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📰 Morocco protests gain momentum

📰 Morocco protests gain momentum

and France seizes Russia-linked tanker

Billy Robinson & Ross Crabtree
October 02, 2025

Hello and welcome back.

Russia dominates today’s headlines as Denmark’s prime minister urges Europe to rearm against hybrid warfare, France intercepts a Russia-linked tanker, and Moscow faces accusations of sabotaging the Zaporizhzhia power line.

Our lead story shifts focus to the Great Lakes, examining the political economy driving the Democratic Republic of Congo’s enduring violence.

Top 5 Stories

1️⃣ 🇨🇳 🇹🇼 China’s military innovation reshapes balance of power in East Asia: Beijing has become a global leader in fields from AI and robotics to nuclear power and high-speed rail—and its military is no exception. Recent satellite imagery, weapons testing, and large-scale infrastructure projects highlight a decades-long modernisation drive that has shifted the regional balance decisively in China’s favour, especially over Taiwan. The reality is clear: an arms race now favours Beijing, and East Asia’s equilibrium is being redrawn on China’s terms.

2️⃣ 🇫🇷 🇷🇺 France seizes Russia-linked tanker amid investigation into Baltic drone incursions: French naval forces boarded the oil tanker Boracay, suspected of belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” and linked to unexplained drone flights that recently forced the closure of Danish airports. The vessel, intercepted while carrying Russian crude from Primorsk to India, has a history of changing names and registrations to evade sanctions, and is now under investigation in Saint-Nazaire for failing to prove its nationality and refusing cooperation.

3️⃣ 🇨🇴 🇻🇪 Protesters in Colombia denounce violence on Venezuela border: Hundreds of Motilón-Barí Indigenous people marched in Cúcuta, Colombia’s main border city with Venezuela, demanding protection from escalating clashes between ELN guerrillas and FARC dissidents that have displaced more than 73,000 people since January. Carrying spears and banners reading “don’t kill us”, demonstrators accused President Gustavo Petro’s government of failing to defend their lands from armed groups profiting from illegal mining, deforestation, and drug trafficking.

4️⃣ 🇺🇦 🇷🇺 Russia accused of sabotaging Zaporizhzhia power line to force nuclear crisis: Russia is accused of deliberately disabling the final power line to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The cut has left the plant dependent on diesel generators for cooling its six reactors, a situation the IAEA calls “clearly unsustainable.” Greenpeace and independent analysts suggest the sabotage is part of Russia’s plan to sever Ukrainian links and integrate the facility into its own power grid, raising fears of a manufactured nuclear crisis to cement Moscow’s control.

5️⃣ 🇲🇦 Protests in Morocco gain momentum: For the fourth consecutive night, Moroccan youth under the banner of the online collective GenZ 212 took to the streets demanding better healthcare and education. The movement, which has rapidly grown online to over 120,000 members, has tapped into widespread frustration over unemployment and collapsing public services, with many young Moroccans denouncing government spending on stadiums for the 2030 World Cup while hospitals remain neglected.

Major Story

🇨🇩 🇷🇼 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DR CONGO’S ENDURING VIOLENCE

At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, President Félix Tshisekedi urged global recognition of atrocities in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri as genocide, highlighting how competition over the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s mineral wealth perpetuates mass violence. Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, reorganised after their 2013 defeat, have seized extensive territory since 2022, profiting from control of mines producing tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold, and coltan. Their dominance allows them to tax communities, export minerals illicitly, and enforce despotic rule through war crimes and mass killings.

Millions of Congolese survive on artisanal mining, yet remain trapped in poverty, while foreign companies—particularly Chinese firms that dominate extraction and export infrastructure—profit from the country’s critical resources. This inequality fuels both local grievances and international competition, leaving Congolese civilians caught in cycles of violence.

Failed Mediation and Expanding Violence

Efforts to stabilise the east have faltered. U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed amid mutual ceasefire accusations, while Human Rights Watch documented record levels of civilian executions by M23 in mid-2025. The group’s expansion northward has brought it closer to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic State affiliate notorious for mass killings. While not allied, both groups have intensified attacks on civilians, worsening displacement and insecurity.

The peace framework was tied to new U.S. economic interests, notably Kobold Metals’ agreement to explore Manono’s vast lithium reserves, reflecting Washington’s intent to counter China’s mining monopoly, rather than meaningfully curtail the escalating violence.

Regional and International Dimensions

The DRC’s crisis is shaped by foreign involvement. Rwanda and Uganda have been accused of backing M23 as proxies to secure illicit mineral flows, while China maintains a near-monopoly on legal mining operations through opaque contracts that fuel corruption and displacement. U.N. peacekeeping, present for decades, has proven ineffective, and UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO’s withdrawal looms as armed groups multiply. The EU, meanwhile, pursues mineral access under its Critical Raw Materials Act but fails to mitigate the human rights risks of sourcing from conflict zones.

The Conflict Economy

The conflicts in Ituri and the Kivus are inseparable, both driven by ethnic rivalries and resource control. Militias, from M23 to CODECO, exploit instability to monopolise mines and tax civilians, while attacks on displacement camps, farms, and schools deepen humanitarian suffering. Tshisekedi’s genocide claims underscore the urgency of ending this conflict economy, where minerals sustain violence and violence secures mineral wealth. Without comprehensive reforms, eastern Congo will remain a battleground where human rights are sacrificed for resources.

Other News

1️⃣ 🇩🇰 🇪🇺 🇷🇺 Danish PM warns Europe must rearm against Russia’s hybrid warfare: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen urged Europe to rearm in response to Russia’s hybrid warfare, citing drone incursions and sabotage as proof that “one day it’s Poland, the other day it’s Denmark, and next week it will be somewhere else.” At a summit in Copenhagen, she called for new investments in defence and innovation, warning that Europe faces its most dangerous moment since World War II, as NATO weighs responses to repeated Russian airspace violations.

2️⃣ 🇧🇷 🇦🇷 🇨🇭 🇳🇴 Mercosur and EFTA sign free-trade pact in challenge to US protectionism: Mercosur and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) have signed a landmark free-trade agreement covering nearly 300 million people and a combined GDP of $4.3 trillion. The deal, spanning Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, will give improved access to more than 97% of exports and modernise trade rules across goods, services and investment, and has been framed by Brazil as a rejection of Washington’s protectionist turn.