Who Are Fighters of the Male State? Sexist Unit Claim Flight Bomb Threats

Newsweek · Ellie Cook · 2026-11-05 18:14 UTC

The Russian movement named Male State was proscribed as an extremist organization by a Russian court in 2021.

Bomb alerts were triggered on two planes on the way to Rome on Thursday after a misogynist hate group reportedly emailed airport authorities in the Italian capital to claim they had planted explosives onboard the two aircraft.

At least 20 flights were impacted by bomb alerts on Thursday, throwing operations at major airports in cities like Madrid, Prague, Sofia and Brussels into chaos just two days after several flights had been forced to divert or make emergency landings amid a series of explosives hoaxes on Tuesday.

The email, written in Italian and sent to officials managing both of Rome's major airports on Thursday, bore the subject line, "threat notification," according to local reports.

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