Iran has escalated its campaign against digital dissent by severing citizens from mobile services for posting content critical of the Islamic republic, extending repression into the realm of everyday digital access. Beginning in the summer of 2024 and surging again in 2025, the tactic has targeted journalists, academics, activists, and ordinary users on platforms like X and Instagram. Those who speak out against the regime risk losing access not only to mobile calls and data but also to essential online services like banking and ride-hailing apps. Victims report that restoring SIM card access requires a humiliating series of concessions: deleting critical posts, signing written pledges to avoid future dissent, and in some cases, publishing multiple statements in support of the Islamic republic. Constitutional law professor Ali Akbar Gorji, whose SIM was deactivated after criticizing Iran’s stance toward Israel, said authorities conditioned restoration on posting up to 20 pro-regime messages. Affected users also receive texts citing “hostile and biased activities” flagged by AI systems, with threats of renewed suspension or prosecution for any future violations. The effort reflects a broader campaign of repression that intensified after the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” protests. By weaponizing telecommunications infrastructure, Iran is blurring the line between digital censorship and direct economic coercion. SIM deactivation not only isolates critics socially but also disrupts access to banking and e-commerce, leaving dissenters digitally and physically paralyzed. Legal experts argue that the practice violates both domestic and international law, as it relies on vague statutes and bypasses due process. Yet the regime’s reliance on mobile control signals its adaptation to the realities of modern dissent: silencing speech by threatening not just imprisonment, but the loss of the tools of daily life. This fusion of surveillance, coercion, and economic pressure further cements Iran’s place among the world’s most repressive digital regimes.

A new report has documented the systematic use of sexual violence against Tigrayan women and children by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces, in what legal experts conclude amounts to crimes against humanity. The study reviewed more than 500 patient records, surveyed 600 health workers, and conducted extensive interviews with doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, and community leaders. It reveals a pattern of mass rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, and sexual torture, all intended to terrorize and break Tigrayan society. at its core The report details extreme and deliberate methods: gang rapes, the insertion of foreign objects, including stones, metal, and even letters, into reproductive organs, and the intentional spread of HIV. Soldiers openly declared their intent to exterminate Tigrayans by rendering women infertile or forcing them to bear children of the attackers. Survivors ranged from infants to the elderly, with health workers treating children as young as one year old. Some victims were held in military camps for months, enduring repeated assaults and forced pregnancies, while widespread stigma has led to family rejection and social exclusion. Many survivors now suffer chronic injuries, fistula, or psychological damage, and some children were made to witness the rape or killing of relatives, compounding the societal rupture. Health workers themselves have developed acute psychological distress from treating cases of unprecedented brutality. Most survivors have received little to no medical or psychological care as facilities close and international support wanes. The report underscores the near-total impunity of these heinous crimes, noting that atrocities have persisted since the 2022 ceasefire and are spreading to Amhara and Afar, as perpetrators face no accountability. Experts warn that this “weaponized sexual violence” is not only an assault on individuals but a deliberate strategy to fracture Tigrayan communities and dismantle their social fabric, threatening stability across northern Ethiopia. Without justice and institutional accountability, they caution, the cycle of impunity will continue to ignite new regional conflicts.

In a striking example of battlefield improvisation and technological innovation in the Russia-Ukraine war, a wounded Ukrainian soldier trapped for nearly five days behind enemy lines escaped on an electric bike delivered by drone. The Rubizh brigade released footage showing the UAV lowering the 40kg e-bike to the soldier, call sign “Tanker,” who had been surrounded near Siversk after his three fellow soldiers were killed in a Russian assault. Tanker recounted surviving repeated attacks, including incendiary gas canisters dropped into his defensive position, leaving him with leg injuries and unable to walk the 1.5 km to friendly lines. Traditional rescue was deemed impossible, as Russian troops dominated the area and any vehicle approach would have been suicidal. After two failed delivery attempts, one drone shot down, another suffering motor failure, a third UAV successfully dropped the e-bike, initiating a daring solo escape. The soldier’s journey was harrowing: he rode 400 meters before hitting a remote mine and being thrown into the air, then limped 200 meters before his unit delivered a second e-bike to complete the final 15-minute ride to safety. Mykola Gritsenko, the brigade’s chief of staff, noted that timing, weather, and drone payload limits were all calculated to ensure the operation’s success. This unprecedented use of drones for extraction underscores both Ukraine’s ingenuity and the war’s evolution toward machine-assisted survival in contested “grey zones.” While UAVs are typically used for reconnaissance or attack, their adaptation to rescue roles reflects the brutal attrition and resourcefulness that now define the front. The escape coincided with a deadly Russian drone and missile barrage on Kyiv, killing 16 civilians, including a six-year-old boy and his mother, a grim reminder that behind each story of survival, the wider conflict grinds on.

On Bangladesh’s southern frontier, the Naf River has become a zone of fear and uncertainty for local fishing communities. The rise of the Arakan Army (AA), Myanmar’s powerful ethnic armed group, has transformed routine fishing trips into life-or-death gambles. In May, three young fishermen from Teknaf, Mohammed Siddiqui, 24, Mohammed Hossain, 26, and Robiul Hassan, 22, were all abducted by AA fighters while casting their nets, a pattern that has become alarmingly common since the group consolidated control along the border. According to the fishermen’s accounts, AA patrol boats approach at high speed, opening fire to intimidate. In Siddiqui’s case, the fighters boarded his wooden boat, handcuffed and bound the men, and transported them to Rakhine State. During two days of captivity, they endured beatings and threats, as the AA accused them of crossing into “their” waters. Bangladesh’s Border Guard ultimately negotiated their release, but the psychological scars remain. “The AA fired at us and kidnapped us,” Hossain said. “Now, every time we hear their engine, we freeze.” The shift in riverine power stems from Myanmar’s ongoing civil war. Since 2023, the AA has wrested control of 14 of Rakhine’s 17 townships, including Maungdaw, a critical military stronghold that formerly secured the 270-kilometer maritime border with Bangladesh. With the junta pushed back, Dhaka now faces a de facto neighbor in the AA: battle-hardened, well-supported, and increasingly assertive. Abductions have escalated, with over 70 Bangladeshi fishermen kidnapped and later released between February and May alone. The crisis exposes both a governance vacuum and Dhaka’s geopolitical dilemma. Officially, Bangladesh cannot recognize the AA, a non-state actor, yet its security forces already rely on quiet engagement to recover hostages. Analysts like Khandakar Tahmid Rejwan warn that these incidents reflect Dhaka’s inability to secure its maritime frontier and highlight the “gray zone” tactics of insurgent actors, blurring the line between law enforcement and transnational intimidation. For the fishing villages of Teknaf, the stakes are existential. Livelihoods depend on the Naf, but every trip into its currents risks gunfire, abduction, or worse. With local leaders unable to arm or protect their communities, families rely on prayer and the faint hope that Dhaka can negotiate a fragile coexistence with its new, unofficial neighbor across the water.

Sudan’s two-year civil war appears to be accelerating towards a partition as the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) establish rival governments, echoing the fractured trajectories of Libya and pre-secession South Sudan. After months of battlefield stalemate, the RSF announced a “presidential council” in July 2025 under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), formalizing its control over most of Darfur and parts of the Kordofan states. Its coalition with the SPLM-N Hilu faction signals an intent to institutionalize a parallel authority, headquartered in Nyala, even as no foreign state has recognized it. The army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and operating from Port Sudan, continues to control the north and east, while reclaiming Khartoum earlier this year. It has installed Kamil Idris as prime minister of a so-called “Hope Government,” but its cohesion is tenuous, relying on alliances with former rebel groups and Islamist factions tied to Omar al-Bashir’s old regime. International actors remain wary, constrained by the army’s 2021 coup record and ongoing U.S. sanctions against Burhan. The territorial split is already hardening: RSF forces dominate Darfur and the Libya-Egypt border triangle, while the army holds the Red Sea corridor. Local militias proliferate in both zones, with Nyala suffering kidnappings, lawlessness, and repeated air and drone strikes. Analysts warn that Sudan is on the brink of Libya-style fragmentation, where competing governments, foreign patrons, and armed factions erode any path to national reunification. Without meaningful international engagement or an internal political settlement, Sudan risks sliding into a protracted territorial dismemberment that will deepen famine, displacement, and regional instability.