Dublin leads the way with four nominees followed by Kerry on three and Mayo on two.
Day: August 30, 2025
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
- Drones are defining the war in Ukraine, and both sides are cranking them out.
- The West lags, but experts say mass production isn’t wise considering how fast the tech shifts.
- Though knowledge of drone warfare is critical, some systems may prove less vital in future fights.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made drones a defining weapon of modern war, but analysts warn the West shouldn’t rush to copy Kyiv and Moscow’s all-in approach.
In Ukraine, low-cost drones have upended the battlefield — spotting enemy troops, foiling maneuvers, and wrecking tanks with gear sometimes worth just a few hundred dollars.
Russia and Ukraine are both betting big on this inexpensive technology. Ukraine said that it made 2.2 million drones last year and aims to make 4 million this year, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said in April that Russia made more than 1.5 million drones last year. And there are plans to expand that.
The West is watching closely. NATO militaries are implementing drone warfare training, and defense firms are designing new systems modeled on Ukraine’s battlefield successes. But warfare experts caution that simply copying what the armies fighting the Ukraine war are doing would be shortsighted.
REUTERS/Leah Millis
Rapid shifts in drone technology and the swift emergence of countermeasures might make the drones of today obsolete tomorrow. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that drones will play the same role in the future. Waiting before cranking out millions is perhaps the better choice for Western militaries, analysts say.
Drone technology is moving fast
Front-line soldiers and Western companies that have gear in Ukraine have observed that drone tech quickly becomes worthless as new counter-drone tech hits the battlefield.
A 10-year-old iPhone “can still do the basic stuff,” Mauro Gilli, a senior researcher in military technology at ETH Zurich, told Business Insider, but a drone that can be easily neutralized by enemy forces has little value.
AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Mass-producing drone technology too soon risks leaving militaries with stockpiles of gear that quickly lose value as technology and countermeasures evolve. Refitting outdated systems often creates more problems than starting fresh.
Problems “cascade, and then you end up having more problems than if you had waited and created something from scratch,” Gilli explained.
Ulrike Franke, a drone expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that Western militaries may be tempted to copy Ukraine by stockpiling drones, but she cautioned that drones are different from traditional weapons, noting that their usefulness can vanish almost overnight.
“Drones require a different approach,” she said.
The quick innovation cycles mean that “had European nations procured some 100,000 quadcopter drones in 2023—an approach that seemed sensible at the time—it is very likely that these systems would now be largely useless.”
Warfare experts say that the priority isn’t churning out drones now, but rather building the capacity to scale up quickly if a conflict demands it.
Actually doing this remains a major challenge for the West. Western defense industries face equipment shortages and production backlogs, and officials have acknowledged output needs to speed up. By contrast, Russia has shifted to a war footing, and China has expanded its defense manufacturing — including drone production.
REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
Zachary Kallenborn, a drone warfare expert at King’s College London, told Business Insider there should be “a focus on: ‘Okay, what are the capacities we might need’ and continuing to innovate and learn lessons and make sure that we can scale if needed. But actually doing so does seem quite premature.”
Analysts stress that learning from Ukraine means recognizing which lessons not to take. In this case, stockpiling millions of drones might not be the right call.
Learning from Ukraine
The Ukraine war looks nothing like the conflicts that Western forces have fought in recent decades. This is a grinding, high-casualty conflict marked by a lack of air superiority, more than a million casualties, new combat technology, and the return of trench warfare on a scale not seen in Europe since the World Wars.
Kostya Liberov/Libkos via Getty Images
NATO militaries are studying what works against Russia, but experts warn they must avoid drawing the wrong lessons.
Many of Ukraine’s tactics have resulted from its disadvantaged position: It has far fewer soldiers than Russia, it does not have a big air force, and it has repeatedly suffered shortages of Western-supplied equipment.
Ukraine has turned to drones to fill roles typically done by snipers, air defense systems, aircraft, and other types of soldiers and weaponry.
They’re also one of the few weapons Ukraine can produce domestically, instead of depending on outside stockpiles already stretched thin.
But many of these limits don’t apply to NATO, with its large populations, militaries, air forces, and decades of investments in advanced, highly capable equipment. There is a certain value in cheap, attritable mass, but not at the expense of the sophisticated, combat systems. Different fights and missions come with substantially different demands.
REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova/File Photo
Not all wars are the same. “Ukraine could also just be a peak moment for drone warfare,” Franke said. “The factors that made drones relevant in Ukraine might look different in future wars.”
Drones matter, but the West has other strengths
Analysts warn that while drones are central to Ukraine’s fight, they are not a substitute for the West’s traditional military advantages. Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at the Royal United Services Institute, recently argued that relying heavily on drones would play to Russia’s strengths. Moscow has more experience integrating them, while NATO countries start from a far lower base and lack Ukraine’s capacity to scale production.
But perhaps more importantly, drones aren’t winning the war.
A reason “why betting heavily on massed UAS for lethality is a dangerous strategy for NATO nations is that Ukraine is still taking heavy casualties and slowly losing ground to Russian assaults despite being a world leader in developing, using, and innovating with military UAS,” Bronk said.
Ultimately, he said, the West is unlikely to be able to use drones against Russia in a transformative way “by procuring several tens or even hundreds of thousands of similar drones more slowly and with less practical experience.”
Drones have not been a silver bullet on the battlefield. As James Patton Rogers, a drone expert at the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute, told Business Insider, they “haven’t brought victory for either side.” Ukraine produces millions of these things but still pleads for artillery and long-range weapons. Drones are “what they have to fight with. It’s not what they want to fight with,” he said.
That doesn’t mean the West can ignore drones. Foes like Russia, China, Iran, and others are investing heavily, and NATO forces must be able to counter cheap, uncrewed combat systems. Drone technology also offers the ability to deliver cheap mass at a time when Western arsenals are stretched, but experts caution against seeing them as replacements.
Franke warned that assuming small, cheap drones will dominate future wars could be a “dangerous miscalculation.” Rogers added that advanced militaries should not put all their eggs into one drone basket at the expense of more enduring, effective, and deterrent weapons.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Valve Complies with UK’s Online Safety Act
Valve has begun to adhere to the UK’s Online Safety Act by implementing a new age verification system that requires all British users to register a credit card to access “mature content” pages and games on Steam. Users without a valid credit card will be restricted from accessing community hubs for mature content games, reports 24brussels.
This move follows the trend set by other platforms such as Reddit and Discord, which have opted for age verification through selfies. However, Valve limits its age verification process strictly to the use of credit cards, asserting that “among all age assurance mechanisms reviewed by Valve, this process preserves the maximum degree of user privacy.” The presence of a credit card stored on a Steam account serves as a deterrent against sharing accounts to circumvent age verification.
In the UK, individuals must be 18 years of age to obtain a credit card, thus shifting the responsibility for age checks from Valve to banking institutions. Consequently, users without credit cards will find themselves barred from accessing any mature content on Steam, as no alternative age verification method is available.
This policy shift occurs amid revelations that recent age-gating regulations in the UK are relatively easy to bypass, particularly through the use of VPNs. For instance, methods employed by platforms such as Discord have experienced challenges, prompting updates to prevent workarounds.
In tandem with Valve’s implementation, Microsoft has initiated its own age verification measures for Xbox in the UK. Initially optional, these checks are expected to become mandatory for access to various Xbox services by early 2026 as more provisions of the Online Safety Act come into effect.
Charlie Falconer says government was right to challenge Epping hotel ruling but now has to ‘move forward’
A former Labour justice secretary has warned that Reform UK will continue to rise in opinion polls unless the government moves faster to close hotels housing people seeking asylum.
On Friday, the government won a court of appeal challenge against an injunction by Epping Forest district council that would have resulted in 130 asylum seekers being moved out of the Bell hotel. In recent weeks the hotel has become the focus of repeated protests, some of which have been orchestrated by far-right extremists and have turned violent.
Courtesy of Christine Job
- After graduating from law school, Christine Job was burned out and wanted a different lifestyle.
- In 2017, Job moved to Spain, where she began teaching before building a career as a podcaster.
- After 8 years abroad, she told BI she feels fulfilled and has no plans to return to the US.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Christine Job, a 38-year-old who moved from Atlanta to Spain in 2017. Job has lived in Logroño, Barcelona, and, most recently, Valencia. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
After graduating from law school in 2013, I moved back home to Atlanta after living in Miami for about four years for law school.
Atlanta is a beautiful Chocolate City. There’s both new and old money, with Black leadership represented in government. The city is home to sports stars, teachers, real estate developers, and lawyers. It’s a vibrant, nurturing community, especially for young Black professionals.
But in my time away from Atlanta, I had changed, and how I felt about the city had changed, too. I also had a death in my family, which made me think hard about my life. At the time, I had already been working for a few years, and I was already quite burned out.
I needed some time and space to rethink things, and I decided to move abroad. My reasoning was less about Atlanta not being a good fit and more about my desire to explore and experience a different lifestyle.
I felt guilty about having so much free time in my new job
I moved to Spain in 2017, before the pandemic and before digital nomads became popular.
It was an incredible experience, though those first years were mostly about adapting to the culture and getting comfortable with myself.
I came to Europe with some savings, but I’ll admit I hadn’t fully considered everything. My plan was simply to live modestly.
The first city I lived in was Logroño, in northern Spain’s La Rioja, a very famous wine region. I worked as a teacher — though I use that term loosely — teaching English to primary school children. The cost of living was low, and I received a stipend from the school, which helped. I also picked up a couple of side hustles along the way.
I was working about 12 hours a week and had every other Friday and Monday off. Coming from a culture of startups and law school, where overworking was praised, I felt really guilty about not being busy.
JackF/Getty Images/iStockphoto
It became a turning point for me. I had to redefine what success meant and decide what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t want to just spend my days drinking La Rioja’s incredible wines or lingering over long, lush lunches with friends — though I certainly fell into that rhythm at times.
Deep down, I knew I needed to live with intention and give this experience real purpose.
I started a podcast to support Black women who want to live abroad
After my first year in Spain, I moved to Barcelona in 2018, where I found a beautiful community of young Black professionals, which was really helpful for me.
Toward the end of 2019, I went on an impromptu trip around the world with my mom, visiting places like Bali, Thailand, Colombia, and Malaysia. When I returned to Spain, the pandemic and lockdowns began, and they were severe.
It was a pretty jarring time, but it was also fruitful. That’s when I relaunched my consultancy as a business development strategist and launched my podcast. Now, my podcast is five years old and has over 150 episodes.
Courtesy of Christine Job
My podcast centers Black women’s voices and explores the intersection of migration, Blackness, womanhood, and wellness.
There’s a narrative that usually frames Black women and migration only through struggle and strife. But there are so many different flavors of migration, whether you do it on a whim, for love, a corporate move, or for family.
I have listeners from all around the world, but specifically, the Black American women who reach out to me often express frustration with the United States and their position within it.
They are highly educated, they did the corporate job, they got the house, all of it. And yet they feel dissatisfied. Many of them recognize that the lifestyle they aspired to may not be what they truly want, so they’re very curious about the possibility of cultivating a new life abroad.
Moving to Spain has given me many new career opportunities
I moved to Valencia in August 2021. It’s the third-largest city in Spain. Trying to find a place to live was a little bit stressful, but it ended up working out fine.
I live in the Old Town of Valencia, where most of the tourist attractions are. When I first moved here, it was right after the pandemic, so things were quiet and low-key. But now that tourism has returned, the area has become much more lively.
Valencia has so much to offer architecturally. It can get a little hectic in the summer, especially in August, and during the Fallas celebration in March, when there are massive bonfires in the plaza.
Overall, though, it’s a truly beautiful and walkable city. It doesn’t have the same hustle and bustle as Madrid or Barcelona; it’s more relaxed.
Courtesy of Christine Job
Spain is not a utopia, just like any other place. I disrupted my life to move here. Migration is, by nature, disruptive — it’s not glamorous, it’s hard and full of sacrifices and difficult choices. Yet, without making those choices, I would have missed out on so many opportunities.
Living abroad has definitely changed my life for the better. I’ve made friends from all over the world, and my podcast has taken off: I’ve spoken on numerous panels and been a judge at the International Women’s Podcast Awards. I’m even writing a book about the experience of living abroad.
I never say never, and I still have family in the States, but I don’t see myself moving back to the US permanently. Once your eyes have been opened to a different way of life, returning to one you know isn’t a good fit becomes very difficult.
Read the original article on Business Insider