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Title: January 14, 2026

GRAY ZONE BRIEF 14 JANUARY 2026
 
KYIV POWER OUTAGES
 
**Energy Crisis Deepens in Kyiv After Major Power Grid Attacks** - Kyiv is struggling to restore power after repeated Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving large parts of the city with limited electricity amid freezing weather and overwhelming demand, officials said. While the recent attack was not the largest in scale, it had the worst impact due to damage at key substations, complicating repair efforts and prolonging outages for residents and critical services. Authorities warned the situation underscores Ukraine’s urgent need for resilient grid defenses and external support.
 
IRAN & STARLINK
 
**Iranians tap Musk's Starlink to skirt internet blackout, sources say** - Despite a nationwide communications blackout amid a violent government crackdown on protests, some Iranians continue to access the internet using Starlink satellite service, according to several users inside the country. While Iran’s internet connectivity remains at about 1% of normal levels, Starlink signals still reach parts of western and border regions. Authorities have banned the service and imposed harsh penalties for its use, searching for and seizing Starlink dishes in western Tehran. Analysts suggest Iran may be jamming Starlink terminals. The episode highlights Starlink's growing geopolitical role, as the network has also sustained communications in Ukraine, Myanmar, and Sudan during conflict-related internet shutdowns.
 
**NOTE: Update — **Iranian regime targeting Starlink users in bid to squash leaking protest footage** - footage amid the regime's ongoing blockade against internet access, human rights groups say. Iran cut off public internet access as anti-regime protests ramped up last week, leaving Starlink as one of the few ways Iranians can share images about the regime's deadly crackdown. Starlink remains illegal in Iran, but rights groups say they have smuggled thousands of Starlink terminals into the country. The government's efforts to shut down internet access has slowed the service's connectivity, but users are still able to send footage to trusted third-parties who can then share it to social media, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
 
CHINA’S J-16 SALES
 
**Chinese Arms Exporters Seen as Potential Winners in Pakistan–Saudi Jet Talks** - Analysts say reported discussions between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia over a possible JF-17 fighter jet deal could mark a breakthrough for Chinese defense exports in the Gulf. The agreement, reportedly valued at up to US $4 billion, would convert Saudi loans to Pakistan into jet deliveries co-produced with China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation. Experts said the deal, if realized, would validate Chinese aviation technology and test U.S. influence in regional arms markets, though Riyadh’s Western-aligned air force and planned F-35 purchases make completion uncertain. Beijing stands to gain prestige and deeper defense access regardless.
 
AFRICA
 
**Young Africans Turning on Liberation Parties, Mozambique’s Opposition Leader Says **- Mozambique’s opposition figure Venâncio Mondlane said Africa’s liberation-era parties are losing the support of young voters disillusioned by corruption and economic stagnation. Citing movements across South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Angola. Mondlane, who led mass protests after contested 2024 elections, has launched a new party ahead of the 2029 polls and called for economic reform and youth empowerment. Facing criminal charges he says are politically motivated, Mondlane warned that Mozambique’s economic fragility and debt burdens could trigger a crisis akin to Zimbabwe’s.
 
**NOTE: GZB has been reporting on the inherent problems in the Maghreb, Sudan, South Africa, etc. extensively over the past 5 years — the overthrow and coups of governments, the Russian mercs and propaganda, the ousting of U.S. and French forced, the precious metals and minerals at stake and the economic colonization of Africa by Russia. GZB sees the pendulum starting to swing the other way in 2026. It started already in 2025 when about 25 AFRIKA Corps mercs got ghosted by al-Shabaab Jihadist militants. More to come.
 
SUDAN
 
**Sudan Government returns to Khartoum after nearly two years of war** - “We are back today,” Prime Minister Kamel Idris declared on Sunday, calling it the return of a “government of hope” to Sudan’s national capital. The government was forced to flee Khartoum for Port Sudan in April 2023, after the city fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Over nearly two years of intense fighting, forces loyal to army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane gradually retook the capital, neighborhood by neighborhood, announcing its “liberation” in March 2025.
 
COLOMBIA
 
**Colombian rebels call for a ‘national accord’ after the US intervention in Venezuela** - Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN), the country’s largest rebel group, on Monday urged a “national accord” to address poverty, environmental protection, and the rural drug trade. The appeal comes as Colombia and the United States consider joint operations against the group, which President Gustavo Petro has labeled “drug traffickers dressed up as guerrilla fighters.” Tensions rose after U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro on drug charges alleging ties to the ELN.
 
Petro warned the group to abandon drug trafficking, child recruitment, and its Venezuelan camps, or face coordinated action. Peace talks remain suspended after the ELN’s 2025 offensive in Catatumbo displaced thousands.
 
ANTI-HAMAS MILITIA
 
**Anti-Hamas Militia Claims Assassination of Senior Hamas Officer in Gaza **- Housam al-Astal, leader of the anti-Hamas “Counterterrorism Service” militia, claimed responsibility on Monday for killing Mahmoud al-Astal, the Hamas police chief in Khan Younis. The shooting occurred in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza. Hamas confirmed the death, blaming “Israeli occupation agents,” a label it uses for local anti-Hamas groups. In a video statement, al-Astal warned that “death is coming” to anyone working with Hamas, displaying weapons seized during recent operations. His militia, linked to the Popular Forces network, said it also killed two Hamas fighters and captured another in a separate raid.
 
AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN BORDER
 
**Seven Pakistani Police Officers Killed in Bomb Attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa** - A remote-controlled bomb targeting a police armored vehicle killed seven officers in Pakistan’s northwestern Tank district on Monday, authorities said. Five officers died at the scene and two succumbed to injuries in the hospital. No group has claimed responsibility, though the region has seen a surge in attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised the officers’ sacrifice, while officials blamed militants operating from neighboring Afghanistan—a charge Kabul denies. The attack underscores escalating insecurity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite a tenuous Pakistan-Afghanistan truce.
 
PUNTLAND & DAESH/ISIS
 
**Puntland forces capture strategic ISIS bases in Al-Miskaad mountains** - Puntland security forces have launched a large-scale offensive against Islamic State (IS) hideouts in the rugged mountains of the Bari region, capturing strategic positions and destroying key insurgent bases, military officials said Monday. The operation, led by the Puntland Darwish forces with undisclosed international support, successfully dislodged militants from the Al-Miskaad mountain range, a long-time stronghold for the extremist group. “Our forces have successfully flushed out Daesh (IS) militants from the Gambara well, a critical hub they used to coordinate terror activities,” a senior Puntland security official told AFP.
 
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
 
**Trump admin designates Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon as foreign terror groups** - The State Department and Treasury Department jointly announced Tuesday that the US is designating chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon as foreign terror groups. Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, the leader of the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood, will be listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
 
“These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to address Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization wherever it occurs,” Rubio said in a statement. The Treasury Department is also designating the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood as SDGTs for aiding and abetting Hamas.
 
GZB INFOCUS: 9-11 25TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY
 
The year 2026 commemorates the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 and catalyzed the Global War on Terrorism, a two-decade-long counterterrorism campaign Against AQ and IS. Looking ahead to what terrorism trends may materialize in 2026, it is clear that the counterterrorism focus of the past two decades has become deprioritized.
 
Assessing the past year of terrorist plots and attacks, however, indicates a global and ideologically heterogeneous terrorist threat landscape that has grave national security ramifications. Salafi-Jihadist terrorist organizations in conflict zones, primarily on the African continent, are highly lethal and successfully expanding their territorial presence. They also inspire and direct individuals remotely, as recently occurred in Sydney, Australia. Non ideological and political violence are also on the rise, but normalized and downplayed. Finally, the reclassification of drug cartels and gangs as terrorist organizations has led to a radically altered counterterrorism strategy in the United States and beyond.
 
In 2026, al-Qaeda (AQ) and Islamic State (IS), as well as their various global franchises and provinces respectively, will continue to exploit conflict zones and ungoverned spaces especially in El Sahel, called also coup-belt. JNIM). The group has effectively conducted an insurgency while building shadow governance structures, and will likely continue to expand with only minimal state resistance. Russian mercenaries operating in Mali and other Sahelian countries have exacerbated the terrorism problem. IS and AQ affiliated groups operate beyond El Sahel, worldwide from Libya to Philippines, from Syria to the Arabian peninsula that could see a rise in terrorism. State-funded terrorism and vandalism are predicted to be on the rise. Iran, if survives, and even Russia. In the US watch out for the 2026 FIFA World cup.
 
—END REPORT