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La Macédoine du Nord sera-t-elle le premier pays des Balkans à émettre une monnaie électronique, des denars numériques, comme mode de paiement sécurisé ? L'objectif affiché est de mettre un frein à la corruption.

- Le fil de l'Info / Economie, Radio Slobodna Evropa, Macédoine du Nord

Elena Lasconi, Vorsitzende der Oppositionspartei „Union Rettet Rumänien“ (USR), hat bestätigt, dass sie bei den Präsidentschaftswahlen 2025 kandidieren wird. Die Teilnahme von Crin Antonescu als Kandidat der Regierungskoalition scheint hingegen zunehmend unwahrscheinlich.

Der tschechische Senat plant, über ein neues Spionageabwehrgesetz zu debattieren, das auf die Bekämpfung ausländischer Spionage abzielt, insbesondere aus Russland. Es gibt jedoch Bedenken, dass das Gesetz die Meinungsfreiheit einschränken könnte.

Le président de la jeunesse du quartier Sayo, dans la ville Beni (Nord-Kivu), John Kelia, a appelé mercredi 8 janvier la population de ce coin à se désolidariser de tout mouvement insurrectionnel.

Il a lancé ce message après qu’un déplacement massif de la population a été signalé dans cette partie de Beni le weekend dernier, pendant que des hommes armés non identifiés s’étaient installés dans l’une des cellules de ce quartier.

Die sozialdemokratische und die liberale Fraktion des EU-Parlaments drängen auf eine Debatte über Fake News und Hassreden, die auf der nächsten Plenarsitzung in Straßburg vom 20. bis 23. Januar auf die Agenda kommen soll.

Le panel d’experts de la société civile a encouragé, lundi 6 janvier, les autorités congolaises à lutter contre l’exploitation illicite des minerais au Sud-Kivu.

Cette organisation a livré sa position dans une déclaration, faite à Kinshasa, intitulée : « Sud-Kivu, traque, arrestation et expulsion des chinois, du sensationnel au non-respect des procédures légales ».

 

Der polnische Landwirtschaftsminister Czesław Siekierski erklärte, dass die Verhandlungen über eine langfristige Liberalisierung des Agrarhandels mit der Ukraine mit Gesprächen über das EU-Mercosur-Handelsabkommen verknüpft werden sollten.

How Biden internationalized “middle-out economics.”

Revue de presse kinoise du jeudi 9 janvier 2025.

Deux sujets se disputent les colonnes des journaux parus ce jeudi à Kinshasa. Le premier sujet porte sur les Forces armées de la RDC qui ont repris le contrôle de Masisi-centre dans le Nord-Kivu alors que le second sur le meurtre du journaliste Patrick Adonis à Lubumbashi, chef-lieu du Haut-Katanga.

L’auteur de « Houris » revient, dans un entretien au « Monde », sur les polémiques déclenchées par le prix comme par son soutien à Boualem Sansal, toujours en prison en Algérie.

Les récents combats entre les Forces armées de la RDC et les rebelle du M23 dans certaines parties de l’Est de la République démocratique du Congo ont causé le déplacement de plus de 100.000 personnes la semaine dernière, ont indiqué les Nations Unies.

Americas Airbus US Space & Defense Inc., Arlington, Virginia won a $315,043,393 modification for UH-72 Lakota contractor logistics support and engineering services. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas, with an estimated completion date of December 31, 2025. Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $85,621,324 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. The US Navy has declared initial operational capability (IOC) for the Next-Generation Jammer Mid-Band (NGJ-MB) system, taking a major step in providing the E/A-18 Growler an edge in electromagnetic spectrum warfare. Utilizing the latest software-based and electronically scanned array technologies, the NGJ-MB provides enhanced capabilities to deny and distract adversaries’ radars in the range of 2 GHz to 6 GHz of the overall threat spectrum. Middle East & Africa Elbit Systems has secured a significant $60 million contract with a NATO European country to supply its advanced ReDrone counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS). This deal highlights the growing concern amongst NATO members regarding the increasing threat of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and their potential misuse by terrorists and smugglers. Elbit Systems, a leading global defence technology company, is set to deliver the […]

Ce mercredi 8 janvier 2025, le gouvernement de Pedro Sanchez a lancé en grandes pompes, dans le musée Reina Sofia de Madrid, un marathon commémoratif pour célébrer les 50 ans de la mort de Franco. Cette initiative n’est pas du tout du goût de l’opposition qui y voit une manière de faire diversion et d’opposer les Espagnols les uns aux autres.

Depuis la fin du mois de novembre, la capitale malgache a connu moins de dix jours de pluie. À la même époque, les années précédentes, Antananarivo avait déjà vécu des épisodes pluvieux abondants, classiques pour la saison. Conséquence : les ressources en eau s’épuisent et la production agricole est menacée.

Uncle Sam is getting his rear-end kicked by the Russians and Chinese (heck, even the North Koreans are starting to outdo the Americans) in the all-important realm of hypersonic weapons. Indeed, it’s possible that China is even already creating working defenses against hypersonic weapons (meaning that Beijing is doubling up on success whereas the Americans are still languishing in the design phase).

But a new U.S. defense project between the Department of Defense and contractor Kratos is desperately trying to change that with a new project. Given how key hypersonic weapons are, and will continue to be, the Kratos effort must be assessed. 

Kratos Saves the Day?

Under the rubric of “MACH TB 2.0,” Kratos is attempting to “enhance the United States’ capabilities in hypersonic technology through rapid, affordable testing,” according to Kalif Shaikh at Interesting Engineering, a trade publication. 

Both the Kratos leadership and the top brass at the Pentagon believe that one of the key reasons that the Russians and Chinese have surpassed the Americans in developing a reliable, real-world hypersonic weapons capacity has to do with the extreme costs of hypersonic weapons development and testing. 

In fact, when it comes to testing hypersonic systems, the United States is far behind the curve. Wind tunnels are key elements behind testing hypersonic systems. Guess where the world’s most powerful wind tunnel is for testing hypersonic systems? China.

Kratos is leading a group of powerful defense contractors, including the likes of Leidos and Rocket Lab, all of which are keen on expediting the R&D cycles of American hypersonic weapons. Kratos believes that it can reduce the risks and costs associated with hypersonic weapons development by accelerating the delivery of these systems in the field. One way to do that is by deploying advanced flying testbeds to allow for researchers to assess the efficacy of their hypersonic systems in real-world conditions.

Is the Problem Fundamental or Can It Be Resolved Quickly?

Pentagon insiders (and those at Kratos) do not believe that the United States lacks the fundamentals to achieve parity with both Russia and China in hypersonic weapons. They think the problem is taking all the disparate pieces the Pentagon has been assembling for hypersonic weapons research and development and accelerating those projects. There might be something to this theory. 

After all, hypersonic weapons have been researched since the last part of the Cold War. It’s not really new technology. The Americans, however, did not develop these systems, which left a gap for both Russia and China to fill.

So, it might very well be that this is an application problem rather than a fundamental inability to compete. Of course, the United States is being shown up by its rivals, notably China, in multiple other domains. Yet, the Americans are right to give the Kratos team a chance to see if it can accelerate the American development of hypersonic weapons. If Kratos is right, then the United Statees could achieve real parity with China and Russia in hypersonic weapons in the five years or so.

There are some problems with this outlook. 

Fundamentally, the defense industrial base is broken and the procurement systems for these weapons systems are increasingly corrupt and inefficient. The quest for greater weapons has been hindered by defense firms’ massive profit seeking—even at the expense of national readiness. 

Should the Kratos team be wrong, and the problems affecting America’s hypersonic weapons development are far more fundamental and systemic, then the United States will find itself in a world of hurt, as Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons threaten the homeland in ways that conventional missiles simply cannot. 

A global arms race is occurring, and the Americans are in the unenviable position of being on the defensive. Hopefully Kratos can help overcome these problems soon. 

Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest, and a contributor at Popular Mechanics, consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

« Les pans du territoire qui sont occupés par les forces d'agression seront tous récupérés un par un », a déclaré ce mercredi 8 janvier le ministre de la Communication et Médias, porte-parole du Gouvernement, Patrick Muyaya. C’était à l’issue la réunion du Conseil supérieur de la défense élargi que le Chef de l’État congolais, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi a présidé ce mercredi à la Cité de l'Union africaine à Kinshasa.

En Ukraine, près de cinq millions de personnes ont été déplacées depuis le début de l’invasion russe à grande échelle. Elles viennent pour la plupart des régions de l’Est, notamment de la région de Donetsk, d’où elles continuent de fuir les combats. Malgré l’ordre d’évacuation totale de la population donné il y a plusieurs mois par les autorités régionales, en raison de l’avancée des troupes russes, beaucoup ne se résignent pas à quitter leur foyer qu’une fois que les bombardements s’abattent sur leurs communes. Un reportage de notre envoyée spéciale dans les régions de Dnipropetrovsk et Donetsk auprès de ceux qui partent, et de ceux qui restent.

Le bulletin météorologique de ce jeudi 9 janvier 2025 annonce une fin de semaine sous le signe de la stabilité et d’un ciel globalement dégagé […]

L’article Météo du jeudi 9 janvier : passages nuageux et temps stable en vue, voici les prévisions du jour est apparu en premier sur .

In September of last year, it was reported that Russia had launched an astonishing 8,060 drones developed by the long-time Russian ally, the Islamic Republic of Iran, in Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. 

At the time, it was an extraordinary number. The reporting back in September 2024 highlighted the importance that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of all shapes and sizes had for both sides fighting in Ukraine (the Ukrainians use overwhelming numbers of Turkish-produced drones). 

The Iranian drones that Russia loves are the Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 one-way attack unmanned aerial systems. In an October 2022 assessment by the Council of Foreign Relations, the bulk of the drones Iran handed over to Russia belonged to the Shahed-136 model. That’s the specific Iranian-built drone we’ll be analyzing here.

Back in March, the Russians signed a licensing agreement with Iran that allowed them to domestically produce these systems. According to a November 2024 report by Iran International, a website that advocates the end of the Islamist regime in Iran, the presence of large numbers of cheaply produced Iranian drones “supercharged Russia’s 1,000-day fight in Ukraine.” 

An Iranian Nightmare in Ukraine 

With Russia now mass producing the Iranian drones indigenously, the Russians will likely continue enjoying the boost that the drones gave their forces when the Iranians first sold the drones to Russia. As the fight over control of the Russian enclave of Kursk, located just across the border from Ukraine has shown, Russian drones are wreaking havoc on the entrenched Ukrainian forces operating there. 

The Shahed-136, also known as “Witness” (or, Geran-2, meaning “Geranium-2” in Russian), is a delta-winged loitering munition designed for long-range attacks. The brilliance of the system lies in its relative simplicity that allows for cheap mass production and lower maintenance costs compared to other, more sophisticated drones. It has a range of a little more than 1,200 miles and can carry a warhead weighing between 88 and 110 pounds. Shahed-136 drones typically have a subsonic cruising speed of 111 miles per hour.

The basic tactics underlying the deployment of these systems involve the saturation of enemy defenses with swarms of cheaply produced Shahed-136 drones, thereby overwhelming an enemy’s air defenses and allowing for the attacking force to achieve dominance over a contested area. Another tactic involves stealthy, surgical strikes, since these drones’ relatively small size and low-flying capability makes it more difficult for defenders to see and defend against them.

Iranian Shahed-136 drones have also been used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in their efforts to terrorize international shipping—and the mighty United States Navy—in the Red Sea and Strait of Bab El-Mandeb. That Tehran is the producer of this specific drone should not surprise anyone. Being a relatively small power under immense international sanctions has meant that the Iranian regime has had to innovate unique asymmetrical warfare capabilities. 

No Easy Defense 

The Shahed-136 is particularly vexing for nations on the receiving end of its attacks. The drone poses significant defensive challenges, as both the Houthis out of Yemen and the Russians fighting in Ukraine have shown. Drones have proven that only layered air defense systems have a chance at reliably countering the threat that drone swarms pose to defenders. 

Such systems, however, are expensive to maintain—especially when compared to the relative cost and the overwhelming lethality of the Shahed-136 drones. What’s more, the risk of Iran proliferating these systems to other actors, particularly non-state actors, such as terrorist organizations beyond the Houthis, is a real complicating factor when it comes to defense.

Iranian weapons designers have already learned a great deal from the experience of their systems in various theaters of global warfare. They are applying those lessons learned to future iterations both of the Shahed-136 and other, more advanced Iranian drones. 

It is obvious that drone warfare will continue to evolve and to increasingly dominate the future of modern warfare. The Iranians understand this. As do the Turks and Russians. We shall see if the Western world truly understands this new reality. 

Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest, and a contributor at Popular Mechanics, consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

Image: Shutterstock.