Category: Trending

The high-stakes visit marks Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first visit to India in seven years, following a chill in bilateral relations after the 2020 Galwan Valley border clashes.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be visiting India over this weekend to attend the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi, the government has confirmed, efectively ending days of heavy diplomatic suspense.

“At the invitation of Prime Minister of the Republic of India Narendra Modi, President Xi Jinping will attend the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi from September 12 to 13,” China’s foreign ministry statement read.

Earlier in the day, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jia-kun refused to provide any confirmation on Xi’s visit to New Delhi.

“I have no information to provide regarding the question you raised,” Guo Jiakun replied to a question on if the Chinese leader will be travelling to India this weekend to attend the BRICS leaders’ meeting.

The high-stakes visit marks Xi’s first visit to India in seven years, following a chill in bilateral relations after the 2020 Galwan Valley border clashes that killed 20 Indians and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers. The last time Xi visited India was in 2019 for an informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mamallapuram near Chennai.

Xi had first come to India in September 2014 when it was the first terms of both the leaders in office and had later visited Goa in 2016 to attend the BRICS summit.

India And China Are “Partners, Not Competitors”
Bilateral ties between the two nations have improved in recent years, especially since PM Modi visited China last year and as both nations grapple with volatile relationships with the US. New Delhi has since then eased some of the restrictions on Chinese investment that it imposed following the 2020 clashes, focusing on electronics, capital goods, and solar cell sectors.

China’s foreign ministry told Reuters that Xi and PM Modi, who briefly met this month at a regional forum in Kyrgyzstan, think the two countries are “partners, not competitors, and they represent opportunities, not threats, for each other’s development”.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/china-ends-suspense-says-xi-jinping-will-visit-india-for-brics-summit-12027919?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll

Iran is once again producing ballistic missiles using stockpiled components and working in underground facilities, according to a new report on Thursday, negating what the Trump administration has called a major accomplishment of Operation Epic Fury.

President Trump and his team claim that military operations obliterated Iran’s nuclear program and a vast majority of its conventional weapons infrastructure.

But Tehran is back in business, multiple officials told the Wall Street Journal, making liquid-propellant missiles, which have to be fueled just before launch, and solid-propellant missiles, which can be stored ready to fire.

The White House didn’t deny the report but said they are keeping a close eye on the situation.

“As President Trump has said, the United States is watching Iran and has eyes on their every move,” a White House official told The Post.

“At the direction of the Commander in Chief, the United States Military obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities, decimated their defense industrial base, sunk their navy, and rendered their air force irrelevant. Iran is weaker now than ever before, and President Trump will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Destroying Iran’s missile inventory and its ability to produce new ones was one of the major goals of Operation Epic Fury.

American officials claimed that 85% of Iran’s defense industrial base was razed in the bombing campaign, destroying most ballistic missiles, launcher vehicles, and long-range attack drones.

And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in April that Tehran’s drone and missile program had been “functionally destroyed.”

But it appears some underground military assembly sites survived. And Tehran is using existing components instead of a new supply line.

The news comes as President Trump conceded the war with Iran won’t end until after the midterm election. He said he expects gas prices to remain high until then too.

Trump pointed the blame to Iran, saying they wanted it that way to try and affect the election outcome.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/09/10/us-news/iran-back-in-business-of-producing-ballistic-missiles-report/

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s much-anticipated visit to New Delhi this week, his first to India in seven years, should further the diplomatic thaw between the giant neighbours, but there are few signs as yet that their business ties will improve.
Businesses in both countries continue to face hurdles, including investments stalled by regulations, visa delays and restrictions on industrial ​equipment, underlining the gap between diplomatic progress and economic ties, analysts say.

While Xi is widely expected to be in Delhi this weekend for the annual BRICS summit, Beijing is ‌yet to confirm his visit, and there is no word if he will have a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which will be crucial to set the future direction of bilateral ties.
China and India fought a brief war in 1962, setting the backdrop for a wary relationship since then, which soured after a 2020 border skirmish killed 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers. Still, ties have improved in recent years, especially since Modi visited China last year and as both nations grapple with ​volatile relationships with the U.S.

“China certainly wants to improve ties, but we are waiting to see to what extent India is actually willing to improve them,” said Lin Minwang, a South Asia ​expert with Shanghai’s Fudan University and former diplomat at the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, suggesting that any dramatic progress was unlikely.
Harsh Pant, vice president at New ⁠Delhi’s Observer Research Foundation think tank, said the “trust deficit” between the countries was high.
He added: “China has economic heft and there is a good opportunity to use that and emerge as a reliable partner, especially when ​both nations are impacted by America’s trade policies.”
In March, India eased some of the restrictions on Chinese investment that it imposed following the 2020 border clashes, focusing on electronics, capital goods and solar cell sectors. It is also ​considering faster approvals for joint ventures between Indian and Chinese firms in some industries.

New Delhi has since approved a few significant projects, including a manufacturing venture between India’s Dixon Technologies (DIXO.NS), opens new tab and Chinese smartphone maker Vivo Mobile.
But that has not been enough to attract back leading Chinese companies like vehicle makers BYD (002594.SZ), opens new tab and Great Wall Motor (601633.SS), opens new tab, which shelved planned investments in India after facing heightened scrutiny by New Delhi, according to an Indian government source.
Great Wall Motor and BYD declined to comment.
‘PARTNERS, NOT COMPETITORS’
Chinese companies’ ​proposed investments in India are facing more scrutiny from Beijing itself, including in sectors where sophisticated manufacturing and high-end technology may be involved, the source and another person said, both requesting anonymity as they were not ​authorised to speak to the press.
China’s foreign ministry told Reuters that Xi and Modi, who briefly met this month at a regional forum in Kyrgyzstan, think the two countries are “partners, not competitors, and they represent opportunities, not threats, for each ‌other’s development”.

India’s trade ⁠and foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
New Delhi has declined to approve a proposal by Alipay, a platform related to China’s Ant Group, to be linked to India’s instant payments system, citing national security concerns, Reuters reported last week.
The Indian government is also considering a recommendation by its Serious Fraud Investigation Office that Chinese cellphone maker Xiaomi be investigated for alleged irregularities in its business in India and breach of foreign investment laws, Reuters has reported. Xiaomi said it complies with all local laws and has not received any communication from the SFIO.
At the same time, one of the Indian sources said, Chinese authorities have asked companies not to ​sell critical technology and infrastructure to India, including port ​equipment, solar panels and mobile manufacturing equipment. China’s ⁠commerce ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Last year, India and China resumed direct flights and New Delhi eased visa procedures for Chinese business professionals.
However, some Indian business people with interests in China have recently had trouble securing visas, according to one of the sources and an industry executive.
China’s foreign ministry said it issues visas ​for “Indian nationals who have a genuine need to visit China” in accordance with the law and regulations.
This year, equipment and components made in China that ​India needs in key sectors such ⁠as solar energy and electronics as well as infrastructure development have been held up at Chinese customs, according to the industry executive and the two Indian sources.
Some massive boring machines from China for key infrastructure projects in India have been held up for more than a year, a third Indian source, a government official, said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/xis-india-visit-help-diplomatic-thaw-business-ties-bound-by-suspicion-2026-09-10/

Pakistan has delivered a Saudi warning to Iran to rein in its Yemeni Houthi allies after they stepped up attacks on the kingdom, ​in a coordinated effort to prevent the crisis from spiralling, Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said.
The Houthis struck an airbase in Khamis Mushait and oil infrastructure in nearby cities ‌on Tuesday, wounding 73 people, in one of the biggest attacks on Saudi Arabia since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in February.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Wednesday that Saudi warplanes carried out 54 airstrikes across various Yemeni provinces over the past 12 hours, adding that they would “not go unanswered and unpunished”.
The escalating conflict, which represents a second theatre of war to threaten global energy supplies, comes as Iran and the United States wage their ​biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping in the Gulf region since their war began.
Pakistan’s warning to Iran carries significant weight because of its defence pact with Saudi Arabia and ​Turkey.
While officials in Islamabad stressed any military role would be confined to defending Saudi territory, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said attacks spilling into the ⁠kingdom could trigger a joint security arrangement involving Riyadh, Ankara and Islamabad.

“An aggression on one country will be considered an aggression on all three countries,” Asif said on Pakistani TV.
“There is no ambiguity or ​doubt… Unprovoked aggression or spillover… into Saudi Arabia will definitely make this agreement operational.”
The Pakistani defence ministry, foreign ministry and the military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
FEARS OF PROXY WAR ​TURNING INTO WIDER REGIONAL CRISIS
Pakistan’s intervention, after years of balancing ties with Saudi Arabia and Iran, has underscored the seriousness of the Houthi attacks. The message to Tehran is clear: rein in the Houthis or risk turning a proxy conflict into a broader regional security crisis, the sources said.
A senior regional diplomat said Pakistan had conveyed the message to Iran over the past 24 hours, urging Tehran to use its influence to halt Houthi attacks on Saudi ​Arabia.

A senior Iranian official confirmed that Pakistan conveyed the message to Tehran on Tuesday and Tehran’s response was that “Iran does not control the Houthis”.

However, two Iranian sources said Tehran had told the Houthis last ​week to carry out attacks on Saudi Arabia. Tehran promised additional funding and weapons, they said, while several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders had travelled to Yemen to help coordinate the attacks.
The regional diplomat said Islamabad was ‌seeking to ⁠restrain the Houthis before the escalation reached a point where Riyadh could press Pakistan to play a more active role in defending it.
“Pakistan has an agreement with Saudi Arabia, but I am hopeful the situation will not reach the point where Pakistan has to practically step in,” the diplomat told Reuters. “It will pursue a diplomatic solution for now.”
PAKISTANI SUPPORT FOR SAUDIS
The Pakistani source said Saudi officials had met senior Pakistani and Turkish military representatives in Riyadh to coordinate their response. The three countries agreed that their troops would not enter Yemen and that any response would be launched from Saudi territory, the source added.
A ​second Pakistani source said no decision had been ​made to join retaliatory strikes, stressing that ⁠its military pact with Riyadh was defensive and limited to protecting Saudi territory. Pakistani forces could provide military, technical, ground or air support within Saudi Arabia, but would not take part in combat operations on foreign soil, the source said.
The pressure campaign waged by Iran and the Houthis could have the ​opposite effect to that intended by Tehran, the regional diplomat said.
By targeting Gulf security in a bid to pressure Washington over its blockade of ​Iranian ports, Tehran risks driving ⁠Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey and other U.S.-aligned states into closer security coordination rather than fracturing their ties.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pakistan-warns-iran-rein-houthis-riyadh-strikes-back-2026-09-09/

Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, ‌in the biggest wave of attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.
The attacks sent the price of oil surging, with benchmark Brent crude futures breaching $100 a barrel for the first time since July. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another listed as missing.

The incidents follow a month of relative calm, during which the U.S. has sought to pressure Iran through economic means.
Iran said it had fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in ​Jordan. Jordan said it intercepted 18 missiles, with the remaining two falling harmlessly in unpopulated areas. A U.S. official said all American troops were accounted for.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would ​sharply escalate its response to any further attacks, and said Iran would soon release maps of a new, enlarged off-limits zone at sea that would extend ⁠as far as Chabahar on the coast near Pakistan.

President Donald Trump said Tehran was trying to influence the November U.S. midterm elections, which will determine whether his Republican Party retains control of Congress.
“I think war ​is going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer. They’re desperate to try and affect the election,” he told reporters.
The Wall Street Journal reported later on Wednesday that top White ​House advisers, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have privately warned Trump that the conflict could extend through the remainder of his presidency, which ends in January 2029. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
In recent days there has also been an escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen, a second theater of war that threatens global energy supplies from the Middle East.

VIDEO SHOWS IRANIAN TANKERS ABLAZE
The American military said it destroyed five ​Iranian oil tankers overnight, releasing video of ships ablaze before they sank. The Central Command called its attacks a response to the Revolutionary Guard targeting a U.S. Navy warship twice with ballistic missiles. No Americans ​were harmed, the U.S. said.
Washington has announced a new policy of attacking Iranian tankers in retaliation for fire that threatens its warships, and says it has hit 10 so far over the past week.

“Iran continues to try to hit ‌U.S. naval ships, ⁠and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.
Iran said it fired on two U.S. ships and eight tankers in response.
One seafarer was killed aboard the oil products tanker Hercules Star while at anchorage off Dubai and another crew member was missing, the vessel’s charterer, Peninsula, said.
The British maritime security agency UKMTO described a vessel in the vicinity that was listing after being struck by a projectile. Reuters could not immediately determine whether this referred to the same ship.
Two Iraqi port officials said a tanker carrying 2 million barrels of fuel oil, the New ​Andros, had caught fire after being struck by a ​drone in Iraqi waters. There were no ⁠reports of casualties among the 22 crew.
The UKMTO said it had received reports of several merchant ships struck by disabling fire in the northern Gulf and Gulf of Oman, on either side of the Strait of Hormuz.
A maritime security source reported a liquefied natural gas tanker was damaged in the Emirati port of Khor Fakkan.
An ​explosion was heard in the southern part of the Iranian port city of Jask, coming from the sea, Iran’s Fars news agency reported late on ​Wednesday. It said no details were ⁠available on the source or cause of the blast.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-attacks-us-base-jordan-ships-near-hormuz-after-tankers-sunk-2026-09-09/

The remarks also come amid a stir about Trump not being present as president in New York for the 25th anniversary of the attacks in which 2,977 people were killed.

In President Donald Trump’s telling at a White House event on Tuesday, two firefighters bodily lifted him to safety from a site near an unstable building after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

“And I’ll never forget,” Trump said, “we thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big strong guys — and I’m not the smallest guy in the world — they grabbed me under the arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here!'” Trump said.

His comments, at an event honoring emergency personnel killed on 9/11, appeared to be a new installment in a constantly evolving narrative that Trump has told over the years about his actions after the attacks.

It’s a story that has long featured the New York property tycoon as the hero, with variations on him taking workers down to Ground Zero.

But it is one that US media say is disputed by rescue officials present at the time.

The remarks also come amid a stir about Trump not being present as president in New York for the 25th anniversary of the attacks in which 2,977 people were killed.

Instead of being at the site where Al-Qaeda hijackers rammed planes into the World Trade Center towers, Trump will pay his respects on Friday at the Pentagon in Washington.

Trump and the White House have hotly denied reports that he chose the Pentagon because he was not allowed to deliver a speech at the 9/11 memorial.

“This is more Corrupt News, I’ve been to New York many times over the years, and no one ever speaks, it’s a ‘solemn ceremony!'” Trump said on his Truth Social network last week.

But it will still place the 80-year-old native New Yorker away from the main focus of the day’s commemorative events.

Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s four living predecessors — Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as Republican George W Bush, who was president at the time of the attacks — are all expected at “Ground Zero.”

Later on Friday, Trump is due to fly to Ireland where he will attend the Irish Open golf tournament at his family’s golf course this weekend.

– ‘More famous than me’ –

His absence from New York marks a contrast with Trump’s usual approach, which has been to put himself at the heart of the 9/11 story.

Two days after the attacks, Trump told reporters that he had been to Ground Zero and had sent 100 workers to the site to help recovery efforts. CNN and the New York Times said people present at the site disputed his account.

In the event on the White House Ellipse on Tuesday, where a steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower was on display, Trump gave a fresh account of his actions that day.

Trump said it had been a “beautiful morning” and that he had then seen a news alert on television, before looking out of his window “and I saw things that I never want to see again.”

He added that he was overseeing a building project and that he “took the whole crew down there right after this happened.”

A popular right-wing X account called Johnny Maga — which US media have reported is run by a White House staffer — weighed in to support Trump.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-shares-shocking-9-11-story-12020425?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it ​fired ballistic missiles at a base in Jordan used by the U.S. military and attacked 10 ships on Wednesday, after the U.S. said it had destroyed ‌five Iranian oil tankers, in a sharp escalation of the six-month-old war.
Increased attacks by both the U.S. and Iran have shattered a month of relative calm, hitting military, shipping and energy assets, sending oil prices surging and drawing in regional allies in recent days.

The Americans said they destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday. The U.S. military’s Central Command posted video of the strikes, which it called a response to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeting ​a U.S. Navy warship twice with ballistic missiles over the previous two days. No Americans were harmed, the U.S. said.
“Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and ​for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters ⁠during a visit to Colombia.
Iran then carried out a ballistic missile attack on a base used by U.S. forces near Al Azraq in Jordan, according to an IRGC statement on state ​media.

Although Iran said its missiles inflicted heavy damage, Jordan said its air defences intercepted 18 of the 20 Iranian missiles, with two falling in unpopulated areas, and that there were no casualties. A ​U.S. official said Iran’s strikes in Jordan were ineffective and all American troops were accounted for.
The IRGC said on Wednesday it also attacked 10 ships, including two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers, attempting to cross a “prohibited and unsafe” area of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy conduit largely choked off by Iranian attacks.
Iran has targeted U.S. assets and allies in the region throughout the war, including in Jordan several times, killing at least ​two U.S. military personnel during one strike in July.
Iran has also threatened oil tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, according to a statement carried by state media. A maritime security source ​reported a liquefied natural gas tanker was damaged in the Emirati port of Khor Fakkan, though it was unclear who was responsible.

Oil prices extended gains in early trade on Wednesday with Brent crude nearing $100 a barrel ‌on market ⁠concerns over the disruption of oil tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. Recent attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on top energy producer Saudi Arabia have added to supply concerns.

HOUTHI ATTACKS ON SAUDI ARABIA
On Tuesday, Houthis launched an attack on several cities in Saudi Arabia, further undermining regional stability.
The Houthi attacks wounded 73 people and set oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a major expansion of the conflict, which began on February 28 with joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.
The Houthis, who control most of Yemen’s populated areas, including the capital, have further pressured U.S. allies by ​periodically disrupting shipping on the other side of ​the Arabian Peninsula, at the entrance to ⁠the Red Sea.
They said they had launched a broad operation deep into Saudi territory, using drones and missiles to strike a Saudi air base in the southern city of Khamis Mushait as well as Saudi state oil company assets in the cities of Abha, Najran and Jazan.
Saudi authorities reported ​blazes at the sites and said women and children were among the wounded.
Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis ​in Yemen for more ⁠than a decade, after the Houthis drove the Yemeni government from the capital. That war had calmed in recent years, but a ceasefire there has broken down.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-attacks-us-base-jordan-ships-near-hormuz-after-tankers-sunk-2026-09-09/

The promo was shared by the ACB on its official X account on Sunday, days ahead of the three-match India-Afghanistan series in New Delhi.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has triggered a fresh diplomatic row with Pakistan after a promotional video for its upcoming series against India appeared to show Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan within India’s outline.

The promo was shared by the ACB on its official X account on Sunday, days ahead of the three-match India-Afghanistan series in New Delhi.

Sources told CNN-News18 that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has raised concerns over the map depiction with the Pakistan Foreign Office. The exact nature of the concerns conveyed by the PCB was not immediately known.

The source further stated that Islamabad could consider raising the issue at an international level, although no formal move has been announced so far.

The development comes at a time of sharply strained relations between Kabul and Islamabad, with the two sides locked in disputes over border and security issues.

Map row adds to Kabul-Islamabad tensions

The latest controversy comes amid escalating tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, including border clashes and airstrikes. Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban of providing shelter to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Pakistan blames for deadly attacks inside the country.

Top Indian intelligence sources told CNN-News18 that such friction can increasingly play out through soft power, including cultural and sporting platforms.

According to the sources, the map depiction could be seen as a diplomatic signal from Kabul, indicating its independent foreign policy and willingness to engage with India without accommodating Pakistan’s regional sensitivities.

“Utilising its own branding to bypass Pakistan’s regional sensitivities signals Kabul’s intent to maintain an independent foreign posture in sports diplomacy,” the source said.

ACB promotes India series

The ACB shared the promo with a message highlighting the significance of the upcoming series.

As the 2026 midterm elections approach, concerns arise over Trump’s impact on Republican candidates, with polling indicating that many believe his presidency complicates their chances of success.

US President Donald Trump on Monday posted an image on Truth Social showing the United States covering all of continental North America and Greenland, in his latest provocative message about the country’s territorial footprint. The post has drawn criticism from opponents as the US continues its trade dispute with Canada.

“He’s f*king insane,” the group Republicans Against Trump wrote on X.

Foreign policy scholar Kurt Taylor Gaubatz also criticised the president’s recent social media activity, writing on Bluesky: “I propose all news sources just put a small box in the corner labeled ‘crazy things Trump did yesterday’ and we put his Truth postings and hair changes and the like in that box so they don’t distract from the everyday stories about how he is undermining America, democracy, and the world.”

Conservative supporters of Trump, however, celebrated the latest post.

Commentator Eric Daugherty wrote on X: “LMFAO!”, adding that Trump was going “full North American empire mode” and that “Democrats will be filing Articles of Impeachment over this, worrying that he’s going to launch mass invasions.”

The White House has not publicly explained the meaning of the image. The Independent said it had contacted the White House for comment.

President Zelenskyy confirmed the strikes aimed at oil-processing facilities in specific Russian regions and also mentioned hits on drone launch sites and a Black Sea target

Explosions have been heard in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as Russia resumed attacks following a three-day halt during a visit by US envoys seeking to revive efforts to end the war. Kyiv officials said ballistic missiles had been fired towards the city and reported damage to residential buildings in two districts.

“Please remain in shelters until the air raid alert is lifted,” officials said on Telegram.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, met Ukrainian officials in Kyiv on Sunday, a day after holding intensive talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The meetings formed part of Washington’s renewed diplomatic push to bring Russia and Ukraine closer to a peace agreement.

Witkoff said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a three-day ceasefire ahead of the visit.

“At President Trump’s direction, United States negotiators visited both Moscow and Kyiv in order to facilitate additional dialogue to end the Russia-Ukraine War,” he said.

He said the delegations had met both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss each side’s proposals.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have returned to the United Kingdom with their two children, but royal experts say the move may be less about a permanent homecoming and more about securing the “best of both worlds.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex — who are reportedly looking for a home in Britain — are expected to maintain their ties to Montecito, California, while keeping their businesses based in the United States.

Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield told Fox News Digital that the reported arrangement appears to give the couple access to Britain and the royal family while allowing them to maintain their independent lives in the US.

“I suspect they want the best of both worlds — access to Britain, proximity to the monarchy and the credibility that comes with Harry’s royal identity, while maintaining the freedom and commercial opportunities they associate with life outside the UK,” Schofield said.

Schofield said the Sussexes’ reported plans resemble the “half-in, half-out” role that Queen Elizabeth II rejected when Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020.

While the couple has reportedly vowed to avoid making public comments or releasing photos that could overshadow Prince George’s start at Eton this month, Schofield said the Sussexes’ broader UK plans raise questions about whether they are truly returning to Britain for good or simply testing the waters.

“Harry and Meghan never do what they say or say what they mean,” she said. “One year ago, Harry told us the UK was not safe enough to bring his wife and children. Now someone is briefing the Daily Mail that Harry has a 15-year plan in the UK. Alternatively, we’re briefed this could be temporary.”

“I would describe it as a trial run rather than a definitive homecoming,” Schofield added.

Harry and Meghan relocated to California in 2020 after stepping back as working members of the royal family. Since then, they have released various projects, including a Netflix docuseries and Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” and have pursued a series of entertainment and business ventures outside the monarchy.

However, their return to Britain has raised questions about their motives.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said Harry and Meghan have increasingly presented themselves as an “international” power couple, rather than tying themselves to either the UK or the US.

“They reportedly see themselves as ‘international citizens,’” Fitzwilliams told Fox News Digital. “They claim that their balance of business activities and trips abroad over the last six years is a success.”

“Rather than planting one flag, the Sussexes appear to be keeping several doors open,” Schofield added.

Helena Chard, a British broadcaster and photographer, also said Harry and Meghan are “keeping their options open.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/09/05/royal-family/experts-accuse-prince-harry-meghan-markle-of-seeking-best-of-both-worlds-with-uk-move/?_gl=1*5di1tg*_gcl_au*MTA2NDczMTkzNS4xNzg3MTA3MTIx*_ga*MTg2NjYyMzM1MC4xNzczODEwMTg2*_ga_0DZ7LHF5PZ*czE3ODg2NjU5OTkkbzI1MCRnMSR0MTc4ODY2NjgyMSRqMjgkbDAkaDA

Zelensky said that Ukraine cares about the envoys and “not Russia”, adding that the country wants “real options” to bring an end to the war

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday proposed a temporary ceasefire with Russia while Trump envoys visit Moscow and Kyiv over the weekend.

US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are scheduled to visit Moscow and Kyiv on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, to talk about a possible peace deal to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Zelensky’s proposal comes on a day when Russia conducted a midday airstrike on Ukraine’s intelligence service headquarters, which the Ukrainian President said had targeted the intelligence chief’s office.

The Ukraine President confirmed the visits of the Trump envoys in a post on Telegram. “The details are from the American President’s team. We discussed today that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow and on Sunday they will visit Kyiv.”

He said Ukrainian diplomats had conducted a meeting to prepare for the visit to Kyiv, during which it was decided that the normal functioning of the Russian airspace will be maintained so that Kushner and Witkoff can arrive safely.

“There will be no air strikes from our side, and Russia must mirror this by ensuring silence without its air strikes for the time needed to hold these negotiations and resolve the logistical issues associated with this American visit,” Zelensky said, proposing the ceasefire.

He said that Ukraine cares about the envoys and “not Russia”, adding that the country wants “real options” to bring an end to the war that has been continuing for four-and-a-half years.

“We’ll see what proposals Steve and Jared have and what Moscow will say to them,” Zelensky wrote.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/no-airstrikes-on-our-part-zelensky-proposes-ceasefire-with-russia-12003571?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office, Trump defended the months-long US military campaign against the Islamic Republic, saying its primary objective was to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States could “hit” Iran’s heavily fortified underground nuclear site known as Pickaxe Mountain “very soon”, days after Washington targeted Iranian military targets.

Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office, Trump defended the months-long US military campaign against the Islamic Republic, saying its primary objective was to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

“We’re in five months now. And you know what we did in five months? They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon; that’s what we did,” Trump said.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon because if they did, you probably wouldn’t be standing here very long,” he added.
Trump then warned that Pickaxe Mountain could be targeted if the US detects activity there.

“We may hit Pickaxe very soon because if there was anything going on with Pickaxe,” Trump said, adding that US intelligence was closely monitoring activity at the site.

“We know everybody that’s moving at Pickaxe; we know everybody that’s moving everywhere all over Iran. And if anything goes bad, we hit them; we hit them hard,” Trump said.

Pickaxe Mountain is located near Iran’s heavily damaged Natanz uranium-enrichment facility and is described as a heavily fortified underground complex containing two deeply buried tunnel systems.

The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that Israeli intelligence believes Iran has relocated thousands of centrifuges to the deeply buried facility.

The underground construction of the site is believed to make it substantially more resistant to conventional aerial bombardment, making any potential US decision to strike it a significant escalation in the campaign against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

Trump also argued that US military intervention had prevented a wider regional conflict, saying that without American action, Israel and the broader Middle East would have faced a potentially more serious threat.

“If we didn’t go in there, you wouldn’t have Israel right now, you wouldn’t have the Middle East, and they probably would go at European cities and our cities next,” Trump said.

“But we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon in five months,” he added.

The remarks came days after the US Central Command said American forces had completed a wave of strikes against Iranian military targets.

According to CENTCOM, the operations targeted facilities associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last week, including air-defence installations, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites.

CENTCOM said the strikes followed what it described as recent “attempted attacks” by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against US service members.

Trump also spoke about the recent US strikes on Iranian radar systems, claiming American forces had destroyed sophisticated radar installations on two occasions.

“There had been no shooting for days before the hit that we gave them the other night to wipe out the radar they had,” Trump said.

“They had very sophisticated radar – they brought in radar because we knocked it out once, and now we knocked it out twice. Now we don’t notice any activity,” he added.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-issues-fresh-threat-to-strike-irans-pickaxe-mountain-nuclear-site-12004306?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

 

A kidney transplanted from a pig has worked inside a patient for 271 days – the longest on record, say US doctors.

Tim Andrews said the transplant gave him “hope” and spared him months of needing to go to hospital to have his blood filtered by a dialysis machine.

The team at Mass General Brigham hospital say their work shows pig organs can be used as a “bridge” until a human transplant becomes available.

But the pig organ eventually failed and was removed so Andrews needed a short bout of dialysis before a donor was found.

Doctors and scientists are exploring xenotransplantation – using organs from other species – due to shortages of organs for transplants.

In the US, around 100,000 people are waiting for a kidney while only 25,000 transplants occur each year. More than 7,000 people in the UK are on the kidney transplant list.

Andrews was told it could take seven years to get to the top of the list, but that people live only five years, on average, on dialysis.

“I had a little bit of a shortage of time… it becomes very depressing,” he said.

But he described the idea of a pig transplant as “hope” and the “light at the end of the tunnel”.

“Hope is the biggest thing, the chance to be free from the [dialysis] machine and live your life.”

Pigs are seen as the ideal animal for xenotransplantation. Their organs are roughly the right size and there have been years of experience farming them.

But you cannot just pop down to the farm and take a kidney from a pig and put it into a person. The human body would immediately identify the organ as foreign and launch a devastating immune assault that would destroy the kidney. It would turn black in minutes as holes are ripped in every cell and the organ clots from the inside.

So researchers have developed Yucatan miniature pigs that have gone through 69 genomic modifications to “humanise” their organs.

These modifications strip out some features of pig cells that our immune system spots and attacks; add some human DNA that acts like camouflage netting to help hide the pig tissue from the immune system and further tweaks disable viruses that hide inside pig DNA to prevent infection.

Andrews had end stage kidney disease as a result of type 2 diabetes and his kidney’s were failing.

He was 66 years old when he had the xenotransplant on January 25, 2025.

The transplanted pig kidney worked immediately, according to details just published in the Lancet medical journal.

The kidney continued to function for 271 days until it was removed in October that year. Tim then needed dialysis for 82 days until he had an organ from a donor in January of this year. That organ has been working well.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c305qn2jeggo

If the new law is implemented, the proposal would require all parents or legal guardians to provide proof of their citizenship or evidence of their immigration status when submitting a passport application for their children.

The Donald Trump administration is planning to ask parents in the United States to prove their own citizenship or immigration status before applying for passports for their children as part of President Donald Trump’s latest effort to limit birthright citizenship, according to a Reuters report.

The US State Department proposal marks Team Trump’s first detailed framework for implementing the Republican president’s August 6 executive order targeting what it calls “birth tourism” and broadening historical exceptions to birthright citizenship.

“President Trump has been unequivocal that this Administration will protect the meaning and value of American citizenship, full stop, and that includes making sure our passport adjudication process fully reflects that standard,” the State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement to Reuters.

What’s the New Proposal? 

The existing US passport rule requires parents, who are applying for passports of their US-born children, to establish their relationship with the minor and provide government-issued photo identification.

Even in the current structure, parents are asked to declare their citizenship status on application forms, but they are not routinely required to submit documents proving their immigration status.

The State Department’s draft guidance proposed to change this process. Under the new rule, “the Department will require parental information and evidence of parental citizenship or immigration status as part of its determination whether the applicant is subject to EO 14418,” the State Department draft guidance read, citing the executive order number.

If the new law is implemented, the proposal would require all parents or legal guardians to provide proof of their citizenship, such as a valid US passport or birth certificate, or evidence of their immigration status, such as an I-94 form or a legal permanent residency card, when submitting a passport application for their children.

The information would be used by the government to determine if the child qualifies for citizenship under the new order, the State Department proposal said.

The Goal

According to the Reuters report, the new directive would withhold citizenship from children with a parent who works for a foreign government in the US, is engaged in fraud or a commercial transaction to obtain citizenship, or is classified as an “alien enemy.”

The proposed passport rules come amid an ongoing legal battle over Trump’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship. Lawyers pursuing class-action lawsuits on behalf of babies who would be deprived of citizenship under Trump’s initial order have asked two different federal judges to prevent his latest order from taking effect.

One of those lawsuits is before US District Judge Deborah Boardman, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden.

At a hearing on Friday in Greenbelt, Maryland, Boardman voiced skepticism about what she called Trump’s unprecedented order and allowed the plaintiffs to revise their lawsuit so she could consider whether to block it.

Justice Department attorneys have argued that a restraining order would be inappropriate and that the legal challenge was premature, as federal agencies had yet to issue public guidance on how the president’s directive would be implemented.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-plans-to-ask-parents-citizenship-immigration-proof-for-their-childs-passport-11990873?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll

Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters on Wednesday that schools would halt the current use of about 40 educational tools in New York City classrooms.

New York City officials announced a one-year moratorium on students using artificial intelligence in public elementary and middle schools, the latest step by public officials to set guidelines around new technology in the classroom.

The move by the nation’s largest school district is the most restrictive to date across the US, though other districts, including Los Angeles, have said they are reviewing AI policies.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters on Wednesday that schools would halt the current use of about 40 educational tools in New York City classrooms.

“Children need teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow. They need to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with educators and wrestle with tough problems on their own,” Mamdani said at a press conference.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/new-york-city-schools-ban-ai-use-for-students-11994649?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll

 

While US forces aim to suppress Iran’s leverage in the region, concerns remain regarding the safety of shipping routes, with energy companies wary of risks and high costs.

The US military has escorted 40 commercial vessels carrying about 18 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, in what US officials described as a wartime high. The operation took place on Tuesday as the US and Iran exchanged a new round of strikes, according to a report by CNN.

Before the war began more than six months ago, about 20 million barrels of oil a day passed through the strategically important waterway. US forces used air, sea and space assets to protect the vessels while continuing strikes against Iranian capabilities that could threaten commercial shipping in the strait, the officials said.

They also faced waves of drone attacks and neutralised anti-ship cruise missiles during the escort operation, one of the officials said.

The operation is part of a broader US strategy under President Donald Trump aimed at increasing economic pressure on Iran. It includes strikes on Iranian military capabilities around the strait, escorting commercial vessels and maintaining a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Despite the successful operation, US officials acknowledge that an end to the conflict is not close.

Energy companies remain concerned about the risks of sending vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, even under military escort. Oil prices also remain elevated, contributing to volatility in global bond markets.

A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 last year that claimed 26 lives, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan, including suspending the Indus Water Treaty.

India is firm: The Indus Waters Treaty’s suspension remains in force and the Hague-based Permanent Court Of Arbitration “has no jurisdiction on India’s sovereign decisions” after it urged New Delhi to uphold the water-sharing treaty with Pakistan.

The Court of Arbitration, the world’s oldest permanent forum for international dispute, further said that India had no justification for ending or suspending the agreement and that the treaty between the two subcontinent arch-rivals remained fully in force.

Executed in September 1960, the Indus Waters Treaty was designed to govern the sharing of the Indus River system between India and Pakistan.

A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 last year that claimed 26 lives, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan, including suspending the water-sharing framework.

Reaffirming its long-standing principle that “blood and water cannot flow together,” New Delhi has made it clear that treaty operations will remain suspended until Islamabad takes verifiable, irreversible action to dismantle cross-border terror networks operating from its soil.

“This so called Court was constituted by the World Bank in patent breach of the terms of the Treaty and India categorically rejects its so-called award, just as it has firmly rejected all prior pronouncements by this illegally constituted body,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

The statement further underscores that India has never recognised the existence in law of this “illegally-constituted body”, and has “consistently maintained that the very establishment of this alleged arbitral body constitutes a grave violation of the Indus Waters Treaty”.

Pakistan had sought arbitration over disagreements concerning the design of India’s Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects on the western rivers of the Indus system.

India has objected to the arbitration process from the start.

New Delhi argues that disputes of this nature are technical and should be examined by a Neutral Expert, as provided for under the treaty. Allowing a Court of Arbitration to simultaneously examine the same issues, India says, goes against the dispute-resolution mechanism laid down in the agreement.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/have-no-jurisdiction-india-rejects-hague-courts-indus-water-treaty-ruling-11982024?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll

Rescue teams are working to reach around 100 hydropower workers believed to be trapped inside several tunnels in Nepal’s Rasuwa district.

Rescuers battled mud, debris and treacherous terrain as the death toll from devastating flash floods in Nepal and Tibet climbed to more than 950, with over 4,400 people still missing — as the disaster entered its second week with no end to the crisis in sight.

The floods, triggered by a glacial collapse near the China-Nepal border, sent a huge surge of water, rocks and debris through villages and towns last Wednesday. At least 17 bodies have also been recovered from rivers downstream in India.

Rescue Teams Race To Reach Trapped Workers

Rescue teams are working to reach around 100 hydropower workers believed to be trapped inside several tunnels in Nepal’s Rasuwa district.

Three bodies have so far been recovered from two tunnels, while mud and debris have blocked access to the affected areas. An Indian Army officer involved in the tunnel rescue operation said teams were digging through thick sludge but remained hopeful of finding survivors.

Nepal has deployed around 20,600 personnel for rescue and relief operations, while more than 3,100 people have been rescued from affected areas.

The scale of the disaster has left entire communities devastated, with roads destroyed, bridges swept away and power plants damaged.

Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah has called the disaster as “unimaginable and heartbreaking”.

Bodies Recovered As Families Search For Missing

With mortuaries overwhelmed, Nepal has begun burying unidentified bodies after collecting DNA samples so they can potentially be identified and returned to families later.

Relatives have been gathering at community centres to look at images of recovered bodies in the hope of finding missing loved ones. Nepal has also appealed for international assistance, saying it needs more than 1,000 freezer units to store bodies.

Among those listed as missing in Nepal are 592 foreigners, including trekkers and Hindu pilgrims travelling to Tibet’s Mount Kailash.

In Tibet, China has reported 16 deaths and 546 missing people. More than 2,000 personnel are involved in rescue operations there, but access to the disaster’s epicentre remains difficult.

Tibetan advocacy groups have questioned China’s casualty figures and called for more information. Beijing has rejected claims that it is underreporting deaths, saying the release of information has been “open, transparent and timely”.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/nepal-tibet-floods-death-toll-rises-to-939-nearly-4500-missing-as-rescue-enters-day-6-ws-l-10303022.html

The first committee meeting under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement is set to bring the three countries together for technical and operational discussions.

Pakistan is moving towards a larger military role in the Middle East and South Asia as Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia prepare for key defence discussions in Istanbul.

Field Marshal Asim Munir has arrived in Turkey ahead of the first committee meeting under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which is scheduled for Monday. The meeting will focus on joint defence cooperation between the three countries.

Asim Munir In Istanbul For Trilateral Talks

Munir’s arrival in Istanbul comes ahead of a high-level meeting involving Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The first committee meeting under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement is set to bring the three countries together for technical and operational discussions. The talks are expected to place trilateral defence cooperation at the centre of the partnership.

The Istanbul meeting follows the formalisation of what is being described as a historic defence triad involving Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The three countries are set to discuss joint defence cooperation as they seek to strengthen military links under the agreement.

Pakistan’s New Defence Position

According to top intelligence sources, Pakistan is shifting away from traditional defence postures and positioning itself as a core military pillar across the Middle East and South Asia.

The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement has brought Pakistan’s armed forces into a framework with Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest military, and Saudi Arabia, described as the Gulf’s premier economic powerhouse.

The agreement also includes a collective defence clause under which an attack on one country is treated as an attack on all three.

This provision marks a different phase for Pakistan, according to the intelligence sources, as Islamabad seeks a more prominent role in regional security.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia And Pakistan’s Military Triangle

The emerging partnership combines different strengths of the three countries.

Turkey brings defence technology, while Saudi Arabia provides financial backing and Pakistan contributes military power. The arrangement is aimed at establishing a strong foothold for each country in the territories of the others.

The partnership therefore extends beyond political cooperation and focuses on building deeper military and strategic links between the three nations.

The Istanbul meeting is expected to provide a platform for discussions on the technical and operational aspects of this cooperation.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/asim-munir-in-istanbul-why-pakistans-new-defence-alliance-with-turkey-saudi-arabia-matters-exclusive-10301004.html

The SCO summit’s priorities include counter-terrorism, regional stability and coordination on cross-border threats.

The 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from August 31 to September 1, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping among the leaders attending the gathering.

Modi arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday, August 30, to attend the summit and hold bilateral meetings with leaders on the sidelines. He was received at the airport by Kasymaliev Adylbek Aleshovich, chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. A traditional Kyrgyz dance performance was also organised to welcome him.

Modi is visiting Kyrgyzstan at the invitation of President Sadyr Zhaparov for the 26th SCO Summit.

Modi To Meet SCO Leaders

PM Modi is expected to meet several SCO leaders, including Zhaparov and Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the summit, PTI reported.

In his departure statement on Saturday, Modi said he looked forward to advancing India’s vision for the region, based on “security, connectivity and opportunity”.

He also said India would work with SCO members towards a region free from “terrorism, separatism and extremism”.

Modi will also attend the opening ceremony of the 6th World Nomad Games.

He said the visit would strengthen India’s strategic partnerships in Central Asia, deepen its civilisational connect with the region and advance the shared pursuit of peace, stability and prosperity.

Xi Jinping Arrives In Kyrgyzstan

Chinese President Xi Jinping also arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday to participate in the SCO summit, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

“I look forward to attending the SCO Bishkek Summit, working with all parties to revisit the 25-year development experience of the SCO, jointly discuss cooperation plans, create the future of the organisation,” Xi said after his arrival.

He said he looked forward to working with other members to “promote the continuous new development of the organisation”.

Xi is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with several SCO leaders during his visit.

His trip comes ahead of a busy September. He is widely expected to attend the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12-13 and later travel to the US for a summit meeting with President Donald Trump.

SCO Marks 25 Years

The 10-member SCO is marking 25 years since its founding in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India and Pakistan became full members in 2017, followed by Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024.

Kyrgyzstan holds the rotating chair for 2026, with the main sessions being held at the Ala-Archa State Residence outside Bishkek. Leaders’ events run from August 30 to September 1, while the Council of Heads of State plenary is scheduled for September 1.

The summit theme is “25 Years of the SCO: Together Towards Sustainable Peace, Development and Prosperity.”

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/pm-modi-xi-putin-under-one-roof-why-the-sco-summit-2026-in-kyrgyzstan-matters-10301062.html

Russia continues drone strikes against Ukrainian cities, resulting in casualties and significant damage, including fatalities from a recent attack on a warehouse near Kyiv

Ukraine says it has intelligence that Russia is planning and preparing for possible new ground offensives against the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv. Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, told reporters that Russian military commanders had been instructed by the country’s political leadership to plan and prepare attacks on the two cities.

He said the intelligence had been received and verified by Ukraine.

However, Palisa said there was currently no evidence that Russian troops were massing for the attacks. Ukraine’s priority, he said, was to “prevent the creation of conditions for the Russians to be able to launch any offensive actions at all”.

Russian forces previously attempted to advance on Kyiv during the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The assault was launched in part from neighbouring Belarus but was eventually repelled by Ukrainian forces.

The latest warning comes amid reports that Russia is testing its ability to mobilise additional troops.

A Wall Street Journal report said Russia was testing its readiness for another round of military mobilisation. The Kremlin is also reportedly losing more troops in Ukraine than it is recruiting, while concerns are growing that Moscow could announce a new mobilisation effort.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday that “escalation from Russia’s side is progressing”.

He made the comments after a briefing with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte. They came days after CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow and warned Russian officials against escalating the conflict with America’s Nato allies.

Tusk said Ukraine needed more air support and warned that the next six months “will be decisive”. “We must be prepared as Poland and NATO for various scenarios,” he said.

Ukraine remains cautious, fearing an impending escalation from Russia.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe proposed a trilateral meeting between US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a covert visit to Moscow earlier this week, according to a report by Axios. The proposal was made as the Trump administration seeks to revive efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

It was the first time Ratcliffe had become personally involved in the diplomatic effort to broker a breakthrough between Moscow and Kyiv, according to the sources. Ratcliffe’s visit was partly intended to assess whether Russia’s intelligence chiefs could help persuade Putin to resume US-mediated negotiations with Ukraine.

US officials briefed Zelenskyy on Friday about Ratcliffe’s discussions in Moscow, including the proposal for a three-way summit.

The Trump administration has previously raised the possibility of such a meeting. Zelenskyy has supported the idea, while Putin has rejected it.

Ratcliffe travelled secretly to Moscow on Tuesday, where he met Russia’s foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin and Federal Security Service (FSB) director Alexander Bortnikov.

President Trump described the CIA chief’s visit as “standard business” and said it was not intended as a warning to Russia against attacking NATO territory.

According to the sources, Ratcliffe also discussed the possibility of restarting peace negotiations during his meetings in Moscow. The New York Times reported that Ratcliffe gave Bortnikov “a bleak assessment” of the war and urged Russia to reach an agreement before its position deteriorated further.

The Axios sources said Ratcliffe came away from the meeting believing Bortnikov could be a constructive figure in efforts to restart diplomatic contacts.

Ukraine remains sceptical about Putin’s willingness to pursue peace. Ukrainian officials have said they have intelligence suggesting Russia is preparing for a major escalation of the war.

Pavlo Palisa, Zelenskyy’s deputy chief of staff, told reporters on Friday that Putin had ordered the Russian military to prepare several operational scenarios for an offensive in northern Ukraine. He said Kyiv and Chernihiv had been identified as key areas.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/europe/trump-putin-zelenskyy-russia-ukraine-war-meeting-cia-chief-john-ratcliffe-moscow-talks-article-156011084

VLADIMIR Putin has flexed his nuclear arsenal by launching an intercontinental ballistic missile in a chilling warning to the West.

It came after CIA chief John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow and reportedly issued the Kremlin a stern warning not to attack Nato members.

But just days later Putin has defiantly engaged in more nuclear sabre-rattling by firing a ballistic rocket at Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia.

Ominous footage showed the thunderous blast-off as the missile took to the skies under a ball of fire and smoke.

The rocket reportedly hit the Kura test site 4,300 miles away in Russian Pacific region Kamchatka.

“All assigned tasks were completed in full,” said the Defence Ministry’s TV channel Zvezda.

“The purpose of the launch was to confirm the missile system’s performance and flight characteristics.”

The Russians did not immediately disclose the type of missile.

It carried multiple “training warheads” and was a solid fuel missile from a ground-mobile complex consistent with a RS-24 Yars rocket.

The launch came soon after a visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, when he reportedly gave a “bleak assessment” of the Russian war effort.

Donald Trump‘s chief spy is said to have urged the Putin regime to cut a deal to end the conflict before his military and economic crisis worsens.

Ratcliffe reportedly took his stark message directly to Aleksandr V. Bortnikov, head of Russia’s FSB security service.

No threats of consequences were made if Putin ignored the warning and chose to continue fighting, officials said.

Trump has now insisted Putin wouldn’t attack any Nato territory whilst he was in charge.

He said: “I’ve had good talks with him. He’s not going to be attacking a Nato territory.”

But Russian sources say Putin has since doubled down on the war despite suffering daily costly setbacks.

The latest launch appears a symbolic move intended to convey Putin’s power.

The CIA has long questioned whether Putin’s circle has given him “honest assessments of the war’s trajectory and toll”, The New York Times reported.

They suspect Putin is cocooned from the grim truth as his commanders report constant gains despite a lack of objective evidence.

Ratcliffe hoped that Putin – as an ex-KGB spy – would see a warning as more “urgent and credible” than communications through normal diplomatic channels.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16914567/putin-nuclear-missile-warning-west/

 

Over 14,000 security personnel have been mobilised for search and rescue operations and about 3,742 people have been rescued.

The devastating Nepal floods have claimed at least 579 people and left more than 977 people missing, Nepal’s disaster authority said on Friday. The Chinese state media said that the disaster that happened on Wednesday killed at least five people, taking the total casualties to 584. Together, the two countries have said that almost 2,500 people are missing.

Over 14,000 security personnel have been mobilised for search as rescue operations continue for the third day of the tragic incident and about 3,742 people have been rescued.

This has been the deadliest disaster for Nepal since a 2015 earthquake. The US Geological Survey said that the floods were caused by a glacial collapse that triggered a vast flow of icy debris.

After a dam on the Tibet side burst, the Nepali police issued a fresh alert on Friday. Security personnel and rescue and relief workers were told to stay on high alert and immediately move to a safe location if necessary.

China temporarily stopped rescue work when a lake made of debris started spilling over, but state media later said the danger was dropping and rescues were back on track. Officials are still trying to figure out if this lake is the same debris dam that Nepal warned had already burst.

320 Indians Still Missing

The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a press briefing that 21 Indians had arrived yesterday from the flood-devastated area in Kathmandu.

#WATCH | Delhi: On Nepal flash flood, MEA Official Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, “… First good news, 21 Indian nationals who had arrived yesterday in Kathmandu from the area that was affected by this flood have today landed in Delhi. These 21 Indian nationals are from… pic.twitter.com/QQU5lmSEMw

— ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2026

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/538-killed-in-nepal-flash-floods-85-indians-rescued-11970902?pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_top_scroll 

The U.S. said on Wednesday it had disrupted a Chinese hacking operation ‌responsible for break-ins and attempts on the Justice Department, NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Senate, and other sensitive government agencies.
In a statement, opens new tab, the Justice Department said it had seized domains used by two hacking platforms, dubbed QScan and QTRouter, which it said had been used as part of the campaign.

An affidavit, opens new tab identified the U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Health ​and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and four unnamed companies in the U.S. and South Korea as being among the hackers’ ​victims.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said in an email that while they were not familiar with ⁠the specifics mentioned in the DOJ statement, the “Chinese government firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyberattacks in accordance with the law.”
The U.S. uses ​cybersecurity issues to “smear or discredit China,” the spokesperson said, and China “opposes the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security and using it as a pretext to impose ​discriminatory restrictions on Chinese companies and will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.”
The Justice Department said the platforms were run by a China-based firm, the Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, whose clients it said included China’s civilian intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, and its military, the People’s Liberation Army.

Nanjing Xinjiuwei did not immediately ​respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
HACK ATTEMPTS STARTED IN 2018
The affidavit said the hackers used tools they developed to compromise critical ​infrastructure and other sensitive networks in the U.S. and worldwide since at least 2018.
The affidavit said that not all their attempts to gain access were successful. The hackers unsuccessfully attempted ‌to gain ⁠access to NASA networks in August 2019 by targeting a virtual private network vulnerability.
In September 2024, the hackers carried out intrusions at three unnamed Energy Department laboratories, the NIH, an unnamed HHS agency, and a U.S. security device manufacturer, according to the affidavit.
A joint cybersecurity advisory, opens new tab issued by the FBI, NSA and U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force detailed multiple hacking efforts over the years. These included successful data theft from unnamed defense contractors, financial institutions and universities in ​May 2024.

The hackers also scanned ​for vulnerabilities and made unsuccessful attempts ⁠to access networks of the U.S. Senate and a U.S. hospital in March 2026.
A NASA spokesperson said the agency does not comment on specific incidents, and the Department of Health and Human Services referred questions to the DOJ. ​The DOJ did not respond to a request for additional detail.
Chinese-linked hacking campaigns have compromised a string of ​sensitive U.S. government and ⁠private networks in recent years. In March, the FBI notified Congress that hackers had penetrated certain agency networks related to people under FBI investigation, with public reporting later attributing the compromise to China. Chinese-linked hackers have also been tied to a compromise of certain U.S. House of Representatives committee networks, as well as multiple major telecommunications ⁠companies in ​recent years.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-sponsored-hacking-platforms-seized-by-us-justice-department-says-2026-08-26/

President Donald Trump’s administration has ​issued a pause on visa appointments for applicants around the world during ‌an ongoing immigration crackdown by the U.S. government in the Republican leader’s second term in the White House.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday that it launched a global training initiative at ​all U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide and that appointments for visa services ​will be adjusted to accommodate the training.

Trump has pursued an aggressive deportation ⁠drive and immigration crackdown that includes revocations of visas and green cards and rejection ​of applications over a. range of reasons like political opinions and pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s ​assault on Gaza.
He says the crackdown aims to improve domestic security.
The crackdown has faced some legal setbacks. A U.S. judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants ​from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statutory ​authority.

The State Department did not specify details on the training and its timeline, beyond saying the ‌training aimed ⁠to help consular officers screen out applicants deemed likely to become dependent on U.S. public benefits and to ensure evaluation of visa applicants “comprehensively and consistently.”
The pause on visa appointments was reported earlier by the Financial Times, which said immigrant visa applicants with scheduled ​interviews at U.S. embassies ​and consulates have ⁠received emails that their appointments were being rescheduled and that they would receive future notice of a new date.
Trump’s immigration crackdown has ​been widely condemned by human rights groups as being discriminatory and ​in violation ⁠of free speech and due process rights. Rights groups also say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment in the U.S., especially for ethnic minorities who have raised concerns about racial ⁠profiling.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-administration-issues-pause-visa-appointments-applicants-worldwide-2026-08-26/

Iran said it had restarted talks ​with neighbor Oman to manage the Strait of Hormuz as it faces heightened economic pressure from U.S. ‌President Donald Trump in the wider conflict.
Iran and Oman have been in on-and-off talks for weeks about controlling traffic through the strategic waterway, which handled one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before the war began in February.

Most shipping has been shut down since ​then.
The two countries said on Tuesday that they discussed “a joint temporary navigational corridor” through the strait and agreed to ​clear it of mines.
Trump said all mines in the strait had been cleared, repeating comments that ⁠he has previously made.
Though active hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have largely subsided, diplomatic efforts to reach a ​peace deal have stalled and passage through the waterway remains perilous.
An oil tanker was struck on Tuesday by an unidentified projectile ​and disabled about 9 nautical miles (17 km) northeast of Oman’s Ash Shishah, which lies at the entrance to the strait, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said.

Separately, the U.S. Secret Service said on Tuesday that it was aware of a video broadcast by Iranian state television discussing ​a potential plot to assassinate Trump’s youngest son, Barron.
A three-minute video broadcast by Iranian state TV discussed a potential plot ​to assassinate Barron Trump, 20, claiming that he was being monitored and alleging that a $10 million bounty had been offered for his killing.
SANCTIONS
‌Despite ⁠the ongoing tensions, the U.S. is beginning to send personnel back to some diplomatic missions in the Middle East that were evacuated or downsized amid tensions with Iran, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The move suggests Washington sees a lower risk of the conflict with Iran escalating in the near term, though some embassies will initially operate below full capacity.

In an ​effort to hobble Iran’s economy, the ​United States earlier this week ⁠threatened to punish countries that continue to do business with Iran, but said it would not impose penalties immediately.
Oil prices fell for a second day as traders brushed off the impact ​of the U.S. sanctions, while Iran denounced the U.S. effort to isolate its economy as ​an act of “gross ⁠lawlessness”, expressing confidence that many countries would not join the pressure campaign.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/iran-oman-discuss-temporary-hormuz-corridor-impasse-with-us-drags-2026-08-25/

Ford backed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and warned Canada could use electricity, fuel, potash and uranium to put “massive pain” on the U.S. in retaliation.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has sharply escalated his criticism of US President Donald Trump amid the latest fallout from the Canada-US trade war, calling Trump a “dictator,” a “bully” and the “king of bankruptcies.”

Speaking at a news conference in Hamilton on Monday, Ford doubled down on his earlier remark that Trump could “kiss my ass” after the US president’s latest tariff threats. Ford also said he fully supports Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to walk away from trade negotiations with the United States.

The latest exchange comes after 50% US tariffs on about $28 billion worth of Canadian goods took effect early Saturday. Carney has said Canada will impose dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on US goods starting September 8.

Tehran also threatened both a possible military response and further reduction in oil exports from the Gulf even before any US economic measures were announced.

Iran has threatened retaliation against the expansion of the United States’ economic sanctions, with Tehran expressing confidence that major trading partners would resist Washington’s pressure campaign. Taking to social media, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf downplayed the impact of new US restrictions, claiming Washington is in no economic position to further restrict its relations with other nations.

The remarks came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled the so-called measures on Monday to “cut off Iran’s economic lifeline.” The Team Trump member, however, stopped short of the most punishing sanctions, saying countries that continued trading with Iran risked being forced out of the dollar-based financial system.

Bessent declined to identify which of Iran’s trading partners would be targeted or reveal when those penalties would take effect. Instead, he said that the US would provide them time to comply with the new directive. The Treasury Department did announce new sanctions on 60 individuals, entities and vessels, but the list did not include any of the Chinese financial institutions — Tehran’s biggest trading partner– suspected of facilitating Iran’s oil trade.

What Iran Said

After the United States’ announcement, Ghalibaf said, “Americans know that no one buys their bombast; the United States is not in an economic position to further restrict its relations with other countries.”

“Iran’s trading partners, both in the media and through messages sent to us, have made it clear that they don’t take these statements into account anywhere,” he added in a post on X.

Iranian Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh also said Tehran was “fully prepared for the US sanctions.”

“Naturally, the enemies intend to launch an economic terrorist attack on us, but we also have our own tools and know how to play the game. Our defence is no longer so defensive; the enemies should wait for an attack,” Madanizadeh told state television.

He also said neither China nor Russia had “accepted” the US measures and predicted other countries would resist them.

Tehran also threatened both a possible military response and further reduction in oil exports from the Gulf even before any US economic measures were announced.

Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, vowed heavy blows to US vital interests and energy chokepoints if Iran’s infrastructure is threatened, Press TV reported.

Where the War Stands

Struggling to resolve an unpopular war that has pushed energy prices higher, President Donald Trump’s administration in the US appears to be counting on further economic pressure, even though Iran has spent decades under layers of American and international sanctions that have battered its economy but have not deterred its leadership.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/fully-prepared-iran-threatens-retaliation-after-us-widens-sanctions-11954342?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Carney claimed that the US proposed new terms that were “uneconomic” and “unfair” and said that they undermined the net benefits for Canada.

After the negotiations between Washington and Ottawa broke down on Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that he walked away because of a ‘bad trade deal’ and vowed to slap retaliatory tariffs on the US on Saturday.

Carney claimed that the US proposed new terms that were “uneconomic” and “unfair” and said that they undermined the net benefits for Canada.

He accused US President Donald Trump of launching a trade “war” and said, “You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked.”

“We cannot accept what they’ve offered, and we will not give what they’ve asked,” Carney said.

Negotiations between the neighbouring countries broke down on Friday in Washington, allowing new 50-per cent US tariffs impacting some $20 billion worth of goods, or 5.5 per cent of Canadian exports to the United States, to come into force.

Impacted products range from hockey sticks to cement.

Although Trump said that the US should be able to crack a trade deal with Canada because of his “good relationship” with Carney, the Canadian prime minister claimed that Washington’s conditions were ultimately unacceptable.

Carney promised to retaliate against US tariffs “dollar for dollar”.

“Canada will match the U.S.’ new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses. We take this step confident that it is in the best interests of Canada,” he wrote in a post on X.

For over a year, Canada has worked intensively and in good faith with the United States to negotiate a new comprehensive trade deal. We have been pragmatic, patient, and persistent. Our goal has always been to get the best deal for Canadians, never a deal at any price or on any…

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) August 22, 2026

New Canadian tariffs will notably target the US steel and dairy industries and take effect on September 8. Carney said further details would come next week.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/we-got-attacked-canadas-mark-carney-says-us-launched-trade-war-11946050?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

 

Canada will impose tariffs on some U.S. goods in retaliation for 50% ​levies ordered by President Donald Trump on Canadian products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday, after trade talks collapsed between the two neighbors.
The “dollar for dollar” tariffs ‌on imports of U.S. steel, electronics and other products, to take effect on September 8, mark a further worsening of relations between the longtime allies and major trading partners.

The two countries failed to reach a trade deal late on Friday, with each side blaming the other for derailing three days of intensive negotiations. The breakdown complicates the future of a U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade pact.
Trump’s new tariffs hit sectors including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, covering some $20 ​billion of Canadian exports to the U.S. These duties do not exempt Canadian products under the three-nation trade deal, which has shielded most Canadian exports to the U.S. in the ​last 18 months.

‘WE GOT ATTACKED,’ CARNEY SAYS

“Canada will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses,” ⁠Carney told a press conference.

“You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked,” Carney said when asked a question about whether Canada was engaged in a trade war.
Carney is one of the ​few global leaders to retaliate against U.S. tariffs and has pledged to forge new trade and military alliances, despite Canada’s dependence on the United States for nearly 70% of its exports.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson ​Greer called the breakdown “a missed opportunity for Canada to partner with the United States,” saying no new talks were planned with Canada.
“We’re moving forward with measures that respond to Canadian retaliation,” Greer told Fox News. “They’ve always had the best deal, and they still would have an even better deal, but they didn’t want that.”
The White House, the U.S. commerce secretary’s office and the U.S. trade representative’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Canada will impose ​tariffs on U.S. steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics, along with some products the U.S. previously targeted in Canada, Carney said from Ottawa’s Parliament building. The government will release ​details on its response in the coming days, he said.
“We cannot accept what they have offered, and we will not give what they have asked,” Carney said.

Trump had expressed hope that a deal with Canada could happen ‌on Friday.
But Carney ⁠said the U.S. administration’s last-minute demands halted progress.
“In recent days, the U.S. proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair, and undermined the net benefits to Canada, calling into question the reliability of any deal,” he said, adding these demands included curtailing Canada’s ability to forge new trade deals.

LARGER VEHICLES, OTHER STICKING POINTS

Carney said Canada would announce support measures next week for industries hit by the new U.S. duties, adding these measures could last years.
The new U.S. tariffs cover around 5% of Canada’s exports to the U.S. They could expose some vulnerable industries such as softwood lumber and wine to severe damage and lead ​to job losses and business closures, trade experts ​have said.
“We will be mobilizing our network ⁠of businesses in all regions and all sectors to brace for impact and make the best of a bad situation,” said Candace Laing, CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, one of the most vocal opponents of U.S. tariffs, supported Carney’s decision to retaliate.
“I’m glad he didn’t sign ​that deal because it was a bad deal. It was a bad deal for Ontario. It was a bad deal for the auto sector, ​the steel sector, and manufacturing ⁠sector,” Ford told reporters on Saturday.
One of the main sticking points was the treatment of larger vehicles.
Three sources said Canada wanted favorable tariff terms proposed for light-duty vehicles to extend to medium- and heavy-duty trucks, something the U.S. resisted. Carney said the U.S. position would have excluded Canadian-made models, including Ford’s F-350, F-450 and F-550 trucks and General Motors’ Silverado, making Canadian production less competitive.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/carney-says-new-canadian-tariffs-us-goods-will-come-into-effect-september-8-2026-08-22/

Iran on Saturday denounced U.S. plans to announce new sanctions that could put further strain on the Islamic Republic’s economy and have an impact ​on its most important trading partners including China.
After nearly six months of war since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on February 28, the sides are not ‌firing at each other but also showing no sign of pursuing peace talks.

Oil shipments are at a virtual standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran threatening to strike any unauthorized oil tankers that try to transit the vital waterway, and Iran’s economy is already under immense pressure from sanctions.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday after threatening “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran.
Bessent has ​also urged cooperation with Washington by China, which buys more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Beijing has urged diplomacy.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry ​spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Saturday the imminent U.S. announcement of new economic sanctions was an “assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of ⁠the United Nations.”
“Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law,” he said in a post on X.

The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, told state television that Tehran ​would target the interests of countries helping the United States.
“We are telling all nearby countries not to join the U.S. economic war, otherwise we will consider them as enemies,” Rezaei said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who ​has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides “any type of lifeline to Iran,” said on Friday that Washington was observing “what happens” in the conflict.
“They would love to make a deal, but they’re not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion,” Trump said of Iran.

HORMUZ TRAFFIC HALTED

While the U.S. has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of Hormuz remained bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels.

Only ​four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed.
However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers ​to pass through the Strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests during a visit to Iraq by ‌Parliament speaker ⁠Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait. That’s down from more than 20 million per day before the war or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.
U.S. attacks have severely diminished Iran’s economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran maintains enough missile and drone capability to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals.

Abdollahi, the armed forces chief of staff, sought to underline Iran’s missile capabilities during a visit to an underground plant manufacturing ballistic missiles that ​was reported by state television on Saturday.
“This plant ​has been able, much better than in the ⁠past, to produce equipment superior both in capacities and quality and in quantity,” he said.
Qalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, said Tehran had received “numerous messages” from neighbouring countries about establishing new regional security arrangements and economic cooperation.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-iran-keep-up-hostile-rhetoric-ahead-new-sanctions-2026-08-22/

Search and rescue operations are underway after Russian strikes hit a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, with at least six people killed and nearly 100 injured.

At least 14 people were killed and 121 injured, including 22 children, after Russian drone strikes hit Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Friday, Ukrainian authorities said. Zelenskyy accused Russia of carrying out a suspected “double-tap” attack, in which a second wave of drones struck as emergency workers responded to the initial assault.

The attack targeted a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, as Russia intensified its aerial campaign against Ukrainian cities.

“Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post, while rescue teams continued to search the damaged area.

Iran warned other nations that US sanctions targeting Tehran threaten their sovereignty too, cautioning that yielding to such pressure could mark return to “full-scale colonialism”

Iran has warned that new US sanctions targeting Tehran are not just an issue for Iran but threaten the sovereignty of all independent nations, with the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei describing them as a possible return to “blatant, full-scale colonialism”.

Baghaei said the measures went beyond an economic war against a single country. Instead, he said, they represented an attempt by the United States to extend its authority over other independent UN member states. The Iranian spokesperson said Washington was seeking to dictate how governments, banks, businesses and airports in other countries conducted trade with Iran.

“No government has the right to force foreign banks, enterprises, or airports, each operating under the exclusive jurisdiction of their own sovereignty, to refrain from engaging in legitimate trade with a third country,” Baghaei said, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

He warned that countries giving in to such pressure risked losing control over their own economic and political decisions.

The Oxford Dictionary defines colonialism as, “the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.”

Iran Says Sanctions Threaten Sovereignty Of All Nations

Baghaei said secondary sanctions imposed by one country on entities in other sovereign states had no basis in international law.

“Such secondary sanctions have no basis in international law,” he was quoted saying. He also said that they “violate the fundamental principle of sovereign equality enshrined in Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the UN Charter”.

He described economic coercion as an “international offence and a wrongful act” and said the use of sanctions alongside a naval blockade would further threaten the sovereignty of other countries.

According to Baghaei, such measures could make the sovereignty of states conditional on the decisions of another power. He said this would be a broader threat to the international system, rather than merely a dispute between Washington and Tehran.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/declaration-of-war-on-all-nations-irans-fiery-response-to-new-us-sanctions-warns-of-colonialism-ws-l-10287156.html

 

Somali pirates have hijacked two ships in four days, including a Turkish weapons-carrying cargo vessel off Puntland and a tanker seized off Yemen.

Somali pirates have hijacked two ships in four days, raising concerns that piracy is making a major comeback in waters off Somalia and Yemen amid growing regional instability.

The latest incidents include the seizure of the Cameroon-flagged M/V LUTUF off Somalia’s Puntland coast and the hijacking of the Eritrean-flagged SIBU 1 tanker off Yemen. The LUTUF was reportedly carrying Turkish weapons and equipment bound for a military training facility in Mogadishu.

The LUTUF was seized Monday about 3½ nautical miles off Marraya in Puntland’s Eyl district, according to a Somali official. The vessel, owned by Polar Movement Shipping, was carrying weapons as well as communications and satellite equipment. Its 10-member crew included six Indians, one Turkish national, one Georgian and two Serbian security guards.

Eight pirates reportedly took the vessel toward the Nugaal coast near Garmaal in Puntland’s Dangoroyo district. Two Turkish-owned vessels later approached the ship, while Turkish helicopters and drones monitored the area.

U.S. Treasury chief Scott Bessent said the United States will impose “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran, a move he suggested would lessen the need for new major military operations.
Bessent’s ​comments on Thursday followed President Donald Trump’s threat a day earlier of “Economic Warfare” and warning of economic consequences against any country that provided “any type ‌of lifeline to Iran.” Bessent promised details next week.

Oil prices rose to more than a three-week high on Thursday following those U.S. threats of financial penalties aimed at forcing an end to a nearly six-month-old war that has stranded millions of barrels of Middle Eastern oil.
“I’m not sure why oil has popped up on this,” Bessent told CNBC. “If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that ​means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart,” he said, using a term referring to military force.
Thousands have been killed in the conflict, ​which drew in Gulf nations and shocked markets as Iran flexed its ability to curb shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a ⁠waterway that carried about a fifth of all traded oil before February.

The U.S. and Iran have twice announced ceasefire deals, in April and June, aiming to restore the ​free flow of shipping through Hormuz on a path towards ending the conflict, but both quickly crumbled.

SANCTIONS DETAIL TO COME

Iran has weathered near-continuous, punishing economic sanctions for nearly 50 ​years, since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Before Bessent spoke, Iran’s foreign ministry said it condemned U.S. economic and trade sanctions, calling them “economic terrorism” that would not “create even the slightest hesitation in Iranians’ determination to safeguard Iran’s independence, dignity and national sovereignty.”
Bessent told CNBC he would share more details on the latest package and “talk about exactly what we’re going to do” on Iran at a press conference on ​Monday.
“It is a one-two punch. We have the blockade (on Iran), and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history,” he added, referring to a U.S. naval ​blockade imposed on Iran in April and paused for a month in mid-June.

“It is going to work in Iran and we are going to collapse this regime. It is time for our ‌allies and the ⁠rest of the world to make a decision,” he said.
China buys more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler, but engaging in further economic warfare with China, a major exporter to the U.S. including vital rare-earth minerals, risks retaliation against Washington.
When asked if the United States could target China for doing business with Iran, Bessent said many conversations were best to have in private.
“Keep in mind that the Chinese get 50% (of their) energy… from the Gulf. So it would do them a ​big service to get with the program,” ​he said.
China’s embassy in Washington said “sanctions ⁠and pressure do not help resolve the problem.”
“China calls on the relevant parties to take responsible actions and resolve the issue through political and diplomatic means,” according to an embassy spokesperson.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-says-it-will-impose-toughest-sanctions-history-iran-2026-08-20/

The Fatah family has emerged as a key component of Pakistan’s effort to build an indigenous conventional precision-strike capability

Pakistan has issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) restricting a large stretch of airspace over August 19-20, triggering speculation that the country could be preparing for a test involving its Fatah-series missile systems.

The NOTAM covers an area extending roughly 750 km, an unusually extensive airspace restriction that has drawn attention among defence observers. While the notification itself does not specify the nature of any planned activity, its timing and range have fuelled speculation of a possible long-range missile or multiple-launch rocket system test.

The Fatah family has emerged as a key component of Pakistan’s effort to build an indigenous conventional precision-strike capability. The systems are associated with the Pakistan Army Rocket Force Command (ARFC), which has been established to strengthen the military’s ability to conduct long-range conventional strikes.

Pakistan currently operates the Fatah-1 and Fatah-2 systems, while the Fatah-4 has also been reported as part of the country’s evolving rocket force. The Fatah-3 and Fatah-5 have been announced but have not been publicly unveiled, leaving considerable uncertainty over their specifications, operational status and deployment.

The Fatah-1 is understood to be a shorter-range guided rocket system, while subsequent variants have progressively expanded Pakistan’s strike range and precision. The development of the series reflects Islamabad’s broader push towards systems capable of delivering conventional effects at greater distances without relying exclusively on aircraft.

The latest NOTAM has therefore led to particular interest in whether an upcoming activity could involve the Fatah-3 or another advanced variant.

The speculation of a missile test also comes against the backdrop of US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor’s recent remarks on Jammu and Kashmir. During his visit to Srinagar, Gor described Jammu and Kashmir as an “important part of India”, a position that prompted a sharp reaction from Pakistan.

“It’s a pleasure to be here… This is an important part of India. I am here, visiting for the first time. It is an incredibly beautiful place. I am thrilled to be here, thrilled to see this place,” Gor said as he met J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/fatah-3-missile-test-on-cards-buzz-grows-as-pakistan-issues-750-km-notam-10283156.html

Total U.S. debt has topped $40 trillion for the first time, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday, drawing fresh warnings that a fiscal crisis is ​brewing as ballooning costs for social safety-net programs and interest payments far outstrip revenues held back by tax cuts.
The Treasury’s latest daily cash and debt balances statement showed total public debt outstanding at $40.047 trillion on ‌Tuesday, a total that includes Treasury securities held by the public of $32.266 trillion and intra-governmental debt holdings of $7.782 trillion.

The federal government’s IOU has now more than doubled in less than a decade, from $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump was sworn in for the first time in January 2017. Roughly one-third of that increase occurred during two years of frantic government borrowing to fund the COVID-19 pandemic responses undertaken by Trump and former President Joe Biden, while the fiscal policy choices of both presidents combined with long-running tax-and-spending imbalances account for the rest.
Budget watchdog groups have anticipated crossing the threshold ​for weeks and issued stark warnings that a full-blown debt crisis could erupt unless lawmakers confront an unsustainable fiscal outlook and raise taxes, cut spending or both.

“Forty trillion dollars of debt doesn’t exist solely on the government’s ledgers; ​it is felt throughout the economy and finds its way to the pocketbooks of people one way or another,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible ⁠Federal Budget.
“The more we borrow, the more we exacerbate inflation, squeeze out other priorities in the budget, and leave ourselves vulnerable to emergencies at home and turmoil abroad,” MacGuineas said in a statement just after the Treasury data was released.
She said the $40 ​trillion figure was reached less than five months after debt reached $39 trillion, and has quadrupled in less than 20 years after taking until 1981 to reach $1 trillion for the first time.
“It is staggering how predictable the fiscal decline of a global power ​can become,” MacGuineas added.

Global U.S. creditors may already be growing wary, with demand from foreign investors holding nearly one third of Treasuries declining over the past year.
Days after a $25-billion auction of 30-year Treasury bonds went off at the highest yield since 2021, yields on so-called long bonds on Tuesday hit their highest levels in nearly two decades as investors demanded greater compensation in the face of hefty U.S. government bond issuance. Yields move inversely to bond prices.
On Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took a bold step to push long bond yields back down, announcing a doubling of buyback sizes ​for 10- to 30-year Treasuries to at least $4 billion per operation.
Higher Treasury yields at the longer end tend to push up interest rates for mortgages, car and commercial loans. With the mountain of debt showing no signs of abating, Trump on Wednesday ​repeated his frequent demand for lower rates.

Asked at the White House whether Americans should worry about bond market volatility, Trump said: “I don’t think so at all. I think we have a very powerful country, and we’re powering through these ridiculous interest rates — they’re ridiculous. Look, ‌when our country ⁠is strong, interest rates should go down.”

PANDEMIC SPENDING, AND THEN SOME

The Treasury last week reported the fourth-highest monthly deficit in U.S. history — $432 billion for July — as tariff refunds turned customs receipts negative for the third month in a row and outlays for Social Security and Medicare benefits for seniors continued to grow. The deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal 2026 has already exceeded the total gap for all of fiscal 2025 with two months to go in the current fiscal year.
Trump has largely ignored the dwindling number of fiscal hawks in his Republican Party, championing heavy spending across his two terms. Public debt rose by $7.8 trillion during Trump’s first term, with more than half of it accumulating during the pandemic response over his last nine months in ​office.
Since Trump took office a second time in January 2025, the ​U.S. debt load has increased by $3.8 trillion, for total ⁠growth of $11.6 trillion across his two terms so far.
Public debt increased by $8.4 trillion during Biden’s term, also marked by heavy COVID-19 recovery spending, but driven as well by big-ticket outlays for infrastructure investment, clean energy subsidies and other priorities championed by his Democratic Party.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the policy choices of Trump and Biden have increased the federal ​debt trajectory beyond what would have accumulated under the existing spending statutes when each took office.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us-debt-crosses-40-trillion-threshold-after-doubling-under-trump-biden-2026-08-19/

Russian ballistic missiles ‌killed 12 people and injured more than 30 in Kyiv early on Thursday, authorities said, damaging buildings and severing power supply to some parts of the Ukrainian capital.
A fire broke out and the upper floors of a nine-storey residential block were destroyed in the ​city’s Solomianskyi district, where seven people were killed, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, calling for Friday to be ​observed as a day of mourning.

Two other districts also suffered damage, Klitschko said on the ⁠Telegram messaging app, with non-residential facilities, warehouses, a school and a children’s hospital hit.
Power company DTEK said it restored ​electricity to more than half of the roughly 90,000 homes left without power in the capital following the attack.
Russia ​has stepped up air attacks on Ukraine in recent months, trying to exploit its smaller neighbour’s critical shortage of interceptors to down ballistic missiles.
The Russian defence ministry said Moscow attacked Kyiv and the surrounding region with airstrikes and drones, hitting facilities producing drone components, ​a military depot and a logistics hub, as well as other targets.

EXPLOSIONS REAP THROUGH THE CITY

A Reuters witness reported ​hearing more than a dozen explosions. In the region around the Ukrainian capital, another person was killed, an official said on ‌Telegram.
Ukraine’s emergency ⁠service showed video of servicemen battling a blaze in a building and helping people to escape facilities destroyed during the night in Kyiv.
Ukraine has also increased its attacks on Russia, targeting oil facilities and logistics infrastructure to try to undermine Moscow’s ability to wage war.
Diplomatic efforts have failed so far to yield a lasting ceasefire in the war, ​which started with Russia’s full-scale invasion ​of Ukraine in February ⁠2022.
A drone crashed into NATO and European Union member Romania during the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Romanian defence ministry said on Thursday. A drone also crossed Moldova’s airspace, ​the country’s military said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/ukrainian-capital-kyiv-under-attack-by-russian-ballistic-missiles-mayor-says-2026-08-19/

A large amount of “damning” new evidence against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his imprisoned accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell could soon come to light after a federal judge ordered a trove of case files to be unsealed.

Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown, whose reportage is credited with catalyzing the disgraced financier’s downfall, wrote on her Substack Tuesday about Manhattan Federal Court Judge Loretta Preska’s decision to unseal the “voluminous” documents.

The documents stem from a 2015 court case in which Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, sued Maxwell for defamation after she accused her of fabricating sex-trafficking allegations against Epstein and others, including former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Brown wrote she and The Herald fought a nearly decade-long court battle to have the documents released, arguing that they weren’t properly sealed. The case was settled in 2017.

“Judicial records by law are supposed to be open to the public. In this case, the former judge (Robert Sweet, now deceased) issued a blanket sealing on all the documents because they contained “sensitive” and “private” information,” Brown wrote.

“Sweet placed a protective order on massive amounts of material, including hearings and judicial decisions made in the case — and voluminous evidence that Virginia presented to show that Epstein and Maxwell were operating an underage sex trafficking operation,” she continued.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/08/18/us-news/damning-new-epstein-evidence-could-be-coming-as-trove-of-case-docs-to-be-unsealed-report/

 

The United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday that it had suspended all trade and financial dealings with Iran.

The United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday that it had suspended all trade and financial dealings with Iran.

“In light of regional escalations… all trade, commercial exchanges, and financial transactions with Iran have been halted until further notice,” UAE foreign ministry communications director Afra Al Hameli said.

The first UAE statement came nearly two hours after a brief phone alert warned residents of a “potential missile threat”.

“Due to the current situation, potential missile threats, immediately seek a safe place in the closest secure building,” the interior ministry said in the phone alert, which was lifted shortly afterwards.

It was the first such alert since a false alarm in June and an alert in July for an attack that ultimately did not enter UAE territory. Before that, the last missile warning came in early May.

Tankers belonging to state-owned oil company ADNOC have been repeatedly targeted in the past few weeks.

When the Middle East war began on February 28, the UAE bore the brunt of Iran’s attacks, with nearly 3,000 missiles and drones directed at the country — more than anywhere else in the region.

After a memorandum of understanding came into effect in June between the two parties, which has since collapsed, the UAE reported no attacks, unlike other Gulf states.

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday accused Iran of firing two ballistic missiles at shipping in the Gulf, an allegation later denied by Tehran.

“UAE air defenses detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran toward the country, with the first falling outside the country’s territorial waters, while the second fell within the territorial waters,” the ministry said, in a statement posted to social media.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/uae-suspends-all-trade-financial-dealings-with-iran-after-missile-incident-11928429?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Trump noted that not even one per cent of voters in India used postal ballots in the recent general elections, and every voter had a valid photo identity document.

US President Donald Trump has cited India’s election system and voter identification requirements as he renewed his call for the passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which seeks stricter citizenship requirements to vote in US elections.

Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump recalled that India’s Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, recently asked the US administration about why elections in America are held without a valid photo identification card, as he made a case for mandatory photo IDs for every US voter to curb “electoral fraud”.

Trump noted that not even one per cent of voters in India used postal ballots in the recent general elections, and every voter had a valid photo identity document.

“Earlier this month, India’s Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, asked our Administration — How can you have Elections in the US without a valid Photo ID,” Trump wrote.

Trump made these remarks to drum up support for the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, impose a nationwide voter identification requirement and severely limit voting by mail.

“India’s last election had 646,000,000 voters! Less than one per cent voted by mail, and every single Voter had to have a VALID Photo Identity Document.” “We need to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, now,” he asserted.

Sergio Gor’s Backs Trump

US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor endorsed President Donald Trump’s renewed push for strict nationwide voter identification laws under the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) America Act.

Citing India’s 2024 general election as a global benchmark for voter authentication, Gor backed Trump’s stance that robust, universal photo identification is essential for maintaining election integrity and to revamp American election procedures by explicitly pointing to the scale and mechanics of India’s voting system.

In a post on X, Gor said, “President Donald J. Trump is absolutely correct! 646 MILLION voters, every single one required an ID in India’s last election. Congress should pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!”

President Donald J. Trump is absolutely correct! 646 MILLION voters, every single one required an ID in India’s last election. Congress should pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT! pic.twitter.com/lqQHSZvWk7

— Ambassador Sergio Gor (@USAmbIndia) August 18, 2026

About the SAVE America Act

The Republican leader has been insisting on passing the SAVE America Act, claiming the move would curb electoral fraud. The Bill to pass the law was introduced on January 29. However, both Democrats and Republicans are divided over the issue, and the US Senate adjourned for a five-week recess earlier this month without any concrete steps for its passage.

According to the White House, the legislation is aimed at ensuring that only US citizens participate in deciding federal elections.

“American citizens — and only American citizens — should decide American elections,” the White House said, describing the SAVE America Act as a “common sense, bipartisan bill.”

The White House said the proposed legislation would require voters to provide valid identification before registering to vote in a federal election, along with proof of citizenship.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/trumps-nod-to-indias-electoral-system-in-push-for-mandatory-us-voter-id-11923535?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

 

Russia carried out a wave of ‌airstrikes on Ukraine overnight, killing two people at a steel plant, and Kyiv launched a heavy drone attack on the Moscow region that killed one person and set ablaze a warehouse used by Russia’s leading e-commerce retailer.
Romania, which borders Ukraine, said an F-18 fighter on a NATO air policing mission had shot down a drone that breached ​its airspace during the latest attacks. It did not specify the origin of the drone, which entered from Moldova, but a NATO ​spokesperson said it appeared to be Russian.

Russia struck Ukraine’s largest grain export port on the River Danube near the Romanian ⁠border last week after stepping up attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks. Ukraine has also intensified attacks on Russian targets including oil refineries, and both ​sides have struck commercial vessels in the Black Sea.
In the latest attacks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian forces struck Ukraine’s biggest steel plant ​overnight in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s home town.
At least two people were killed and 14 injured, Ukrainian officials said.
“As a result of the attack, key production facilities in the power generation and blast furnace sectors have been damaged, and the plant’s production processes have been partially halted,” ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (MT.LU), said on ​Telegram.

A Russian missile strike on Kyiv early on Sunday caused fires in at least two districts of the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The ​city’s military administration said three people were injured.
Tymur Tkachenko, the Kyiv region’s governor, said three others, including a child, were injured in drone attacks across the region.

DRONE ‌SHOT DOWN ⁠OVER ROMANIA

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had downed 822 Ukrainian drones throughout the country in the latest attacks.
Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said an 83-year-old man had been killed in what he described as one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks on the Moscow region since the start of the conflict.
He said several people were also injured in the Podolsk area, and that a warehouse belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, had been ​struck.

Video filmed by Reuters after the ​strike on Wildberries’ Koledino warehouse ⁠showed a large plume of smoke over the site, about 45 km (28 miles) south of Moscow.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-missile-attack-kyiv-sparks-fires-injures-one-ukraine-officials-say-2026-08-16/

Ukraine earlier launched hundreds of drones across Russia, killing at least six people in one of Kyiv’s largest aerial attacks of the war.

Indian-origin billionaire Lakshmi Mittal’s ArcelorMittal mining and metallurgical complex in Kryvyi Rih — Ukraine’s largest integrated steel unit — came under a missile attack by Russia. The strike, which came in retaliation for a Ukrainian drone barrage, killed two people, injured 14 workers, and forced a partial halt to production after damaging core energy and blast-furnace operations.

Ukraine earlier launched hundreds of drones across Russia, killing at least six people in one of Kyiv’s largest aerial attacks of the war. Moscow’s regional governor Andrey Vorobyov described the assault as “one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory”. Russia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted 822 drones across the country overnight.

An 83-year-old man was killed after a Ukrainian drone hit a private home in the Moscow region, Vorobyov said, adding that another Ukrainian attack had sparked a blaze at a Wildberries warehouse –Russia’s largest online retailer and a company controlled by the country’s richest woman, billionaire Tatyana Kim– in the town of Podolsk.

Some 600 drones were detected headed toward the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with a third of those destroyed over the Moscow region itself.

Another drone attack targeted three towns in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, killing five people, local Governor Yury Slyusar said. The attack, with more than 150 drones, damaged several homes and a railway station and sparked a forest fire.

New Front in War

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russia this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones targeting military industries and energy facilities.

It has also increasingly attacked logistics giant Wildberries’ depots, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise. Those attacks have brought the war home to the Russian public nearly 4 and a half years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

With fighting at the front at a near standstill and talks frozen, the warring countries have significantly stepped up long-range attacks deep behind each other’s lines, pushing the civilian deaths to their highest levels since the war’s first months in 2022.

Russia’s Retaliation

In Ukraine, a barrage of Russian drones and missiles killed two people at ArcelorMittal’s steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, on Sunday.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, confirmed that one of its sites had been hit in a missile attack and that operations had been partially suspended.

Another strike on Kryvyi Rih on Sunday killed one person.

Strikes also hit other regions, killing two people in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, one in the border region of Sumy and another in Donetsk in the east.

Russian attacks also sparked fires throughout Kyiv, wounding six people. A blaze took hold at one of the city’s largest book markets, tearing through kiosks huddled close to the Pochaina metro station.

In a social media post on the overnight raid, Zelensky said that “wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure.”

Over the past week, he said, Ukrainian cities had been pummelled by “more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles,” as he renewed his appeal to allies for more air defence.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence has claimed that it had targeted a metallurgical plant in Kryvyi Rih and several military-industrial sites in Kyiv, including a manufacturing facility for Ukraine’s Flamingo missiles. The domestically produced missiles are increasingly key to Ukraine’s long-range attacks on Russia, with Zelenskyy announcing last week that Kyiv had used the weapons to attack a rocket research and production center in Samara, approximately 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/lakshmi-mittals-ukraine-factory-in-volodymyr-zelenskys-hometown-hit-by-russian-missile-11919002?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The MoU was designed as a framework for ending the conflict, with the two sides declaring “immediate and permanent termination of military operations” and a final deal in 60 days.

The 60-day window created by the US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU) expires on Monday, August 17, but the deadline arrives with the agreement already badly frayed and neither Washington nor Tehran showing much appetite for simply extending it. Instead, the final hours of the agreement have been marked by sharper rhetoric, a near standstill in negotiations and a growing dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supply moved before the war.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said over the weekend that Tehran had “not yet made a decision to restart negotiations with the United States.” At the same time, President Donald Trump has been warning that Iran faces continued pressure, while threatening to assert US control over Hormuz.

That leaves the immediate question less about whether the June deal will be extended and more about what replaces it.

What Was The June Deal Supposed To Do?

The MoU was signed on June 17 by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian after months of war. It was designed as a framework for ending the conflict, with the two sides declaring the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations” and agreeing to work towards a final agreement within 60 days. The period could be extended if both sides agreed.

The framework went beyond simply stopping the fighting.

Washington was expected to end its naval blockade within 30 days, ease sanctions, issue waivers for Iranian oil exports and allow Tehran access to frozen funds. The agreement also envisaged a reconstruction and development package for Iran of at least $300 billion.

Iran, meanwhile, was supposed to clear mines in the Strait of Hormuz and allow commercial ships to pass without charge for 60 days. Tehran also reaffirmed that it would not pursue nuclear weapons and agreed to negotiate the more complicated questions surrounding uranium enrichment.

But the two sides quickly began interpreting the agreement differently. The US accused Iran of failing to reopen Hormuz. Iran accused Washington of failing to lift the blockade and honour its commitments on sanctions and frozen assets.

By July 7, Trump had declared the agreement “over”. Iran subsequently said Washington had violated and suspended its commitments and that Tehran had done the same.

So Monday’s expiry is, in practical terms, the end of a framework that had already largely stopped functioning.

Hormuz: The Biggest Obstacle

If there is one issue that captures the current US-Iran standoff, it is the Strait of Hormuz. Iran insists that it controls the waterway and has made clear that commercial shipping will not return to normal simply because the 60-day deadline passes.

On Saturday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said, “This strait will be opened and closed only under Iran’s command.” He also demanded that Washington accept what he called the reality of US defeat.

Trump, meanwhile, has gone in the opposite direction. On Friday, he said: “After we finish defeating Iran, pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.” He has also described the US naval blockade as a “Wall of Steel” and insisted that Washington has “total control” over the waterway.

Iran’s response was equally blunt. Gharibabadi said Hormuz “cannot be seized by a tweet or an aircraft carrier”, while insisting that the strait had been, and would remain, Iranian.

The disagreement is not merely rhetorical. Shipping through Hormuz has fallen sharply. Reuters reported that only five commodity vessels crossed on Saturday and none were recorded on Sunday, compared with 31 vessels the previous weekend. The UAE has also accused Iran of attacking three ADNOC-operated vessels in recent days, allegations Tehran has not accepted.

What Trump’s Recent Statements Tell Us

Trump’s messaging over the past two weeks has followed a familiar pattern: pressure on Iran, warnings of military escalation and, at the same time, an insistence that diplomacy remains possible.

On August 3, Trump called ongoing negotiations Iran’s “last chance” and warned Tehran that it could face “decapitation” if it failed to reach an agreement. He also said the US blockade would remain until there was a deal or “Total Surrender.”

Days later, his rhetoric shifted towards the economic consequences of the conflict. Speaking in New York on August 14, Trump told Americans that paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” was worth the cost of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. At the same event, he again said he would declare Hormuz US territory after defeating Iran.

This suggests Washington is preparing the US public for the possibility that the confrontation, and its economic consequences, may continue rather than being resolved immediately after the MoU deadline.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also signalled additional economic measures against Tehran. He said the US would combine economic isolation with the continuing blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran Hardens Its Position

Tehran’s recent statements suggest little interest in returning to the negotiating table simply to revive the June framework. Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s statements provide one of the clearest indications of Tehran’s current thinking. When the MoU was signed in June, the Supreme Leader made clear that he was not an enthusiastic supporter of the arrangement.

In a written statement carried by Iranian state media, he said he had “a different opinion” about the agreement but had ultimately authorised it after President Masoud Pezeshkian and other Iranian officials assured him that the country’s interests would be protected. He specifically warned that Iran would not accept additional US demands.

“If the American side wants to be greedy, we will not accept it,” Khamenei said. He nevertheless endorsed negotiations, stressing that face-to-face talks would not amount to accepting the American position.

His position hardened considerably after the agreement began to collapse. On July 18, Khamenei said repeated US breaches of the MoU had demonstrated that Trump’s signature was “utterly worthless and devoid of credibility.” He also warned Washington that Iran and its regional allies had “unforgettable lessons” for the United States. He accused the US of revealing its “true face” and described Washington as deceitful, irrational and unreliable.

Araghchi, too, has repeatedly argued that there was no ceasefire to extend because the June agreement was intended to end the war, not establish a temporary pause.

On Friday, he said, “We did not have a ceasefire in the first place that we would now want to extend. We had ‘the end of the war,’ and now there is a new situation.”

On Saturday, he went a step further, saying Iran had not yet decided whether to restart negotiations with Washington. Qatar and Pakistan are exchanging messages with Tehran, he said, but that did not amount to negotiations.

At the same time, Iran is working with Oman on a possible new system of shipping routes through Hormuz. Araghchi said the old routes were no longer functional and that a temporary route was being designed, but stressed that the reopening of shipping remained dependent on Washington meeting Iran’s conditions.

What Happens After August 17?

Back-channel diplomacy is likely to continue

The expiry of the MoU does not mean that all diplomacy stops. Qatar, Pakistan and Oman have all been involved in communicating with the two sides. Iran has explicitly said that messages are still being exchanged, even while denying that formal negotiations have resumed.

A new arrangement could therefore emerge outside the original 60-day framework – potentially starting with shipping and humanitarian issues before tackling the much harder questions of sanctions and Iran’s nuclear programme.

Hormuz will remain the immediate test

The most visible sign of whether tensions are easing will be shipping. If US and Iran can agree on a mechanism allowing commercial vessels to move safely through the strait, it could create space for wider negotiations.

If attacks, interceptions or competing blockades continue, however, the dispute could become harder to contain.

For the global economy, the stakes are substantial. Before the war, Hormuz handled about one-fifth of global oil and LNG flows. Reuters reported that Brent crude was around $88.72 a barrel early Monday, after gaining more than 5 per cent the previous week.

More US sanctions are likely

The US has already indicated that it intends to increase economic pressure. That could mean additional sanctions on Iranian financial networks, oil exports and entities accused of helping Tehran circumvent existing restrictions.

The objective would be to make the economic cost of continuing the confrontation increasingly difficult for Iran to absorb.

Military escalation remains a risk

There is no indication that the expiry itself automatically triggers a new military operation. But the conditions for escalation are clearly present. The US maintains its naval blockade, Iran continues to restrict shipping through Hormuz, and both governments are publicly warning the other against testing their resolve.

Iranian Army chief Major General Amir Hatami, responding to Trump’s comments on Hormuz, said joking about such a move was a mistake and warned that Iran had defenders who would “break your legs.” He also said US forces had been effectively driven out and would not be allowed to return to their previous position in the Gulf.

What about Iran’s nuclear programme?

This remains the biggest unresolved issue beneath the immediate Hormuz dispute. The June framework had pushed the nuclear question into negotiations for a final agreement. Iran had reaffirmed that it would not seek nuclear weapons, while Washington wanted restrictions on enrichment and stronger guarantees.

But the failure to even agree on the basic terms of the June MoU means that the nuclear question has effectively been pushed back.

That makes any future agreement more complicated: it would have to address not just a ceasefire and shipping, but sanctions, oil exports, frozen Iranian assets, the US military presence, nuclear restrictions and guarantees that neither side will simply walk away.

Source : https://www.news18.com/explainers/us-iran-deal-ends-today-what-comes-next-for-trump-mojtaba-as-hormuz-remains-choking-point-ws-l-10276825.html

 

Trump said he would “soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz US territory after defeating Iran.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would “soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz a US territory after defeating Iran, escalating his rhetoric over the vital waterway.

“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said at a rally in New York state. “It’s true,” he added.

The remarks came as shipping through the strategic waterway has fallen sharply amid attacks on vessels and a US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Hormuz Traffic Nears Standstill

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most important energy routes, carrying a significant share of global oil and gas shipments. Traffic has slowed dramatically since the war began in late February, with only a handful of vessels recorded crossing the waterway in recent days.

Reuters, citing ship-tracking data from Kpler, reported that only two commodity vessels crossed the strait on Friday, while no crude oil shipments were visible. Nine commodity vessels had crossed on Thursday, compared with an average of 12 a day in August.

The slowdown follows attacks on two vessels operated by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which the UAE blamed on Iran. Tehran did not immediately comment.

US Threatens Long-Term Blockade

Trump has repeatedly claimed the US has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz and said the waterway would remain open under US protection.

On Thursday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had said Washington could maintain its naval blockade of Iranian ports indefinitely by rotating ships in and out of the region.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/after-we-finish-defeating-iran-trump-says-hell-declare-strait-of-hormuz-us-territory-ws-l-10274233.html

VLADIMIR Putin is being pushed closer and closer towards a last-ditch attack on Nato as he fights to save face in Russia, an expert has warned.

Putin is facing a string of worrying crises on his doorstep with his national support beginning to wane, the Kremlin’s cash dwindling and the war with Ukraine now at an embarrassing stalemate for the despot.

With his back against the wall, Putin could choose to risk it all and attempt a World War Three-stoking attack on a Nato nation, according to longtime Kremlin critic and Brit banker Bill Browder.

The gamble would aim to test who is truly on Ukraine‘s side and would be aimed at the US with Russia hoping they would avoid being drawn into a conflict despite Article 5 of the Nato treaty.

One theory is Putin could grab a city in Poland, or one of the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – all Nato nations which have strongly backed Ukraine during the war.

A new US intelligence report even revealed this week that US officials fear Putin is plotting a small-scale land incursion to test the alliance.

Bill told The Sun: “Putin has reached a stalemate in his war with Ukraine. It’s been going on for more than four years, and he’s unable to gain more territory.

“He’s losing between 1,000 to 1,500 troops a day. His oil refineries and warehouses of online retailers are being bombed by the Ukrainians.

“And the Ukrainians are developing more and more sophisticated weapons so they’ve reached a stalemate – and, of course, he’s short on money.”

Russia’s faltering economy is one of the biggest issues hampering the war, he says.

Ukraine’s relentless strikes have focused on hitting key economic areas such as warehouses owned by Wildberries – known as Russia’s Amazon – and gas and oil sites, leaving huge parts of the nation cash-strapped.

This directly impacts the battlefield too, as Putin is known to recruit troops to fight in Ukraine by promising to pay them good money.

Bill said: “Russia is in a very weak position because they need to replenish their soldiers to carry on the war.

“But money is what Putin uses to hire more troops as he pays them to go to the frontline.”

Despite this, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has already warned Putin is preparing for a mass mobilisation in the coming months.

Earlier this week, he said Russia is planning a “rapid mobilisation of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year”.

One way the Kremlin could achieve such a major uptake in fighters is to stop paying troops and instead make fighting in Ukraine mandatory.

Bill continued: “There are very strong rumours that Russia will impose a full conscription which means that all young men between a certain age will be required to go and fight in the war.

“If that happens, it will be enormously unpopular. It will bring the war home to every household in Russia.

“And that’s the dilemma that Putin is facing right now.”

Putin’s recruitment drive has raised fears he may be looking to pull off a major operation in order to gain back some control in Europe after months of dwindling success.

Bill warns there is one possible last-ditch plan Putin could try to win the war.

He said: “If Putin can’t get more troops because he doesn’t have the money then he’s in a bind.

“And so what does he do in this bind? Well, the one thing he could do is test whether Article 5 of Nato is real.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16835344/putin-risks-ww3-nato-attack/

The Strait of Hormuz is “under Iran’s control and management”, the recently appointed head ‌of Iran’s Basij paramilitary unit said on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States had “total control” of the strategic waterway.
Hossein Taeb said the U.S. had sought to disrupt what he described as the Islamic Republic’s popularity in the region by launching another ​war in the Strait of Hormuz, but had once more been defeated despite claiming Iran had neither an ​air force nor a navy.

“Today you see that the Strait of Hormuz is under the management ⁠and control of the Islamic Republic,” Taeb said, according to the semi-official Fars news. He added that Iran was continuing ​on its course in complete security.
After the start of the war, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, ​Tehran effectively shut the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas was previously shipped.
The U.S. subsequently imposed a naval blockade on Iranian shipping and ports, while saying it would protect freedom of navigation for vessels travelling to and from non-Iranian ports.

IRANIAN ADVISER ​SPEAKS OF ‘NEW REGIONAL ORDER’

Iran’s joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said later on Thursday that no vessel could transit ​the Strait of Hormuz without Tehran’s permission.
“The baseless claims made by the United States regarding the normal passage of vessels through the Strait ‌of ⁠Hormuz … are nothing more than lies and falsehoods,” the command said in a statement published by state media.
In June, the two countries reached an interim agreement declaring a permanent ceasefire and calling for a swift return to freedom of navigation in the Gulf.
The deal unravelled a few weeks later, with both sides accusing the other of violations. Iran resumed limited attacks on vessels that ​it said were sailing contrary ​to the arrangements under the ⁠agreement, and the U.S. restarted strikes on Iran’s southern provinces, which Washington said were aimed at degrading Tehran’s ability to target vessels in the Gulf.

In a post on X on Thursday, ​Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said that Mojtaba’s strategy would ​be “offensive war”, if ⁠Tehran’s conditions were not met.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-says-strait-hormuz-is-under-its-control-fars-news-reports-2026-08-13/

 

Google co-founder Sergey Brin in recent months has urged key AI staff to go all in on the company’s Gemini model as parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), seeks to close the gap with rivals, two people familiar with his remarks told Reuters.
As Anthropic raced ahead with a preview of its powerful Claude Mythos model, Brin addressed hundreds of employees in an ​April town hall, urging the company’s Google DeepMind AI lab to move faster, said one of the people on condition of anonymity.

Google’s Gemini model briefly overtook competitors last November, but new updates from Anthropic and OpenAI once again put it in catch-up mode. By August, Google ‌had delayed the new flagship version of Gemini by two months after internal testing showed its performance continued to lag behind rivals in areas such as coding, one of the sources and another person familiar with the matter said.
On August 5, the Mountain View, California, tech giant announced a sweeping leadership overhaul of its Google DeepMind AI division in which its chief, Demis Hassabis, stepped aside in favor of his deputy, Koray Kavukcuoglu. Hassabis became chair, with fewer management obligations. At the same time, the two original technical co-leads of Gemini quit to co-found a startup.

While some industry observers have questioned if Google, is exiting the model race, interviews with seven people knowledgeable about Gemini’s development efforts show that Alphabet’s commercialization strategy and reorganization of ranks last week are tied ​to its effort to achieve model supremacy.
The changes mark a further erosion of DeepMind’s autonomy, which Google has chipped away at since buying the London-based lab in 2014 in an ongoing push for its AI to power more of its software and make more money. Alphabet’s shakeup included ​a revelation during an all-hands meeting on August 6 that some teams were moving out of DeepMind and into corporate Google, two sources said.
Internal meeting details and Brin’s remarks have not previously been reported. Other media outlets earlier reported ⁠on not-yet-final reorganizations, and Brin’s coding push.

Google declined to answer questions from Reuters about Brin’s recent involvement, DeepMind’s structural changes, and concerns held by staff.
Under Hassabis, Google DeepMind pursued a wider range of AI research projects than its rivals while building Gemini models that are essential to corporate commercial interests. But in past years, Hassabis worked ​against some efforts that could have meant new revenue for Alphabet or helped it gain better footing in the AI race, a Reuters special report last year showed. His Google allies previously told Reuters that they rejected the idea that Hassabis gave short shrift to the business or focused too much on long-term science.
In 2025, Google ​CEO Sundar Pichai appointed Kavukcuoglu, then DeepMind’s chief technology officer, to an additional senior post as Google’s chief AI architect. His task was to embed Gemini across the company’s products. Four of the sources told Reuters that in the months that followed, some leaders at DeepMind found their influence diminished while Kavukcuoglu became the central figure shaping Gemini’s direction.

 

Iran and the United States remain at ​loggerheads over efforts to agree a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source, who said there ‌had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June and define a time frame to implement it.
The comments came as U.S. President Donald Trump issued yet another broadside against Iran’s leaders, dealing a further blow to hopes for a resolution to the crisis, following new attacks on shipping in the region on Tuesday.

The deal agreed in June declared an “immediate and permanent ​termination of military operations on all fronts”, but quickly unravelled, with Trump saying it was “over” on July 7 and Iran’s foreign ministry declaring it “suspended” ​a week later.
The U.S. accuses Iran of failing to honor an agreement under the deal to reopen the vital Strait ⁠of Hormuz shipping route. Tehran says Washington has reneged on its commitments, including lifting a blockade of Iranian ports and releasing frozen Iranian assets.
“One of the issues ​that is being discussed via mediators is the U.S. returning to the interim agreement and defining a time frame for implementing the commitments. There has been absolutely no ​progress on this issue,” the Iranian source said.

Trump said on Wednesday that the U.S. has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz.
But the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the body Iran set up to manage the waterway, said it remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran’s conditions are accepted.
“Iran is all talk and no action, the Bully of the Middle East No Longer,” ​Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Throughout the conflict, Trump has alternated between threats of escalation and claims that a peace deal is imminent.

‘NO TALK OF EXTENSION’

Thousands ​of people have been killed in the conflict, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28.
Iran has struck U.S. assets and ‌infrastructure in ⁠countries including Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The June interim ceasefire agreement set a 60-day period, extendable by mutual consent, within which Iran and the U.S. were expected to reach a final deal limiting Tehran’s nuclear program and lifting U.S. sanctions.

The Iranian source dismissed a report on Wednesday from Turkey’s Anadolu news agency that quoted Pakistani government sources as saying they had agreed to extend that 60-day period.
“There is no talk of an extension because, from Iran’s perspective, ​there is no period that began and ​therefore nothing to extend. The United ⁠States violated the interim agreement 48 hours after it was reached and withdrew from it a few days later,” the source told Reuters.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/iran-says-no-progress-reviving-interim-peace-deal-with-us-2026-08-12/

The U.S. and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis reported separate attacks on shipping on Tuesday as prospects for ending the Iran war appeared to dim, with Tehran saying the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed unless ​Washington accepts its conditions.
The attacks, in the Gulf of Oman leading to the strait and at the entrance to the Red Sea — both vital chokepoints for global oil supplies — come as ‌the war shows no signs of ending despite repeated assertions from U.S. President Donald Trump of a deal being imminent.

Oil prices gained and global shares retreated amid renewed pessimism about a quick end to the conflict. Brent crude futures climbed 1.4% to settle at $88.91 per barrel and U.S. crude rose 1.3% to $83.20.
At the southern end of the Red Sea, four crew members were killed in a suspected Houthi attack on a small cargo vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday, Yemen’s Transport Ministry said. Two ​Yemeni rescuers from an anti-Houthi military group were also killed, Yemen’s Coast Guard said.
The fatalities aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah would be the first deaths on shipping by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis since the Iran ​war began.

The Houthi-run news agency Saba reported that the group, which said last month it would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, attacked ⁠a Saudi ship carrying military equipment in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It did not name the ship, and there was no immediate Saudi response to the report.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, said a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired ​two Hellfire missiles to disable the steering gear of a Panama-flagged cargo ship.
The ship ignored repeated warnings to stop violating a naval blockade on Iranian ports, the U.S. Central Command said. Maritime sources told Reuters the ship was ​hit off Pakistan while sailing into the Gulf of Oman.

STEPPED UP RHETORIC

Both Iran and the United States have stepped up rhetoric in the past two days.
Iran’s top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, said on Tuesday that the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route will remain closed unless the U.S. accepts Iran’s conditions to end the war – the release of Iran’s frozen assets and an end to conflicts throughout the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza.

That followed a new demand from Trump on Monday that Iran should pay ​compensation for people killed in 50 years of wars, attacks and protests.
Throughout the conflict, Trump has alternated between threats of escalation and claims that a peace deal is imminent.
In an interview released late on Monday, he ​suggested the uncertainty could last for a while, saying he might just “bop along” and let Tehran fail economically, or hit them “really, really hard.”
“I’m sort of negotiating,” Trump told Real America’s Voice. “They’re very devious negotiators.”
Speaking to reporters after a visit to ‌Ohio on Tuesday, ⁠Trump said “Iran is going fine, going just absolutely fine.”
“We totally control the Strait of Hormuz … Nobody else, only us,” he said.
“At some point, maybe they’ll do something and then they get blown away,” he said of Iran. “But right now, we’re in a very good position. We have a country that has been the bully of the Middle East for 50 years, really 51 if you think about it … and they’re no longer the bully of the Middle East.”

Asked about an incident in which he switched planes in Turkey last month because of worries over reports of a potential Iranian assassination threat, Trump suggested the alternative aircraft may have faced greater risk.
“That ​would be the plane I think that they would ​be more likely to go for,” he told ⁠reporters after The Washington Post broke the story about him secretly taking a military flight instead of Air Force One in an operation involving him being moved between aircraft in a catering truck.
“Any consequential president has a lot of threats,” Trump added. “I don’t worry about anything.”
The comments from Rezaei, appointed on Sunday as second-in-command of ​the body that coordinates Iran’s security and foreign policy, were the strongest indication the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen to shipping anytime soon. The waterway ​handled a fifth of global ⁠oil and liquefied natural gas flow before the war.
“As long as America does not change its behaviour and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened,” Rezaei said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/pakistan-says-us-iran-close-some-sort-deal-despite-attacks-shipping-2026-08-11/

The strike targeted the Nizhnekamsk area as Russia and Ukraine continued to intensify long-range drone and missile attacks against each other.

A Ukrainian drone strike killed at least 13 people and injured 75 others in Nizhnekamsk, in Russia’s Tatarstan region, local authorities said Monday, making it the deadliest attack inside Russia in more than two years.

A child was among those killed, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee, while 21 people were hospitalized, the region’s press service said. The Uzbek consulate in Tatarstan said seven of those killed were Uzbek citizens.

Nizhnekamsk is located more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) east of Moscow and is home to the major Taneco oil refinery. Ukraine’s Armed Forces said the refinery was targeted in the strike.

These changes reflect ongoing tensions and strategic realignments within Iran’s military and political landscape

Iran has announced six new appointments to key military positions, including a new armed forces chief of staff and a new commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reshapes the country’s security leadership.

Ali Abdollahi, head of Iran’s joint war command, has been appointed chief of staff of the armed forces, while Ali Ozmaei has been named head of the IRGC Navy.

Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi has also been confirmed as commander-in-chief of the IRGC, with the rank of major general. He succeeds Mohammad Pakpour, who was killed during the opening salvo of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February.

The appointments were formally announced on Monday.

The reshuffle comes alongside the appointment of veteran IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaee as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s representative on the powerful body. Rezaee, 71, commanded the IRGC for 16 years, including during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

His appointment has been viewed by analysts as a sign that Tehran is strengthening its wartime security structure rather than softening its approach towards Washington.

TAICHUNG/PENGHU, Taiwan, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Taiwan slowed the mobile internet in a large swathe ​of the central part of the island on Monday for the first time during annual war games, simulating communication disruption ‌in the event of a Chinese attack or natural disaster.
Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has long lived with the threat of a Chinese invasion and holds air raid drills along with its war games every year, clearing people from the streets for 30 minutes.

During the internet “throttling” drill, ​centred on Monday on the major central metropolis of Taichung, only basic mobile phone services worked, though other functions including ​ATMs, traffic signals, landlines and fixed internet services were not affected.
Air raid sirens rang out in Taichung ⁠and people cleared the streets from 2:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) as the government sent simultaneous text messages in Chinese and English telling mobile ​phone users of “simulated air attacks on communication infrastructure”.
The government had widely flagged the drill ahead of time, including posting details on social ​media, and most people Reuters spoke to at the Taichung train station were prepared.

“Like with the Russia-Ukraine war, they had no internet. Also maybe because Taiwan is a bit more at risk, so this kind of drill might let everyone understand the current situation at that moment — what might happen and how ​to respond,” said Lin Hong-chun, 46.
Still, there were some grumbles, even if people were generally supportive.
“If possible, I’d still rather stay home ​and experience it there. Experiencing it outside is really too painful,” said Yen Po-ting, 23, from inside the station where the gates were closed to ‌keep passengers ⁠from going outside.
The same exercise will be repeated on Thursday in northern Taiwan, including the capital Taipei.

TAIWAN STRAIT DRILLS
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
Earlier on Monday, Taiwan’s military simulated repelling a Chinese air landing assault on the strategically vital Penghu Islands.

The 10-day Han Kuang exercise kicked off last week, rehearsing various scenarios should China ever make good on threats to ​try to seize the island by ​force.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/taiwan-simulates-repelling-chinese-assault-slow-mobile-internet-annual-war-games-2026-08-10/

A North Korean hacking group built large language model tools and collected software that could help automate ​cyberattacks, analyse stolen material and produce more convincing phishing ‌campaigns, a South Korean cybersecurity firm said on Monday.
The cybersecurity firm, Genians (263860.KQ), opens new tab, said it found evidence that the North Korean-linked group Kimsuky ​had set up tools for running and managing AI ​models locally, including Ollama, GPT4All and Msty, alongside document ⁠search technology known as retrieval augmented generation (RAG).

According to the ​company, the tools could allow operators to process documents without ​sending sensitive information to outside AI services.
Genians also found AI agent development frameworks, speech-to-text software and Cursor, an AI-assisted coding tool, on infrastructure it ​linked to the campaign.
The findings suggest Kimsuky is moving ​beyond using generative AI to create phishing lures and is building capacity ‌to ⁠integrate existing AI models into malware development, data analysis and attack automation, Genians said in a report.
Genians also said it found finance and cryptocurrency-themed decoy documents that appeared to have ​been generated with ​AI. The ⁠materials were designed to resemble legitimate investment reports and other workplace documents, it said.

The company’s findings ​could not be independently verified.
North Korea has ​for years ⁠used state-linked cyber units for espionage, financial theft and revenue generation, according to U.S. and South Korean authorities, as well ⁠as cybersecurity ​experts.
The U.S. Treasury in 2023 sanctioned Kimsuky, opens new tab ​as a North Korean government-controlled cyber-espionage group, saying it gathered intelligence in support ​of Pyongyang’s strategic objectives.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/north-korean-hacking-group-builds-ai-tools-cyberattacks-report-says-2026-08-10/

Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz ​but repeated that the U.S. must meet other conditions, including compensation and an end to sanctions and military threats, before the strategic waterway is reopened.
A U.S. official told ‌Reuters on Friday that Iran and Oman were close to a deal that could pave the way for restoring safe passage through the strait, a major conduit for oil and gas shipping before Iran blocked Hormuz in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks on Tehran that began in late February.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday an agreement with Oman on the strait was in its “final stages” but reiterated comments made on Saturday that Tehran would not reopen the ​channel unless the U.S. met certain demands made by Tehran.
The deal with Iran would set out the new shipping lanes to be used once the U.S. fulfils those conditions ​and the strait is reopened, Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.
Iran and the U.S. are not engaged in direct talks, and Tehran will ⁠not start them as long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June, Araqchi said, adding that messages were being exchanged through intermediaries.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with ​Axios that the U.S. was “low-keying” it with Iran. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
CONDITIONS INCLUDE COMPENSATION
Araqchi said reopening ​the strait would depend in part on the U.S. paying compensation for damage it caused in widespread attacks on Iran.
The secretary of Iran’s top national security body, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, also listed ending further U.S. threats against Iran; halting aggression toward Iran and its Lebanese, Palestinian, Yemeni and Iraqi allies; removing a U.S. naval blockade in the Gulf; lifting sanctions on Iran; and releasing frozen Iranian assets.
The United States and Israel launched air strikes on Iran more than ​five months ago. Trump has said the attacks were aimed at keeping the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons and degrading its ability to threaten the region.

Washington and Tehran agreed to a ​ceasefire in June, but the U.S. reimposed a blockade on Iranian shipping in the Gulf in July, a move that Tehran said violated the truce, which by then had already broken down.

“Once the deal is announced to ‌restore commercial shipping ⁠without impediments, the United States will lift the blockade of Iranian ports,” the U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
U.S. actions would be tied to Iran’s implementation of its commitments, the official said.
The U.S. comments indicated delicate sequencing toward a deal that sources had told Reuters appeared to be set to give Tehran control over vessel traffic entering the Gulf through the strait, which shippers have said was not easily workable.
The United Arab Emirates said on Saturday that Iran had attacked a ship affiliated with its state oil company. There was no immediate comment from Iran, whose Revolutionary Guard Corps previously has ​attacked ships that it said tried to cross the ​strait without Iranian permission.
HOUTHI ATTACKS
Iranian strikes on ⁠Strait of Hormuz shipping have been coupled with increased attacks by its Yemen-based allies, the Houthi rebels, who have targeted ships at another oil chokepoint on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis also declared a naval blockade against Saudi ​Arabia in the Red Sea last month in response to what they said was a Saudi siege on them in Yemen, an allegation denied ​by Riyadh, which backs ⁠Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
The Yemeni rebel group said they had attacked Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery on Sunday, two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Sunni Muslim allies Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability from the U.S.-Israeli war on Shi’ite Iran.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-ties-hormuz-reopening-us-concessions-several-demands-2026-08-09/

Iran said on Saturday that a deal with Oman on control of the Strait of Hormuz was close but would not be enough ​to free up the waterway, and the United Arab Emirates said Iran had hit another ship there.
Agreement between Iran and Oman over the strait, which separates the two countries, is ‌seen as vital to a wider deal to end the war, which began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28 and led to Tehran establishing a chokehold over the major energy export route.

A U.S. official, who declined to be identified, said on Friday that Washington anticipated an agreement soon between Iran and Oman, so normal oil traffic could resume.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran and Oman were “very close” to an agreement on a new shipping route through the strait, but reopening it would depend on ​other conditions, including U.S. compensation to Iran.
The secretary of Iran’s top national security body, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, listed other demands including ending U.S. threats against Iran, stopping aggression against Iran and its Lebanese, ​Palestinian, Yemeni and Iraqi allies, lifting a blockade and sanctions on Iran and freeing Iranian assets.

OMAN REPORTS POSITIVE NEGOTIATIONS, CONDEMNS SHIP ATTACKS

Oman condemned what it described as repeated ⁠attacks on vessels while transiting the strait, without assigning blame, and said that negotiations with Iran on arrangements for shipping through Hormuz were “positive and constructive”.
“Oman stresses the importance of avoiding any actions that could affect these ​negotiations and the progress achieved in a manner that takes into account the interests of all parties,” the foreign ministry said.
Araqchi said the previous shipping traffic separation scheme through the strait was no longer acceptable to Tehran ​and Iran was discussing a temporary route with Oman while technical and legal issues surrounding a permanent route were resolved.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate, said he believed now was the best time for an agreement.

“There is cohesion, strength, and unity in the country, and as far as I know, Iran is considered victorious and powerful in this war,” Iranian news agencies quoted him as saying.
Iran has reacted to the U.S. attacks by targeting U.S. bases in Gulf states and Jordan as well ​as striking shipping in the narrow strait, which carried a fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments before the war.
The UAE said on Saturday that Iran had attacked a carrier affiliated with the UAE’s state ​oil company with a missile as it transited the Strait of Hormuz. No injuries were reported in the latest attacks on shipping there.
The UK maritime trade monitor UKMTO said a vessel had caught fire after being hit by an unknown projectile ‌but the fire ⁠was put out and there was no reported environmental impact.
There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has repeatedly signaled that a deal to open the strait could be close, only to have Iran deny that talks are under way. It was unclear whether the latest flurry of negotiations would yield a more lasting arrangement.
“Once the deal is announced to restore commercial shipping without impediments, the United States will lift the blockade of Iranian ports,” the U.S. official told Reuters on Friday. U.S. actions would be tied to Iran’s implementation of its commitments, he said.
U.S. Central Command said on Saturday it had allowed more than 30 ships ​through for humanitarian aid since the current blockade started. ​U.S. forces have turned away 53 ships, disabled ⁠two vessels and boarded two others, Central Command said in a statement on social media.
Prices of food and other necessities have increased rapidly in Iran since the conflict began in February. At a news conference on Saturday, Pezeshkian blamed the U.S. for causing difficulties in importing basic goods.
He did not mention any blockade exceptions for ​humanitarian aid.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who have targeted the ships, also said on Saturday that reopening the strait depended on Washington accepting Iran’s conditions and was not ​related to the Iran-Oman negotiations.
“Whenever the ⁠United States accepts Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will certainly be reopened,” said Guards spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-says-deal-strait-hormuz-is-close-will-not-open-waterway-by-itself-2026-08-08/

 

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said India and Israel will continue strengthening their partnership after his telephonic conversation with PM Narendra Modi. The leaders reviewed progress in bilateral ties, discussed cooperation across sectors and exchanged views on West Asia developments. MEA said the call focused on further strengthening the India-Israel Special Strategic Partnership.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said that India and Israel will continue to strengthen their bonds.

He made the remarks in a post on X as he reshared Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s post where the latter had informed about a conversation between the two leaders on Thursday, which focused on further strengthening the Special Strategic Partnership and also discussing the situation in West Asia.

He said, “Thank you, my friend, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. Together we continue to strengthen the bond between Israel and India.”

Leaders discuss bilateral ties

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a telephonic conversation on Thursday to review and expand their bilateral ties, with discussions centring on deepening cooperation across multiple sectors and addressing regional developments.

Ransom-seeking hackers who use phone calls to compromise their victims targeted dozens of prominent U.S. financial institutions and ​other businesses over the past month, according to Google and internet intelligence data reviewed by Reuters.
The data shows the hackers devised websites aimed at stealing passwords from employees of private ‌equity firms and financial companies including Blackstone (BX.N), Bridgewater Associates, Apollo Global Management (APO.N), Bain Capital, KKR (KKR.N), TPG (TPG.O), CME Group (CME.O), Clearlake Capital and Moody’s (MCO.N), as well as other businesses.

Google said in a blog post about the hacking campaign, published on Thursday that the hackers operate under a range of names, including Redact, Pink, Falcon and Helix.
Google declined to comment on Reuters findings. Its blog said in some cases companies, which it did not name, paid ransoms to the hackers. Reuters could not establish which companies the hackers successfully compromised.
Experts say the hackers’ use ​of low-tech tactics such as phone calls to target the financial industry illustrates how, despite sophisticated security programs and AI-driven threats, the oldest tactics still rank among the most effective. If successful, the hacks ​could compromise data of some of the biggest U.S. private equity firms that provide capital to companies.

“Because the fence is now so fancy and high-tech, we just ⁠have to trick the guard into opening the door for us,” said Lee Clark, a cyberthreat intelligence production manager with the Retail and Hospitality ISAC, an industry information sharing and analysis group.
“That human element consistently is why ​this has exploded in the way it has,” he said.
KKR, Bain Capital, Clearlake Capital, CME, TPG and Apollo declined to comment. Blackstone, Bridgewater Associates and Moody’s did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

HACKERS SHIFT ATTENTION: GOOGLE

In its blog post, ​Google — a unit of Alphabet (GOOGL.O), — said the hackers had recently turned their attention to private equity, law firms and financial ratings agencies.
Austin Larsen, the principal threat analyst at Google’s Threat Intelligence Group, said the hackers generally targeted industries based on financial calculations, often successfully.

“Really, it’s a money thing,” Larsen said. “They think that these firms or organizations have data sensitive enough that, if taken, they would pay to prevent it.”
Google did not identify any of the hackers’ targets by name. Reuters reverse-engineered many of the company-specific ​online traps used by the hackers by running the 72 malicious websites Google listed in its report through web intelligence platforms such as DomainTools and urlscan, which flagged malicious subdomains tailored to each firm.
Speaking in general about ​the subdomains, Larsen said, “They all were likely used in attempted intrusions” though he cautioned, “They were not all successful.”
Google said the hackers used “meticulous social engineering tactics,” reaching employees on their personal cellphones while pretending to call from their company’s help desk, sometimes ‌displaying the correct ⁠help desk phone number.

The hackers told their targets there was an urgent directive from IT to update their passkeys or multifactor authentication and steered the employees toward a booby-trapped website with domain names such as “passkeyhelpdesk” or “secure-passkey.”
If an employee followed the instructions to enter their password, the hackers would harvest their fail-safe passcode – typically sent by text or generated by an app – live over the phone and hijack their account before the call terminated.
Larsen said it was wrong to think of the tactic as particularly advanced.
“Sophisticated is not the right word,” he said. “It is just really effective.”

SHIFTING ALIASES

Reuters was not able to reach the alleged hackers. Redact — which once went by the name Blackfile — said on ​its darknet website that its hackers “are not politically or ​morally motivated” and were “not currently taking questions from ⁠the press.” On its site, Falcon acknowledged being affiliated with Redact but said it had nothing to do with Helix or Pink.
Larsen said it was unclear who the hackers were exactly or what their relationship was to one another. Although they went under different names, he said they appeared to be tied together by common infrastructure.
“There are ​still some unknowns here,” he said.
The hacking attempts, a few of which were earlier reported by Bloomberg, have caused a stir on Wall Street.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/hackers-targeted-us-private-equity-other-firms-including-blackstone-cme-data-2026-08-06/

 

A New Mexico state court ordered Meta (META.O), on Thursday to pay $567 million into a ​teen mental health fund and change how its platforms function for young users after finding the company is to blame for harming children’s wellbeing.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid in Santa Fe ruled the ‌company had created a public nuisance in New Mexico, siding with Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat. Torrez had accused the social media company of designing products to addict young users and failing to protect children from sexual exploitation on its platforms.

The ruling comes five months after a New Mexico jury in an earlier phase of the case ordered Meta to pay $375 million after finding it violated consumer protection law by misrepresenting the safety of Facebook and Instagram for young users.
The case was being closely watched amid a growing wave of litigation accusing ​social media companies of harming young users. While many lawsuits have been brought by children and families over alleged injuries to individuals, states, municipalities and school districts have also pursued lawsuits seeking broad changes to ​the industry.
More than 40 states and over 1,300 school districts have filed public nuisance lawsuits against social media companies, seeking damages as well as court orders requiring changes ⁠to products and practices.

Biedscheid on Thursday ordered Meta to implement youth-safety measures, including monthly limits on teens’ use of Facebook and Instagram, restrictions on notifications, tighter controls on adult contact with minors, safeguards for AI chatbots, and enhanced ​review of child sexual abuse reports, under a decree that will be in place for five years.
Meta said it will appeal the ruling and that it has been working to identify and remove harmful content from its platforms.
“We remain confident ​in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts,” Meta said in a statement.
New Mexico’s Torrez said in a statement that Meta chose profit over child safety, and that the ruling was the first to force a social media giant to make changes protecting children.

“This is not just a judgment against one company. It is a blueprint,” Torrez said. “Now other states, and other countries confronting the same crisis, have a roadmap they can follow.”
Reuters last year reported on company documents ​that showed Meta’s AI chatbots could “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” part of a series of investigations into Meta profiting from ads peddling fraud and banned products.
In Thursday’s ruling, Biedscheid ordered Meta to prevent children ​in New Mexico from “engaging in romantic or sexualized interactions with Meta’s artificial intelligence chatbots” and to prevent adults in New Mexico from using chatbots to simulate or discuss a sexualized interaction with a child.

PUBLIC NUISANCE

Biedscheid heard three weeks of testimony during the second trial ‌over the ⁠lawsuit, which did not involve a jury. It focused solely on whether Meta’s platforms created a “public nuisance” under New Mexico law.

Public nuisance claims traditionally have targeted conduct that endangers public health or safety, such as blocking roads or polluting waterways, but state governments have also invoked them in litigation involving tobacco, opioids, climate change, vaping and most recently artificial intelligence.
“(J)ust as noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta’s platforms on children do not stay contained by its platforms and, instead, migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world and create a common, societal burden on and harm to the ​affected children and their families and schools, as well as ​hospitals and law enforcement,” Biedscheid wrote.
Meta had said ⁠at trial it could not have created a public nuisance because it had not interfered with a “public right,” such as access to air or water. Meta also argued that its social media platforms are not the only ones used by the state’s young residents, and the case ignores the impact of other apps.
It also criticized the changes New Mexico sought, ​saying in filings many were “technologically impractical or completely impossible,” and could force the company to exit the state altogether.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/new-mexico-court-orders-meta-pay-567-mln-teen-mental-health-fund-2026-08-06/

The U.S. Army has used up much of its global stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, ​according to three people familiar with the data, raising concerns about the military’s readiness for future conflicts.
The missiles are principally the Army’s surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). The U.S. ‌has used “virtually all” of these weapons, according to two of the sources.

The degree to which the military is running out of ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles has not been previously reported.
The long-range munitions – which cost more than $1 million each – are an important part of the military’s arsenal, allowing accurate strikes from a safe distance. U.S.-supplied ATACMS have played a key role in the war in Ukraine, allowing Ukrainian forces to attack targets inside Russia. The PrSM is a newer, more advanced generation that will replace the ATACMS, which have a shorter range.
The dramatic rundown in precision, long-range missiles means U.S. President Donald Trump may ​have to rely more on riskier, piloted bombing missions if he relaunches large-scale attacks on Iran.

The sources declined to say how many of each munition the U.S. had left.
Trump launched the Iran war jointly with Israel in February, predicting ​that the conflict would last a short time.
But as the war drags on, the three people familiar with the matter expressed worry that the falling missile supplies could limit the U.S. ability ⁠to deter adversaries, including Russia and China.
A fourth person familiar with the matter said that despite the high usage of precision weapons, the U.S. can resupply. Central Command — which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East — has been able to reload from U.S. military ​supplies around the world, the person said.
The sources interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Asked for comment on the stockpile data, the White House issued a statement from Trump, saying the U.S. had “far more munitions than anyone in the world” and “far ​more than we need.”

“Our defense companies are, at this moment, making more munitions than they have ever made before, in addition to expanding their plants and equipment at record levels,” Trump said.
Analysts agree that certain munitions, including artillery shells and several types of missiles, are being produced at record levels but caution that supplies might fall short of what is needed for a prolonged war.
Lockheed Martin, which makes the ATACMS and PrSMs, along with the anti-ballistic missile THAAD system, did not immediately respond to questions about Trump’s statements or about supply levels. Raytheon, which makes Tomahawk missiles and Patriot interceptors, two ​important U.S. weapons, also did not immediately respond.
Responding to a request for comment, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said: “America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing. We ​have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests.”

The supply figures have circulated inside the federal government over the last week during tense conversations inside the Trump administration about how ‌much longer the ⁠U.S. can continue striking Iran without drawing down the stockpile to levels that would limit the military’s ability to respond to crises elsewhere.

WARNINGS OVER WEAPONS SUPPLIES

One of the sources said the drawdown of the ATACMS and PrSM stockpiles reflected a decision by the Trump administration to avoid riskier ways of attacking Iranian targets, such as by using piloted aircraft to drop bombs.
Because these weapons allow the military to attack targets from a distance, analysts say they would be valuable in a war against an adversary with strong air defenses, such as China. They have been used to strike targets inside Iran, according to a March report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
According to the report, PrSM stockpiles were low to start with, since it is a relatively new munition, but the U.S. military ​has ordered a large number of them for 2027. The Army ​has said that ATACMS are being phased out and ⁠that production is shifting to the newer PrSM missiles.
Military leaders have for weeks warned the president that stockpiles of defensive weapons — including Patriot interceptors, which are effective against ballistic missiles — were dwindling, said two of the sources. Last week, several media outlets reported Trump had decided not to launch another massive offensive inside Iran in part because his military advisers had warned about the U.S. stockpile.
A U.S. ​official disputed those accounts, saying Trump chose not to move forward with another attack because of pressure from Gulf states.
The Middle East conflict has sparked intense debate about Trump’s authority to ​prosecute hostilities against Iran without congressional ⁠authorization. No request for a declaration of war or an authorization to use military force has been submitted to Congress.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us-has-used-virtually-all-its-long-range-precision-missiles-during-iran-war-2026-08-04/

 

Iran has warned Gulf states that any new U.S. attack on its territory would trigger ​retaliation against critical energy infrastructure across the region, according to five sources, as Tehran seeks to raise the cost of military action by threatening Washington’s closest regional allies.
The warning ‌was delivered through a flurry of high-level diplomatic contacts after President Donald Trump threatened on July 28 to strike Iran’s energy network and infrastructure, the sources said.

Two senior Iranian officials, two Gulf sources and a senior regional diplomat with knowledge of the discussions said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi spoke with his Saudi, Turkish and Qatari counterparts, as well as Pakistan’s army chief. All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Araqchi urged Washington’s Gulf ​allies to use their influence with Trump to dissuade him from launching renewed strikes, the senior diplomat said, warning that any attack on Iran would prompt retaliation against U.S. assets ​and energy facilities across the Gulf.
His message was consistent in every conversation, the diplomat said: “We’re ready to retaliate, but finding a diplomatic solution is ⁠the best way to avoid wider escalation and destruction across the region.”

“The Iranian warning was unequivocal: if America targeted Iran’s infrastructure, they would retaliate by striking Gulf energy facilities and other regional targets,” ​one Gulf source said.
The diplomatic maneuvering underscores how Iran is attempting to use the threat of wider regional destruction as leverage against further U.S. strikes, putting Gulf states that host U.S. military bases and ​depend on energy exports in a difficult position between Washington and Tehran.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman subsequently spoke with Trump, urging him to delay military action, return to negotiations, secure a ceasefire and pursue a diplomatic settlement, the senior diplomat and Gulf sources said.
The warning was intended for every Gulf state, another Gulf source said, but was conveyed primarily through Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Iran has in recent years repaired ties with its Gulf neighbours, including ​former regional rival Saudi Arabia.

Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia have all urged Washington to resume talks with Tehran and avert renewed conflict amid Iranian warnings that another round of U.S. strikes could “turn the ​region into a fireball”, the second Iranian official said.
On August 2, Trump said he agreed to cancel the attack on Iran “subject to being able to rapidly make a deal”.

THREATS OF WIDER REGIONAL ESCALATION, SAYS IRANIAN OFFICIAL

“Saudi Arabia believes further ‌escalation will only ⁠bring more destruction,” the first Gulf source said. “That is why it urged Trump to give diplomacy a chance.”
While urging Washington to pursue diplomacy, Riyadh also made clear it would defend itself if threatened. The second Gulf source said Saudi Arabia warned that any attack on its territory would be met with a military response.
Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the Royal Court, said the kingdom’s assessment is that further escalation is unlikely to achieve the desired result. “The Kingdom believes a combination of proportionate military responses and sustained pressure on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz offers the strongest path toward a ​practical diplomatic settlement,” Shihabi said.

Iran’s clerical leadership has ​repeatedly demanded the closure of U.S. military ⁠bases in the Gulf and called on Gulf Arab states to stop sharing intelligence with Washington, which Tehran believes has been used to facilitate attacks against it.
According to one Iranian official, Tehran’s warning made clear that any new U.S. strike would be met with attacks on energy facilities, refineries, electricity grids, ​water infrastructure, transport networks and oil fields across the Gulf.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-threatens-hit-gulf-states-if-us-launches-new-strikes-2026-08-05/

A North Korean missile unit has begun deploying to western Russia and could ​be equipped with 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers for strikes against Ukraine, an official at Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said.
Ukraine is very short of high-end air ‌defences and Russia has tried to exploit this by using more ballistic missiles, which are particularly hard to shoot down.

Russia has fired scores of North Korean ballistic missiles at Ukraine since late 2023, but the deployment of North Korean missile forces would be an expansion of the already extensive military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Andrii Cherniak of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence said Russia planned to base the missile ​unit of around 90 North Korean personnel in the western Russian region of Voronezh, within its 112th Missile Brigade.
A source familiar with the issue told Reuters that the ​United States is aware of the North Korean deployment, but declined to elaborate.
The CIA declined to comment. The White House did not ⁠immediately respond to a request for comment.

NORTH KOREAN MISSILES ALREADY SEEN IN UKRAINE ONCE MORE

Pyongyang has already sent a new batch of 40 KN-23 and KN-24 missiles and personnel ​to Russia, but the configuration of the deployment and total number of missiles will be finalised at top-level talks next month, he said.

Russia expects the deployment to involve 120 North Korean ballistic ​missiles and six launchers, he said.
It is not clear what precise role the North Koreans would play in Russian missile operations.
The deployment described by Cherniak appears to coincide with Russia last week firing its first two North Korean missiles at Ukraine since last August.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think tank, said the North Korean resources were a significant threat for Kyiv.
“Ballistic ​missile defence is one of Ukraine’s greatest vulnerabilities so any increase in the quantities of ballistic missiles they face will pose a greater challenge,” he said.
A particularly big concern ​for Ukraine will be the state of its air defences this winter, when Russia could again target the power grid with heavy attacks as in past years, he added.

Cherniak said his assertions were based on ‌intelligence that could ⁠not be disclosed because of the sensitivities.
The Russian Defence Ministry and North Korea’s embassy at the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.
North Korea has emerged as a close ally of Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the two powers signed a mutual defence pact in 2024.
North Korea has supplied millions of artillery shells to Russia’s war effort and sent 14,000 troops to Russia’s Kursk region to repel a Ukrainian ground incursion in 2024, Ukrainian officials say.
Last week, Ukrainian authorities said ​a North Korean missile had flattened a residential ​home in the central Ukrainian village of ⁠Radushne, killing at least five members of the same family.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/north-korean-missile-unit-deploys-russia-ukraine-war-kyiv-says-2026-08-05/