As Russia launches a new wave of strikes against Ukraine, Poland has briefly closed some of its airspace southeast of the city’s capital Warsaw due to “unplanned military activity.”
The transatlantic security bloc NATO announced that its mission in the Baltic Sea is being strengthened in response to drone incursions in Denmark and reported drone sightings in Norway with the deployment of Polish and allies in its airspace on Sunday.
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As diplomatic efforts to end the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine falter, new information highlights the rising tension in the region, which raises the possibility of a wider conflict erupting into Europe.
After Russia launched strikes on Ukraine, the Polish armed forces reported in the most recent incident that it scrambled aircraft to ensure the security of its airspace.
The actions were described as preventive and intended to secure airspace and safeguard people, according to the statement.
Up until early in the morning, Lublin and Rzeszow’s airspace was expected to be closed.
As of 03:00 GMT on Sunday, Ukraine’s air force had issued air raid alerts in response to Russian strikes.
Russian drones intercepted earlier this month by Polish and NATO forces entering Poland’s airspace. This was their first direct military retaliation against Moscow since the Kremlin’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian prime minister of foreign affairs, warned NATO and the EU that “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response.”
Lavrov insisted at the UN General Assembly on Saturday that Moscow was prepared to react if provoked but that it had no intentions to attack the West.
In response to a string of incidents in Denmark, NATO announced on Saturday that it would be upgrading its presence in the Baltic Sea with an air-defence frigate and other assets, including “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms.”
Unidentified drones were reportedly spotted overnight on Saturday near military installations.
Copenhagen Airport, the busiest airport in the Nordic region, was also forced to close for several hours late on Monday due to the presence of several large drones in its airspace. In the days that followed, five smaller Danish airports, both for business and for military, temporarily closed.
The incursions, according to Danish authorities, are hybrid attacks, and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called them “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”
Police in neighboring Norway announced on Saturday that they were looking into possible drone sightings close to Norway’s Oerland Air Force base, which is the main hub for Norway’s F-35 jets.
A joint headquarters for the Norwegian armed forces told the Reuters news agency, “The guards at the base made several observations outside the base’s perimeter early on Saturday.”
Brynjar Stordal said in a separate statement to the AFP news agency, “The investigation will find out what it was.”
He claimed that “at least two drones” flew “for about an hour” in a restricted area close to the base before disappearing.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt in Germany reported on Saturday that Schleswig-Holstein, a state in northern Germany, had been spotted over the state on Friday.
He claimed that he wants to make air safety regulations more stringent so that drones can be shot down by the armed forces.
Defense ministers from about 10 EU countries made the announcement on Friday that building a “drone wall” to secure their borders is a priority.
According to state news agency RIA Novosti, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the measures would “accrobate the military and political tensions on our continent.”
Due to concerns over public safety, the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team has been cut out of the upcoming Giro dell’Emilia competition in Italy, according to race organizers.
Following the recent disruptions by pro-Palestinian protesters who took to the streets of Madrid to protest Israel-Premier Tech’s participation, the race’s final stage was canceled, according to the decision made on Saturday.
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Since Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which almost 66 000 Palestinians have died in an operation that the UN has hailed as a “genocide,” more people have been calling for its inclusion in international sporting events, festivals, and music competitions.
The one-day Giro dell’Emilia will take place on October 4 and will finish in Bologna, with Adriano Amici, organiser of the event, saying, “It is with regret that I have to forgo the participation of the Team this year” in light of recent events and given the characteristics of the final circuit, for the safety of all athletes, technical staff, and spectators.
Amici told the Reuters news agency, “We had to make this decision for reasons of public security.”
“The Israel Tech riders and others are in too much danger,” he said. The final circuit of the race is five times, he said, raising the risk of the race being interrupted.
During a nationwide strike in Italy called by trade unions to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza, police in Milan and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed on Monday.
The Madonna di San Luca sanctuary, which is close to Bologna’s historic center, where there is a large student population and a long history of left-wing politics, is where the Giro dell’Emilia race ends.
The center-left Democratic Party-controlled Bologna’s local government demanded Israel-Premier Tech’s inclusion in the race, citing the Israeli government’s role in perpetrating “grave crimes against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.”
The city’s sport councillor, Roberta Li Calzi, applauded the city’s decision to omit the Israeli team, which is owned by Israeli-Canadian property developer Sylvan Adams.
The World Jewish Congress refers to Adams as the “committed to promoting Israel’s global image” as the president of the Israel region.
According to a statement from Calzi, “it would have been hypocritical to view the presence of a team connected to this]Israeli] government as insignificant.”
Israel is being under increasing pressure from all sides for its brutal war and continued disregard for international orders to end Palestinian human rights.
The governing body of European football, UEFA, is expected to decide soon whether to axe Israel’s men’s football team from all competitions that fall under its purview from the country. The men’s side is currently attempting to qualify for the World Cup in 2020. If a majority of the 20-member UEFA ruling committee decides to forbid Israel from games, it is anticipated to do so.
As thousands of people protested in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, demanding justice for the alleged drug gang’s live-streamed murder of two young women and a teenager, which was live-streamed on social media.
According to officials, hundreds of protesters took to the streets on Saturday to denounce the killings that shocked Argentinians after it was revealed that 45 private account users had watched the murders live on the Instagram platform.
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Five days after they went missing, Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, cousins of 20 years old, and Lara Gutierrez, 15, were found buried in a houseyard in Buenos Aires’ southern suburb on Wednesday.
The victims were allegedly lured into a van on September 19 by investigators as part of a plot to “punish” them for breaking gang rules and to give others a warning, according to investigators.
According to Javier Alonso, the security minister for the Buenos Aires province, police discovered a video of the triple murder after a suspect in the disappearance of the three revealed it was being interrogated.
A gang leader is heard saying, “This is what happens when I steal drugs from them,” in the video.
According to Argentinian media, the torturers beat and suffocated the victims while pulling out their nails and cutting off their fingers.
Despite the fact that the majority of protesters peacefully marched, some confronted police who attacked them by threatening them with their batons and shields, according to video and images from the online news site La Izquierda Diario.
Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, cousins aged 20, and Lara Gutierrez, 15, were killed by a suspected drug gang, according to a crowd of Buenos Aires protesters on Saturday.
Family members of the victims carried placards with the images of the three and banners with their names, “Lara, Brenda, Morena,” as they marched toward the Argentinian parliament with thousands of supporters.
The AFP news agency cited Brenda’s father, Leonel del Castillo, as saying to reporters at the protest, “Women must be protected more than ever.” Due to the torture his daughter had endured, he had previously claimed that he had been unable to identify her body.
“It was a narco-femicide,” the claim goes! read the protest’s sign. Another person said, “Our lives are not disposable.”
The protesters also slammed on drums during the demonstrations to denounce President Javier Milei’s “inaction” in response to what they called the country’s growing “narco” influence.
An image of Milei and other political allies of his administration was captured in a photo that was shared on social media.
The grandfather of the murdered 20-year-old cousins, Antonio del Castillo, was crying and described the killers as “bloodthirsty” in his granddaughters.
He remarked, “You wouldn’t do what they did to an animal to an animal.”
A fifth suspect in the case was identified as the third suspect, bringing the total to three men and two women, according to Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich’s announcement on Friday. The fifth suspect was detained in Villazon, Bolivia, on suspicion of providing logistical support for the killing by supplying a car involved in the crime.
A 20-year-old Peruvian who is still at large is also seen in a photo released by authorities.
Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad celebrated his 100th birthday by following a lifelong disciplined diet that included a lot of restful eating and working.
“I work constantly, which is the main thing.” Mahathir remarked to Al Jazeera, “I don’t rest myself.”
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I constantly use my body and mind. Keep your mind and body active, he said, and you’ll live longer.
He spent his centenary writing from a desk in Putrajaya City, south of Kuala Lumpur, looking over the country’s political situation, the state of the world, and the upcoming events in Gaza, as he usually does.
After recuperating from a period of exhaustion around the age of his birthday, Mahathir sat down with Al Jazeera for an interview. He predicted that Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinian population in Gaza would be a defining moment in human history.
The killing of nearly 66, 000 Palestinians in Gaza by Israel, the majority of them women and children, will be remembered for generations, possibly for “centuries,” according to Mahathir.
“Gaza is terrible. How can this be forgotten, if they killed pregnant mothers, newborns who were just born, young people, boys and girls, men and women, the sick and the poor? he inquired.
According to Mahathir, “It won’t be forgotten for perhaps centuries.”
Mahathir referred to the conflict in Gaza as a genocide, which was comparable to Nazi Germany’s killing of Jews in World War II and the killing of Muslims in Bosnia in the early 1990s. He expressed his shock that Israel’s citizens, who had experienced genocide, could also carry out a genocide.
He said, “I believed people who suffered like that would not want to visit it on other people.” Genocide victims should not “wish their fate would befall other people,” they should say.
He claimed that he was mistaken in the case of Israel.
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in February 2020, former interim leader Mahathir Mohamad addresses a committee on the exercise of the Palestinian people’s unrequited rights.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mahathir gained a reputation as a vocal critic of Western imperialism and its current exploitation of developing nations through financial capital flows. He was at the height of his power in the 1980s and 1990s.
Mahathir, a steadfast and unwavering supporter of the Palestinian cause, received harsh criticism for making “anti-Semitic” statements alongside his attacks on the West, particularly the United States.
However, he admitted to Al Jazeera that he had a deep sympathizer for the Jewish people when World War II’s Nazis’ horrors became known.
He now claims that Israelis “did not learn anything from their experience.”
He claimed that they want to repeat what happened to them and that they want to do it with Arabs.
He continued, claiming that the only “reasonable” solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is the establishment of a two-state solution. However, Mahathir claimed that such a solution is still far off and that he would not live to see it, which was greatly aided by the recent recognition of Palestinian statehood by countries like Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom.
“No in my entire life. Too quickly, he claimed.
China is ranked as the world’s number one nation.
Mahathir, a survivor of three heart attacks and the first to win the political clout of Malaysia when he was over 90 years old, held office for a total of 24 years and earned the unquestionable title of Malaysia’s longest-serving leader.
The late Queen Elizabeth II’s grandfather, George V, was the king of England when he was born on July 10, 1925, in Kedah, northern Malaysia, and Malaysia was a British colony known as Malaya.
He resigned for the first time in the 1960s and served as prime minister from 1981 to 2003.
He then unexpectedly resurrected in 2018 when he led a coalition of opposition parties to defeat the long-running Barisan Nasional party to win the 92-year-old incumbent, making him the world’s oldest leader as a result.
After losing support as a result of political machinations within his own political party, Bersatu, he finally stepped down in the shadows in 2020.
Even Mahathir’s critics acknowledged that he laid the economic foundations for Malaysia’s prosperous modern-day agricultural economy in the 1960s, with its recognizable twin Petronas Towers clinging the skyline of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s flourishing modern capital city.
Mahathir, who is 100, continues to be as vocal, sharp, and acerbic as ever despite having lived past the point where the majority of politicians would have shied away from the spotlight.
He also had some unexpected recollections of bygone China and hints for the United States’ future.
In Putrajaya, Malaysia, in 2020, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad works there. [File: Prime Minister Office via AP]
His memories of a trip to China in the 1970s, when there were few cars on the streets and the country was “very poor” were among his best-kept recollections.
He claimed that Beijing’s authorities rolled out the red carpet and their “Red Flag” model car to escort him around because he was deputy prime minister of Malaysia at the time.
It was a very large Chinese automobile that China produced for themselves. They referred to it as “The Red Flag,” Mahathir said, citing the fact that it was one of the first Chinese to produce its own vehicles.
China’s economy has advanced a long way, and so has its expanding auto industry, which is competing with Western-produced cars, especially those that use electric vehicles.
Due to its large domestic market and hard-working population, he claimed, China’s surpassing of the US to become the “number one country in the world” is unavoidable.
China will need ten years to match America in terms of progress. China will eventually overtake America, according to Mahathir.
China surpasses Europe and America in terms of size. A sizable market exists there. It has a lot of wealth. And Chinese people are very business savvy, he said, citing his own experiences as a young Chinese immigrant who struggled to make a living in Malaysia. These families were able to improve their lives, provide for their children with a good education, and some of their grandchildren had gone on to become quite wealthy in a generation or two.
America will not be able to compete with other countries, according to the statement.
Mahathir, who spoke to Donald Trump’s administration, said that Trump’s “tariff war” was “very damaging” and that his plans to restart US production would raise costs and open the door for China’s rise.
Trump wants businesses to relocate to America. There are very high salaries there. He predicted that there will be a very different work culture than that of Chinese workers who will work for hours.
“That’s impossible for American workers to do. If the factories are relocated to America in the future, it will cost more, he added.
“America will not be able to compete with the rest of the world.”
Importantly, Trump does not have the opportunity to implement his economic plan, he claimed, because moving manufacturing plants to the US would take at least three to eight years.
Trump will no longer be president after three years, he continued.
Mahathir walks alone, exercises daily, visits his job every day, and treats visitors despite being 100 years old.
When given an invitation to speak as a guest, he uses social media and travels outside of Malaysia.
According to Mahathir, maintaining physical and mental activity and not eating excessive amounts are the keys to longevity.
He told Al Jazeera, “Don’t eat so much.”
The best advice my mother gave me was to “Stop eating when the food tastes good.”
Mahathir Mohamad, then-Malaysia’s prime minister, addresses Reuters in a 2018 interview [File: Lai Seng Sin/Reuters]
On Sunday, September 28, 2018, this is how things are going.
Fighting
The attacks on the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has forced the facility to cut off the main power grid for the past four days, have sparked a diplomatic exchange between Moscow and Kyiv.
Regional security
Following several days of unidentified drone sightings at Danish airports and military installations, NATO has announced that it is upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea with an air-defence frigate and other military assets.
Latvia and Lithuania earlier requested that NATO increase its military presence in the Baltic States, citing alleged Russian airstrikes.
A military spokesman said that Norway has launched an investigation into “possible sightings of drones” close to its biggest military base, Orland, where its cutting-edge F-35 fighter jets are stationed.
military assistance
diplomacy and politics
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, warned NATO and the European Union in a statement he delivered on Saturday at the UN General Assembly in New York that any aggression against Russia “will be met with a decisive response.” He cautioned against being provoked by Moscow.
In a separate statement to journalists, Lavrov also made the suggestion that Germany is resuming its Nazi past in an attack on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as his administration increases defense spending in response to growing Moscow threats.
In the most recent reproach following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia received 93 votes insufficient to be elected to the UN aviation agency’s governing body. During the Montreal assembly, the organization received 87 votes.
In New York, Cho Hyun, the South Korean minister of foreign affairs, met with Lavrov, who expressed “grave concern” about Russian-North Korean military cooperation. Russia’s conflict with Ukraine has received the aid of thousands of North Korean troops, and Pyongyang has greatly increased its weapons transfer to Moscow.
One year after Israel killed his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike on southern Beirut, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has declared that the armed Lebanese organization will not surrender its weapons.
Qassem promised to keep Hezbollah’s military capabilities, which have been severely weakened by its recent conflict with Israel, to the thousands who had gathered at Nasrallah’s tomb in Beirut on Saturday.
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He continued, adding that Hezbollah would continue to “confront any project that serves Israel,” adding, “We will never abandon our weapons, nor will we relinquish them.”
His remarks follow a statement from the new Lebanese administration that it would disarm the Iranian-backed organization.
Tensions soared between Hezbollah supporters and opponents in Lebanon as he approached the one-year anniversary of his charismatic predecessor’s passing.
Despite Nawaf Salam’s orders, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam directed, the images of Nasrallah and his heir apparent, Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in an Israeli air strike just weeks after his boss, were projected onto rocks off the coast of Beirut this week.
On Saturday, hundreds of men, women, and children in black marched toward Nasrallah’s gravesite, many of whom carried portraits of the slain leader. Ali Larijani, the Supreme National Security Council secretary in Iran, also took part in the observance.
Fatima, whose husband was killed in Israel’s conflict last September, told everyone in Lebanon that Hezbollah is still strong.
Ali Jaafar, a 21-year-old university student, told the AFP news agency that he thought Hezbollah would not be disarmed.
The enemies’ internal and external desires are the same as theirs, but handing over the weapons will continue to be a dream, he said.
When Israel dropped a number of bunker bombs on a Hezbollah complex in southern Beirut on September 27, 2013, Nasrallah was killed. He had over 30 years’ experience leading the movement.
Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians who were attacked in the coastal enclave after Israel launched its war against Gaza following the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023.
Hezbollah suffered a serious blow from the explosion of explosives secretly planted inside thousands of pagers that members of the organization used to communicate a year after joining the conflict with Israel. The indiscriminate pager blasts claimed the lives of numerous Lebanese civilians, including an eight-year-old girl.
In addition to launching massive aerial bombing campaigns against Nasrallah and other senior leaders, Israeli forces also sent thousands of troops across the border to occupy southern Lebanon and devastate towns and villages.
