Israeli settler gangs are using drones to terrorize Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, harassing families and guiding armed raids that have killed Palestinians, TheNew Arab(TNA)reported on 25 September.
“When herders left their homes in the morning, the drones would pursue and shadow them; if they approached certain areas, settlers would gather to attack and drive them away. Eventually, the drones began monitoring residents inside their homes around the clock, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them,” Rabie Abu Naim, a displaced resident of Al-Khalayel, east of Ramallah, told TNA.
Settlers later rigged the drones with speakers blaring abuse and orders to leave, and drones were also used to drop tear gas on targeted communities, as violent assaults wounded many until terrified families fled, the report said.
Abu Naim also pointed to the killing of a boy and a young man in Al-Mughayyir days ago, saying drones “played a major role” in a raid that began with a drone tracking a flock of sheep, after which settlers moved in to steal the animals while shielded by the Israeli army, which “killed the two victims in cold blood during the incident.”
In Mikhmas, shepherd Mohammed Abu Siyam told TNA that settlers sent a drone after his 19-year-old son, Nasrallah, and other young men searching for livestock stolen from the village in February.
With the drone watching their every move, armed illegal settlers lay in wait for the young men, then opened fire, killing Nasrallah and wounding others.
Another Palestinian living in Hajjah, near Qalqilya, told TNA that settler drones fly so close to village homes that families fear the machines will crash through their windows, leaving residents under constant watch and feeling that “privacy is non-existent, and everyone feels constantly threatened.”
Illegal Israeli settlement councils have recently begun arming settlers with drones to film, scout, and watch the areas around outposts, building on earlier Israeli funding that equipped outposts with drones as part of a so-called security package.
Palestinians, meanwhile, are barred from owning drones even for their work, and the Israeli army has arrested numerous Palestinian photojournalists over the past three years for having them, citing a military order that has banned Palestinians from possessing the devices since 2017.
Israeli occupation forces have also raided toy shops across West Bank cities dozens of times, confiscating every drone on the shelves, including those made for children, and threatening shop owners with arrest if they sell them.
In May, OCHA documented settlers using drones to chase residents of Arab al-Mleihat, a community since emptied.
Salah al-Khawaja of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission told TNA that the constant surveillance of Palestinian homes can become “an additional factor driving families to leave the areas where they live.”
Geneva – The Israeli military continues to use armed quadcopter drones to carry out deliberate killings of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has documented the killing of at least 60 civilians by gunfire from these drones or by munitions dropped by them since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025 through early September 2026.
The repeated occurrence of these incidents after the ceasefire, and the targeting of children, displaced people, farmers, shepherds, and people returning to check on their homes, reveals a continuing pattern of the deliberate killing of Palestinian civilians, in which Israel employs military technology capable of identifying specific individuals, tracking their movements, and striking them with precision, despite the clear civilian status of those targeted and their non-participation in hostilities or posing of any imminent threat to Israeli forces or others.
Quadcopters are small, multi-rotor tactical drones, some systems of which can be operated by a single soldier. They can be equipped with daytime and thermal cameras, target-identification and tracking systems, and weapon stabilization systems. Depending on the mission, some models can also be fitted with 5.56mm and 7.62mm weapons or 40mm explosive munitions, enabling the operator to closely monitor individuals, track their movements, and then fire at them or drop munitions toward them with a high degree of accuracy.
These technical capabilities give the operator the ability to observe the targeted person, verify their identity, and track their movements before opening fire. This greatly narrows the margin for error in target identification and heightens the obligation to refrain from an attack when the civilian nature of the target becomes apparent or when there is any doubt as to their status. The repeated killing of children, displaced people, farmers, and shepherds by direct gunfire or munitions dropped from these drones, despite their clear civilian status and absence of any direct participation in hostilities or imminent threat, therefore provides, taken together, strong evidence that civilians themselves were intentionally selected as targets of attack, rather than being killed as a result of mistaken identification or accidentally struck. Such attacks are prohibited in themselves and cannot be justified by military necessity or subjected to a proportionality assessment, since a direct attack against a civilian is prohibited from the outset and cannot be made lawful by invoking military necessity or the rules of proportionality.
The data Euro-Med Monitor has collected shows that at least 60 civilians have been killed in attacks carried out by quadcopters since the ceasefire, while Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during the same period had reached 1,368 as of the date of the statement.
Field monitoring revealed three main patterns in the use of these drones. The first involved precise and direct gunfire against individuals whom the operator could see and distinguish; the second involved dropping explosive munitions on civilian gatherings and tents housing displaced people; and the third involved using these drones to impose fire control over areas adjacent to what is known as the “Yellow Line,” by targeting civilians as they attempted to reach their homes and lands or carry out their work there.
Under the first pattern, Euro-Med Monitor’s field team documented the killing of 12-year-old Abdullah Nour Saeed Dawas on the evening of 11 April 2026, after a quadcopter opened direct fire on displaced people in the vicinity of Abu Hussein Schools and Al-Fakhoura Health Centre in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. It also documented the killing of 26-year-old Fatima Al-Zahra Ramzi Ahmed Al-Ma’ni by fire from the same type of drone east of Deir al-Balah on 21 May 2026. It further documented the killing of 62-year-old Nidal Eid Salmi Abu Halib on 11 October 2025, after an Israeli quadcopter opened direct fire on him while he was heading to inspect his family’s home in Al-Qarara, northeast of Khan Younis.
Under the second pattern, Euro-Med Monitor documented the killing of at least three civilians on 6 December 2025 after a quadcopter dropped an explosive munition on a group of civilians near Al-Atatra roundabout in Beit Lahia. It also documented the killing of Fadi Adel Khalif on 20 February 2026 after an Israeli drone dropped a bomb on his tent in the northern Gaza Strip, and the killing of 52-year-old Inaam Abdullah Al-Attar on 17 July 2026 after a bomb was dropped near Abu Tammam School in Beit Lahia.
The third pattern involved the use of quadcopters to impose fire control over areas adjacent to the “Yellow Line” and target civilians as they attempted to reach their lands and sources of livelihood. Euro-Med Monitor documented the killing of 42-year-old shepherd Raafat Adel Ibrahim Barika by fire from a drone of this type in the Al-Shakoush area near the “Yellow Line,” northwest of Rafah, on 22 May 2026. It also documented the killing of farmer Hamouda Fayeq Al-Attar on 29 August 2026 while he was working on his land east of Al-Masdar village, coinciding with the Israeli forces’ advance along the line in the area.
Children were among the victims of this precision weapon. Euro-Med Monitor’s field documentation is consistent, in terms of pattern, with the findings of a multidisciplinary report published by the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute on 17 June 2026. The report was based on 18 cases involving children who were killed or wounded by gunfire that was examined and documented by a physician who participated in preparing the report during her work in Gaza Strip hospitals between August and September 2024. Witnesses who brought the children to hospital reported that quadcopters were responsible for the gunfire in 90 percent of the cases, while most wounds were caused by single, small-calibre bullets that struck the head, neck, chest, or abdomen.
The report presented five detailed cases supported, in each instance, by X-ray images or diagrams based on clinical photographs and witness testimonies. One case involved a seven-year-old child who was wounded inside an area designated as humanitarian while playing in the street, with no one else in the surrounding area being struck by gunfire. Medical, imaging, and ballistic analysis in three cases concluded that the entry angles and trajectories of the bullets were from above, consistent with gunfire originating from a drone. Although these incidents occurred in 2024, these findings are consistent with the pattern documented by Euro-Med Monitor at a later stage and constitute strong evidence of the use of precise, targeted gunfire directly and deliberately against children.
Euro-Med Monitor documented the circumstances of a child’s injury that resulted in permanent mobility impairment after he was directly shot by a quadcopter, providing additional evidence that Israeli forces deliberately used these drones to kill and inflict serious harm without any justification.
In testimony to Euro-Med Monitor’s team, the father of 11-year-old Amir Mohammed Khalil Shaath, a resident of Qizan Rashwan south of Khan Younis who was displaced to an area near Al-Sikka, adjacent to the Yellow Line, described what happened, saying: “On that day, 12 August 2026, I received a text message inviting them to collect a food parcel, so I went with my son Amir to the designated warehouse in the afternoon. On our way back on foot to our residential area in Al-Sikka neighbourhood, at around 5 p.m., we came under random and intense gunfire from a quadcopter flying at low altitude between abandoned residential buildings. This was followed by the dropping of an explosive bomb, which caused a violent explosion and sent shrapnel flying. Metal fragments became lodged in my son Amir’s skull and thigh, causing fractures and severe damage to the skull bones, and he lost consciousness for a long period as a result. He was taken to Nasser Hospital, where doctors said that if he had arrived a few minutes later, he would have died from internal bleeding in the brain. Medical teams managed to control the bleeding, but the fragments lodged in his skull could not be removed with the locally available capabilities. The child sustained a permanent mobility impairment, losing the ability to walk or stand. Medical teams declared that the available local treatment options had been exhausted and recommended that he travel abroad for treatment to remove the fragments lodged in his skull.”
The operator’s ability to clearly see the targeted person, distinguish their status, and track their movement before opening fire, and then strike them with a single bullet or guided munition, effectively eliminates the pretext of mistaken target identification, particularly when the target is a child, farmer, or shepherd carrying no weapon and posing no threat. This demonstrates that these civilians were not struck accidentally, but were deliberately selected as targets of attack.
Targeting these civilians establishes the intent to kill them and constitutes wilful killing and direct attacks against civilians, both of which are war crimes. Because such conduct occurs as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza, with knowledge of that attack, it also constitutes the crime against humanity of murder. Within the context of Israel’s commission of genocide, it falls under the material act of killing members of the protected Palestinian group and, alongside the other acts, policies, and statements, constitutes additional evidence of the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a substantial part of the Palestinian group.
Euro-Med Monitor calls on the international community, particularly states parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to take immediate and coordinated action to halt all international crimes being committed by Israel against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, foremost among them the crime of genocide in its various acts and means of implementation, including the deliberate killing of civilians using armed quadcopters. We call on these states to employ all available political, economic, diplomatic, and legal means to fulfil their obligation to prevent genocide and ensure respect for international humanitarian law, and to refrain from providing any support or assistance that contributes to the continuation of these crimes.
Euro-Med Monitor also calls on states, the United Nations, and international investigative mechanisms to take urgent measures to ensure the preservation and acquisition of all evidence related to these attacks, including drone camera recordings, flight and positioning data, firing records, the types of munitions used, mission orders, rules of engagement, and targeting data, as well as the names of operators and commanders who ordered or authorised the attacks, and to prevent the destruction, alteration, or concealment of such evidence.
We further urge the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to include the use of armed quadcopters in the ongoing investigation into the Situation in Palestine and to investigate the individual criminal responsibility of operators and those who issued or authorised targeting orders, as well as the responsibility of commanders who knew or should have known that these crimes were being committed and failed to take the necessary measures to prevent them or punish those responsible.
Euro-Med Monitor also calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel to investigate these incidents as a systematic pattern of deliberate killings and to identify the types of drones and munitions used, their manufacturers and suppliers, and the relevant supply chains, and to request all related recordings, digital data, and military orders.
We also call on states to impose an immediate and comprehensive ban on the export, transfer, re-export, or financing of armed drones to Israel, including their components, munitions, sensors, targeting and tracking software, maintenance services, training, technical upgrades, spare parts, and brokering, as well as to suspend existing licences and contracts and halt all forms of military and security cooperation that could contribute to or facilitate the commission of these crimes.
Euro-Med Monitor also calls on manufacturers and suppliers to halt any direct or indirect support that could enable such uses, trace the components of their systems, preserve sales, end-user, maintenance, and upgrade records, and fully cooperate with international investigative mechanisms.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also urges states to investigate individuals suspected of responsibility for these crimes and prosecute them before their national courts where jurisdiction exists, including on the basis of universal jurisdiction; impose targeted sanctions on officials and entities involved in these crimes; work to ensure access for international investigators and forensic experts to the Gaza Strip; protect witnesses and survivors; and guarantee victims and their families the right to truth, justice, and full reparation.
Um homem de 71 anos perdeu a vida esta sexta-feira na sequência de uma colisão entre um veículo ligeiro de passageiros e um pesado de mercadorias, na Autoestrada 25 (A25), na zona de Viseu.
O acidente deu-se ao quilómetro 89,4, junto à saída para Nelas, no sentido Aveiro – Guarda. O alerta para a ocorrência foi dado às 16h12.
Segundo fonte do Comando Sub-regional de Emergência e Proteção Civil Viseu Dão Lafões à agência Lusa, o óbito do condutor do veículo ligeiro foi declarado no local.
Nas operações de socorro e assistência estiveram envolvidos 19 operacionais, apoiados por sete veículos, dos Bombeiros Voluntários de Viseu, Bombeiros Sapadores de Viseu, Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa, Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) e Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica (INEM). A GNR tomou conta da ocorrência e investiga as causas do sinistro.
Por: Dino Frazão 25 de setembro de 2026 Imagens Daniel Lopes Se gostou do que leu e ainda não é seguidor, siga a nossa página para ver mais conteúdos!
Tra la fine di agosto e settembre 2026 è avvenuto un cambiamento importante nella campagna aerea russa. Non si tratta semplicemente di una nuova offensiva contro la rete elettrica ucraina. ...
Thousands of students across Germany were once again on strike against conscription and militarization on Friday, September 25. Actions took place in at least 100 localities as young people demanded a sharp turn from the government’s chosen path.
“We don’t want to be forced into military service and we don’t want to go to war,” the students wrote in declaration after their last strike in May.
This is the fourth time students have exchanged classrooms for streets since the end of 2025. The mobilization has strengthened in resistance to the Merz administration’s plans to build the “strongest conventional army in Europe” – including by drawing more people into the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces.
While authorities insist military recruitment remains voluntary, students have warned of a clear tendency toward outright conscription. Local strike committees and activists also emphasized the widespread repression ahead of actions. This included scheduling of exams on strike days and locking-in students on school grounds, they pointed out.
Billions for the Bundeswehr, cuts for schools and youth services
Over recent months, the government has sent thousands of questionnaires to map voluntary interest in joining the armed forces. According to German media, the response has been underwhelming: tens of thousands of students have disclaimed no interest whatsoever. Not even a multi-million-euro budget allocated to promoting the army has been able to shake this opinion.
“They sell us war service as an ‘adventure’ while we know that what awaits us is coertion, humiliation, sexism, right-wing extremism, and racism,” the student declaration adds.
Instead of taking the message seriously, authorities recently advanced the implementation of medical checks among their targeted population, drawing further frustration from students.
“We don’t want compulsory questionnaires, fines, draft physical examinations, conscription assessment centres across the country, nor planned integration of the Federal Volunteer Service into military service,” they wrote. “These are means to prepare the reintroduction of the draft and thus another war originating from Germany.”
“In case of conscription, we’ll be trained as cannon fodder, forced into the trenches,” students added. “War costs us our lives, while corporations like Rheinmetall make record profits.”
Students on strike have expressed solidarity with other ongoing struggles against militarization and budget cuts. They stated they would join peace demonstrations planned for early October in Berlin and Stuttgart, as well as a trade union-backed mobilization against budget cuts on Saturday, September 26.
Their decision reflects the widespread understanding that youth and education services are among those impacted by this round of austerity. According to junge Welt, the federal ministry responsible for education will face close to €1 billion in cuts – while €140 billion will be made available for so-called defense in 2027.
“Every tank, every rocket we pay for with dilapidated schools and social cuts,” students remarked.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi has said NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s admission that some 5,000 sorties were flown from European bases in support of US military aggression against Iran proves that Europe formed part of the infrastructure of that aggression.
In a post on X on Thursday evening, Gharibabadi wrote that the NATO chief’s remarks demonstrated Europe’s role in enabling the illegal US campaign.
“Governments that placed their territory at the disposal of the United States cannot evade their responsibility,” he said. “This participation will not go unanswered.”
Rutte has repeatedly acknowledged that thousands of US military flights, between 4,000 and 5,000, departed from bases in Europe during the US-Israeli war of aggression against the Islamic Republic, which began on 28 February.
He described Europe as a “platform of power projection” without which Washington could not have conducted the operation.
Countries including Italy, Romania, the United Kingdom, France and Germany were cited in connection with the use of bases, airspace, tankers and logistics.
Iran has consistently described the US-Israeli assault as an unprovoked act of aggression in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and international law.
Tehran has stressed that providing territory, bases or infrastructure to an aggressor state itself constitutes participation in the act of aggression, as recognized under United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi separately warned European officials in New York of the severe and long-term consequences of facilitating and supporting US and Israeli war crimes, both in Gaza and against Iran. He noted that submitting to a bully never satisfies that bully.
The Bucha Massacre, which occurred in March 2022, remains one of the main tragedies of the Ukrainian conflict. Shortly after the Russian strategic retreat and the entry of Ukrainian troops, the narrative quickly began to spread that Russian soldiers had committed a massacre in the city, murdering hundreds of people.
The news spread around the world and was broadcast by all major media aligned with the Atlantic West. Even in spaces that declare themselves neutral, such as Wikipedia, the entry on the Bucha Massacre narrates it as a slaughter perpetrated by Russian soldiers before they retreated from the city. This is, therefore, the “official version” of the story in the Western world and its satellites.
Ukrainian authorities speak of 509 innocent civilians who were allegedly assassinated by the Russians, and indeed Bucha has been used as one of the main arguments to vilify the behavioral standard of the Russians in the special military operation. It seems peculiar to us, however, from the outset that this event was so singular. In general, armies that commit atrocities commit them at various moments and in different places of the conflict, but Bucha constitutes a singular, totally unique, and so far unrepeated instance of an alleged massacre of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians by the Russians.
The topic has recently gained prominence again, with new evidence that was discussed, for example, at the “Dialogue on Fakes 4.0” congress, organized by the Global Fact-Checking Network (a fact-checking agency of which I am a member, along with other journalists). There, Minister Sergey Lavrov mentioned the findings of the report “Heirs of Goebbels: Falsification of the Events in Bucha and Staged Bloody Performances by the Kiev Regime,” produced by a team from the International Public Tribunal on the Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis, and published on September 17, 2026, on the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs site. (https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/reports/2142212/)
According to the report in question, it was possible to gather sufficient material evidence indicating that the Ukrainian regime manipulated the facts about Bucha in various ways, one of them being the inclusion of Ukrainian military and paramilitary personnel killed in combat as victims of an alleged “massacre” committed by the Russians. Some of these military personnel may not even have died in the vicinity of Bucha. Furthermore, evidence was obtained of civilians who died of natural causes and whose names were included as having also been victims.
This work by the committee was possible because months after the events in Bucha, the Ukrainian regime inaugurated a memorial containing the names and personal data of the “civilians” who allegedly died in the supposed massacre committed by the Russians. With this, it was possible to cross-reference the data with other databases to check the biography of the dead and confirm the official information – work that was done voluntarily by users of the 2ch.su forum. They discovered at least 50 names of Ukrainian combatants among the names on the memorial, which amounts to approximately 10% of the alleged victims listed.
Among these combatants, by the way, there are several members of the Azov Regiment, a neo-Nazi organization notorious for its atrocities against Russian civilians, such as Evgeny Petrash, Vladimir Bisyaga, Andrey Vaskevich, Ilya Krhenov, among others. Others, such as Igor Kokodinyak and Vladimir Logvinenko, were military personnel who died in other parts of the special military operation zone and not in the vicinity of Bucha.
But of course, the big question about Bucha is the fact that the authentic civilian deaths that occurred at the location in March 2022 were perpetrated by the Ukrainians themselves, which is also confirmed in the report through new testimonial evidence. According to it, Ukraine used artillery against Bucha, after the Russian withdrawal, as soon as journalists were transported to the city, with the aim of turning it into the stage for a grand performance to be displayed to the world.
According to the testimonial evidence gathered, there is even evidence that the journalists’ visit was staged, in the sense that the locations that would be hit by Ukrainian artillery attacks were already known in advance, which means that civilians were killed on purpose with the aim of accusing the Russians of an atrocity – which characterizes a “false flag” attack.
Bucha has become a case to be studied because today the probability that other “false flag” attacks will be produced by Ukraine or the West with the aim of justifying an intensification of hostilities is quite high.
A Levante questa sera, 25 settembre 2026, alle 19 in diretta, il Golfo entra nella sua fase decisiva: l’Arabia Saudita esporta ai minimi da tredici anni, Ansarallah controlla Bab al-Mandab, l’oleodotto Est-Ovest riapre a capacità ridotta sotto minaccia permanente e Washington, invece di difendere il suo cliente, apre un canale con chi gli spara addosso. Ne discutono Lorenzo Maria Pacini, professore di filosofia politica e geopolitica, e Margherita Furlan, giornalista e direttrice di Casa del Sole TV, ospiti di Jeff Hoffman. Che cosa succede quando la potenza che garantisce la sicurezza dei suoi clienti smette di poterla garantire Bab al-Mandab e Hormuz: due strozzature a duemila chilometri di distanza, nelle mani dello stesso asse Missili su Mecca, Yanbu e Taif: e a Taif ci sono i caccia italiani Londra manda i rifornimenti in volo, Parigi manda uomini e radar: l’Europa difende i terminali altrui e paga l’energia più cara del mondo industrializzato «Non siamo in guerra con l’Italia, ma che cosa ci fanno i vostri aerei in Arabia Saudita?»: il messaggio di Sanaa con cui nessun telegiornale ha aperto Multipolarismo a mano armata: quali limiti ha una transizione che passa per i blocchi navali Che cosa distingue un fatto verificato da un’attribuzione, anche quando l’ipotesi ci piace I LIBRI DI LORENZO MARIA PACINI Myanmar. Nella terra dorata, Anteo Edizioni, 2025 (disponibile anche in edizione inglese, Myanmar. In the golden land) Dugin e Platone, Settimo Sigillo, 2023 Cantare amantis est. Bene, bellezza e musica in sant’Agostino da Ippona, Il Cerchio, 2022 I LIBRI DI MARGHERITA FURLAN BRICS Scacco Matto (disponibile in italiano, inglese e russo) SOSTIENI CASA DEL SOLE TV Casa del Sole TV è un progetto di giornalismo indipendente autofinanziato. Per donazioni: IBAN: IT63P0326822300052392596590 Intestato a: La Casa del Sole Edizioni Causale: Donazione Casa del Sole TV Membership YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CasadelSoleT… — Analista Multipolare €5/mese — Inviato della Verità €15/mese — Architetto del Futuro €25/mese SEGUI CASA DEL SOLE TV YouTube: @CasadelSoleTVChannel Instagram: @margheritafurlangiornalista Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MargheritaFu…#Levante#CasadelSoleTV#MargheritaFurlan#Geopolitica#Multipolarismo#LorenzoMariaPacini#Eurasia#ArabiaSaudita#Yemen#Golfo#Hormuz#babelmandeb
NATO member Latvia is moving toward acquiring Anduril Industries’ Barracuda family of long-range strike missiles, with Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs highlighting the effort during a visit to the U.S. defense technology company and a series of new defense-industry cooperation agreements involving Latvia. If the acquisition goes through, Latvia would be the first of the Baltic states to field a strike weapon in this category.
“It was great to visit Anduril to meet with Palmer Luckey and to witness signing of memoranda of cooperation with MOD of Latvia and Origin Robotics,” Rinkēvičs said in a post on X. “Looking forward to complete acquisition of Barracuda long-range missiles and [Latvian-U.S.] defense industry cooperation.”
It was great to visit @anduriltech to meet with @PalmerLuckey and to witness signing of memoranda of cooperation with MOD of Latvia and @OriginRobotics. Looking forward to complete acquisition of Baracuda longe range missiles and defense industry cooperation pic.twitter.com/JafnNy5RAe
The statement does not specify the precise Barracuda variant involved, the number of missiles Latvia intends to acquire, the expected delivery schedule, or the value of the prospective purchase. We have reached out to Anduril for more details.
A likely candidate weapon is the Barracuda-500M, one member of Anduril’s family of autonomous, jet-powered cruise missiles, alongside the Barracuda-100M and -250M variants. Official descriptions put its range at more than 500 nautical miles, with a stated speed range of approximately 190 to 500 knots. The missile can be air-launched, for which it has received the official U.S. military designation AGM-189A. But with only a handful of utility biplanes and helicopters in its inventory, Latvia would acquire the surface-launched version, designated SLB-500M.
The announcement points to a potentially significant expansion of Latvia’s precision-strike capabilities as NATO’s eastern flank continues to build out longer-range conventional fires.
Latvia has already ordered the U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, which will be fired from M142 HIMARS launchers. The system is expected to enter Latvian service in 2027 and has a maximum range of about 186 miles.
A U.S. Army M142 HIMARS launcher involved in an exercise at at Spilve Airfield and Liepāja Airport in Latvia. Latvian Armed Forces Eriks Kukutis
Latvia’s ATACMS capability will give the country a foundation for ground-launched precision fires, but the broader European trend is toward significantly greater reach.
Ground- and sea-launched cruise and ballistic missile systems capable of hitting targets at between 1,000 and 2,000 kilometers (620 and 1,242 miles) or more are an emerging target for several European NATO members. France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom are pursuing combinations of indigenous development and foreign procurement to address this requirement.
Latvia’s neighbor Poland, for example, has been building a layered long-range strike architecture combining JASSM/JASSM-ER air-launched cruise missiles with HIMARS and ATACMS. Warsaw’s ambitions are extending toward ground-launched weapons with ranges potentially reaching 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) and the country has previously expressed openness to hosting U.S.-owned nuclear weapons on its territory, too.
A M142 HIMARS launcher is seen during Poland’s Armed Forces Day parade in 2025. Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Getty Artur Widak
Latvian interest in Barracuda fits into the same larger transformation in European conventional strike capabilities.
For NATO’s Baltic members, the logic is particularly straightforward, with mobile, ground-launched weapons providing an additional means of striking military targets at depth without requiring control of the air over the launch area.
Dragon’s teeth obstacles are among the anti-mobility measures on Latvia’s eastern border with Russia. Latvian Armed Forces
The potential Barracuda acquisition would represent another step in a broader European shift toward deep precision strike, a term increasingly used to describe conventional weapons capable of holding targets hundreds or thousands of miles away at risk.
Deep precision strike is widely acknowledged as an increasingly important European capability gap. European NATO members have historically relied heavily on air-launched cruise missiles and other aircraft-delivered weapons, while ground-launched long-range systems have been comparatively scarce.
The deterioration of the European security environment following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, together with the 2019 collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, are important factors behind renewed European interest in long-range conventional strike.
A key driver behind Europe’s push for longer-range conventional strike is the desire to build a credible deterrent capable of holding targets deep inside Russia at risk, potentially including Moscow. Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign has demonstrated the strategic value of being able to impose costs at significant distances, while also underscoring the importance of having sufficient stocks of precision weapons. For NATO’s eastern flank, systems such as the ground-launched Barracuda could therefore provide not just another fires capability, but an additional means of imposing costs on an adversary without relying exclusively on airpower.
Importantly for Latvia, the emerging European approach is not limited to large air forces. NATO’s prospective deep-strike requirements are likely to place significant emphasis on mobile ground-launched systems because they can be dispersed and offer survivability advantages while avoiding the cost and vulnerability associated with relying exclusively on aircraft or ships as launch platforms.
An Anduril Barracuda 500, top, and a Barracuda 100, displayed during Modern Day Marine 2026 in Washington, D.C. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Abigail Hutcheson Cpl. Abigail Hutcheson
That makes systems such as the surface-launched Barracuda particularly relevant to countries on NATO’s eastern flank.
Anduril has positioned Barracuda as part of an effort to address what it describes as a shortfall in affordable, producible long-range precision weapons. A prototype surface-launched Barracuda-500 successfully demonstrated its launcher, missile, and booster concept in testing in 2025. Anduril has emphasized that the family is intended to be more producible and affordable than many existing “exquisite” long-range weapons.
European governments are increasingly wrestling with the same issue. However, there is a fundamental tension between rapidly filling capability gaps through off-the-shelf purchases and developing indigenous European weapons that can strengthen the continent’s defense-industrial base, which is also a critical political consideration.
Latvia’s emerging relationship with Anduril appears to combine elements of both approaches, by acquiring an American-developed strike capability while simultaneously pursuing industrial cooperation with U.S. defense companies.
Ground launch of Anduril’s Barracuda-500M. Anduril
There is also a recent European precedent for combining Barracuda procurement with local industrial participation.
In July 2026, Anduril signed a strategic agreement with Polish national maintenance, repair and overhaul provider Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze Nr 2 (WZL-2) to establish production of the Barracuda-500M at WZL-2 facilities in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Polish state-owned defence group Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa said Poland was the first European country to sign such an agreement with Anduril.
Bezpieczeństwo zaczyna się od silnych sojuszy.
Dziś została podpisana umowa o współpracy @PGZ_pl i WZL-2 z firmą Anduril Industries, która umożliwi utworzenie w Polsce miejsc montażu i produkcji autonomicznych rakietowych pocisków manewrujących dalekiego zasięgu… pic.twitter.com/JnmM6lQZ7L
— Ministerstwo Aktywów Państwowych (@MAPGOVPL) July 6, 2026
Polish officials have also emphasized the missile’s intended low production cost relative to higher-end U.S. cruise missiles. The planned Polish program is expected to progressively increase Polish content and eventually incorporate broader European elements, including software solutions from Anduril.
Latvia has not publicly detailed whether any Barracuda-related production, assembly, or other industrial work would be conducted in the country.
However, Latvia’s Investment and Development Agency says the country’s defense-technology delegation in the United States is seeking opportunities involving joint development, testing, manufacturing, system integration and supply chains. Origin Robotics is among the Latvian companies participating in that effort.
The broader Latvian delegation includes companies working across unmanned and counter-unmanned systems, communications, electronics, sensors, software, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and manufacturing.
A Latvian Army soldier shows drone video footage to U.S. Marines during a HIMARS live-fire exercise at Adazi Training Area, Latvia. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Niles Lee Sgt. Niles Lee
Exactly how Latvia intends to employ Barracuda, how many missiles it plans to acquire, and whether any portion of the system will eventually be produced or integrated in Latvia remain unclear from the president’s announcement.
For now, the development marks another indication that long-range precision fires are moving from a capability concentrated among Europe’s largest military powers toward a broader requirement across NATO’s highly strategic eastern flank.
Search works for the missing people in the rubble of the building that collapsed after an explosion in historical center of Athens, Plaka continue until late Friday night. According to latest information, the number of the missing people has risen to six from five as initially thought. The number was officially announced by the Mayor […]
Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM) announced it had awarded a sole-source deal to Anduril, valued at $15,711,445.50, for an unspecified number of Pulsar-Ls, yesterday. This follows a statement of intent the Command put out last month. Anduril first unveiled Pulsar-L, a lightweight addition to its larger Pulsar family of electronic warfare systems, in April 2025.
The Marine Corps had 150 baseline personnel carrier variants of the ACV (or ACV-Ps), as well as 21 command-and-control ACV-C versions, in inventory as of April 2026. The default armament for ACV-P currently is just a single .50 caliber M2 machine gun in a remote weapon station on top of the hull. The service’s goal is to eventually acquire 389 ACV-Ps and 33 ACV-Cs, as well as 152 ACV-30s with new 30mm cannon-armed turrets and 34 ACV-R armored recovery vehicle variants. The ACV family has already supplanted the Marine Corps’ previous fleet of tracked Assault Amphibious Vehicles (AAV).
From left to right, an Amphibious Combat Vehicle command and control variant (ACV-C), a 30mm cannon-armed ACV-30, and a standard ACV personnel carrier version (ACV-P). The ACV-R recovery variant is not shown here. USMC/Sgt. Alexis Sanchez
“The Anduril Pulsar-L system is a platform-integrated omni-directional SK C-UAS [soft-kill counter-uncrewed aerial systems] with a combined sensor/jammer package that detects, tracks, identifies, and defeats radio frequency-dependent Group 1 and Group 2 Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs),” MARCORSYSCOM wrote in a justification for the sole-source contract, which was also released yesterday. “Additionally, the system provides counter positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities.”
The U.S. military definition of a Group 1 drone is any design weighing up to 20 pounds, that is able to fly up to an altitude of 1,200 feet, and that can reach speeds of up to 100 knots. Group 2 is the next tier up, encompassing types with gross weights between 21 and 55 pounds, that can get up to an altitude of 3,500 feet, and hit top speeds of up to 250 knots. Kamikaze drones and other small weaponized types that fall into Groups 1 and 2 are used on a daily basis in Ukraine to attack armored vehicles, as well as unarmored vehicles and personnel. These are threats that have been steadily expanding to other hotspots globally, and that we will come back to later on.
Furthermore, “the Pulsar-L is the only solution capable of being mounted on the ACV to provide a mobile and organic means to effectively and simultaneously execute the entire kill-chain against hostile UASs in the deployed land and maritime/littoral environment while not exceeding the limited ACV space, weight, and power claim allotted to the SK C-UAS solution,” according to MARCORSYSCOM. “This will provide the ACV with an essential defensive capability, directly contributing to increased survivability and force protection while not sacrificing the mobility and operational tempo of the ACV.”
A row of Marine ACVs seen during training. USMC
Pulsar-L is already “in use by the Special Operations Command due to the system’s low weight, proven performance in engaging multiple UASs, and simultaneous execution of the full kill-chain while static or on the move,” the justification document adds. “Additionally, it is the only known commercially available system that meets the minimum requirement to rapidly identify and respond to emerging UAS technologies and tactics without frequent updates to predefined threat data libraries. The Pulsar-L is the only solution that uses machine based learning to continually adapt to these ever-changing threats without requiring vendor updates, allowing the warfighters to continually be effective in the fight.”
The latter point here is a particularly important consideration for electronic warfare systems, in general, which need to be able to accurately detect, categorize, and respond to different waveforms to be most effective. The emergence of new waveforms, as well as changes to how existing ones are emitted, together with new tactics, techniques, and procedures, can all negatively impact a system’s performance. Historically, the process of responding to those developments with updates to built-in threat libraries has been lengthy and complex. The conflict in Ukraine has shown that the cycle of new developments in the electromagnetic spectrum and then the need for new countermeasures can be regularly measured in weeks.
The U.S. military has been heavily investing in so-called cognitive electronic warfare capabilities to help automate and otherwise accelerate various aspects of this process. The ability of a particular electronic warfare suite to adapt autonomously in real-time, even in the middle of operations, has been viewed as the absolute ‘holy grail’ of this concept, which you can read more about here. How exactly Pulsar-L leverages machine-learning and artificial intelligence to this end, and the speed with which it can adapt to changing threats, is still not entirely clear.
Regardless, “there is an unusual and compelling need for the rapid deployment of SK C-UASs to forward-deployed ground units as Marines currently lack the ability to conduct self-defense against emerging UAS threats,” the justification document stresses. “Failure to deliver this capability places Marines at unnecessary risk, potentially leading to mission failure and loss of life, and hampers the Government’s ability to keep them safe during forward deployments.”
MARCORSYSCOM’s justification for the sole-source deal to Anduril does not otherwise elaborate on the urgent requirements that drove the deal, which it says were only formalized on April 7. That is notably roughly a week after the United States and Israel first launched major combat operations against Iran, which is a prolific developer and user of various tiers of weaponized drones. There is no explicit confirmation of any link, but Iranian drones, as well as missiles and other capabilities, have been a real threat to U.S. forces in the region. We have also just gained more insights recently into how forward-deployed Marine Corps elements contributed to those operations. Counter-drone capabilities would also be especially critical in any future amphibious landing operation, wherever it might occur.
Marines prepare to load an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) onto a KC-130J aircraft somewhere in the Middle East in July 2026. USAF
All that being said, threats posed by armed Group 1 and 2 drones are not at all limited to Iran and the Middle East, nor are they new. They are only likely to become a more ubiquitous feature in the hands of nation-state armed forces and non-state actors in conflict zones globally as time goes on. The nature of these threats is also expanding significantly in scale and scope, especially when it comes to more automated targeting capabilities, thanks heavily to the increasing democratization of AI-driven technologies, something TWZ has explored in depth in the past.
A number of other significant developments in this arena have emerged from the conflict in Ukraine, where electronic warfare systems are heavily employed against drones. This includes the introduction of physical fiber-optic control links that cannot be jammed, as well as the use of mesh-like and often ad-hoc networks to increase resiliency.
The fighting in Ukraine has also underscored the threat that even small kamikaze drones pose to armored vehicles, including types that are far more heavily protected to start with than the Marine Corps’ ACVs. As mentioned, Ukrainian forces have been sidelining their M1 Abrams and other main battle tanks in the face of constant drone attacks.
MARCORSYSCOM’s justification for the Pulsar-L order makes clear that this is just one part of a larger plan to boost the ACV’s defenses.
“Marine Corps program of record for SK C-UAS is planned to initiate in FY27,” the document mentions toward the very end. “The components of this future program will be procured through full and open competition as it is expected that advanced non-kinetic and SK defeat technologies should be mature by this time.”
Another look at a Marine Corps ACV-P, showing the general configuration of these vehicles today. USMC
“We’re constantly looking at what the next generation of APS is and how we can get that onto the [ACV] platform in a lightweight form factor,” Chris Melkonian, the Marine Corps’ Program Manager for Advanced Amphibious Assault (PM AAA), told TWZ and other attendees at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition in April.
Improved “situational awareness, that’s kind of a gateway to counter-UAS, in terms of the ability to sense your environment,” Melkonian also highlighted at that time. “Take all that video on board and then be able to feed that into [a] counter-UAS system.”
Additional “overhead protection right now is a critical thing that we’re working on right now for this platform,” he added. The practice of adding on anti-drone armor screens on armored vehicles (and now other platforms), especially to protect against top-down attacks, first emerged in Russia in the lead-up to the all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, the installation of this kind of so-called ‘cope cage’ type armor has now become a global trend, including in the U.S. military.
When it comes to the Marine Corps ACV fleet, the rush order for Pulsar-Ls is an important new step in boosting those vehicles’ defenses against threats that exist now. At the same time, drones are increasingly calling the role of armored vehicles in future conflicts into question.
Chaque mois, sur votre fiche de paie, une ligne « vieillesse » part financer les pensions du mois. Elle ne s'investit nulle part, elle est dépensée. C'est le principe de la répartition. C'est aussi pour cela que Mistral lève ses milliards à Séoul et en Californie plutôt qu'à Paris.
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LA NEWSLETTER · GRATUITE
Le Courrier, chaque matin.
L'essentiel de l'actualité, passé au crible par les cinq plumes du Courrier. Dans votre boîte, chaque jour ouvré.
Gratuit. Vous restez libre de partir quand vous voulez.
Regardez votre fiche de paie, à la ligne « vieillesse ». Ce qu'on y prélève ne sera jamais placé. Ce n'est pas un défaut de gestion, c'est la définition même du système : les cotisations d'aujourd'hui paient les pensions d'aujourd'hui. Plus de 14 % de la richesse nationale (COR) traversent ainsi le pays chaque année comme l'eau traverse une turbine — sans jamais s'accumuler nulle part.
Le 8 septembre, Mistral AI a levé trois milliards d'euros. Chef de file : Samsung, épaulé par un fonds européen que gère le suédois EQT. À la table, Nvidia, a16z, General Catalyst, des véhicules de BlackRock. Côté français : Bpifrance, c'est-à-dire l'État, une banque, deux gestionnaires. Le champion national de la souveraineté numérique se finance en coréen, en californien et en suédois. En français, surtout par l'impôt. Personne ne s'en étonne. On devrait.
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ABONNEMENT
Allez au fond des choses.
Deux grands formats par jour. Les cinq plumes du Courrier. La série Sécession, le dimanche.
Un fonds de pension, c'est un stock : des décennies de cotisations placées, qui doivent rapporter pour payer des retraites dans trente ans. Ce stock cherche du rendement de long terme, et il peut en consacrer une petite part à des paris risqués — le capital-risque. La répartition, c'est un flux : ce qui entre ressort le mois même. Un flux ne prend aucun pari. Il n'en a pas le temps.
L'écart se mesure. Selon l'OCDE, l'épargne retraite par capitalisation pèse environ 5 % du PIB en France, contre quelque 140 % en Suisse, 150 % au Canada, 180 % au Danemark. Et ses conséquences aussi : entre 2014 et 2023, l'Union européenne a investi 89 milliards d'euros en capital-risque, les États-Unis plus de 1 000. La Banque de France, qui n'est pas un repaire de libertariens, note que la contribution des investisseurs privés de long terme y est dix-sept fois plus faible qu'outre-Atlantique.
The Trump administration’s assault on the ICC isn’t just about protecting Netanyahu from war crimes prosecution. It’s about preserving “imperial impunity” – Israel’s just “the smokescreen,” says Noura Erakat, professor of criminal justice and Africana studies at Rutgers University and human rights attorney. She traces Washington’s bipartisan refusal to ratify the Rome Statute to explain why the International Criminal Court has spent two decades indicting mostly African and Arab leaders. The 2024 warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant just show the court “between a rock and a hard place”: finally give up its legitimacy entirely, or face destruction by the US.
Now more than a dozen ICC judges, prosecutors, and the court’s president have been sanctioned, as Washington reportedly prepares sanctions against the entire institution, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it an “intolerable threat” to US sovereignty. Can the court survive a war with Washington? Should it? And why do Global South states stay invested in a court that’s clearly stacked against them?
Plus: Erakat describes her arrest at a Palm Beach County budget hearing on their $1 billion-plus investment in Israel bonds; warns that Gaza’s Board of Peace could become a blueprint to replace the UN; and explains why she believes, even as public opinion on Palestine shifts, “there’s no way to be safe in this moment by hiding.”
La défaite de Viktor Orban aux élections hongroises a changé la donne. Les États membres de l'Union européenne sont parvenus a s'entendre sur un remboursement par l'UE des fonds avancés à l'Ukraine par chaque pays. Un mécanisme qui ouvre la voie à de nouvelles aides pour soutenir Kiev.
Can the United Nations be saved? Should it be? As world leaders and war criminals gather for the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Vijay Prashad, executive director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, says that despite today’s gangster rule by the likes of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the UN Charter still sets the standard for judging powerful states, making it “the most important treaty document that the world has ever had” – even with the institution built on it in shambles.
Prashad slams Secretary-General António Guterres’s failure to get “creative” to end the genocide in Gaza or to stand up to Trump on Iran, instead opening a free lane for the US president who has “put a loaded gun on the table and has threatened the world.”
After the US denied visas to the Palestinians for a second year and heavily restricted Iran’s delegation, Prashad makes the case for moving the high-level UNGA out of the US: “New York doesn’t deserve it anymore,” he says, offering alternatives in Geneva or Nairobi. “Let’s move it to the Global South. Why not?”
Face à des Européens peu audibles à l'Assemblée générale de l'ONU et inquiets de leurs vulnérabilités économiques, Aurore Lalucq, présidente de la commission des Affaires économiques et monétaires du Parlement européen, nous livre son analyse après la dernière réunion de l’Eurogroupe à laquelle elle a participé. Aurore Lalucq est eurodéputée du groupe socialiste et co-présidente de "Place publique".
Face à des Européens peu audibles à l'Assemblée générale de l'ONU et inquiets de leurs vulnérabilités économiques, Aurore Lalucq, présidente de la commission des Affaires économiques et monétaires du Parlement européen, nous livre son analyse après la dernière réunion de l’Eurogroupe à laquelle elle a participé. Aurore Lalucq est eurodéputée du groupe socialiste et co-présidente de "Place publique".
A massive backlog of voter registration applications in Texas could affect the outcome of local and state elections, including a contentious election involving a U.S. Senate seat.
Public officials in the Republican-controlled state have not yet acknowledged what the error actually is. It’s also possible that the error could have affected elections from before the primary elections in March 2026, officials have acknowledged.
“Texas county voter registrars across the state have received a flood of new voter registrations and updates to voter registration records submitted through the Texas Department of Public Safety,” said Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials. “Some of these submissions date as far back as October 2025.”
All 254 counties in the state appear to be affected. The Texas Secretary of State’s office alerted all counties to the issue in an email last week, writing:
Counties have alerted us to the fact that some older [Department of Public Safety] registrations are now appearing on their dashboard. We are actively investigating this issue to determine the source of these historical records.
The situation is dire, as the registration deadline for Texan voters for the upcoming general election is October 5. County officials have until October 19 to process registrations, which is the same date that early voting begins.
James Talarico, a Democrat and state representative who is running in the Senate election against State Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), called the situation “unacceptable,” and encouraged all voters to check their registration status.
“Less than two weeks before the voter registration deadline, thousands of Texans are now in the dark about their voter registration status — even more aren’t aware of this error at all,” Talarico said in a statement. “This is what a broken, corrupt political system looks like: Texans follow the rules, register to vote before the deadline, and still risk losing their God-given right to the ballot box because their government failed to do its job.”
The Senate race between Talarico and Paxton is a close one, and even a small error that goes unaddressed before the November election could affect the outcome.
A longtime Republican stronghold, Talarico is currently ahead in the polls with a slim lead against Paxton. According to an average of surveys collected by the polling aggregate site FiftyPlusOne, Talarico secures around 47.9 percent of the vote, while Paxton receives around 44.6 percent.
Entre el 5 % y el 10 % de las personas enterradas en cada una de las comunidades griegas de la Edad del Bronce que se han analizado no se había criado en el lugar donde murió. Es uno de los resultados de un trabajo publicado en la revista PLOS One por un equipo del […]
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