Russian Federation to Naftogaz for its Crimean assets. The order for the enforcement of this ruling was issued by the District Court of Nord-Troms and Senja (in Tromsø, mainland Norway), and the Governor of Svalbard acted as a regular enforcer.

This seemingly flawless normative scheme falls apart when examined from the perspective of the basic principles of international law.

Norway’s sovereignty over Spitsbergen is based on the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty—an international treaty that provides for the creation of a special international legal regime on the archipelago’s land territory and in its territorial waters. Essentially, the Treaty provides for the creation of a territorial enclave, similar to the Kaliningrad region but, unlike in the latter case, does not generate its own continental shelf and exclusive economic zone in the adjacent maritime areas.

The 1982 UN Convention assumes that a state has full sovereignty over its ports. However, under the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty, Norway does not have such absolute rights and, accordingly, has no legal basis for applying the provisions of the Convention in the archipelago’s ports. Article 3 of the Spitsbergen Treaty states: “The nationals of all the High Contracting Parties shall have equal liberty of access and entry for any reason or object whatever to the waters, fjords and ports of the territories specified in Article 1; subject to the observance of local laws and regulations, they may carry on there without impediment all maritime, industrial, mining and commercial operations on a footing of absolute equality”.

It follows from this stipulation of the Treaty that:

• The Treaty’s regime excludes the application of the provisions of the 1982 Convention, including Article 32, in Spitsbergen archipelago’s ports.
• The Professor Molchanov research vessel has all grounds to engage in any of the activities listed in the Treaty, including commercial ones.
• All states-signatories to the Spitsbergen Treaty, including Norway, agreed that the Norwegian government, in addition to exercising sovereign functions in the archipelago, is obliged to ensure the contracting parties’ rights as specified in the Treaty.

The Russian research vessel did not violate the law on the archipelago, which means that its detention is a direct violation of the powers granted to Norway by the parties to the Spitsbergen Treaty.

Furthermore, the third paragraph of Article 3 of the Treaty reads: “Notwithstanding any rules relating to coasting trade which may be in force in Norway, ships of the High Contracting Parties going to or coming from the territories specified in Article 1 shall have the right to put into Norwegian ports.” This provision thus distinguishes between the archipelago’s local ports and ports on the Norwegian mainland, as well as between laws pertaining to the archipelago and those regulations that may be in force on the Norwegian mainland—the national legislation of the mainland, which incorporates the provisions of international agreements to which Norway is a party.

Claims that the 1958 Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, known as the New York Convention and ostensibly forming the legal basis for the detention of the Professor Molchanov vessel, and the UNCLOS are applicable to Svalbard because they are “merely part of Norwegian law” are inconsistent with the provisions of § 2, Part II of the Svalbard Act, which states: “Other legal provisions do not apply in Svalbard unless expressly provided”.

In the Norwegian legal system, an international treaty has no legal force for authorities until the Storting (parliament) passes a special law incorporating it or transforming it into national legislation, after which the treaty acquires the force of national law. The 1958 New York Convention was incorporated into Norwegian law through the Arbitration Act and the Enforcement Act. The 1982 UN Convention was incorporated through a series of laws, including the Maritime Boundary Act and the Act on the Management of Living Marine Resources. Upon ratification, these conventions became part of Norwegian law. When ratifying them, Norway made no reservations regarding their applicability to Spitsbergen, a territory with a special international legal regime.

The application of Norwegian national laws incorporating the provisions of international treaties immediately creates a conflict with Article 3 of the 1920 Treaty, which permits application of only local archipelago-related laws, but prohibits imposing restrictions on commercial and research navigation by Norway’s international obligations to third parties (whether the UN or Naftogaz) valid exclusively for the mainland.

In cases of collision of norms, the fundamental principle of international law—Pacta sunt servanda (Treaties must be observed)—takes unconditional effect. This is enshrined in Article 26 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and reinforced by Article 27 of the same Convention, which states: “A party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty.”

By placing the procedural code of the continental part of the country and the material claims of the Ukrainian company above Article 3 of the 1920 Treaty, Norway committed an internationally unlawful act.

For the Russian side, this incident means disrupted scientific programs, canceled expedition tours, and other losses. Therefore, in accordance with Article 31 of Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, codified by the UN International Law Commission and approved by UNGA Resolution 56/83 in 2001, Norway, as the offending state, is obligated to fully compensate for the caused damage.

In accordance with Article 36 of the ILC Act, Moscow has the right to lay financial claims to the Kingdom of Norway for:

• Actual damage: costs for the vessel’s forced demurrage at Barentsburg, maintenance of the crew and expedition members, port fees, and fuel costs to maintain the vessel.
• Lost profit: compensation for the disruption of chartered voyages, obligations to refund tourists and scientists, and the disruption of subsequent commercial contracts.
• Legal costs: Oslo must fully compensate for the costs of hiring Norwegian lawyers to appeal unlawful arrest of the vessel in the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

The detention of the Professor Molchanov has also exposed long-standing problems in Russia’s legal approach to areas outside its sovereignty and a catastrophic imbalance in the parties’ legal preparedness.

Norway has a well-honed legal apparatus. For decades, Oslo has been deliberately and proactively using legal and administrative mechanisms to systematically emasculate the provisions of the 1920 Treaty and gradually strengthen its sovereignty. Every action has meticulously been calculated at the level of regulations and instructions for local implementers.

Since the Treaty’s very inception, beginning with the prior international agreement known as the Mining Regulations for Svalbard, Norway has actively employed manipulative legal and terminological engineering in developing the Treaty’s provisions. Specifically, it clearly used these methods to emasculate the provisions of Article 7 of the Treaty, which regulates the rights of the contracting parties to the archipelago’s natural resources.[1]

As for Russia, it could confront the Norwegian systemic rulemaking machine by accumulated academic knowledge, but for some inexplicable reason it lies idle. Russia has a robust research base,[2] but the results of fundamental applied research conducted by Russian scientists on the Spitsbergen track have been ignored for years.

Russian government agencies still lack a clear understanding that the legal response to the Norwegians’ actions should be symmetrical, systemic, and proactive, rather than belatedly reactive.

The incident with the Professor Molchanov vessel cries out for institutional change—it is time Russia moved from ad hoc reactions to continuous legal monitoring. For example, by establishing a permanent position for a leading international lawyer on Spitsbergen within the state-owned trust Arktikugol, which would monitor Norwegian lawmaking in real time, follow Oslo’s court practice, and promptly provide authorities with ready-made legal advice before another Russian vessel is arrested or a similar legal event occurs.

A similarly deficient legal policy is observed in the delimitation in the Arctic Ocean, to which Spitsbergen is directly related.[3] An analysis of the concluded bilateral treaties on delimitation in the Arctic and of national applications to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf shows that, before submitting applications with geological claims to the Arctic Ocean shelf, Russia should have established a permanent situation center at a dedicated research institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This has still not been done.

International law is a formidable weapon, and its proper use must be a powerful tool for protecting Russia’s national interests in the Arctic and other areas beyond its territorial sovereignty. Russia’s legally ineffective management, in the face the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East, has unwittingly opened a loophole for Norway to arrest the Professor Molchanov vessel, which may serve as a precedent for further confiscation of Arktikugol’s assets on the archipelago, which occupies a significant position in the geopolitical balance of power.

By detaining the Russian research vessel, Norwegian authorities have opened Pandora’s Box. If Spitsbergen becomes a testing ground for forced recovery of assets in geopolitical disputes involving third parties, its special international legal regime will be significantly damaged. Today, Oslo arrested a Russian research vessel following a lawsuit filed by Kyiv. Tomorrow, on the same grounds, courts in mainland Norway will begin detaining American, Iranian, Chinese, or Taiwanese vessels in Spitsbergen ports, following lawsuits filed by third parties. To avoid turning this international outpost into a zone of permanent legal chaos, Norway’s judicial system must return to the legal framework and immediately release the Professor Molchanov.

And it is time Russia learnt to use the expertise of its legal scholars and transform it into the competences of institutions that could effectively protect its national interests.

With the British government set to announce new measures targeting Israel’s settlement project, polling by Opinium for ECFR shows that just 18% of UK adults oppose a ban on trade in goods with Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, compared to 46% who back it. Support rises to nearly three quarters—72% versus 28%—when excluding those who did not voice an opinion.

To date, the UK has sanctioned some two dozen organisations and individuals linked to settler violence. It has also excluded settlement goods from the preferential trade tariffs applied to Israeli products, though stopped short of an outright ban. However, settlement expansion is a state-driven project sustained by domestic economic incentives and foreign financial linkages. Rather than focusing only on its most violent manifestation, a settlement trade ban would challenge these underlying drivers.

Last week, foreign secretary Ed Miliband pledged to go further in challenging Israeli actions that are destroying the possibility of a two-state solution, like the recent construction of the “doomsday” E-1 settlement on the outskirts of East Jerusalem. The settlement ban expected to be announced later today also gives practical meaning to the UK’s recognition of Palestine last year—as demanded by Palestinians themselves. Such action by the British government commands broad support across Britain’s political and regional divides, while opposition is limited.

Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green voters decisively favour the proposed ban. It is also strongly supported by voters who have moved away from Labour, many of whom defected to the Green Party amid dissatisfaction with prime minister Keir Starmer’s response to Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank. But backing for the measure extends across party lines: Conservative and Reform voters are also more likely to support than oppose it.

The findings cross the Brexit divide too, with supporters clearly outnumbering opponents among both Remain and Leave voters. The same pattern is evident geographically. Support is highest in London and Scotland, closely followed by Northern Ireland, while supporters also outnumber opponents in every English region and in Wales. Indeed, across every political, regional, age and gender group reported in the survey, support exceeds opposition.

The polling also finds that only 16% of British adults consider it antisemitic to target Israeli settlements. Meanwhile, a two-state solution remains by far the most popular outcome for Israel and Palestine with 40% favouring a Palestinian state alongside Israel, compared with 12% who favour a single shared state and just 8% who prefer the status quo of Israel without a Palestinian state.

ECFR’s polling shows a clear public mandate for the UK to take a leadership role in strengthening international efforts against Israel’s settlement project and to defend the viability of a two-state solution. This would build on similar moves by Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain in recent months.

The results also suggest the UK government has the public support to go further: extend the ban to investment and financial services, exclude settlements from all UK agreements with Israel (including the convention for the avoidance of double taxation) and prohibit all British business dealings with settlements (including the purchase of settlement real estate). This should go hand-in-hand with additional sanctions targeting organisations that play an instrumental role in funding and sustaining Israel’s settlement project, such as Ateret Cohanim, the Jewish National Fund’s Himnuta real-estate subsidiary, and the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization.

At the heart of the new UK government’s policy reset should be a collective push with its Western partners to finally implement the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion on Israel’s occupation. The court underscored the duty of states to “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. To uphold this approach would also help give effect to the 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which calls on states to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between Israel and the Palestinian territories it has occupied since 1967.

A settlement trade ban should mark the beginning of a more consequential British policy towards Israeli settlements. The polling shows that British public opinion is supportive. Having recognised Palestine in principle, the UK must now use its economic weight and diplomatic leadership to preserve it in practice.

Source

New figures from member states show that businesses are increasingly using the simplified VAT rules for cross-border e-commerce.

New figures from member states show that businesses continue to make increasing use of the simplified VAT rules for online sales. Five years after the EU’s VAT e-commerce rules entered into force, the latest figures also show continued growth in VAT declared through the One Stop Shop (OSS) and Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) schemes.

The VAT e-commerce package, which entered into force on 1 July 2021, marked a major step in modernising the EU VAT framework. Since then, member states have collected more than €125 billion in VAT revenue through the EU’s VAT e-commerce schemes.

In 2025 alone, more than €38 billion in VAT revenue was collected, an increase of 17% compared with the previous year. The number of businesses using the EU’s simplified VAT schemes has also continued to grow. By the end of 2025, more than 193,000 businesses have registered to account for VAT on online sales through the schemes, reflecting the continued uptake of the EU’s VAT reforms, which help simplify VAT compliance, reduce red tape, and ensure VAT collection. 

E-commerce VAT reform: Progress and future direction

With the continued rapid growth in e-commerce activity and an increasingly digital global marketplace, the EU’s VAT rules for online transactions have continued to evolve to meet the needs of cross-border trade.

As we move into the next phase of reforms under the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package, the EU is on track towards a fairer and more efficient VAT framework.

Following the adoption of the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package in 2025, its phased implementation over the coming years is expected to build further on the success of the e-commerce VAT reforms. By expanding the scope of the OSS to cover more business-to-consumer transactions and introducing a new special scheme for the transfers of own goods, the ViDA package is likely to lead to even greater uptake of the OSS schemes, moving towards a single VAT registration in the EU. 

More information

Through a single registration in one member state, the One Stop Shop (OSS) and Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) schemes allow businesses to declare and remit VAT for cross-border sales of goods and services within the EU, as well as for imports of low-value goods.

This report is the latest in a series of annual reports on the application of the e-commerce package and is based on 2025 statistics from member states. It sets out details of the total number of registrations in all three One-Stop Shop (OSS) schemes, namely, the Union OSS, the non-Union OSS and the Import OSS, as of 31 December 2025. It also provides details on the total amount of VAT declared in each of these schemes in 2025. In addition, it describes how these registrations and declaration figures have evolved since the introduction of the VAT e-commerce rules in July 2021.

• Read the 2025 Report on the Application of the EU’s VAT E-Commerce Package 
• VAT for e-commerce 
• VAT in the Digital Age 

The EU energy label, as provided for by Regulation (EU) 2017/1369, aims at promoting the uptake of more efficient energy-related products. It aims to help consumers make informed choices by facilitating comparisons of product alternatives with different features. The label focuses on the energy efficiency of the product during the use phase, but can also include other environment-related aspects.

View more 

• Publication details

• Published: 2026
• Corporate author(s): Directorate-General for Energy (European Commission) , Centerdata , Ipsos NV
• Themes: Energy policy
• Subject: computer equipment , consumer information , energy consumption , energy efficiency , EU energy label , EU energy policy , maintenance , product life , regulation (EU)

• Released on EU publications website: 2026-09-03

View more

Document viewer

https://op.europa.eu/flexpaper/common/split_document.jsp?doc=c83f07c0-a806-11f1-b25c-01aa75ed71a1.en.PDF.pdf&userId=&systemId=Portal2012&documentId=c83f07c0-a806-11f1-b25c-01aa75ed71a1&documentTitle=Study+assessing+consumer+understanding+of+a+draft+energy+label+for+computers&documentPublishingDate=&localeDirectory=%2Fflexpaper%2Flocale%2F&localeChain=en_US&fitWidth=true&documentLanguage=en&share=

Did you know that after login you can annotate your document and share your annotations?

You may also like

• Study on consumer understanding of the EU energy labels applied since 2021
  ENER/B3/FV2024-438 under Framework Contract no 2021/OP/0004/ENER/B3/FWC 2020-708 : final reportThis study evaluates two pillars of the EU Energy Labelling Regulation (EU) 2017/1369: the rescaled A–G energy labels in...
  • Published: 2026
• Study assessing consumer understanding of tyre labels
  Final reportThe new proposed Regulation updates the tyre label design by aligning it more closely to the EU energy label, as provide...
  • Published: 2023
• Study on consumer understanding of the EU tyre label applied since 1 May 2021
  ENER/B3/FV2024-438 under Framework Contract no 2021/OP/0004/ENER/B3/FWC 2020-708 : final reportThis study, commissioned by the European Commission, examines how the revised EU tyre label — in force since 1 May 2021 ...
  • Published: 2026
• More similar publications 

Underneath the narrow streets, churches, and palaces of the Italian city of Siena lies a sprawling network of underground aqueducts that supplied water to the Tuscan city for centuries, enabling it to flourish despite a chronic lack of nearby rivers and streams. Extending for roughly 25 kilometers, the so-called Bottini constitute an ingenious hydraulic system that sustained the city from the Middle Ages until the early 20th century.

Fountain Fontebranda, its waters fed by Bottini. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Germany’s political establishment is still absorbing the shock of Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to 43.8 percent and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz crashed to 17.2 percent. Merz called the result the CDU’s “heaviest defeat” in decades and said it could not simply be treated as business as usual.

“And I have to admit, this is the heaviest electoral defeat that the CDU has suffered in years, in decades,” Merz told reporters in Berlin after CDU leadership meetings. “We are all deeply shocked…We did not expect it to be like this.”

“That does something to us. Including me personally… All of this will, of course, have to have consequences,” he continued.

BREAKING: Merz just said he is "deeply shocked" by the AfD's landslide victory.

"And I have to admit, this is the heaviest electoral defeat that the CDU has suffered in years, in decades."

"That does something to us. Including me personally… All of this will, of course,… pic.twitter.com/L4cycKdH6h

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 7, 2026

It remains unclear what those “consequences” will be exactly, as Merz did not clarify. However, he did point to two upcoming elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which will be held in the next two weeks. If the CDU faces further routs, there may be pressure for Merz to step down.

He accepted the democratic verdict but insisted the outcome had changed the political landscape “not only in Saxony-Anhalt, but throughout Germany.” When nearly 60 percent of voters backed parties that question the country’s democratic institutions, he said, “that is an election result with which we can not just treat as business as usual.”

Merz said he was searching for explanations, including in his own record: “What fear is there in the population that we may have underestimated?”

Merz has plans to hold talks in the coming days with SPD leaders on how the coalition could continue on its present course.

“Giving up is not an option,” he added.

Meanwhile, the AfD federal co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla pledged support for an AfD government in Saxony-Anhalt. Weidel called it a “dream result” and argued Merz had become “a great burden.” She predicted the CDU/CSU would never again win a federal election and said the AfD’s goal was to widen the gap to at least 40 percent by the next national vote. Chrupalla called the outcome “absolutely historic.”

Merz’s coalition partner, Bärbel Bas of the far-left Social Democrats (SPD), used her own press conference to argue that the government’s language on work and welfare had itself fueled public anxiety.

Outgoing Minister-President Sven Schulze was blunt: the CDU no longer held a government mandate and would sit in opposition. He ruled out CDU defectors joining any AfD-led arrangement and predicted the BSW would help put an AfD in power.

AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund described the result as “a very clear government mandate” and said he could be “perhaps the next minister-president.”

As Remix News reported, the AfD has a real opportunity to lead Saxony-Anhalt, but a number of scenarios could play out, including a coalition with BSW or even a snap election.

The post ‘Deeply shocked’ – Merz speaks of ‘consequences’ after historic CDU defeat in Saxony-Anhalt appeared first on Remix News.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored a resounding and historic win in Saxony-Anhalt, but when specific data points are examined, the victory is even more remarkable.

Here are four key data points from the election that show the AfD, which scored approximately 43.8 percent of the vote, has much to celebrate regardless of whether it actually manages to gain control of the state.

Non-voters rushed to the polls

Perhaps the most positive aspect of the election for the AfD is that the tremendous victory was achieved with a record high level of voter participation of 77.8 percent. In essence, more democracy equaled more votes for the AfD, according to calculations from the Infratest dimap. The firm pointed out that the AfD won 170,000 voters who stayed home during the last election in 2021, which is 10 percent of Saxony-Anhalt’s roughly 1.7 million eligible voters.

This means that the AfD’s total voting pool was made up of approximately 30 to 35 percent non-voters.

For those disillusioned by politics, the AfD’s program is drawing them back into participating in democracy. The country’s media should be celebrating this result in theory, but in reality, they would perhaps prefer that these voters simply stayed home, disillusioned and downtrodden.

Workers and those with financial problems backed the AfD

The AfD’s results show there might be futrher room for improvement. Approximately 65 percent of the AfD’s voters reported facing financial issues. As the German economy continues to falter, the pool of potential voters the AfD can tap into is likely to expand in other states.

It is important to note that just because many of these voters are facing financial difficulties does not necessarily mean they are unemployed. In fact, AfD won 61 percent of all blue-collar voters who actually voted. However, many of these often lower-income workers may also be struggling financially in a system that often rewards not working at all.

Some see the AfD’s results as a template.

“65% of AfD voters in Saxony-Anhalt reported facing financial struggles. Turns out that when you correctly link mass immigration to the decline in job security, homeownership, accessible healthcare, quality education, decent wages, and almost every other quality of life indicator for existing residents, they respond accordingly at the ballot box,” wrote Gabe Guidarini, the chief of staff for the Ohio Young Republicans wrote. Although an American, his post underlines that the AfD election results are being watched by the right-wing across the world, especially when they offer a clear blueprint for victory.

65% of AfD voters in Saxony-Anhalt reported facing financial struggles.

Turns out that when you correctly link mass immigration to the decline in job security, homeownership, accessible healthcare, quality education, decent wages, and almost every other quality of life indicator… pic.twitter.com/g0HJLtTs79

— Gabe Guidarini (@GabeGuidarini) September 6, 2026

Young voters rushed to support the AfD

The tired narrative of the left, which depicts right-wing parties only garnering support from “old White males,” was once again smashed by the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD won the youth by overwhelming numbers, reaching 42 percent of voters aged 18–24 vote and 44 percent of voters aged 25–40.

Martin Sellner, CEO of the Remigration Institute, celebrated the results, writing: “The kids are all right. The German youth are increasingly patriotic and reject ‘German guilt,’ replacement migration, trans ideology, and cultural Marxism.”

The kids are all right.

The German youth are increasingly patriotic and reject "German guilt", replacement migration, trans ideology, and cultural Marxism altogether. pic.twitter.com/LhcM3le7QX

— Martin Sellner (@MartinSellner_) September 6, 2026

In fact, it was the oldest voters that actually cost the AfD an absolute majority, with only 31 percent of voters 70 and older backing the party. Similar figures have been consistently found across Germany, with older voters turning to the establishment parties while young and middle-aged voters turning to the AfD.

While the AfD can celebrate its support among younger voters, the combined weight of the older voting population means the AfD will have to make inroads with these voters or continue to fail to reach a position of power at the state and federal level.

The CDU’s results are just as dramatic as the AfD’s results

The story of Saxony-Anhalt cannot be told without the collapse of the Christian Democrats (CDU). The party halved its support since the last election, dropping to 17.2 percent.

Political scientist Petra Dobner was asked if Chancellor Friedrich Merz will now resign. She responded: “That may also depend on how the next elections turn out. So maybe he can survive Saxony-Anhalt, but if Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin show similar results, then I really don’t see a future for Merz.”

Notably, Merz famously said in 2018 that the CDU can cut the AfD’s support in half.

“We can achieve up to 40% again and halve the AfD. That’s possible! But we ourselves must create the conditions for it. That’s our task,” he said.

Since then, Merz has managed to cut the CDU’s support in half in Saxony-Anhalt and double the AfD’s support.

The post 4 reasons why the AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt is so incredible appeared first on Remix News.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) just won the largest share of any party in a German state election in the party’s history. Despite the historic result, which has sent shockwaves through the German political establishment, lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund in Saxony-Anhalt still fell short of an absolute majority needed to govern.

That gap, three seats in an 83-member Saxony-Anhalt Landtag, is now the focal point of unfolding drama in the capital city of Magdeburg, where the future direction of the state, and perhaps even of the country, will be decided. AfD has a political mandate and a number of options that could produce dramatic results. Here are three possible scenarios.

An AfD and BSW coalition?

On the preliminary official count, the AfD took 43.8 percent and 39 seats. The threshold for an absolute majority is 42. The BSW scraped in with 5.3 percent and five seats. Together they would have 44. Everyone else together also has 44. Without the BSW, the chamber splits 39–39.

The BSW has already been open that it is willing to pursue a coalition with the AfD, but this is not a comfortable coalition for the AfD.

Siegmund spent the campaign insisting he would not take office without a stable majority of his own. After election night he kept the hard line in one respect and loosened it in another. He still rejected the BSW’s preferred model, a non-partisan minister-president governing with shifting majorities, as messy power politics.

Siegmund called the offer “nonsense” and said he did not want to give up the AfD’s goals and values in the face of “power games.”

He still said the AfD would not trade away its program for power, but he also said he would extend a hand to anyone prepared to deliver a “fundamental political change,” including, if necessary, individual deputies rather than whole parties.

If that fails?

“In an emergency, there will simply be new elections.,” he said. In such a scenario, he predicts the AfD would score “50 to 55%.”

The question is whether cooperation with the BSW on some level is possible. Sahra Wagenknecht framed the result as a chance for a change of course on energy, Russia sanctions, education, and public broadcasting. State-level BSW figures say they will not join a “firewall” coalition against the AfD. They also say they will not elect Siegmund. Their offer is a third way, involving a new leader both parties can agree on, plus issue-by-issue majorities that could include the AfD.

However, the BSW is already hinting they may be willing to give up even more for an AfD government.

BSW’s lead candidate, Thomas Schulze, suggested that in the third ballot for minister-president, the BSW may abstain from the vote, which in theory, could let Siegmund through to become the state leader.

What the BSW would obtain in return remains to be seen.

However, despite the differences between the AfD and BSW, the two parties have much in common. The overlap involves a strict crackdown on migration, tackling energy costs, shifting policy on Ukraine, and hostility to the public broadcasters.

At the same time, BSW politicians have already flagged education policy and parts of the AfD’s economic and social agenda as unacceptable. A formal coalition was ruled out by Wagenknecht before the vote. What remains is only a quasi gray zone where both parties can exist together a vote a time.

For Siegmund, the political costs of that gray zone are obvious. He ran as the man who would reshape the state standing alone. Accepting a non-AfD premier, or even a minority premiership propped up only with the support of Wagenknecht’s left-wing party, would look like the opposite. However, stepping back from the deal would leave his party out of the halls of power once again.

AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel both appear eager for Siegmund to take the deal. Chrupalla has already talked up the possibility of a minority government that would seek majorities case by case.

Peel off CDU MPs?

Siegmund’s second option may prove even more explosive for German politics. He spoke of not working with parties, but with individuals from the parties. He suggested individual deputies could “support an AfD government.” Some in the AfD’s federal circle even talk about CDU members crossing the floor to the AfD camp, and there are even suggestions that some MPs may defect.

If any CDU politician defected to the AfD, there would be a national firestorm. While if only one vote was needed, this might be in the realm of possibility, but finding three such MPs may prove a very tall order. The CDU has tried to build the firewall into its DNA, and if three CDU members helped bring the AfD to power in a state, it may be enough to collapse the federal government and end the chancellorship of Friedrich Merz.

Regardless of whether the AfD can peel off three CDU votes, the pressure on the party is tremendous after it collapsed to a mere 17.2 percent, effectively halving its support. The CDU is almost assured to continue facing a political reckoning in the future, which means the dam may break at some point, and CDU politicians may be more and more willing to jump ship to the AfD.

A repeat election possible?

An anti-AfD government is mathematically possible but politically? It would be a total mess.

It would need the CDU, SPD, Greens, Left, and BSW — five parties, two of which spent the campaign treating each other as the problem. The CDU already ruled out coalitions with both the AfD and the Left Party. The BSW campaigned to push the CDU out, with Wagenknecht also calling another firewall coalition an affront to voters.

That does not mean it cannot be attempted, and it very well might be, even despite the potential consequences for all the parties involved. If that project forms and then staggers, Siegmund’s threat of new elections stops being a far-fetched scenario. A second vote in such a scenario could indeed catapult the AfD above the 50 percent mark.

Procedurally, the clock is already running, as the new Landtag must convene by Oct. 6. The strongest group proposes the Landtag president in the first round. The minister-president is elected by secret ballot, with no fixed deadline once nominations begin. While the first ballot requires a majority of all votes, in the final round, a simple majority of votes cast can suffice to elect a new minister-president.

As far as the best outcome for the AfD, it is hard to argue against CDU defectors handing the AfD the keys to victory. It would allow the AfD to take control with a like-minded party on paper while sparking a major crisis for the ruling CDU.

However, remaining outside government also comes with plenty of bonuses, and as Remix News previously wrote, avoids serious pitfalls that the federal government and even the EU can put up against an AfD government.

Despite falling short of an absolute majority, the AfD appears to be in the driver’s seat.

The post After historic German election, will the AfD rule Saxony-Anhalt? appeared first on Remix News.

O Entroncamento concluiu uma das duas intervenções municipais em habitação apoiadas pelo Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência (PRR) e tinha, em 31 de agosto, a construção de 64 novos fogos com uma execução de 91%, disse hoje o presidente da Câmara. Em declarações à Lusa, Nelson Cunha (Chega) afirmou que a construção dos 64 fogos entre as ruas Coronel Joaquim Estrela Teriaga e das Gouveias atingiu…

Source

Leggi tutto

CONQUISTATI: Il Vaticano di Papa Leone ha collocato un tappeto da preghiera musulmano all’interno della Biblioteca Apostolica e l’ha chiamato ospitalità.

Madre Miriam l’ha messo in piazza apertamente: «Il Papa ha concesso ai musulmani una sala per la preghiera nella biblioteca vaticana. Perché permettereste a SATANA di entrare nella biblioteca vaticana?! È FOLLE!»

Nell’ottobre 2025, il vice prefetto della biblioteca, padre Giacomo Cardinali, ha rivelato il retroscena a La Repubblica.

«Alcuni studiosi musulmani ci hanno chiesto una stanza con un tappeto per pregare e noi gliel’abbiamo concessa.» L’ha avvolto in discorsi di «biblioteca universale» perché gli scaffali contengono antichi Corani.

Catholic News Agency ha confermato che i ricercatori musulmani in visita hanno il permesso di usare una stanza sul posto.

Dopo lo scandalo, Roma ha cercato di ridimensionarlo a una sala di lettura usata un paio di volte. Hanno comunque detto sì. Hanno comunque creato spazio per la preghiera islamica all’interno della casa dei libri del papa stesso.

Leone XIV ha passato il suo pontificato tra ricevimenti interreligiosi e «fraternità umana», mentre i cristiani vengono cacciati dal Nigeria al Medio Oriente e mentre La Mecca vieta ancora a un cattolico di camminarci dentro.

Il Primo Comandamento non ha ricevuto un lasciapassare da visitatore. Cristo non è un tappeto di cortesia. Se l’uomo sulla sedia di Pietro non sa difenderlo entro le mura vaticane, la resa è già avvenuta.

#Vatican #Pope

L'articolo … e alla Fraternità, la scomunica proviene da Blondet & Friends.

Intanto altre trenta persone sono sbarcate oggi a Porto Pino

di Sara Panarelli

 5 Settembre 2026

in Sud Sardegna, zapertura

Per le ultime notizie entra nel nostro canale Whatsapp

Un barchino con otto migranti a bordo avrebbe tentato di raggiungere la riva a forte velocità davanti allo stabilimento El Tiburon Beach, a Santa Margherita di Pula, nel Cagliaritano. L’episodio è avvenuto intorno alle 15 e, secondo quanto riferito da alcuni testimoni, si è concluso con una rapida inversione di rotta dell’imbarcazione dopo la reazione dei bagnanti.
Il conducente, mentre il natante si avvicinava alla battigia, avrebbe poi puntato nuovamente verso il largo dirigendosi a tutta velocità in direzione di Cagliari. La scena ha suscitato preoccupazione tra le persone presenti in spiaggia, anche alla luce del precedente incidente avvenuto a Tuerredda lo scorso 16 agosto, quando una turista era stata travolta da un’imbarcazione con a bordo migranti mentre faceva il bagno. Nell’occasione la donna aveva riportato gravi ferite ed era stata soccorsa dopo aver rischiato di annegare. Per quell’episodio era stato arrestato uno scafista algerino di 28 anni.
“Si è rischiata l’ennesima tragedia sulle coste di Santa Margherita”, denuncia Massimo Vargiu, segretario provinciale del Siulp. “Siamo sconcertati che imbarcazioni a motore riescano ad arrivare fino a riva con il motore acceso. Evidentemente sulle nostre coste non c’è nessun controllo. I cittadini in vacanza o al mare devono sentirsi sicuri e tutelati”.
Secondo i dati citati dal sindacato, nella sola giornata di oggi sono stati registrati una trentina di sbarchi nel Sulcis e nel Sud Sardegna, in particolare nella zona di Porto Pino.

 

Tags: migrantisbarchi

Previous Post

Calasetta, divampa un incendio a causa di un bengala: beccati i responsabili

Next Post

Cagliari, le garanti degli animali si dimettono: «Così non si poteva lavorare». Farris: «È tutto fermo, 60 Mila euro ancora liberi»

Articoli correlati

Tuerredda come Su Giudeu, clandestini sbarcano nuovamente tra i bagnanti indignati

Alimenti conservati ed esposti in contenitori di plastica, a Quartu la sagra etnica tra caldo e polemiche

Cagliari, i boss della mafia arrivano al carcere di Uta: traffico impazzito lungo la statale 130

Aggressione a coltellate in ristorante a Olbia: “Ora basta, chi lavora ha diritto alla sicurezza”

Cagliari, Manuela Murgia e la verità ancora nascosta da chi ha preferito tacere

Monastir, di nuovo a spasso sulla Ss 131: due uomini a piedi sulla corsia di emergenza

ULTIME NOTIZIE

Cagliari, fiori e tanti ragazzini stringono il palo della luce dove sono deceduti Gabriele e Filippo

Pirri, in via degli Ulivi dopo i fuochi d’artificio resta un tappeto di rifiuti

Nuovi attraversamenti notturni a piedi sulla Ss 131, il racconto di un automobilista sotto shock

Tuerredda come Su Giudeu, clandestini sbarcano nuovamente tra i bagnanti indignati

Alimenti conservati ed esposti in contenitori di plastica, a Quartu la sagra etnica tra caldo e polemiche

Casteddu Online – P.I. IT03410570927 Testata registrata presso il tribunale di Cagliari n. 5/12

Hosting gestito da Monrif Net Srl
Via Mattei, 106, 40138 Bologna (BO)
P.Iva 12741650159

La testata usufruisce del contributo della Regione Sardegna Assessorato della Pubblica Istruzione, Beni Culturali, Informazione, Spettacolo e Sport. legge regionale 13 aprile 2017 n. 5, art. 8 comma 13

IMPOSTAZIONI PRIVACY

Copyright © 2026

L'articolo Un barchino di migranti tenta lo sbarco a Santa Margherita di Pula, messo in fuga dai bagnanti proviene da Blondet & Friends.

No dia 11 de agosto, Cláudio Rafael Landeiro, 37, foi linchado nas ruas de Copacabana, no Rio de Janeiro. Ele parou em um estabelecimento comercial com a bicicleta da irmã, quando seguranças particulares e alguns entregadores, que estavam por perto, o acusaram de ter roubado a bicicleta que conduzia. Cláudio foi atacado com socos, chutes e pauladas, não resistiu aos ferimentos e morreu.

O caso expõe uma prática que não é nova no Brasil, mas tem ganhado força nos discursos políticos às vésperas das eleições: o uso da violência como resposta aos problemas de segurança pública. Para discutir o tema, o Pauta Pública recebe o jornalista e pesquisador Bruno Paes Manso, autor de A República das Milícias e A Fé e o Fuzil. Na entrevista a Andrea Dip, ele comenta o caso do ciclista e reflete sobre os discursos que associam violência à produção de ordem.

“Essa ideia de que a violência tem um aspecto pedagógico, que a violência produz ordem, está muito arraigada na crença e no cotidiano do brasileiro, e gera tragédias. A violência, em vez de produzir ordem, produz covardia e desordem.”

Leia os principais pontos da conversa e ouça o podcast completo abaixo.

O Brasil registrou 227 casos de linchamento em 2025 e nesse ano, até maio, já eram 88 casos. Como você vê o episódio com esse ciclista e como ele se conecta com o que parece ser um crescimento desse “justiçamento”? 

Eu acho que faz parte da linguagem das redes sociais hoje, o linchamento. Faz parte desse universo em que você, de repente, identifica um bode expiatório e vai todo mundo contra ele com força e junto, porque é muito covarde. Normalmente o linchamento tem esse componente de covardia. 

E, nesse caso, acaba, de alguma maneira, indo para as ruas porque, principalmente no cotidiano das cidades, essa criminalidade ligada ao roubo e furto de celulares é muito presente. Isso acumulando um ranço, um ódio e uma tentativa de controlar o problema. E você começa a ter uma articulação entre pessoas que se oferecem como dispostas a solucionar esse problema. 

Parece que foi justamente o que aconteceu neste grupo. Rapidamente eles se articularam e, de alguma maneira, tentaram usar a violência como forma de dar uma lição e a gente vê isso fazer parte da história do Brasil, de uma forma geral. 

Essa ideia de que a violência tem um aspecto pedagógico, que a violência produz ordem, está muito arraigada na crença e no cotidiano do brasileiro e gera tragédias. A violência, em vez de produzir ordem, produz covardia e desordem.

Em 2025 aconteceu o massacre da Penha-Alemão, a Operação Contenção, com imagens terríveis de corpos enfileirados nas ruas, mais de 120 mortos. Depois, uma pesquisa da Genial/Quaest saiu dizendo que mais de 67% dos brasileiros aprovavam a operação. Você acha que o Rio tem um componente especial nessa violência? E o que essa aprovação representa? 

O Rio tem um aspecto bem próprio da história do crime na cidade e do que isso acabou gerando, porque, em primeiro lugar, você tem o aspecto que a governança criminal está muito ligada ao controle territorial armado dos territórios. Desde a época do jogo do bicho. Mas quando chegou o tráfico de drogas, esse controle territorial armado significava que o mercado da droga era conquistado a partir do controle do bairro vizinho, o que acabava gerando muitos conflitos.

Então, você tem um caldeirão de medo, ressentimento e ódio muito grande. Ao mesmo tempo, nos morros, onde esses grupos controlam e tiranizam os territórios, dependendo do grupo, você tem as incursões da polícia cotidiana. Então, sete da manhã as mães estão indo trabalhar, os filhos estão indo para a escola e começam aqueles tiroteios por causa das operações policiais.

Ao mesmo tempo tem os proibidões, os bailes funk e toda essa cena de droga que de alguma maneira acaba sendo associada ao descontrole, à irracionalidade, ao prazer em excesso e as mães morrem de medo que seus filhos sejam seduzidos por isso e se tornem viciados ou trabalhando para o crime, a tensão é muito grande nesses lugares. 

E, por causa disso, uma operação como aquela, que causou 122 mortes, muitas vezes é usada como uma forma de manipular esse medo pelos governantes. Era uma coisa que o Cláudio Castro vinha fazendo quando a candidatura dele estava fragilizada, para atiçar e manipular esses medos, para continuar no poder com suas conexões com o crime e com as facções, enganando a população, porque, mais uma vez, as pessoas acreditam que violência produz ordem e produz efeitos pedagógicos. Então, ele continua apostando na desordem para que as pessoas tenham medo e ele possa manipular esse medo, ganhar dinheiro e poder com a guerra.

Agora, Bruno, existe também um componente racial nessa ideia de quem é o bandido que precisa morrer…

Com certeza. Isso faz parte da nossa história. A gente não consegue entender o que está acontecendo hoje, no fundo, sem pensar nos nossos mais de 500 anos de história. Então, você tem 450 anos de um Brasil rural, 350 anos de escravidão. As pessoas vivem nas cidades de 50 em diante. Até então, viviam num ambiente rural e nos latifúndios com coronelismo muito presente. 

Laços de vizinhança e religiosos, muito próprios do ambiente rural, migram para as cidades, começam a despertar o medo das pessoas que vivem nas cidades, que começam a usar a violência policial como forma de tentar produzir algum tipo de ordem. Isso começa a gerar ciclos viciosos, mas sempre com o negro, com o preto e com o pardo, visto como aquele que ameaça, visto como cidadão perigoso, que mora num lugar que tem uma idade específica, que tem um gênero específico.

Então, o homem jovem, morador de periferia, negro, é visto como essa ameaça e a guerra se volta contra eles. Ao mesmo tempo, o aprisionamento passa de 90 mil para 900 mil. Quem vai para as prisões são essas pessoas que vivem nesses bairros considerados perigosos, que são presos em flagrante. E aí, começa uma articulação dentro das prisões voltada para gerir o crime. Mas é uma questão muito focada na raça e focada na nossa história de injustiças, colonização e industrialização – e como é que isso é reinventado nas cidades, como as polícias passam a lidar com isso, como a justiça passa a lidar com isso? E os efeitos colaterais que isso provoca, os ressentimentos, os ódios.

Entregadores de iFood estavam falando que era bom, por exemplo, se pôr em risco ou fazer sacrifícios no seu trabalho, porque isso era ‘ser homem’, era ser ‘macho’. O transbordamento da violência, do punitivismo, do “justiçamento” se relacionam com essa exacerbação de um masculinismo?

Sem dúvida. Como escrevo sobre homicídios, eu acabo sendo um pesquisador de comportamentos relacionados ao gênero masculino, porque 95% dos homicídios são feitos por homens, isso independente da idade, independente da classe, independente do país, independente do tempo na história. Poucos comportamentos são tão vinculados a gênero como a violência. Então, é algo que se faz pensar a respeito das masculinidades. 

Eu acho que a gente vive justamente esse momento de crise, de transformações históricas muito profundas, e uma das mudanças mais importantes e mais fundamentais e estruturais tem a ver com o gênero, com o feminismo e com o papel que as mulheres passam a ter na sociedade na cidade. 

Depois de mais de 5 mil anos com o homem mandando e controlando e estabelecendo o cotidiano e a estrutura da rua e da casa, de alguma maneira essa mudança da presença das mulheres no dia a dia, no trabalho, na política e tudo mais, causa uma insegurança muito grande, e aí a violência e guerra surgem como o último artifício da masculinidade em crise.

O uso da força é a única forma de você restituir uma autoridade perdida. É uma maneira de você tentar voltar para o passado, ao que era antigamente, você impor sua autoridade e ser obedecido porque você é violento, porque você é mais forte fisicamente. É um ato meio desesperado de uma masculinidade em crise com essa transformação dos tempos.

Hoje em dia, a sensação é que os gêneros nunca estiveram tão descolados, tem uma dificuldade de diálogo e a sensação é, um pouco, que os homens estão indo para um caminho e as mulheres estão indo para outro. Então, esses interregnos são sempre muito complicados. A gente não sabe para onde vai com uma disputa permanente acontecendo.