Alex Blair

Articles

Mining Technology •

China’s Trump card: using rare earth elements as geopolitical bargaining chips

When camouflage-clad, rifle-carrying rebels from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) led an offensive to seize the northern town of Pangwa near the Myanmar-China border last October, few recognised the international implications.

It marked the latest escalation in a seven-decade-long civil conflict between Myanmar’s brutal military regime and hundreds of armed groups like the KIA, rooted in the resource-rich provinces spanning China, Thailand, India and Myanmar.More significantly, the KIA’s of...
DSEI 2025 •

Norwegian Navy Chief calls on NATO and private sector to protect critical undersea infrastructure

RADM Berdal’s calls come amid a growing number of sabotage attacks on CUI in the Baltics.

As sabotage of critical undersea infrastructure (CUI) continues to rise, Norway’s local authorities, NATO partners and private sector companies must collaborate to maximise its protection, Rear Admiral (RADM) Oliver Berdal, Chief of the Royal Norwegian Navy, told DSEI on 3 March.

“One of the most important things when it comes to protecting our critical underwater infrastructure is working very closely...
DSEI 2025 •

The end nears for Germany’s ‘special defence fund’. New Chancellor, new investment?

Radical defence investment and SME integration has topped the political agenda in Germany since Friedrich Merz won the 23 February elections.
 
As Germans across the country return from voting for their new Chancellor on 23 February, a ‘day after’ plan for the looming end of the government’s special defence fund remains front and centre for the German – and European – defence industry.
Previous German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earmarked EUR100 billion for this ‘special fund’, or ‘Sondervermögen’...
DSEI 2025 •

Exercise Steadfast Dart marks first deployment of NATO’s new Allied Reaction Force

UK soldiers taking part in NATO’s Exercise Steadfast Dart 25 say they are ready to deploy to Ukraine.

The first large-scale deployment of NATO’s Allied Reaction Force (ARF) is drawing to a close in below-freezing conditions at a training base in Smardan, Romania, 16 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Exercise Steadfast Dart 25, which ran from 10 to 21 February, saw more than 10,000 troops from nine European nations conduct joint drills across Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania. US forces were not...
DSEI 2025 •

EU injects EUR192 million into next-gen ground combat proposals

Ground combat capabilities are the top priority in the EDF’s latest call for military proposals.

The European Commission announced a fresh investment of EUR1.065 billion into projects for “tomorrow’s defence capabilities” on 30 January.

Under the European Defence Fund (EDF), the investment will support nine competitive calls for proposals across 31 topics, from rotorcraft propulsion systems to space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
DSEI 2025 •

German officials rebuff Trump dig at insufficient NATO spending

Next month’s German elections will dictate the priority and investment towards defence spending over the coming year.

German government officials have rebuked US President-elect Donald Trump’s demands to spend more on defence spending, as attention homes in on Germany’s quickly shrinking EUR100 billion ‘Sondervermögen’ (‘special fund’) for defence spending.

Trump singled out Germany during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on 7 January, claiming that “Europe is in [NATO] for a tiny f...
DSEI 2025 •

Rolls-Royce awarded its largest-ever UK MoD contract

SMEs are poised for involvement in Rolls-Royce’s GBP9bn contract to deliver Dreadnought-class SSBNs for the Royal Navy.

Rolls-Royce Submarines’ largest-ever Ministry of Defence (MoD) contract has caused a ripple across the UK naval sector.

The eight-year ‘Unity’ contract, worth approximately GBP9 billion, will see Rolls-Royce maintain the Royal Navy’s submarine fleet and build four new Dreadnought-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).
DSEI 2025 •

UK military unveils first “fully British-made” Boxer vehicle

The first of 623 Boxer armoured fighting vehicles has been unveiled in the UK, part of a long-awaited GBP2.8 billion programme.

The first “fully British-made” Boxer vehicle has been unveiled on 21 January at the International Armoured Vehicle Conference in Farnborough, according to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).

This eight-by-eight, all-terrain armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is the first of 623 Boxers due to be delivered over the next few years. It marks the initial delivery stage of a GBP...
DSEI 2025 •

Lithuania pledges 5-6% of GDP for defence in NATO first

Lithuania will seek European funding to surpass Poland as NATO’s highest defence spender by percentage of GDP.

Lithuania has pledged to allocate between 5% and 6% of GDP for defence spending from 2026 until 2030, pointing to the threat of Russian military aggression as the full-scale conflict with Ukraine nears the three-year mark.

The State Defence Council (VGT), made up of Lithuania’s top political and military brass, announced the hike in funding after a meeting on 17 January. Newly inaugur...
DSEI 2025 •

Sweden to buy Leopard tanks for USD2bn

The Swedish Defence Ministry follows Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands for Leopard 2 A8 MBTs.

Sweden has agreed a deal worth SEK22 billion (USD1.97 billion) to procure 44 Leopard 2 A8 main battle tanks (MBTs) from German-French manufacturer KNDS, the Swedish Defence Ministry confirmed to DSEI on 9 January. 

KNDS will also upgrade 66 of Sweden’s existing Leopard tanks. Deliveries are set to begin in 2028 and conclude in 2031.
Medical Device Network •

Argentina’s largest healthcare providers charged with ‘cartelisation’. What next?

The landscape of Argentina’s medical industry looks set for a seismic shake-up, as the national government charges seven healthcare providers with forming a “cartel” to coordinate astronomical price hikes earlier this year.

In December 2024, the Argentinean Government’s anti-competitive watchdog, the National Commission for the Defence of Competition (CNDC, by its Spanish acronym), said its investigation into “cartelisation” had “found elements that constitute a collusive agreement between a...
Medical Device Network •

Venezuela’s migration crisis and a Colombian ‘Smart Clinic’

“If one of my children gets sick, all three get sick. Sometimes, my boy would cry, asking for food but there was none. It was despair. There was not enough money.”

Yelimar’s story is one of 7.7 million. A Venezuelan migrant and mother of three, Yelimar was forced to flee her homeland on foot with her partner Víctor and children Abraham (one-year-old), Mia (three) and Víctor (four) – a perilous journey documented by the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (R4V)
New Internationalist •

Political power play leaves Bolivians short of food and fuel

‘The never-ending queues for fuel, the waste and scarcity of food, the rising prices — the bloqueos are affecting the lives of all Bolivians,’ says Carla Torres, a café worker from the capital city of La Paz. Torres' words reflect the increasingly dire situation across the Andean country marred by economic decline and disruptive bloqueos (blockades) of crucial supplies in recent weeks. Devotees of ex-President Evo Morales, who is under investigation for alleged statutory rape and human trafficking, have threatened to paralyze the country with bloqueos should he be arrested.
Airforce Technology •

South Korea removes military headshots amid deepfake porn ‘epidemic’

South Korea has removed all intranet images of military and defence ministry officials in a bid to prevent deepfake porn, which is reportedly flooding the controversial social media platform Telegram.

Republic of Korea (ROK) Armed Forces officials said all ID photos have been made invisible on the military’s Onnara System intranet, the Korea Times reported.Artificial intelligence (AI) has increased the online prominence of deepfakes, which combine a real person’s face with a fake, sexualised...
Army Technology •

‘Guns for gold’: who is complicit in Sudan’s brutal war?

After nearly 18 months of displacement, starvation and genocidal violence, minimal attention has been paid to the bloody conflict still raging across Sudan – nor to the powers fuelling it.

An overarching narrative of ‘just another Sub-Saharan civil war’, this time between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries, has set in. Those arming both sides have largely avoided scrutiny for the inhumane conditions imposed on the Sudanese people, now the “lar...
Verdict •

Arms deals and sexual abuse material: why was Telegram’s co-founder arrested?

Whether it be the EU charging Elon Musk for letting disinformation run wild on X or Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s data-sharing scandal hearing in front of the US Senate, social media moguls are no strangers to confrontations with governments.

Until now, however, none had faced serious legal action – let alone law enforcement officers at an airport.On Saturday (24 August), French authorities bucked this trend and arrested Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov at Paris’ Le Bourget Airport.
Verdict •

37 countries have blocked X access since 2015. Will Brazil follow suit?

Elon Musk’s X currently finds itself in the crosshairs of an unprecedented number of governments.

Caught between the restrictions of authoritarian regimes and the investigations of democratic countries, X has found itself blocked to some extent or other by 37 countries since 2015.Unperturbed, Musk continues to clash with heads of state, from Venezuela’s ‘digital authoritarian’ election-fraud President Nicolás Maduro, to recently elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer amid a surge of far-right...
Army Technology •

Ukraine ‘successfully’ tests first indigenous ballistic missile

Ukraine has successfully tested its first indigenous ballistic missile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier today (27 August 2024).

The domestic-made ‘Palianytsia’ is a missile-drone hybrid designed to strike deep into Russian territory – an offensive strategy Ukraine has repeatedly implored its western allies to authorise.

“What developments does Ukraine have? Well, I thought it’s too early to speak about it but … there has been a positive test of the first Ukrainian ballistic missile”, Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Kyiv. “I congratulate our defence industry on this. I can’t share any more details about this missile”.
Army Technology •

Free speech or free arms trading? Social media fuels weapons sales

In the latest of a long string of deregulated controversies, multiple social media platforms are facilitating the trade of weapons by dealers linked with Yemen’s Houthi militia group, new investigations have uncovered.

At least 68 arms dealers based in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, are openly using X, Telegram and other social media platforms to buy and sell Kalashnikovs, pistols, assault rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, and even rocket launchers.  On Elon Musk’s X, many of the Yemeni accounts...
World Construction Network •

Who will fund Gaza’s reconstruction?

Ten months on and Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza shows no signs of abating – nor do ceasefire talks show any tangible sign of delivering an agreement.

Israel’s offensive has targeted residential areas, hospitals, schools, refugee camps, water and electricity infrastructure, churches, mosques and civilians themselves – a charge of which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant stand accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Their campaign has now killed...
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