Russia has showcased some of its advanced weapons while conducting a joint military drill with Belarusian troops amid heightened tensions with NATO countries following alleged violations of the airspaces of Poland and Romania by Moscow.
Approximately 7,000 troops, including 6,000 Belarusian soldiers, participated in exercises held at locations in Belarus and Russia.
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Russia conducted a test strike with a Kalibr missile from the nuclear submarine named Arkhangelsk in the Barents Sea during the joint Russia-Belarus “Zapad” military drills, Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday. The strike on the designated target was carried out by the submarine from an underwater position, Interfax reported.
Moscow and Minsk insisted on Tuesday that the drills are defensive, meant to simulate a response to an invasion.
But NATO states along the alliance’s eastern flank see them as a threat, particularly after alleged Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace last week. Warsaw has since warned that “open conflict” is closer now than at any point since World War II. Romania on Sunday accused Russia of drone incursion during its attacks on Ukraine.
Britain’s Labour Party-led government on Monday announced its fighter jets will fly air defence missions over Poland to counter aerial threats.
Russia has been at war with Ukraine since it launched a ground invasion in 2022.
Belarus’s Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin dismissed the NATO concerns.
“We have heard a lot of things … that we are threatening NATO, that we are going to invade the Baltic states,” he told reporters at the Barysaw base, east of Minsk. “Simply put, all kinds of nonsense.”
Still, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania have stepped up security, closing borders and carrying out counter-drills.
Belarus invites international observers
Belarus allowed rare media access, inviting foreign journalists, TV crews and even US army officers.
“Thank you for the invitation,” Bryan Shoupe, the US military attache, said as he shook hands with the Belarusian defence minister.
“Give the American guests the best places and show them everything that interests them,” the defence minister said. Cameras captured Khrenin shaking hands with two US Army officers, thanking them for attending.
The drills were a tightly choreographed show of force. Camouflaged armoured vehicles splashed across a river, helicopters swooped low over treetops, and young conscripts loaded shells into artillery systems. Others prepared drones for mock strikes.
Reporters were excluded from the naval manoeuvres in the Barents and Baltic seas, as well as the exercises near Grodna, close to the Polish and Lithuanian borders.
Minsk highlighted the limited scale of the drills, stressing that only 7,000 troops were involved. By comparison, the 2021 Zapad exercises included about 200,000 personnel, just months before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Khrenin said the reduced numbers reflected Minsk’s efforts to ease tensions. “We have nothing to hide,” he insisted. “We are only preparing to defend our country.”
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Last week, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was found guilty of attempting a coup and sentenced to just over 27 years in prison.
A panel of Supreme Court justices on Thursday found that the 70-year-old had sought to overthrow democracy and hang onto power despite his 2022 electoral defeat to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
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Four out of five justices voted in favour of convicting Bolsonaro and his fellow defendants. Justice Luiz Fux, in the sole dissenting vote, said there was not enough evidence to find Bolsonaro guilty of attempting a coup.
The other justices ruled that the attempted coup began in 2021 when Bolsonaro began casting unfounded doubts about the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting system. After Bolsonaro lost to Lula, efforts to maintain himself in office illegally accelerated, they said.
Bolsonaro’s alleged multipronged plan included a draft decree to suspend the election result, a meeting with Brazil’s top military commanders to ask for their support in a coup and a plot to assassinate Lula, Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who spearheaded the case against Bolsonaro.
On January 8, 2023, when Bolsonaro supporters ransacked the Supreme Court, the presidential palace and Congress a week after Lula’s inauguration, it was a last-ditch effort to force an army takeover, the court said.
Relations between Brazil and the United States are likely to further deteriorate after the ruling. US President Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods in July, citing what he called a “witch-hunt” against Bolsonaro. After Bolsonaro’s conviction, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump’s government “will respond accordingly”.
In response, Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government will continue to defend the country’s sovereignty “from aggressions and attempts at interference, no matter where they come from”.
As Brazilians brace for economic repercussions, many are wondering about the political ones as well. Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters took to the streets this month before the high court deliberations, leading to concerns of possible violence after a guilty verdict.
But after the sentencing announcement, the streets were mostly filled with delighted Bolsonaro opponents celebrating the outcome.
Whether Bolsonaro will be granted amnesty, win some sort of appeal or be made to serve an unprecedented sentence remains to be seen. On the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Al Jazeera spoke to Brazilians about how they viewed the verdict.
Sidney Santos, a taxi driver, believes the charges, trial and verdict were all a set-up [Eleonore Hughes/Al Jazeera]
Sidney Santos, 50, taxi driver, lives in Rio’s Gloria neighbourhood
“I feel very indignant and revolted because it was a set-up. The left, along with Alexandre de Moraes and the entire Supreme Court, created this whole scheme to get Bolsonaro out of politics because he was strong.
“Trump’s tariff didn’t change anything because the outcome was already planned. Trump is pressuring other countries as well, but here, the current president didn’t sit down to negotiate.
“Unfortunately, there’s no democracy. The fake democracy they’re talking about, that they claim they’re fighting for, it’s all a lie because if you say something, if you go against their actions, then you’re going against democracy. This is a dictatorship of the robe.
“The left wants to collapse Brazil and turn Brazil into the next Venezuela. Things are only going to get worse.”
Lea Aparecida Gomes, a cleaner, once supported Bolsonaro but quickly became disillusioned [Eleonore Hughes/Al Jazeera]
Lea Aparecida Gomes, 55, cleaner, lives in Rio’s northern zone Madureira
“Bolsonaro won’t be arrested. Here in Brazil, nothing works. If he really ends up in jail, then Brazil will start working.
“When Bolsonaro ran for the first time, I voted for him because I thought he was going to make the country better. I trusted him because he was part of the military, like my son is. But I was really disappointed. The pandemic was horrible. I think a lot of people died because of him. I lost a cousin to COVID. She was 44 years old. He kept delaying the vaccine.
“I think it’s just stupidity. A person over 70 years old could be living happily with the salary he already gets, but he wanted more. Well, I hope he’s happy in prison. He brought this on himself. He had so much and still wasn’t satisfied.”
Caio Eduardo Alves de Aquino feels the case is a distraction from the real issues facing Brazilians [Eleonore Hughes/Al Jazeera]
Caio Eduardo Alves de Aquino, 21, works at a kiosk in Copacabana and lives in the Rocinha favela
“I don’t care about the conviction. I don’t know whether there was an attempted coup. Whether Bolsonaro is free or in prison, for me, it doesn’t matter. They are all the same.
“The least politicians could do is think about the future of the children. They always say that children are the future, but education is terrible. My mum says school was better in her time. Everything just keeps getting worse.
“Lula talks about education, about other things, but nothing improves. Nothing changes.”
Sixteen-year-old Morena says the verdict feels like justice is finally being served [Eleonore Hughes/Al Jazeera]
Morena, 16, student
“When I found out Bolsonaro had been convicted, it was emotional. I felt a sense of justice finally being served after so many years enduring the Bolsonaro government and its absurdity. Pure irresponsibility during the pandemic – not buying vaccines, not wearing a mask as president. This led to over 500,000 deaths. And yes, he is guilty for that.
“There was an attempted coup on January 8. I believe Bolsonaro knew about it and supported it, and I think the 27-year sentence is justified.
“It’s a very important step. He is the first former president to be arrested for attempting a coup. But there’s still a lot that needs to be done. Many arrests are still missing, and there is still much justice to be served for various things that happened during, before and after Bolsonaro’s government.
“I think a lot about remarks in small interviews or comments by Bolsonaro himself, his sons, his friends. Racist remarks, homophobic remarks, things that are criminal. He hasn’t been judged or prosecuted for those because we’re in Brazil.
“There are many others who hold the same ideology and uphold the same values as he does. Bolsonarism is still very strong. So there’s still a lot left to do. This is just the beginning.”
Altair Lima, a public servant, says he believes the prosecutor general failed to prove anything [Eleonore Hughes/Al Jazeera]
Altair Lima, 50, public servant who lives in Sao Paulo state
“I don’t cheer for one side. I analyse technically and coldly because I’m not on one side or the other. I want what’s best for my country. I followed the trial every day. I agree with Justice Luiz Fux’s vote: The prosecutor general didn’t prove anything.
“Bolsonaro said a lot of things during the 2022 campaign, but when politicians are campaigning, they say whatever they want to win over voters. But never once did he fail to comply with what the law required.
“Trump’s tariff is an overreaching intervention. That’s not the way to influence things, and I don’t think that’s the way things will be resolved. No country should interfere so much in another’s affairs. What’s going to resolve this is Congress itself with our laws here inside the country. I believe an amnesty law will pass. If not now, then next year.
“We currently have a sitting president who has been convicted. So everything can change.
“My father is a bus driver. My mother has been a housewife her whole life. My whole life I leaned more to the left. But after so many corruption scandals, I was disappointed.
“Brazilians are hopeful by nature, and hope is always the last thing to die. So we always hang onto the hope that one day things will get better. We work every day towards that. But it’s a very long-term thing. It’s hard.”
The only British soldier charged with murder over the Bloody Sunday massacre has gone on trial in Northern Ireland, more than half a century after paratroopers opened fire on unarmed civil rights protesters, in what became a watershed moment of the Troubles – the three decades of sectarian conflict in the region.
Soldiers shot 26 civilians that day. Thirteen people were killed immediately, while another man died from his injuries four months later.
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The former British paratrooper, known as Soldier F under a court anonymity order, is accused of murdering James Wray and William McKinney and attempting to murder five others when soldiers opened fire on unarmed Catholic civil rights marchers in Derry (also known as Londonderry) on January 30, 1972.
Prosecutors have previously ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge 16 other former British soldiers.
The massacre became a pivotal moment in the Troubles, igniting nearly three decades of violence between Irish nationalists seeking civil rights and a united Ireland, pro-British unionists wanting to remain in the United Kingdom, and the British Army.
For the families of those killed and wounded, the proceedings at Belfast’s Crown Court mark the culmination of 53 years of campaigning for justice.
From Widgery to Saville
On the day of the killings, about 15,000 people had joined a march in Derry city to protest systematic discrimination against Irish Catholics in housing, voting, and employment.
As demonstrators moved through the city, soldiers from the British Parachute Regiment opened fire, gunning down people as they fled and others who stayed to help the wounded.
The Widgery Tribunal, an investigation held in 1972, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of responsibility – findings that the families of victims and campaigners rejected as a whitewash.
Tourists stand in front of a mural depicting the Bloody Sunday killings, in Derry, Northern Ireland [File: Clodagh Kilcoyne/ Reuters]
A second inquiry, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, also known as the Saville Inquiry, published its findings in June 2010. It concluded there had been no justification for any of the shootings and found that paratroopers had fired at fleeing unarmed civilians.
Then-Prime Minister David Cameron told the UK Parliament the same day that the killings were “unjustified and unjustifiable” and apologised on behalf of the British government.
Following the Saville Inquiry, police in Northern Ireland launched a murder investigation, with prosecutors finding that one former soldier would face trial for two murders and five attempted murders.
‘We shall overcome’
Outside Belfast Crown Court, John McKinney, the brother of William McKinney, described the trial as a landmark in the families’ decades-long fight for accountability.
“Everything that we have achieved to this point has been through relentless commitment and a refusal to lie down,” he said. “Today, our message is simple: towards justice, we shall overcome.”
Before the proceedings began on Monday, relatives of the victims marched to the courthouse holding photographs of those who had been killed and a banner reading “towards justice”.
Soldier F, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, sat in the dock shielded on all sides by black sheets to conceal his identity, with a microphone suspended from the ceiling.
Lawyers for the prosecution said the case was focused specifically on the shooting of seven civilians as they ran through a residential courtyard.
“The shooting was unnecessary and it was gratuitous and was carried out with an intent to kill,” prosecution lawyer Louis Mably told the court.
“These soldiers lost control of themselves,” he said, describing their behaviour as “unprofessional” and “an act which disgraced the British Army”.
Eyewitnesses captured the moment Israel bombed and destroyed the tallest residential building in Gaza, al-Ghafri high-rise tower in western Gaza City. The Israeli army has repeatedly hit high-rise buildings in the city in recent days, claiming without evidence that they are being used by Hamas.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has warned against Israel’s expansionist vision of the Arab region as he lambasted the country for last week’s deadly bombing of Doha, calling the assault “blatant, treacherous, and cowardly”.
“My country’s capital was subjected to a treacherous attack targeting a residence housing the families of Hamas leaders and their negotiating delegation,” the Qatari emir said in his opening speech at the emergency summit of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
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“Our citizens were surprised, and the entire world was shocked by the aggression and cowardly terrorist act,” he said, referring to the global condemnation of the September 9 attack that killed six people.
“We are determined to do whatever is necessary to preserve our sovereignty and confront Israeli aggression.”
Doha, a close US ally that hosts the largest United States military base in the region, has dubbed the unprecedented attack “state terrorism”. The strike targeted Hamas leaders gathered to discuss a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal. The Palestinian group says its top leadership survived the assassination attempt.
Sheikh Tamim said Israel’s actions showed it had no genuine interest in peace, adding that Israel is attempting to “thwart the negotiations” aimed at ending Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 64,800 Palestinians.
“Anyone who persistently and systematically targets a negotiating party is working to thwart the negotiations,” he said.
Sheikh Tamim accused Israel of waging what he described as a war aimed at destroying Gaza, which has been under unrelenting Israeli bombardment for the past 23 months.
“The Israeli war on Gaza has turned into a war of extermination,” he said. “Israel wants to make Gaza uninhabitable as a prelude to displacing its population.”
Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Doha, said: “There’s been firm support at this summit for Qatar and condemnation of Israel over the attack, which members say undermines security and stability in the region.”
The Arab Peace Initiative
Qatar has been a key mediator in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas since Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza in October 2023. Israeli actions in Gaza have been dubbed genocide by numerous rights organisations, including the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members, including Israel’s closest ally, the US, condemned the Israeli attack on Doha on Thursday.
Addressing the UNSC, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said that Doha would not tolerate further breaches of its security and sovereignty. “Israel is undermining the stability of the region impetuously,” he said.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to attack Hamas leaders again if Qatar does not expel the Palestinian leaders. During a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Netanyahu on Monday repeated that Israel will hit Hamas “wherever they are”.
The threats come despite US President Donald Trump assuring Sheikh Tamim last week that “such a thing will not happen again on their soil”. The Trump administration has said that the attack on Doha did not “advance Israel’s or America’s goals”.
Rubio is set to travel to Qatar on Tuesday, a senior US State Department official says.
The Qatari emir said that Netanyahu is dreaming of making the Arab region “an Israeli sphere of influence”, and said that believing “the Arab region will become an Israeli zone of influence is a dangerous illusion”.
He went on to note that Israel’s rejection of the Arab Peace Initiative had contributed to repeated cycles of violence in the region.
First endorsed by the Arab League in 2002, and reaffirmed in 2007 and 2017, the initiative offered Israel full normalisation of relations with Arab states in return for a complete withdrawal from territories occupied, including the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon.
Israel’s then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected the plan as a “non-starter”, and successive Israeli governments, including Netanyahu’s, have dismissed the proposals.
![Lea Aparecida Gomes, a cleaner, once supported Bolsonaro but quickly became disillusioned. [Eléonore Hughes/Al Jazeera]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/lea-1757947902.jpg?w=696&ssl=1)
![Caio Eduardo Alves de Aquino, who lives in Rocinha Favela, feels the case is a distraction from the real issues facing Brazilians. [Eléonore Hughes/Al Jazeera]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/caio-1757947896.jpg?w=696&ssl=1)
![Altair Lima, a public servant, said he believed the prosecutor general failed to prove anything. [Eléonore Hughes/Al Jazeera]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/altair-1757947913.jpg?w=696&ssl=1)
