© Hannah Beier for The New York Times
Ukraine’s 160th Separate Mechanized Brigade has published new photos of its Abrams tank “Lucifer,” showing how Ukrainian crews are adapting Western armor to survive the increasing FPV drone threats on the front line that are defining modern warfare.
Drones have significantly reduced the battlefield advantage of tanks by enabling low-cost, precise strikes against weak points in armored vehicles. This has forced Ukrainian crews to adapt heavy armor with additional protective structures, including cage-style and modular field modifications.
According to Defense Blog, the tank is an M1A1 AIM Abrams operated by the brigade’s tank battalion and is among 49 vehicles transferred to Ukraine by Australia. The vehicle has been fitted with extensive modular cage-style protection covering the turret, hull sides, and rear.
Defense Blog notes that the modifications are designed to counter FPV drone threats, which increasingly target weaker sections of armored vehicles such as engine decks, rear armor, and roof areas.
The cage system reportedly allows the turret to rotate freely while maintaining overhead protection, addressing a key limitation of earlier field modifications that restricted combat use.
FPV drones have become one of the most widespread threats to armored vehicles on the front line, forcing Ukrainian crews to repeatedly modify Western-supplied systems in the field.
Defense Blog reports that the design seen on “Lucifer” reflects a more structured approach to these adaptations, moving beyond improvised protection toward modular systems that can be replicated across units.
Separate protective sections for the turret and hull are intended to preserve maneuverability while expanding coverage against drone attacks from multiple angles.
The outlet adds that Australian-supplied Abrams tanks are now integrated into Ukraine’s operational fleet in frontline sectors, where crews continue to adjust battlefield equipment based on real-time combat experience.
The unit said few systems match a tank for firepower and protection, describing the Abrams as a vehicle that “clears the way where the enemy tries to hold its positions.”
It added that crews are prepared to carry out high-risk missions under fire. The brigade also said that naming a tank “Lucifer” reflects its combat role and warned that it gives opposing forces “every reason to worry.”
Ministry says animals fitted with sensors by foreign agencies collect sensitive sea data, in ‘invisible secret war’
China’s ministry of state security has claimed that foreign espionage and intelligence agencies are using innovative new methods to monitor the country’s waters, including deploying “spy” animals fitted with sensors.
In a post on the Chinese platform WeChat on Friday, the ministry warned that an “invisible secret war” was quietly playing out in the seas around China as foreign agencies were collecting sensitive data “through a variety of new spying devices” to produce underwater maps that pose a “serious threat to our national security”.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Aman Rochman/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Aman Rochman/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Aman Rochman/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Hundreds of diaspora academics are calling on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to reverse its exclusion of the Greek language. In an open letter, hundreds of professors, academics, authors, educators, researchers, publishers, and members of the global intellectual community expressed their deep concern. They urged Amazon to “reconsider its current policy and demonstrate leadership in protecting linguistic and cultural diversity in the digital age.”
The signatories brought together by the International Hellenic Association (IHA), point out that Amazon ironically derives its name from Greek mythology and language. They emphasize that “the exclusion of Greek—one of the foundational languages of global intellectual history—is not merely a technical omission, but a cultural loss whose consequences extend far beyond the Greek-speaking community itself.”
The letter, bearing the signatures primarily of Greek diaspora academics mobilized by the IHA, highlights several critical points regarding Amazon KDP, a self-publishing platform allowing authors to distribute digital and print books globally:
Consequently, Greek is far more than a tool for communication or commerce; it is a treasury of wisdom, virtue, and beauty. Its global significance has been internationally recognized by UNESCO, which officially declared February 9th as World Greek Language Day, honoring its timeless contribution to global civilization.
Excluding Greek-language publishing from one of the world’s most influential digital platforms creates artificial barriers for Greek-speaking authors, educators, students, and publishers worldwide. Simultaneously, it undermines the broader principle of linguistic diversity in the global digital landscape.
For years, Greek authors and publishers have relied on Amazon for the international distribution of literature, academic research, and educational materials. In turn, Greek consumers have consistently supported Amazon’s products and services throughout every stage of its technological evolution, the open letter by Greek academics says.
Una vez más, la violencia racista ha tomado las calles del Reino Unido. Una vez más, el mensaje de odio ha ganado cuerpo y ha crecido hasta su explosión en redes sociales y el incendio en el mundo físico y real. Esta semana ha sido en Belfast, la capital de Irlanda del Norte, una ciudad que creía olvidadas escenas como las que se han visto desde la madrugada del lunes al martes: gritos de odio, edificios y vehículos incendiados por una muchedumbre hostil, gente huyendo con lo puesto de sus hogares en llamas. La causa no ha sido, como hace décadas en la época de los troubles, el odio religioso entre irlandeses; el objetivo de la horda es ahora la población de origen inmigrante.
© Peter Morrison (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Ancient footprints carved into rocks across Scandinavia may have served a much deeper purpose than simple decoration. New research suggests these unusual carvings, known as podomorphs, could have helped Bronze Age people create lasting connections with places and with each other.
The study, led by Fredrik Fahlander and published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, challenges traditional views that treated the carvings mainly as symbols or images. Instead, the research argues that the footprints were active parts of social and ritual life during the Nordic Bronze Age, which lasted roughly from 1700 BC to 500 BC.
Rock art from the Nordic Bronze Age includes several common motifs, such as boats, people, animals, and circles. Footprints stand out from the rest.
Unlike other designs, the carved footprints are often close to life size. They appear throughout southern Scandinavia and are found both along coastlines and inland. Researchers note that similar footprint carvings are rare elsewhere in Europe during the same period.
The carvings show both bare feet and footprints left by leather footwear. Many include lines that appear to represent shoe straps. Some are deeply hollowed out, while others are outlined with grooves. Researchers believe the artists deliberately made them resemble real footprints left in sand, mud, or snow.
For decades, archaeologists proposed various explanations. Some suggested the footprints represented gods, ancestors, or the dead. Others linked them to rituals, remembrance, or claims over territory. Yet many of those theories struggled to explain the wide variety of footprint sizes, shapes, and arrangements found across Scandinavia.
Fahlander approached the carvings from a different angle. Instead of asking what the footprints represented, the study examined how they were made, where they were placed, and how they interacted with the surrounding landscape.
The research focused on the Mälaren region of eastern Sweden, where more than 600 footprint carvings have been documented across over 140 sites. Most appear near former shorelines and waterways. Many face toward water or natural channels where rainwater regularly flows across the rock surface.
Some footprints were carved directly across quartz veins or placed within mineral-rich sections of rock. Others were positioned around natural cracks and depressions that collect water. These patterns suggest the locations were carefully chosen rather than random.
The study argues that the carvings were intended to interact with the natural qualities of the rock. Water, minerals, and landscape features may have played important roles in how people understood the footprints and their power.
Many paired carvings are not identical. One footprint is often larger than the other. Some differ in design, orientation, or level of detail. This suggests they may not represent a single person’s two feet. Instead, researchers propose that two different individuals may have contributed to the pair.
According to the study, a lone footprint may have served as an invitation for another person to add a matching one later. The result would be a permanent connection carved into stone.
Researchers suggest these paired footprints could have marked friendships, agreements, family ties, marriages, or other important relationships. Some examples show the footprints connected by grooves or enclosed within shared shapes, strengthening the impression of a deliberate bond.
The idea fits a broader pattern seen in Bronze Age Scandinavia, where objects were often deposited in pairs during rituals.
The study concludes that the footprint carvings were likely much more than artistic symbols. They may have been seen as extensions of real people who remained connected to them over time.
Unlike ordinary footprints that disappear from sand or soil, these impressions were carved into stone to last for generations. Researchers believe that permanence was part of their purpose.
While the exact meaning of every footprint remains uncertain, the research suggests they helped Bronze Age communities materialize personal relationships and social connections in a lasting way. Nearly 3,000 years later, those carved traces may still preserve echoes of the people who created them.
Archaeologists at an ancient site in Iraq have uncovered rare cuneiform tablets, mass graves, and evidence of a large-scale siege nearly 4,000 years old, giving researchers what they call the clearest record yet of Bronze Age urban warfare in the region.
The site, Kurd Qaburstan, lies in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq and is believed to be the ancient city of Qabra. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, an associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida, led the excavations over two field seasons in 2024 and 2025 with U.S. National Science Foundation support.
Inside a structure called the Lower Town East Palace, researchers recovered 20 cuneiform tablets and more than 100 administrative sealings, the largest tablet find yet made on the Erbil Plain.
The records include palace administrative texts and a letter tied to a senior official. Several bear dates cluster within the same few days, a pattern consistent with the city’s documented fall. Earley-Spadoni said the tablets offer a detailed look at palace operations and the city’s economy in its final days.
Within the same destruction layers, researchers found the remains of 17 people. Bioarchaeologist Andrea Zurek-Ost of Michigan State University is studying the individuals.
None had been given a formal burial or left with belongings, and some appear to have died where they lay. One person was found collapsed across a stone basin.
A dig in northern Iraq has yielded rare cuneiform tablets, mass graves and a 4,000-year-old siege record that brings a forgotten ancient city back to life. pic.twitter.com/VGssXIZjt0
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) June 11, 2026
The site also showed two overlapping destruction events matching historical records of Qabra’s siege and conquest by Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad. Charred debris, fallen walls, and broken pottery point to a prolonged assault, making it the most complete archaeological case of Middle Bronze Age siege warfare identified in northern Mesopotamia.
Earley-Spadoni said the rare tablets, mass graves, and other findings from the Iraq site make clear that northern cities like Qabra were as organized and politically significant as the more familiar southern centers of ancient Mesopotamia.
A magnetic survey of more than 80 hectares uncovered a large fortification wall with towers encircling the site, matching the layout shown on the “Victory Stele of Dadusha,” an ancient monument tied to the siege.
Researchers also found a preserved street with an engineered drainage system and spaces used for food preparation and textile work.
Laboratory analysis is continuing, including DNA and isotopic testing on the 17 individuals to trace their origins and determine whether they were related.
Researchers have expanded the known Sidetic alphabet to 31 letters, moving the field closer to decoding one of Anatolia’s lost languages. The new findings come from active excavations at Side Ancient City in Antalya’s Manavgat district.
The work is led by Prof. Dr. Feriştah Alanyalı, excavation director and archaeologist at Anadolu University, in collaboration with Italian linguist Alfredo Rizza and Austrian linguist Michaela Zinko. Funding comes through the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Heritage for the Future Project.
Sidetic sits within the Luwian branch of Anatolian Indo-European languages, a grouping that also includes Lycian and Carian. Decipherment has moved slowly because the surviving inscriptions are few and most span only one or two lines.
Alanyalı said that the thin body of material has made it hard to reconstruct grammar, vocabulary, and structure with any confidence.
New excavations have brought a shift. Researchers have now recovered inscriptions running as long as 30 to 40 lines, well beyond anything previously available. Bilingual texts written in both Sidetic and Greek have also come to light.
Alanyalı said that those texts have renewed optimism because matching content across two languages helps researchers assign meaning to unknown signs and connect recurring words to known concepts.
One finding in particular has drawn attention. Researchers now think the Sidetic terms “Siruawn” and “Siruawan” refer to Side itself.
Since the Greek word “Side” (Greek:Σίδη) translates to pomegranate, a fruit that featured prominently on the city’s ancient coinage, Alanyalı said that the name likely carried the same meaning in the native language.
She described this as a significant finding for understanding the city’s origins and identity.
Side is typically known through its Greek and Roman structures, but Alanyalı said that the city’s history runs deeper.
Ancient accounts record that settlers from the Greek city of Kyme arrived at Side and, over time, abandoned their own language in favor of the one spoken by local residents.
Alanyalı said that tradition points to a community whose culture was firmly rooted long before outside groups arrived.
That cultural foundation held even after Alexander the Great brought Greek influence into the region during the fourth century B.C.
The inscriptions show that Side’s residents continued writing in Sidetic for roughly two centuries into the Hellenistic period, with the language appearing to fade only around the late second century B.C.
Alanyalı said that the persistence of Sidetic complicates the idea that Greek culture quickly swept away what came before it.
Archaeological finds also point to Side’s connections with civilizations to the east. A Neo-Assyrian seal turned up during excavations at the site.
Separately, Italian researchers obtained a Neo-Babylonian seal from residents of the area before the Turkish War of Independence. Alanyalı said that the two objects together point to cultural ties with Mesopotamia dating back to the seventh century B.C.
A bilingual inscription tied to the city’s Serapis Temple adds another dimension. Alanyalı said that the text documents how the temple was financed, listing the names of donors and the sums each contributed, all written in Sidetic.
The use of the local language for a public record of that kind confirms it was still understood and used in everyday civic life.
With the alphabet now standing at 31 known letters, up from 26, researchers working on this lost Anatolian language have a sharper set of tools.
Alanyalı said that the international team continues its work, and each newly identified letter brings the field a step closer to a fuller reading of inscriptions that Side’s people worked for generations to preserve.
© Paul Faith/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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.
JE M'INSCRIS lecourrierdesstrateges.frLe petit-déjeuner français vient de gagner quelques lignes supplémentaires sur ses étiquettes. Avec le décret n°2026-312 du 24 avril 2026, la France transpose la directive européenne 2024/1438, adoptée par l’Union européenne pour renforcer la traçabilité et l’information du consommateur. Une réforme présentée comme technique, mais qui illustre une fois encore l’appétit réglementaire de Bruxelles.
Deux grands formats par jour. Les cinq plumes du Courrier. La série Sécession, le dimanche.
Le monde commente. Vous, vous comprenez.
S'ABONNER lecourrierdesstrateges.frLe changement le plus spectaculaire concerne le miel. Désormais, les mélanges devront préciser chaque pays d’origine dans le champ visuel principal de l’emballage, avec indication du pourcentage correspondant à chaque provenance. Les producteurs devront être capables de justifier ces chiffres grâce à une documentation complète de leur chaîne d’approvisionnement.
Journal de l'EconomieAurélie GiraudSur le papier, la mesure vise à lutter contre les fraudes et à mieux informer les consommateurs. Dans la pratique, elle implique de nouveaux coûts administratifs : suivi documentaire renforcé, refonte des emballages, adaptation des logiciels de gestion et multiplication des contrôles. Les grands groupes disposent déjà de services conformité dédiés. Les petits apiculteurs et conditionneurs, eux, devront absorber ces charges supplémentaires.
Le Courrier des StratègesÉric VerhaegheLes confitures sont également concernées. Le seuil minimal de fruits passe à 450 grammes par kilo pour les confitures classiques et à 500 grammes pour les confitures extra. Les jus de fruits voient apparaître de nouvelles catégories liées à la réduction des sucres naturels, avec des critères précis à respecter.
La newsletter vous donne le matin. Le fil vous donne l'instant.
Gratuit, et en continu.
REJOINDRE LE FIL t.me/resterlibreCertes l’objectif est sanitaire, pourtant, les bénéfices réels pour le consommateur restent limités. Une confiture contenant davantage de fruits n’est pas nécessairement un produit moins calorique, tandis que les nouvelles dénominations sur les jus relèvent davantage du marketing réglementé que d’une révolution nutritionnelle. En revanche, les industriels devront reformuler certaines recettes et réimprimer des millions d’emballages.
Le Courrier des StratègesÉric VerhaegheLe Conseil de l'Union européenne présente cette révision comme un progrès démocratique. David Clarinval, alors vice-premier ministre belge et ministre de l'agriculture, déclarait lors de l'adoption : les nouvelles règles possibles aux consommateurs « de faire des choix plus éclairés et plus sains. » Belle intention. Sauf que les grands industriels absorberont ces contraintes par des économies d’échelle ; les petits producteurs et artisans, souvent familiaux, subiront de plein fouet les frais fixes de recomposition et d’emballage. La norme descend jusque dans le pot de confiture, là où la marge est déjà mince et la concurrence internationale rude.
Le Courrier des StratègesRédactionCette réforme illustre une fois de plus la dérive d’une Union européenne qui ne sait plus s’arrêter. Sous couvert de protection du consommateur, elle renforce le pouvoir des bureaucraties et des grands acteurs capables d’influencer ou d’anticiper les normes à Bruxelles, au détriment de la diversité des productions locales et de la liberté entrepreneuriale.
Un média libre vit de ses lecteurs. Un pourboire ponctuel, sans compte ni engagement, quand le cœur vous en dit.
Vous donnez ce que vous voulez. Vous restez libre.
LAISSER UN POURBOIRE merci !Après les champs, les usines et les commerces, la réglementation descend désormais jusque dans le pot de confiture. Une preuve supplémentaire que la bureaucratie européenne ne se contente plus de fixer les règles du marché : elle entend désormais en définir chaque détail, jusqu’au contenu du petit-déjeuner.
It was extreme even for a figure like Nigel Farage. Hours after the police footage of officers handcuffing Henry Nowak on the fatal night of December 3 in Southampton became public and spread like wildfire on social media, the Reform UK leader called on citizens to respond with “pure, cold rage.” The young Nowak had been fatally stabbed by a man of Sikh faith and Asian descent, who later falsely accused him of a racist attack. “I can’t breathe,” the victim shouted up to nine times, to the officers’ disbelief as they moved against him. His cry of agony echoed the words George Floyd uttered on the streets of Minneapolis, which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.
© Christopher Furlong (Getty Images)
New name, Bristol Dockyards, and museum revamp aimed at becoming more rooted in community, says chief executive
One of the UK’s maritime landmarks is being renamed as part of a drive to make it “cooler” and more inclusive.
For a decade, the dockland site in Bristol that houses the ocean liner SS Great Britain, which was designed by the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, has been promoted as Brunel’s SS Great Britain.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Tony Smith/Alamy
© Photograph: Tony Smith/Alamy
© Photograph: Tony Smith/Alamy
Reform UK leader has been unusually quiet in recent weeks – at great cost to the party during a crucial byelection
Fake images of Nigel Farage have been ubiquitous online lately – but the real politician has proved far more elusive since it was revealed seven weeks ago that he took a £5m personal gift from a crypto billionaire.
And while an AI-generated depiction of the Reform UK leader was falsely shown getting violent on BBC’s Question Time, Farage has been largely avoiding the TV studios where he might face questions over the cash.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/Reuters
© Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/Reuters
© Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/Reuters
Hybrid threats span both hardware and politics, said Colonel Sönke Marahrens. The list of methods includes overflights, the cutting of undersea cables, and a concerted disinformation campaign. It also reaches into political and judicial systems, including what he called the "disposable agent" model —civilians recruited online for one-off sabotage or surveillance. As a model for how the state should respond, Colonel Marahrens pointed to Finland. Authorities there detained a suspected sabotage vessel within an hour of Baltic Sea cable damage.
Recognition had arrived slowly, Marahrens told the New Age Defence forum in Berlin on 8 June, Ukrinform reported. "Germany recognized rather late that we are being attacked by such hybrid methods," the colonel said. "But I would say that in the last year and a half to two years, we see a shift at the political level as well."
The colonel heads a department at the Bundeswehr's Center for Digitalization and Capability Development. The center reports to the Cyber and Information Domain Command in Bonn. German intelligence services and state institutions are increasingly informing citizens of the changing security environment, he said.
Russian pressure now reaches beyond physical sabotage, Marahrens said. "It's not just drones and not just undersea cables, it's also disinformation within our society. It's the use of the political and judicial systems, the concept of 'disposable agents,'" he said.
Unidentified drones over European critical infrastructure, including German sites, had a primarily psychological effect, the colonel said. The impact was not military. Germany's National Security Council should receive real powers for rapid decision-making, he argued. The colonel cited Finland's response time of less than an hour after the Baltic Sea cable damage.
"Creating societal resilience is something we in Germany have yet to learn." — Col. Sönke Marahrens, Bundeswehr Center for Digitalization and Capability Development
Germany draws on Ukrainian wartime experience through financing, joint training, and front-line exchanges, Marahrens said. "We support Ukraine financially," he said. "We also adopt the experience gained from the battlefield. We provide training for them, and we also adopt experience from them during joint exercises at our training grounds."
The most important Ukrainian lesson, the colonel said, is societal resilience under wartime conditions. "Creating societal resilience is something we in Germany have yet to learn," Marahrens said. The Kremlin coordinates large-scale hybrid operations across Europe, the agency added. These campaigns aim to discredit Kyiv and inflame internal conflicts in EU states amid Russia's war on Ukraine.
Login
