International politics today feels like a collective sleepwalk into the abyss. Three trends are particularly alarming. Artificial intelligence is globalising and turbocharging old and new threats. Meanwhile, no state is strong enough to impose order. And, as in earlier periods of global crisis, geopolitical blocs are hardening, with international cooperation increasingly portrayed as weakness. Alas, there is ample reason to fear a repetition of the worst of history.

Counter-drone efforts are expanding as cartels use modified drones to map U.S. patrol routines along the Mexico border and support smuggling operations into Texas.

In the last Turkish town on the road to Aleppo, jihadis and spies mixed with reporters trying to prove themselves. At the Hotel Istanbul, I was to meet a Syrian activist who went by the code name Harvester. I was twenty-two and wanted to learn how journalists work in conflict zones. In the spring of 2013--when I was twenty-two and had little sense of the direction my life might take--I travelled to the Turkish-Syrian border, to learn how journalists work in war. During the previous two years, the security forces of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, had carried out a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, and the situation had spiralled into armed conflict, with thousands of civilians dead and hundreds of thousands of refugees spilling into neighboring countries. Rebels had captured half of Syria's largest city, Aleppo, and most of the territory north and west of it, including the official crossings into southern Turkey. In practice, that meant any freelancer, humanitarian, or ...

What is Lebanon's Beaufort Castle? Why is Israel attacking Nabatieh? An Israeli drone attack has wounded six people in Lebanon's Hermel district, close to the Syrian border, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The ministry said on Friday that the six wounded included five Syrian nationals, two of them women, and one Lebanese. It added the area has largely been spared such attacks since an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire was agreed in June. Israel's military claimed it struck "a Syrian terrorist" who "operated under the direction of the Iranian regime", alleging that the man "planned and advanced attacks" against Israeli forces in Syria's southern territory.

How we made the first comprehensive map of deaths along the US border's "virtual wall" We analyzed whether nearly 4,000 migrant deaths occurred within sight of the US government's surveillance towers. Our investigation found people dying near border surveillance towers that promised faster responses to crossings. Our 15-month investigation into death and surveillance along the US-Mexico border began with a simple question: Why did so many people die near government surveillance towers meant to help track and apprehend them? This story is part of Dying on Camera, a collaboration between and . To answer that question, we looked through thousands of pages of government documents, visited the border multiple times, and interviewed more than 45 people, including current and former White House advisors, presidential appointees, Border Patrol agents, medical examiners, sheriffs, humanitarian volunteers, and employees of tech companies. The result of our investigation is the first comprehensive map and analysis of deaths near border surveillance towers. Here's how we built it, what decisions we made along the way, and what the data can and can't tell us. The investigation relied on knowing where migrants have died and where and when US Customs and Border Protection towers were installed.

She died at the San Diego border. In Southern California's Otay Mountain Wilderness, the federal surveillance network seems unavoidable. But year after year, migrant deaths persist. A year ago, she crossed the border from Tijuana, and soon sent her family a final set of messages. She had only walked for a couple of hours, and already she was lost. It was early afternoon on Sept. 14, 2025, when 30-year-old Graciela Gómez Hernández crossed the border from the eastern edge of Tijuana into Southern California, sending voice messages to her mother and sister as she walked. This story is part of Dying on Camera, a collaboration between and . Gómez Hernández did not tell her family about her plan until the day before. Once she arrived in California, she hoped to work and send money back to her three children and her parents in southern Mexico. Her oldest son, age 11, had asked for a bicycle.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russia's drones threaten Kyiv-bound Western officials as war effort stalls Share Russia's drones threaten Kyiv-bound Western officials as war effort stalls on social media Russia has threatened the safety of Ukrainian, American and European officials travelling to and from Kyiv using drones. These attacks have come as Russia's ground war stumbles. On September 13, Russian drones struck a Ukrainian train locomotive 5km (3 miles) from the border with Poland, endangering European officials travelling to Warsaw after they attended the Yalta European Strategy conference, an annual gathering of global political, business and civil society leaders in Kyiv. Boris Johnson, Britain's former premier, and European political and security officials were on the train.

Finland completed a 124-mile border fence along its frontier with Russia to counter hybrid warfare tactics, including the weaponization of migration to destabilize border security.

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Is the war entering a new phase? NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has pledged additional support for Ukraine after Russian drone strikes hit close to the border with Poland. Rutte insisted on Monday that the 32-nation military alliance will not be deterred from backing Kyiv in the Russia-Ukraine war, and that it will beef up its own defences along the eastern border with Russia. On Sunday, Russian drones hit a train near the Ukraine-Poland border and a second strike hit close to another crossing point. The strike that hit the train came minutes after a diplomatic delegation that included former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt had passed through the station, according to Ukraine's state rail operator.