Login
Iran links Hormuz Strait reopening to end of Mideast wars
“The Strait of Hormuz cannot be separated from the broader regional conflict,” Rezaei said.
The post Iran links Hormuz Strait reopening to end of Mideast wars appeared first on BOL News.
Reading view
Mearsheimer: “US KILLED 38 Million of PEOPLE“. Carlson: “Nukes are not by Humans but Rejection of God”. Best 7 VIDEOS of the Week
by Gospa News Editorial Sfaff
Continuing the project we started in the beginning of “026.
Here is our selection of our 7 most astonishing, original or viewed videos released in this the week.
This reminder ccome back after many months of pause due to that the main important videos were published in the post WARS in Video with dauky updates on the ongoing international conflicts in Ukraine and in Middle East.
But there are many videos that are extremely significant for their social or geopolitical content that sometimes take a back seat to the serious events that occur every day in wars, which is why we decided to start this periodic column.
Inside the Rumble description of each video there is a link to the detailed investigation it refers to or to a related topic.
Enjoy watching with Gospa News. And if you like our work, support us with a small donation.
SUBSCRIBE GOSPA NEWS AND HELP WITH A SMALL FREE DONATION
Prof. John Mearsheimer: Between 1971 and 2021, the US murdered 38 million people
Tucker Carlson on NUCLEAR WEAPONS: They aren’t by Humans. It’s the Rejection of GOD”
Israel opens Hind Rajab case, rights groups see “charade” not justice
DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”
CHRISTIAN ZIONISM: A Fake Religion as Zionism of Talmud and Star of David without Biblical Roots
Iran released the Footage on its Secret Underground Air Base
Russia’s Submarine Built To Launch Poseidon Nuclear Drones Begins Sea Trials
Anomalous RED SKY after COLOMBIA EARTHQUAKES as in VENEZUELA: AURORA by HAARP?
CHRISTIAN ZIONISM: A Fake Religion as Zionism of Talmud and Star of David without Biblical Roots. Orthodox Priest, American Pastors Explain (VIDEO)
by Gospa News Editorial Staff
Three authorative religious experts explained n three different footage that Christian Zionism as Zionism, as Talmud, as Star of David, as Israelians origin have not roots with Biblical Israelites and Holy Bible.
They are the orthodox priest Fr. Spyridon Bailey and the American Pastor of different Baptist Churches: Dillon Awes Chuck Baldwin
This confirmed the latest investigations by Gospa News onFreemasonry and Zionismand their threats for Christianity and Humanity
ONE Video for 3 FOOTAGES
1st Footage – The Christian Zionism and Talmud
Fr. Spyridon Bailey is a priest of the Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, serving in England and Ireland.
2nd footage – The Star of David is not in the Bible
Pastor Dillon Awes was born in Fresno, California. He is a pastor of the Anchor Baptist Church in Oklahoma, which was formerly a satellite church of Stedfast Baptist Church.
3rd footage – The Zionist State has not ties with Biblical Israelites
Pastor Chuck Charles Obadiah Baldwin (born May 3, 1952) is an American right-wing politician, radio host, and as founder he served as pastor of Independent Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida.As of 2024 he is leading pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, Montana.
He was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. presidential election and had previously been its nominee for vice president in 2004. He hosts a daily one-hour radio program, Chuck Baldwin Live, and writes a daily editorial column carried on its website, as well as on VDare. He is a former editor of NewsWithViews.com.
The Analysis of VIDEO Contents & Previous Investigations
“Talmud Blasphemies Christ. You can’t be a be Zionist and an Orthodox Christian”
Fr. Spyridon Bailey said that you can’t be a be Zionist and an Orthodox Christian:
«The Talmudic Faith is Alien to Moses, to Isaac and Jacob. Christians must know that Talmud blasphemies Christ and the Mother of God» the orthodox priest affirmed.
The symbol on Israel’s flag is said to be a sign of Remphan or Moloch
Pastor Dillon Awes explained that the Star of David (or the symbol on Israel’s flag) is said to be a sign of Remphan or Moloch, the ancient pagan deities.
Moloch, or Molech, is an ancient, often feared, deity from the Middle East associated with horrific child sacrifice, particularly in the Hebrew Bible where his worship was condemned as a pagan practice involving burning children to him, sometimes depicted as a bull-headed figure.
Beyond ancient religion, Moloch evolved into a powerful metaphor for any destructive idol or system demanding extreme, often senseless sacrifice.
The difference among biblical scripture, Israelites and modern politics
Pastor Chuck Baldwin breaks down a major distinction many people overlook: the difference between biblical scripture and modern politics. The biblical concept of Israel refers to an ancient faith community described in the Bible. It was never meant to be a modern political ideology or a shield for modern state policy.
In contrast, the modern political entity operates a military legal system where children as young as 12 are regularly prosecuted in military courts with conviction rates exceeding 95% – a practice human rights organizations document as unique in the world.
Under administrative detention, hundreds of medical professionals, journalists, and children are held without formal charge or trial, facing severe conditions documented by international monitors. Inside these facilities, they document the harshest living conditions, systemic neglect, and severe physical and psychological tactics.
Conflating an ancient spiritual identity with a modern state weaponizes scripture to overlook human suffering. True faith stands for human dignity, truth, and basic rights for all people, especially children.
Pastor Baldwin also argues that Zionism is a fascist and communist movement, writing, according to Wikipedia:
“Anyone who claims to be opposed to globalism and neoconism but denies the pernicious part that Zionism plays in globalismand neoconism is either badly ignorant of what globalism and neoconism really are or is knowingly providing cover for the Zionists—and is, therefore, controlled opposition for Zionists. I believe the latter is true in far, far too many cases. And never forget the fact that at their center Zionists are fascists and communists”
RELATED POSTS
DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”
WARS in VIDEO. Israeli Zio-Nazi Minister Celebrates IDF RAID in UN Center. Mission Impossible in Moscow by CIA & VATICAN for PEACE IN UKRAINE
By Gospa News Editorial Staff
Versione Sintetica in Italiano
Since today, therefore, this War Daily Summary will no longer contain news only on the war (and related geopolitical issue) in the Middle East, but also on the war in Ukraine and any other international conflicts.
HELP GOSPA NEWS TO ENHANCE BREAKING UPDATES
WARS IN VIDEO – DAILY UPDATES (since September 2026)
EXCLUSIVE MILITARY – GEOPOLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS
ASYMMETRIC WAR BETWEEN ZELENSKY AND PUTIN
Ukraine Drones funded by EU to Kill Russian Civilians, Moscow Missiles to Target Weapons Industries
Brief analysis by Fabio G.C. Carisio on August, 17, 2026
While the Russian Army continues to advance on the battlefield in Donbas, consolidating its military positions—predicting its complete annexation within a year—the Russian Aerospace Forces are engaged in an asymmetric strategic war against Kiev’s air force.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, using drones paid for by European Union citizens and built in a covert partnership with the US Pentagon and EU countries, continues to target Russia’s energy infrastructure and civilian buildings in a vain attempt to provoke a rebellion among the Russian population, as military bases are too well-protected to be attacked.
In the last few hours, more than a thousand kamikaze drones have been launched, killing at least six Russian civilians and seriously damaging the Wildberries (Russian Amazon) online distribution centers alone.
Without having to contend with the costs borne by the European Union, the leader of the pro-Nazi Zelensky regime can waste drones at will on massacres of civilians, as recently happened in Nizhnekamsk.
It should not be forgotten that European politicians and media censored or at least severely obscured the massacre of Russian schoolgirls that occurred on May 21, 2026, when more than one drone, using the lethal double-tap tactic, struck a dormitory in Starobelsk, in the Lugansk People’s Republic, which confederated with Russia after a popular plebiscite.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin, who could level much of Kiev in a single night with undetectable hypersonic missiles, to avoid a massacre of “Ukrainian brothers,” limits himself to striking the military and energy infrastructure that is bringing Ukraine’s military apparatus to its knees, increasingly short of Patriot air defense rockets.
But the escalation triggered by Zelensky, with the applause of US President Trump, has inevitably led Russia to raise the level of retaliation and also include civilian targets, such as ships in the port of Odessa.
As long as European, American, and Zionist leaders speculate on the Weapons Lobby, the conflict in Ukraine can only continue to escalate toward a total “preventive” war, like that waged by Israel and the US against Iran, and desired by NATO and, above all, Great Britain against Russia.
Until Putin loses patience and carries out a massacre in Kiev… But from that moment on, thanks to vile Western propaganda, every day will be a good day for the start of World War III.
The evidence presented in this analysis is documented in the exclusive investigations published below and in the last week’s updates below.
Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio – founder and director of Gospa News
THE POSEIDON PROBLEM. What the United States should do vs Russia.
Exclusive Analysis by former Intel advisor Gordon Duff
ZIONISTS’ Neverending WAR CRIMES, as GENOCIDES. Iran: “US, Israel GUILTY of gravest MASSACRES since 1949”.
Latest Children’s Murdering in Lebanon, Minab and Qeshm
READ MORE IN THE INVESTIGATIVE ANALYSIS BELOW
Carlson & Waters: “HOW US, UK, EU and NATO are Triggering WORLD WAR III”.
The BOJO Fake-Peace Plan in Ukraine to Provoke Russia
GEOPOLITICAL AND MILITARY ANALYSIS IN THE POST BELOW
Previous 14 EXCLUSIVE MILITARY INVESTIGATIONS
Daily Updates on WARS in VIDEO (until July 2026) in the post below
WARS & GEOPOLITICS Updates in Video
Updates on AUGUST, 26, Breaking News in Video
Iran says Hormuz remains closed despite Oman route deal
- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi says the Strait of Hormuz remains closed despite a temporary transit agreement with Oman, insisting that Washington must return to its commitments under the memorandum of understanding before the waterway is fully opened.
- US President Donald Trump says that all mines have been cleared and detonated from the strait’s international waters and that Tehran has received warnings that any ships laying new mines will be “destroyed”.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs details a temporary arrangement between the Islamic Republic and Oman concerning the Strait of Hormuz, while asserting that reopening of the waterway hinges on realization of Tehran’s demands, according to Iranian Press TV.
Remarking on Tuesday, Kazem Gharibabadi detailed the arrangement that he identified as tentative pending establishment of a “permanent route” during further negotiations between the two sides that are expected to take between 30 and 60 days.
Iran closed the chokepoint following the launch of the latest bout of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression against the country on February 28.
According to Gharibabadi, under the arrangement involving Iran and Oman, the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz will be closed. As part of its violations of the MoU, the US would try to illegally escort vessels through the southern route that runs along the Omani coastline.
Oman has accepted the closure, the official said, adding that the move would be communicated to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Under the arrangement, “vessels entering the Persian Gulf will use Iranian waters, while vessels leaving the Persian Gulf will use Omani territorial waters,” the senior diplomat stated. “Vessels would pass through Iranian waters in both directions,” he added.
He described the arrangement as functioning “like a two-way highway,” with a total width of approximately seven nautical miles.
Gharibabadi stressed that the arrangement agreed with with Oman does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened immediately. He said the issue of the arrangement and the question of reopening the strait were separate matters.
Israeli forces raid UNRWA training centre in East Jerusalem, raise Israeli flag
Israeli far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrated after Israeli forces raided a facility operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in occupied East Jerusalem, expelling employees and hoisting an Israeli flag in the courtyard.
UNRWA and experts say it is a direct breach of international law.
But after the previous bombings of various UNRWA offices and the massacres of UN officials in Palestine, UN Secretary General António Guterres (who earns $227,000 a year) and his other well-paid aides should stop clowning around on the world stage, resign, or intervene with severe sanctions against Israel and the US, which since 2023 have been protecting Israel’s genocide, as confirmed by dozens of UN reports.
DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”
It would be enough to put a resolution to a vote in the General Assembly, bypassing the Security Council, where the US continues to exercise its vote. But the real problem is that many Western countries, including Italy, have effectively protected the massacre committed by Zionists in the Holy Land to speculate on the weapons market.
«Israeli so-called National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced on Tuesday the start of operations to dismantle a vocational training center run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the East Al-Quds (Jerusalem) area of Kafr Aqab, near the Qalandiya refugee camp» Al Manar Lebanese TV pointed out.
“Large forces of Israel Police are working together with the relevant authorities to realize the law and get UNRWA out of the area,” Ben Gvir said in a statement.
“An organization whose workers were involved in terrorism, and which served as a front for Hamas time after time, has no right to exist for even another second, and has no place in Jerusalem and the State of Israel.”
Footage from Palestinian media shows Ben Gvir on the scene with Israeli occupation forces at the UNRWA facility.
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate said Israeli forces ordered UNRWA employees to exit the facility and not return.
Ben Gvir’s announcement comes after the Israeli occupation authorities’ Jerusalem municipality this month greenlit a plan to build a road and an “educational complex” over the 82-dunam area.
Explosion in Ammo Depot in Pishchanka, Ukraine, Kills One and Injures 11
An explosion occurred in Pishchanka, Samar District, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing one person. Another 11 people were injured.
Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, reported on the consequences of the incident.
The explosion destroyed three private homes. Another 15 houses sustained varying degrees of damage. But according to Russian sources the huge blast happened inside an ammunition depot.
People who were near the epicenter at the time of the explosion were evacuated to a safer location. Access to the hazardous area was temporarily restricted.
Investigators, forensic experts, and other specialized services are working at the site of the explosion in Pishchanka. Oleksandr Hanzha did not specify the cause of the blast, but described the incident as a war crime.
Updates on AUGUST, 25, Breaking News in Video
Vatican Top Diplomat and CIA director together in Moscow for a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: Peace in Ukeaine
Brief analysis by Fabio G.C. Carisio
Suddenly, as if prompted by the Vatican, on the same day that the Holy See’s top diplomat Paul Richard Gallagher travels to Moscow for a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, one of the most strategic figures in the United States also rushes to the Russian capital: CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who arrived in Moscow on a US Air Force Boeing C-17, arousing curiosity with his unexpected arrival.
The trip, however, had been planned for at least two days, like that of Pope Leo XIV’s envoy.
The two visits represent two separate and distinct initiatives with different discussions, which remained secret in the case of the head of American counterintelligence.
Both clearly have the aim of attempting the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE of peace negotiations for Ukraine with spokespeople for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had rejected any truce after the ongoing massacres of civilians by the drones of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s army.
Their diplomatic expedition must confront opposing interests that are instead pushing Kiev toward escalation: the United Kingdom and NATO, which for two years have sought direct confrontation with Moscow, relentlessly supporting serious terrorist attacks; the European Union, which wants Putin’s total surrender; and the Zionist Arms Lobby, which financed the election of President Donald Trump and will not easily accept the goldmine of the conflict in Ukraine going up in smoke.
Moscow rejected the Peace proposal based on a free trade economic zone in Donbass administered by US: accused of Complicity
Moscow has rejected the possibility of creating a free trade economic zone in Donbass administered by Washington, which was even accused of complicity in Ukrainian attacks vs Russian territory.
The Kremlin thus rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposal to create a free economic zone in Donbas, administered by a third party as a buffer zone under a peace agreement, and reiterated that the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine would be “unacceptable” to Russia.
The external administration of Donbas, proposed by Ukraine, is impossible, as the region is part of Russia, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized today during a briefing.
“Donbas is the territory of the Russian Federation, a federal entity. (…) It is unlikely that a third party could take over the administration of a region of the Russian Federation,”the Kremlin representative stated.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed today that Russia has sent a formal request to the U.S. State Department, detailing intelligence evidence demonstrating the United States’ deep involvement in organizing and carrying out attacks deep inside Russian territory.
According to Lavrov, the evidence shows that the Trump administration was actively involved in helping Ukraine bomb Moscow, St. Petersburg and other places.
«Russia will not forget about Zelensky’s “bloody act” in Starobilsk and will seek justice», Lavrov added in a statement.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe on secret trip in Russia with a Mysterious Flight on a Boeing C-17A
CIA Director John Ratcliffe is in Moscow, Russia, for meetings, sources familiar with the situation told CBS News on Tuesday.
News of his trip comes after a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport plane was spotted at a Moscow airport, along with a U.S. diplomatic motorcade. Neither the U.S. nor Russian governments has commented on the identity of the U.S. official in Russia or the purpose of the visit.
The CIA did not immediately comment. It appears to be Ratcliffe’s first known trip to Russia as CIA director, though he has maintained contact with Russian intelligence counterparts.
The CIA has also played a role in recent U.S.-Russia detainee exchanges, including the April 2025 release of a U.S.-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina, whose case Ratcliffe personally negotiated. The agency was also involved in the 2024 prisoner exchange that secured the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan.
Former CIA Director William Burns traveled to Moscow in November 2021, when he met with senior Russian officials and spoke directly with President Vladimir Putin to warn him against invading Ukraine.
Ratcliffe’s visit comes as U.S.-mediated peace talks with Ukraine remain mostly stalled, with the sides still far apart on core issues.
Lavrov and top Vatican diplomat held first Moscow talks since start of special op
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks in Moscow with Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States and International Organizations. who has arrived in Moscow on his first official visit since the beginning of the special military operation.
The sides will discuss international issues and prospects for bilateral cooperation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Ukraine issue is likely to receive particular attention, including in the context of possible separate consultations on Ukraine at the Vatican. Russian Ambassador to the Holy See Ivan Soltanovsky told TASS that Russia is prepared to take part in such a format.
The central topics were the Ukrainian conflict and possible ways to resolve it, humanitarian cooperation, the situation of Orthodox and Catholics, the situation in the Middle East and other regions, as well as the prospects.
Russia Knocks Out Vessel Supplying Ukraine’s Military in Odessa Strike
Russian forces carried out a strike on a dry cargo ship in the port of Yuzhny, which delivered cargo to the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as port infrastructure facilities, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
“Last night, unmanned aerial vehicles in the Yuzhny port damaged a cargo ship that delivered cargo to Ukraine intended for purposes of the armed forces of Ukraine, as well as port infrastructure facilities used to unload military cargo,” the statement read.
The Russian armed forces continue to launch group strikes against Ukrainian ports and ships targeted in the interests of delivering goods for the armed forces of Ukraine.
In the video below a previous Russian attack on port of Ukraine
Yemeni forces target Saudi oil tanker off Yanbu amid escalation
The Yemeni Armed Forces announced operations targeting a Saudi oil tanker off the coast of Yanbu and Saudi military positions in several areas, as part of Sanaa’s military equation against Saudi Arabia’s aggression.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces were able to target the Saudi oil tanker Amzan in the northern Red Sea, off the coast of Yanbu, with a ballistic missile,” Spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement. “The strike was precise and direct, resulting in a fire on the ship, and the escape of several other ships in the area.”
Saree confirmed that this move “is part of the implementation of the Yemeni Armed Forces’ decision to ban maritime traffic for the Saudi enemy and to enforce a blockade with a blockade.”
Updates on AUGUST, 24, Breaking News in Video
Israeli forces Bombed Gaza, destroying houses, mosques and at least one water desalination facility.
Sources at hospitals in Gaza tell our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli air strikes have killed at least eight Palestinians, including two children, since dawn.
Israeli forces have targeted areas in central and southern Gaza, destroying houses, mosques and at least one water desalination facility.
But Israel has released alleged fake claims which said that they “continue to target Hamas weapons depots in the Gaza Strip”, according to a joint statement by the Israeli army and internal security service, Shin Bet.
The statement said Israeli forces carried out attacks in the Shati refugee camp and Deir el-Balah areas in central Gaza and “destroyed two weapons depots belonging to Hamas”.
At least two children are among eight Palestinians killed so far on Monday in Israeli air strikes across Gaza, according to Gaza health officials.
Iran to detain, confiscate violating ships in Strait of Hormuz: PGSA
The Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), Iran’s regulatory body for the Strait of Hormuz, has announced that vessels violating Iranian protocols for the strategic waterway will face restrictions on future passages, including fines, detention, or confiscation, Iranian Press TV has reported.
In a statement posted on its official X account on Sunday, the authority warned cargo owners shipping to and from the Persian Gulf to review the Non-Compliant Vessels (NCV) list prior to chartering in order to avoid potential issues.
Effective immediately, the authority said, any vessel cooperating with listed vessels, including through ship-to-ship (STS) transfers or transshipment, will also be added to the list.
To request removal from the list, vessels must submit a formal application with justifications to info@pgsa.ir, it said.
The announcement comes amid heightened tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global energy shipments, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.
Iran has warned that it will not tolerate any disruption to its sovereignty over the strategic passage, saying traffic in the waterway will not return to normal unless the United States ends the war and blockade against the country.
Greece moves missile battery to Crete after Iranian threats to US bases in Europe
Greece is moving a Patriot missile battery from the island of Karpathos to the Souda naval base on Crete to bolster air defences, Greek daily Kathimerini is reporting
The move comes about 24 hours after senior Iranian officials threatened possible strikes on US bases on European soil, the paper said.
Greece’s defence ministry and armed forces general staff have been on alert since last week, assessing the threat level and reviewing measures to protect critical infrastructure, according to the report.
The battery, along with its equipment and personnel, departed Karpathos at dawn and was expected to be operational in the wider Souda area within hours, Kathimerini said. The system had been deployed to Karpathos in March as part of a broader plan to shield all sectors of Athens’ flight information region from potential ballistic missile attacks.
Two children killed, seven injured after UAV debris fell on children’s center in Krasnodar
A massive Ukrainian drone attack is being repelled in the Krasnodar Region, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said, adding that debris fell on a private children’s center in Krasnodar, killing two children and injuring seven others, and two adults have been hospitalized.
“The Krasnodar Region is repelling a massive enemy drone attack tonight. Once again, the targets were civilian facilities, peaceful residents, and our children. Drone debris fell on a private children’s center in Krasnodar. Unfortunately, two children died. My deepest condolences to their families. Seven other children were injured and are currently receiving all necessary medical care. Two adults are also in city hospitals. I wish a speedy recovery to everyone,” he wrote on Max.
In the video below the previous Ukrainian UAV’s vs Russian Civilian Buildings that killed Children in Krasnodar (August, 12, 2026 – Novorossiysk)
Ozon’s logistics center in Krasnodar attacked by drone – VIDEO
UAVs have attacked Ozon’s logistics center in Krasnodar, with the strike causing a fire at the warehouse. According to preliminary information, there were no casualties, the company’s press service reported.
“On August 24, a logistics center in Krasnodar was hit by a drone attack. All systems functioned as intended, and we promptly evacuated the staff. Preliminary reports indicate there are no casualties. A major fire has broken out at the warehouse, and emergency services are at the scene,” the report said.
In the video below the second Ozon warehouse attacked in Russia by alleged Ukrainian Drones (August, 23, Orenburg, via ImmaginixConoscer IG)
The company said earlier that the logistics center had suspended the acceptance of shipments, with goods currently at the warehouse to be hidden from the marketplace storefront. Some items will be cancelled or delivered from other warehouses.
If no equivalent goods are available, they will be marked as out of stock, according to the report. Shipments already en route to the warehouse will be rerouted. Ozon will provide sellers with specific information regarding the status of their goods via their marketplace seller accounts and official seller channels on social media.
Ex CIA Johnson: 30 sailors attempted suicide aboard USS Lincoln
Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson and University of Tehran professor Mohammad Marandi told Al Mayadeen that a prolonged confrontation increasingly favors Iran, pointing to mounting military, logistical, economic and political pressure on the United States as Tehran prepares to adopt a more offensive posture.
Speaking during the program The Great Standoff: Iran and the World on Monday night, Johnson argued that Washington faces growing difficulties sustaining its military presence and replenishing advanced weapons, while Marandi said Iran’s ability to endure the consequences of the war is greater because it views itself as defending against an externally imposed aggression.
“Time’s on the side of Iran, not the United States”, Johnson said, arguing that strains within the US military would become increasingly difficult to sustain the longer the conflict continued.
Johnson pointed in particular to the deteriorating conditions aboard US vessels, including shortages of food and personal hygiene supplies, malfunctioning sanitation systems and serious morale problems among personnel.
He said those difficulties extend beyond the Navy, citing concerns over suicides and morale across different branches of the US military. “The longer this goes on, the more it wears on the personal morale of individual soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen,” Johnson said.
Johnson mentioned that “One news report indicated that as many as six sailors had tried to jump overboard on the Abraham Lincoln. I had a recently retired US military officer tell me that that was a lie, that the number was probably closer to 30, not just six. And we find that these problems are not confined just to the Navy.”
Beyond personnel pressures, Johnson argued that the United States is increasingly constrained by shortages of advanced weapons and its reliance on foreign supply chains. He said China controls critical materials required to manufacture weapons, including Tomahawk and JASSM cruise missiles, PAC-3 interceptors used by Patriot systems and THAAD missiles.
Iran released the Footage on its Secret Underground Air Base
Footage 1 – Iran has released footage reportedly showing the Aqab 44 Air Base, a military facility built deep underground.
The footage appears to show sections of the facility, highlighting Iran’s underground military infrastructure designed to protect strategic assets from potential attacks.
Footage 2 – Iran has added another significant boost to its missile capabilities! In the latest breakthrough in defense technology, the Ghassem Basir solid-fuel ballistic missile has been unveiled, with a range of 1,200 km+.
With Fatah hypersonic gliders and Khorramshahr-4 heavy warheads, this new missile system is designed for rapid mobility and high-precision targeting.
Russia Ships Nuclear Reactors To Turkey. Pakistan is supplying Atomic Watheads to Ankara?
1st Footage – Turkey’s first nuclear power plant has reached another construction milestone, with Russia’s Rosatom delivering four steam generators for Unit 4 of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant.
The massive components were manufactured in southern Russia before travelling around 3,000 kilometres by sea to the construction site on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
Once operational, Akkuyu’s four reactors are expected to play a major role in meeting the country’s growing electricity demand.
2nd Footage – Viral claim: Pakistan transferring nuclear missiles to Turkey Reports and social media posts are widely circulating claiming that Pakistan has decided to transfer its strategic nuclear capabilities to the Republic of Turkey.
According to these viral posts, Pakistan plans to deploy 170 nuclear missiles equipped with 16 warheads to Ankara, effectively placing these strategic assets under Turkish command.
This had been happened after the signing of “Mecca Deal” to Defense agreement among Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia too. However, this news is not officially confirmed by any Pakistani or Turkish officials.
Pakistan is a declared nuclear weapons state and maintains that its nuclear arsenal is under strict national command and control. Turkey is a NATO member and hosts US nuclear weapons at Incirlik Air Base under NATO arrangements, but does not own nuclear weapons.
Neither the Pakistan Foreign Office, Pakistan military, nor Turkish government agencies have issued statements confirming such a transfer.
As of this writing, the claim remains unverified and appears to originate from unconfirmed social media posts.
Updates on AUGUST, 23, Breaking News in Video
Iran to attack other oil export routes if Gulf countries support US sanctions
Iran is ready not only to strike oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, but also to attack other oil transportation routes from the Persian Gulf zone, if regional countries join the anti-Iranian sanctions of the United States, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said.
“We are telling all the neighboring countries not to join the US economic war on Iran, or Tehran will view them as enemies,” he was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic’s state-run broadcaster.
He added that if the neighboring states join the US sanctions, “not a single drop of oil will be shipped from the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.”
In this case, Iran will “view other routes of oil export from the region as its target.”
In his words, the Islamic Republic does not want the conflict to spread. “But if Iran’s neighbors support the US in its economic war, Tehran will damage their interests,” Rezaei said.
Two days ago (read below updates on August, 21) Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned a new round of US economic sanctions against the country, stating that the measures amount to “economic terrorism” and “crimes against humanity.”
Dry cargo ship carrying weapons hit by Russian strikes in port of Chernomorsk, Odessa region
The Russian armed forces have hit a dry cargo ship delivering weapons, as well as seven fuel storage tanks in the port of Chernomorsk of the Odessa Region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“With the help of high-precision strikes and drones, the following targets were hit in the Odessa Region’s port of Chernomorsk: a dry cargo ship, delivering weapons and military equipment to Ukraine; seven fuel storage tanks, and port infrastructure where military cargo was unloaded and stored,” the ministry said.
Russia has attacked the Odesa region for 11 hours, using a combination of 17 “Banderol” missiles, 4 Х-59 and Х-31 missiles, approximately 10 air-dropped bombs, and about 70 drones, according to monitoring reports.
Israeli army admits firing on car carrying the 5yo Hind Rajab: rights groups see “charade” not justice
The Israeli occupation forces acknowledged on Wednesday that their personnel fired on a vehicle carrying five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in Gaza in January 2024, and announced a criminal investigation into the incident.
Hind was martyred after her family’s vehicle came under fire while they were attempting to flee Gaza City amid an Israeli military advance in northern Gaza. Her body was recovered days after she made a desperate, hours-long emergency call to the Palestinian Red Crescent on January 29, 2024.
She was found inside a vehicle riddled with bullets alongside six relatives. Two Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics who had been dispatched to rescue her were also killed.
The Israeli occupation had previously denied that its forces were present in the area at the time of the incident.
Five-year-old Hind Rajab’s last phone call from a car surrounded by her slain relatives shocks the world; now her killing is one of two Gaza cases Israel’s army says it will investigate. The second case involves 15 paramedics crushed in their convoy in southern Gaza.
«But critics note that only 0.18% of such cases ever reach prosecution, and that high-profile incidents like the World Central Kitchen strike are excluded, leaving families with little faith in justice» Al Jazeera’s Joel Evans reported in the video above.
DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”
Mossad chief holds call with Syrian FM week before aggression
The head of “Israel’s” Mossad spy agency, Roman Gofman, held a phone call with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani last week during which they discussed Turkey’s military presence in Syria, three people familiar with the matter said, Reuters reported.
The call, which the sources said took place on August 14, came days before “Israel” launched airstrikes on a Syrian military airbase in the north of the country on Tuesday.
It marks one of the highest-level contacts yet between “Israel” and the new Syrian government since the fall of former dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2014.
Syria was “on the verge of breaching” a security understanding with “Israel” by allowing Turkish forces to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed late on Tuesday.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office accused Damascus of ignoring repeated Israeli warnings against the move, saying that the deployment “would pose a threat to Israel’s security.”
“Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo,” the office said in a statement.
The statement came hours after Israeli aggression hit Syria’s Abu al-Duhur military airbase in eastern Idlib, the first such strike on the base since Bashar al-Assad’s fall in December 2024. Meanwhile, the Israeli military has not officially confirmed carrying out the attack.
Updates on AUGUST, 22, Breaking News in Video
UN rights office for Palestine calls out Israeli army WAR CRIMES over attacks on Gaza
The UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory says the latest killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces in Gaza may be war crimes, highlighting the ongoing attacks on the enclave’s police, according to Al Jazeera.
“These incidents are a stark reminder that, despite occasional drops in the number of reported attacks, civilians throughout Gaza remain exposed to persistent, unpredictable, lethal harm,” it said in a statement on Friday.
It said the reported killings of at least 22 Palestinians in Gaza between August 13 and 19 alone, including women and children, “may amount to war crimes and other atrocity crimes”.
The UN office also called the “pattern” of attacks on police personnel and facilities in Gaza “alarming”, including an attack on Gaza City’s municipal police headquarters on Wednesday that killed eight officers and a 13-year-old girl.
It says it recorded 18 Israeli attacks on police personnel across Gaza since January, with 77 Palestinians killed, including six children and four women.
Under international humanitarian law, it says, police are protected civilians, unless they are actively and directly participating in hostilities.
New US Sanctions against members of the International Criminal Court.
Based on the same executive order with which Donald Trump authorized sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, Marco Rubio announced new measures against members of the International Criminal Court.
This time, it was the turn of Tomoko Akane, judge and president of the Court, and Abdoulaye Seye, a lawyer for the ICC Prosecutor’s Office who was investigating the Israeli case.
Both will be subject to sanctions that include, among other measures, a ban on entry to the United States and a freeze on any assets held in the country, as well as exclusion from the US financial system.
This is not the first time Washington has targeted ICC members: last year, the Trump administration imposed sanctions against several judges and officials of the Court, including Prosecutor Karim Khan, who was targeted after the issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
VITAL VIDEO – At Night Turkey secretly deployed massive weapons systems into Syria. How and Why…
What was feared has happened. Israel has made an indirect move against Turkey…. In the video below a medley of many social footages on Turkish military reaction.
Turkey condemned the strikes, while Israel said it was acting to prevent a potential Turkish military deployment at the Syrian base—an allegation Ankara has denied. Washington is now working on a deconfliction mechanism to prevent accidental military clashes between Turkey, Israel and Syria. (Reuters)
A senior Israeli official revealed that intelligence was shared with the United States prior to Israeli strikes on Abu al-Duhur Airport in the Idlib countryside in the latest day (details below in August, 18 updates), after US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack expressed concern that the operations constitute an unnecessary escalation.
Yesterday, Israeli forces advanced with tanks and vehicles in southern Quneitra ((details below in August, 21 updates),
Yesterday Turkey’s Ministry of Justice has asked Interpol to issue Red Notices for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an Israeli official on genocide charges, Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced on Friday (details below in August, 21 updates).
VIDEO LEGEND UNDER THE VIDEO
Footage 1 – Turkey is secretly deploying massive weapons systems into Syria under cover of darkness, directed by MIT intelligence. The buildup follows Israeli airstrikes on a Syrian airbase and signals Ankara is preparing for a potential military confrontation with Israel. US envoy warns of direct clash…
Footage 2 – Turkey is reportedly concerned about the possibility of a direct military confrontation or war with the Israeli military inside Syria! It is now fully determined to send Israel a strong and clear message.
Footage 3 (grey part in the general video but visible in the footage below)– According to information provided by a Syrian journalist, Turkey has deployed approximately 200-250 armored vehicles and 20 tanks along the southwestern Syrian front. This deployment is believed to coincide with recent Israeli air strikes in Syria.
Footage 4 – The Turkish Bayraktar TB3 unmanned aircraft is displayed for the first time at one of the exhibitions – It features radar detection combat skills – Submarine detection using acoustic sensors – Carrying heavy and guided missiles, stealthy with high capabilities
Footage 5 – As part of the NATO 2026 Summit Defense Industry Forum, a high-level reception was held at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) facilities in Kahramankazan, hosted by Haluk Görgün, Chairman of the Defense Industry Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey. The program, which highlighted the capabilities of the Turkish defense industry, international collaboration, and alliance spirit, is expected to attract widespread participation.
Footage 6 and 7 – No one knows for certain what Turkey is planning! However, it is believed that #Ankara is making these extensive preparations to deliver a strong response to the Israeli airstrikes carried out last Tuesday.
Israel has relocated 190th Squadron of AH-64A Apache attack helicopters near Syrian, Lebanon borders
“Erdogan is an anti-Semitic dictator who massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and imprisons a record number of journalists and political opponents. Now he is trying to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria. Israel will not tolerate this. Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will not succeed,”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement after the Turkish Justice Minister announced an arrest warrant for him yesterday.
Israel has fully relocated the 190th Squadron (“Magic Touch”) — operating AH-64A Apache attack helicopters — to Ramat David Airbase in the north, near the borders with Syria and Lebanon, the IDF confirmed.
The permanent move from southern Ramon Airbase is intended to boost rapid-response capabilitie…
In the second footage of the video a Turkish miltary deployement in Syria
China rejects US demand on Iran
China has refused to join a US plan to “squash” Iran’s economy, rejecting Washington’s push to be part of the “toughest sanctions in history” against the Islamic Republic.
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on American allies and other countries to choose sides and stop doing business with Iran, as Washington prepares what he touted as “the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world.”
In an interview with CNBC, Bessent described the plan, expected to be unveiled on Monday, as “a one-two punch” combining a naval blockade with “the toughest sanctions in history.” He claimed it would “squash” the Iranian economy and “collapse this regime.”
Beijing, however, has rejected Washington’s call.
“Regarding the Iran issue, sanctions and pressure do not help resolve the problem,” Reuters quoted a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington as saying. “China calls on the relevant parties to take responsible actions and resolve the issue through political and diplomatic means.”
Russia’s fuel strikes erode Ukrainian Army’s logistical flexibility and fighting capability
The Russian Army is steadily choking off Ukraine’s fuel supplies, and the recent strike on the KLO fuel depot in Brovary is yet another nail in the coffin of Ukraine’s military mobility.
On the night of August 20, Russian forces struck the KLO fuel and lubricants depot in Brovary, a city just northeast of Kiev, that was storing up to 8,000 cubic meters of fuel intended for Ukrainian forces.
Footage filmed by an eyewitness at the industrial site quickly spread across social media. The depot has ceased operations, according to Ukrainian media reports, and the company said that no site employees were injured.
Building a new gas station costs around $1.2 million, while protecting it against drone attacks costs about $44,800. Ukrainian fuel station network WOG claims that fully restoring a single station can cost up to $1.6 million. Depending on the extent of the damage, repairs can take up to ten weeks.
Since April 2026, Russia has been intensively targeting Ukrainian gas stations, according to Ukrainian media. The extent of the damage is being downplayed by the Ukrainian side. As early as July 6, Ekonomichna Pravda reported that 200 gas stations had been hit. Despite Russia’s military campaign, Ukrainian newspapers have stubbornly continued to cite that figure through the end of August.
Drone strike on Ukraine shopping centre kills six, injures 103
A Russian drone strike hit a major shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, killing six people and injuring 103, including eleven children. Officials said the attack came in two waves, with the second strike occurring as emergency crews were responding to the scene.
10 MINUTES OF NIGHTMARES’ VIDEO! The Major Houthi Attacks on Pro-Saudi Forces in Yemen
Houthis released a major video showing strikes against pro-Saudi forces in Yemen. Footage shows attacks on personnel and equipment in the southwest of the country.
Updates on AUGUST, 21, Breaking News in Video
Turkey requests Interpol red notice for Netanyahu over Sumud Flotilla
Turkey’s Ministry of Justice has asked Interpol to issue Red Notices for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an Israeli official on genocide charges, Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced on Friday.
Gurlek said the decision was made during proceedings concerning Israel’s attack in international waters on activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, which set sail earlier this year to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“Pursuant to the arrest warrants issued on 14 July 2026 for Benjamin Netanyahu and Afek Moskovitch on charges of genocide, our Ministry of Justice requested that the Ministry of Interior seek Interpol Red Notices for their international apprehension. The relevant documents have also been forwarded to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” the minister said in a statement posted on X.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Afek Moskovitch are standing trial for crimes against humanity, genocide, aggravated unlawful deprivation of liberty, intentional injury, torture and ill-treatment, damage to property, aggravated robbery, and the hijacking or seizure of means of transport.
DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”
“The charges relate to the armed intervention against civilians delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza in international waters and the subsequent detention of activists.”
Ship traffic through Strait of Hormuz slides as peace talks stopped. Oil prices stay elevated
Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz dropped on Thursday compared with the previous day amid growing safety concerns in the Middle East, as US-Iran peace talks remain stalled, Reuters reports.
Citing preliminary data from ship-tracking company Kpler, Reuters reported that seven commodity vessels transited the waterway on Thursday, down from 14 ships on Wednesday. Of Thursday’s total, four vessels were entering the Gulf and three were exiting.
No supertankers or liquefied natural gas carriers were recorded passing through the narrow chokepoint, according to the data.
Oil prices held largely steady on Friday, with Brent crude futures gaining 4 cents, or 0.04 percent, to reach $93.82 a barrel as of 01:42 GMT.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped 6 cents, or 0.06 percent, to trade at $86.78.
The market remains on track for a second straight weekly gain as the stalemated US-Iran conflict continues to disrupt Middle East oil supplies.
Iran: New US sanctions amount to ‘economic terrorism,’ ‘crimes against humanity’
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned a new round of US economic sanctions against the country, stating that the measures amount to “economic terrorism” and “crimes against humanity.”
In a statement issued on Thursday, the ministry said the new sanctions, announced by the US government on the anniversary of the 1953 coup in Iran, demonstrate the continuation of decades of hostility toward the Iranian people.
“The new US sanctions are not only another indication of the continuation of 73 years of hostility by US policymakers toward the Iranian people, but also demonstrate the anti-human, lawless and hegemonic nature of the US government,”the statement said.
On Wednesday, Trump announced what he called the “most crushing economic operation” against Iran, claiming that Tehran would face “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale”. He also threatened sanctions against any country that does business with Iran.
The threat comes as his war on Iran, launched alongside the Israeli regime on February 28, has failed to reach any of its objectives.
How China and Russia could hobble Trump’s plans to isolate Iran
Originally published on Al Jazeera By Stephen Quillen
US President Donald Trump has threatened to financially punish any country providing an economic “lifeline” to Iran, as he declared an “economic D-Day” against Tehran.
The threat, six months into the US’s costly conflict with Iran, is Trump’s latest attempt to wield US economic power to achieve his foreign policy objectives, after a series of damaging trade wars earlier in his second term in office.
But Trump’s leverage over China and Russia, two important trade partners with Iran, is limited, analysts say. Russia is already under sweeping US sanctions and operates largely outside the US-led economic framework. China, meanwhile, has repeatedly shown it is willing to ignore US sanctions when doing so serves its own economic interests.
Read more here.
Israeli occupation turns West Bank Palestinian homes into military posts
Israeli occupation forces raided the West Bank town of Yaabad, southwest of Jenin, on Thursday evening and seized a Palestinian home, converting it into a military post.
Local sources told the Palestinian Wafa news agency that occupation forces informed homeowner Hamed Hamarsha that they would maintain control of his home for two days.
Yaabad has faced repeated Israeli occupation raids in recent months, including home invasions, the establishment of checkpoints, the closure of entrances, and restrictions on Palestinian movement.
In a separate incident, Israeli occupation forces raided and damaged the belongings and furniture inside a Palestinian home in Qusra, south of Nablus.
Qusra Mayor Abdul Azim Wadi told Wafa that occupation forces had converted the home of Yusuf Abdel Salam into a military post after besieging it for 12 consecutive days.
On Thursday evening, the forces destroyed the home’s belongings and furniture and threw them through the windows, according to Wadi.
The homeowner is currently staying in another besieged home after occupation soldiers forced him and his family to leave their residence, claiming that the area had been designated a “closed military zone.”
Israeli occupation intensifies attacks across southern Lebanon
Israeli occupation forces carried out a series of attacks across southern Lebanon on Thursday, including demolitions, artillery shelling, drone activity and the burning of homes, amid continued violations of the ceasefire.
The attacks targeted several towns and areas across the southern governorates, according to local reports.
In the Marjayoun district, Israeli occupation forces carried out a demolition operation on the outskirts of Mais al-Jabal and another in the town of Al-Tiri in the Bint Jbeil district.
An Israeli drone also dropped explosive material near the Ali al-Taher area in the Nabatieh region, were a few days ago 3 children were exterminated within their family
In Talsah, in the Marjayoun district, Israeli occupation forces set fire to several homes.
An Israeli Merkava tank subsequently shelled the outskirts of Baraachit in the Bint Jbeil district with several rounds.
Earlier Thursday, a major explosion was reported in the area between Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Yohmor al-Shqif, following another explosion in the al-Mashaa area of Mansouri, which was also subjected to artillery fire.
The continued attacks come despite the ceasefire, with Israeli occupation forcesmaintaining military operations across southern Lebanon and continuing to strike towns and villages, including through warplanes and drones.
Israeli forces advance with tanks and vehicles in southern Quneitra
Israeli occupation forces advanced on Thursday with two tanks and three military vehicles toward Tal al-Dariyat in the southern countryside of Quneitra, according to local Syrian sources.
The sources also reported that an Israeli occupation patrol advanced into the Tal al-Karoum area in the central countryside of Quneitra.
The Israeli occupation continues to carry out near-daily incursions into the Quneitra and Daraa countryside, accompanied by the establishment of temporary military checkpoints, searches of civilians and vehicles, and raids on homes.
The incursions have also involved the detention and interrogation of Syrians, as well as the bulldozing of agricultural land, according to local sources.
The old video below shows Israeli that tanks was now stationed in towns and villages in Syria’s southwest since 2024…
Yemen targets Saudi sites in Najran after airspace violation
Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced that Yemeni forces had carried out two military operations using drones in Saudi Arabia’s Najran region, claiming that both operations successfully achieved their objectives.
Brigadier Saree said the first drone targeted a sensitive site at Najran Airport, while the second targeted Saudi Aramco’s facilities in Najran.
He asserted the operations were conducted as a response to what he called violations by the Saudi regime, including the use of drones in the airspace over Yemen’s Saada province.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will continue to protect Yemen’s sovereignty against any violation and consolidate this equation,” Saree concluded.
In the video below one of the previous attacks by Houtis on a Yemeni Red Sea Port
Ukraine election debate grows as ousted Defense Minister Fedorov challenges Wartime Politics
Ukraine’s ousted defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for elections, intensifying a debate over political accountability during the war with Russia.
While most Ukrainians oppose holding elections during wartime, growing concerns about government accountability are adding pressure on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Protesters in Kyiv said the recent government reshuffle showed that Ukrainians feel they are not being heard.
Opposition MP Oleksii Honcharenko questioned how elections could be held while missiles are falling, nearly one million Ukrainians are serving in the military and millions remain abroad.
Fedorov has argued Ukraine must find a way to restore the democratic process if the war continues for years. The debate highlights the challenge of maintaining democracy during a prolonged war. Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine reports from Kyiv.
Updates on AUGUST, 20, Breaking News in Video
Iran-Iraq ties built to resist Zionist meddling: Ghalibaf in Baghdad honored Generals Soleimani and al-Muhandis martyred by Trump
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday and delivered a speech at the site where General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were martyred, paying tribute to the two leaders of the Axis of Resistance, before the monument on these Iranian and Iraqi heores.
On January 3, 2020, a US drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump targeted a convoy near Baghdad International Airport, killing IRGC Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani and Deputy Chairman of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Iran’s revenge starts from Qom. Thanks to Fordow’s nuclear bunker plant
Ghalibaf said the US government had assassinated “the two heroes of the Axis of Resistance who saved the region from ISIS”, and said Iran’s resistance capabilities had been demonstrated during the Ramadan War.
He further stressed that his visit to Iraq was part of a new regional approach focused on bilateral cooperation with countries in the region, without foreign meddling. “Today, everyone has come to recognize the Zionist entity’s ugly nature”, Ghalibaf stressed.
Iranian Parliament Speaker: US is behind regional crises
Ghalibaf affirmed that during his visit to Iraq, he would meet with senior Iraqi government officials and politicians and participate in the Arbaeen commemorations for the martyred Iranian leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Lebanese TV Al Mayadeen has reported.
Just during this religious event, on July, 30, a joint Saudi-US struck on positions of Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU), commonly known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, across the country, which have killed at least 20 resistance fighters and wounded 32 others (details here).
Iranian Parliament speaker also described relations between Iran and Iraq as deeply rooted, saying they reflected ties between two neighboring countries based on a shared destiny, adding that past experiences would guide the two countries toward a bright future.
During his meeting with Amidi, Ghalibaf said Iran and Iraq have recognized that the United States and its policies constitute a principal factor behind the region’s problems.
He said Washington is responsible for problems affecting the Gulf and obstacles facing regional energy markets, linking them to the United States’ reliance on military intervention and war.
“America approached the Gulf states and the region with the aim of plundering and looting their resources,” Ghalibaf said.
The Russian Armed Forces liberated the settlements of Matyashevo and Nikolaipolye in the DPR
The Russian Armed Forces liberated the settlements of Matyashevo and Nikolaipolye in the DPR, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reports.
3 SHOKING VIDEOS – Russia Carried out a massive missile attack on Kiev WIPING Weapons Facilities and Warehouse
Russia carried out a massive missile attack on Kyiv in the night on August, 19, alongside 168 drones, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 40
Last night, August, 19, Kiev was under attack again. In the capital of the Ukraine has received dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles aimed at logistics and industrial facilities.
More than 25 missiles have struck Kyiv, including Iskander-M ballistic missiles, allegedly North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles, and 3M22 Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles.
Additionally, Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bombers launched Kh-101 cruise missiles, while a Buyan-M-class corvette launched several 3M14 Kalibr cruise missiles, which are expected to enter Ukrainian airspace soon.
Fires were recorded on the territory of the Antonov plant, whose capacity can be used to assemble long-range UAVs. Heat tags of fires are also marked in the area of the railway junction to the south of the enterprise (video below).
Two more groups of targets were hit in Svyatoshinsky and Darnitsky districts of Kiev. In particular, fires were recorded in the vicinity of the large Darnitsa railway station, which serves industrial facilities located in its vicinity.
In Brovary, the Russian Armed Forces attacked a fuel storage facility near a city railway junction. There have been numerous fires in the area of the facility, but it is impossible to talk about damage to fuel tanks until additional satellite images are available.
In the Boryspil area, the target of the raid was the Zamler Group logistics complex, the territory of which could be used to store dual-use goods: commercial and military ones. A strong fire in the warehouse was captured by the Ukrainian media (video below).
In addition, the Ukraine nnounced an attack by “Geraniums” at the Reni checkpoint on the border of the Ukraine and Moldova. The fact of the attack is indirectly confirmed by thermal tags in the area of the border crossing.
Russian troops continue to take advantage of the lack of anti-ballistic missile weapons in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As can be seen from the footage from the field, it is these munitions that ensure the destruction of the most important targets, such as logistics hubs or components of large industrial areas
Two explosions hit the regional headquarters of the National Police of Ukraine: 2 cops Killed
Footage filmed in Zhytomyr shows the moment two explosions hit a building housing the regional headquarters of the National Police of Ukraine on August 19.
Ukrainian officials said Russian Banderol-type drones struck the building, killing two police officers and injuring at least 20 people. The attack caused a fire on the roof and upper floors of the building.
Ex-deputy head of Zelensky’s office Mudraya detained
Irina Mudraya, deputy head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, who was sacked amid a corruption scandal, has been detained and will spend the night in a detention facility, Verkhovna Rada lawmaker Alexey Goncharenko (designated as terrorist and extremist in Russia) said on Wednesday.
“Irina Mudraya has been detained. She is currently under an investigative procedure at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine [NABU]. She will stay during this night at a temporary detention facility,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Earlier in the day, Mudraya stated that she was dissatisfied with the United States preparing “its own personnel reserve” in Ukraine, by placing its own people in key positions.
“The Americans are building this personnel reserve from the NABU people. And they already have a [reserve] for all the bodies that will be in the competition. They took the customs away from us, the BEB [the Economic Security Bureau], ARMU [National Agency of Ukraine for Asset Recovery and Management] will be taken now, NABU, SAP,” she stated.
“Klimenko will win again, and that’s it, and he’ll secure a second term for seven years, and that will be the end for everyone,” Mudraya noted.
A video from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) about corruption in the highest echelons of power contains a recording of Mudraya’s conversation with a former Rada deputy, in which she says she is unhappy with the lack of control over head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) Alexander Klimenko.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies launched a special operation against a criminal group led by a former and a current member of the Verkhovna Rada, which includes officials from Zelensky’s office. NABU later said the criminal group includes Mudraya, an ex-Rada deputy, and the chairman of a state bank.
Updates on AUGUST, 19, Breaking News in Video
Deadly Gaza City drone attack by IDF hits police post: 9 Killed
A total of nine people have now been reported killed by the Israeli drone attack in central Gaza City, according to a local ambulance source cited by our colleagues on the ground.
In the past hour, a drone attack targeted a police post here in Gaza City. The attack happened during a busy time in the central part of the city, near the municipality and a city park which was filled with people, including children.
A few hours ago, another attack targeted a motorcycle in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. One person was reported killed in that attack.
Israeli army to hold its positions in Gaza
The Israeli military will not withdraw from the so-called Yellow Line and will hold its positions in the Gaza Strip, while Israel will not change its approach toward targeted operations against armed radicals, Dmitri Gendelman, adviser to the Israeli prime minister’s office, told TASS.
“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces – TASS) will not retreat from the ‘Yellow Line’, will remain in its current positions and will continue to counter any threats to its forces and citizens. Israel will not change its approach to targeted killings of militants either,”he said after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Russia’s Submarine Built To Launch Devastating Poseidon Nuclear Drones begins Sea Trials
Russia’s Project 09851 Khabarovsk special-purpose nuclear submarine appears to have begun its first factory sea trials after being photographed leaving Severodvinsk on August 17. The voyage takes Russia’s first submarine designed from the outset around the Poseidon underwater weapon from shipyard construction into at-sea testing.
Khabarovsk was laid down at Sevmash on July 27, 2014. It was rolled out of its construction hall on November 1, 2025, and physically lowered into the water later that month before undergoing final outfitting and dockside tests.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the submarine was built to deploy modern underwater weapons, including robotic systems. Its detailed specifications remain classified, but it is widely assessed to carry up to six Poseidon vehicles.
Poseidon is an autonomous, nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable underwater drone designed to travel across intercontinental distances. Instead of flying through the radar and interceptor networks built to detect ballistic missiles, it approaches its target beneath the ocean.
In October 2025, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had launched a Poseidon from a carrier submarine and activated its onboard nuclear reactor for the first time. The vehicle then operated under its own nuclear power for a period of time, demonstrating that the system had progressed beyond launch-only testing.
Iran downed over 200 enemy aircraft during US-Israeli aggression: IRGC deputy chief
The deputy chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says Iran’s air defense systems shot down more than 200 enemy aircraft, including drones and manned aircraft, during the recent US-Israeli aggression, Iranian Press Tv has reported
Speaking at a ceremony commemorating the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday, Major General Mostafa Izadi said that the downing of over 200 enemy aircraft had stirred serious public scrutiny in the United States and fueled internal instability within the Israeli regime.
He added that the enemy had entered the war with a calculated scenario of “regime change” and disintegration, but suffered defeat on all fronts and failed to gain access to Iran’s nuclear industry.
Turning to the role of the Iranian people in the enemy’s defeat, Gen. Izadi emphasized that the people’s conscious presence had neutralized all enemy ploys, to the extent that national cohesion and authority were strengthened more than ever before.
He also noted that, according to available information, 80 percent of young Americans oppose war with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iranian strikes expose US military vulnerability as Pentagon weighs Persian Gulf pullback
Iran’s sustained retaliatory strikes against US military positions across West Asia have exposed the vulnerability of Washington’s military footprint in the region, prompting the Pentagon to examine whether the American presence in the Persian Gulf should be scaled back after the war on Iran, according to a report.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing eight people familiar with the matter, that the Pentagon’s policy office is conducting an initial assessment of the future of the US military footprint in West Asia.
The review is examining whether bases damaged by Iranian missile and drone strikes should be rebuilt in their previous form or whether Washington should use the destruction to establish a smaller military presence.
The assessment is not yet a formal review ordered by War Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a senior Pentagon official cited by the Post, who described it as “prudent planning” that could eventually inform decisions on the future of US forces in the region.
The newspaper said the damage inflicted by Iranian missile and drone strikes has given some US officials an opportunity to reconsider Washington’s long-standing military footprint in West Asia.
More than 200 US military facilities have reportedly been damaged or destroyed, according to the Post, while six US service members were killed in a March Iranian strike on Port Shuaiba, a military facility in Kuwait.
Iran warns regional states over military cooperation with US due to they can’t defend their bases
Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Ali Abdollahi said on Wednesday that regional states providing support to US forces could be regarded as parties to any military action against Iran.
Abdollahi added that, “It is unlikely that military aircraft and refueling aircraft would be stationed at regional bases without the knowledge of the host countries”.
In a similar vein, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi commented on Tuesday on the regional balance of power, stating that the recent war “proved that America cannot even defend its own bases”.
The foreign minister also confirmed diplomatic channels between Iran and the United States, noting that Qatar and Pakistan “have played an effective mediation role between Iran and Washington”, adding that “currently, relations between Tehran and Doha are going through a very positive phase”.
Iran rejects UAE’s missile claim, warns of ‘false-flag operations’
Iran has rejected a United Arab Emirates’ claim that Tehran launched two ballistic missiles towards the country, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei warning regional states against making unfounded accusations and urging vigilance over a history of “false-flag operations” seeking to implicate blameless parties.
Remarking on Tuesday, the official categorically rejected that Iran had launched any projectiles towards the UAE, deploring such accusations.
He stressed that such conduct runs counter to the principle of good-neighborliness and undermines ongoing efforts to build trust among regional countries and prevent a further escalation of insecurity in the region.
The spokesman also called on regional parties to take into account the complexities created by the continued “malign actions” of the United States and the Israeli regime against regional peace and security.
In this context, Baghaei specifically referred to the history of multiple “false-flag operations” and urged regional countries to refrain from making unfounded accusations against the Islamic Republic.
“We call on all regional parties to avoid baseless accusations against Iran.”
Earlier in the day, the UAE defense ministry had alleged that its air defenses had “detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran towards the country.”Also on Tuesday, a Press TV reporter revealed that reports claiming Iran launched missile attacks against the Emirates were unfounded.
Updates on AUGUST, 18, Breaking News in Video
‘Israel’ struck Syrian airport after notifying US: Israeli official
A senior Israeli official revealed that intelligence was shared with the United States prior to Israeli strikes on Abu al-Duhur Airport in the Idlib countryside, after US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack expressed concern that the operations constitute an unnecessary escalation.
The Israeli official, speaking to Fox News, said that “highly sensitive intelligence was shared with the United States in advance” of the strikes. The official also commented on Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, stating, “Al-Sharaa understands that he cannot operate like the previous Syrian regime, which maintained proxy forces. It’s possible that he didn’t understand what was going on, or didn’t know.”
Iran threatens the US with a forceful breakthrough of the Hormuz blockade
The American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will be broken by force if the United States fails to comply with the terms of the peace agreement, Reuters reports, citing a senior Iranian official.
Iran is threatening the United States in a way it hasn’t done before. But the current conflict has exposed the United States’ weakness, which Tehran has exploited. Currently, the Iranians are threatening to break the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz if Washington ignores Iran’s terms of the peace agreement.
Tehran is ready to shift from a defensive to an offensive policy, with virtually no hope that the conflict can be resolved through negotiations. According to the British publication, Iran has begun dictating its terms to the US, declaring that if Trump fails to reach an agreement with the Iranian authorities within a few weeks, force will be used.
Blood of martyrs of US-Israeli aggression against Iran ‘will not go unavenged’: Ghalibaf
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf vows that the Islamic Republic will not let the blood of the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and other martyrs of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression against the nation “go unavenged.”, Iranian Press Tv has reported.
The top legislator made the remarks on Tuesday, honoring the memories of the 168 victims, mostly comprising schoolchildren, who were fatally targeted at a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab in the opening airstrikes of the February 28-April 7 aggression.
He pledged that, under the guidance of Ayatollah Khamenei’s son and successor, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, the Islamic Republic will “devote all its capabilities to securing the rights of the Iranian people, ending the aggression, punishing the aggressor, and upholding the country’s honor and standing.”
“We will not allow the enemy to target [our] national unity, the popular participation [in support of the Islamic Republic], the nation’s resilience, or the motivation of our officials,” he added.
Ghalibaf slams ‘misplaced’ US attempts at ‘squeezing Iran harder’
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, says the US is misplaced in “squeezing Iran harder” to win concessions in a post on X.
Ghalibaf said, “Americans think squeezing Iran harder will win concessions that were never part of the agreement. [US Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent and [War Secretary Pete] Hegseth are way out of their league. Stop waiting for the clown crew to pull a rabbit out of their hat and clean up the mess you made”.
Ghalibaf says Hormuz to remain closed until US meets MoU conditions
The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States meets the conditions of the interim deal with Iran, including lifting the naval blockade and sanctions as well as the release of Iran’s frozen assets, says Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
“Let me state clearly: until the commitments made by the United States in the memorandum of understanding, including the lifting of the blockade, the release of frozen assets, the lifting of oil sanctions, the end of threats and military operations on all fronts, and other conditions to which America agreed in the memorandum, are implemented, the Strait will not be opened,” Ghalibaf said.
Ghalibaf also warned that internal divisions would weaken Iran and encourage foreign adversaries. The latest statement comes amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington, with the strategic Strait of Hormuz remaining a major flashpoint for regional security, energy supplies and international shipping.
Russian troops gained direct access to a major Ukrainian defense hub after liberating Krasnopodolye
Three footage in one VIDEO
1st footage – Russian troops gained direct access to a major Ukrainian defense hub after liberating Krasnopodolye, located 3 km from Dobropolye, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. Video: Russian Defense Ministry/TASS
2nd footage – Dnepropetrovsk Oblast: Intelligence footage confirms the destruction of two locomotives with freight cars using Geran drones near Shakhterskoye. The strike severely disrupted rail logistics in the region.
3rd footage – Kiev on fire after the heavy
Moscow: 791 Ukrainian drones flew over Russia last night
Ukrainian forces launched 791 drones last night against 15 Russian regions, including Moscow, as well as occupied Crimea and the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that all the aircraft were intercepted, but local authorities reported several injuries. The Tass news agency reported this. Furthermore, Wildberries, a leading Russian online retailer, said its warehouse suffered minor damage in a raid in the Moscow region.
In the Ukrainian town of Energodar, near the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one resident was killed and 15 injured this morning in a Ukrainian drone attack on a bus stop, according to Mayor Maxim Pukhov.
Attempted UAV attack on Moscow largest in two years
The attempted attack on Moscow by hostile drones was the largest in the past two years, according to TASS calculations based on data released by Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
According to the mayor, 620 UAVs flew toward Moscow and the Moscow Region between Monday evening and 5:00 a.m. Moscow time on Tuesday, with 180 drones destroyed in the capital region. “Emergency services are working at the sites where debris fell,” the mayor said on his official Max channel.
Prior to this, the largest attempted hostile drone attack took place between the evening of August 15 and 6:30 a.m. Moscow time on August 16. According to the mayor, 600 UAVs flew toward the capital, with 201 destroyed in the Moscow Region.
Sobyanin also reported that between the evening of July 6 and 6:00 a.m. Moscow time on July 7, air defense forces downed more than 430 drones, including 36 while approaching Moscow.
In addition, between 8:30 p.m. Moscow time on July 19 and 5:00 a.m. on July 20, more than 400 UAVs flew toward Moscow and the surrounding region. Most of them, Sobyanin said, were neutralized by air defenses at distant approaches, while 85 were destroyed while approaching the capital.
The mayor previously reported that more than 390 drones flew toward the Moscow Region between 8:30 p.m. Moscow time on July 27 and 6:30 a.m. on July 28, while more than 370 UAVs flew toward the region between 8:30 p.m. on July 17 and the early hours of July 18, most of which were neutralized by air defenses at distant approaches. Sobyanin also said that more than 300 hostile UAVs were destroyed between the evening of July 11 and the evening of July 12, including 45 while approaching Moscow. More than 200 hostile drones flew toward the capital on July 4.
The mayor reported the most massive attack on March 11, 2025. At the time, he said that “74 drones were downed while approaching Moscow, while hundreds of combat drones were shot down at various defensive lines overall.”
Updates on AUGUST, 17, Breaking News in Video
BREAKING NEWS – Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ of Strait of Hormuz talks with Iran
President Donald Trump threatened in an interview with Fox News to bomb Oman if it interferes in a potential deal with Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the news outlet reported.
Oman has been negotiating with Tehran over the vital shipping route, where maritime traffic has nearly ground to a halt as talks on ending the U.S. war with Iran have stalled.
Below the CNN Breaking News keynotes about:
• Threat to Oman: President Donald Trump warned of an attack on Oman if it “gets in the way” of efforts in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump previously threatened the US ally in May.
• Iran agreement expires: The 60-day deadline for the two sides to reach a deal toward ending the conflict has now passed. Trump again said he is in no rush and claimed his administration has established a direct backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the IRGC denies.
• Main priority: The president reiterated that the top goal in the war is preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, undercutting advisers who say keeping oil prices low is an important priority.
• Gaza ceasefire plan: Meanwhile, after Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today for over four hours, Kushner said Hamas could disarm soon but indicated the US would support further Israeli military action in Gaza if not.
«US President Donald Trump threatened today to attack Oman if it interferes with US efforts in the Strait of Hormuz, as the conflict with Iran continues and a two-month window for peace talks expires without a clear path to end the war» CNN has reported in a video.
Trump’s comments come as the 60-day window for peace talks between the US and Iran, agreed to in June, closed Monday without any concrete plans announced for the war to end. Meanwhile, Iran said Monday that its talks with Oman regarding the Strait of Hormuz are complex but continuing.
In the latest days POTUS said that he wants to declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory: “I’ll Never Apologize” War Crimes
Ukraine again Failed to Shoot Down a Single Ballistic or Hypersonic Missile last Night
Ukraine again Failed to Shoot Down a Single Ballistic or Hypersonic Missile last Night
This follows from the summary of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Air Force Ukraine was attacked on the last night (August 16, 2026) nby Onyx, Iskander-M, S-400, KN-23 and Kh-59/69 missiles, as well as 106 drones.
3 FOOTAGES IN ONE VIDEO – legenda below
1st Footage – Kiev on fire after the heavy strikes which hit also the market of book in retaliation to the yet another attack on a distribution center of Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer with two million visitors a day.
2nd footage – Russian troops are delivering precision strikes on Ukraine’s military and fuel infrastructure
In the Kiev-controlled part of the Zaporizhia region, a gas station and related equipment were hit. The fact of the attack was confirmed by the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov. In the north of the Kharkiv region, the Russian Aerospace Forces are launching guided aerial bombs at enemy positions and fortifications. This is reported by local publications.
Direct hits to infrastructure facilities were recorded in Sumy, and large fires broke out in the affected areas. A massive raid by unmanned aerial vehicles continues in the Odessa region, explosions are heard in Sanzheyka. Systematic attacks on the fuel infrastructure leave the Ukrainian army without fuel at a time when the Western allies are reporting on the supply of new batches of weapons that have nothing to refuel.
3d footage – Russian FAB-500s level Ukrainian drone hub
The Russian forces сonducted a strike on the Ukrainian National Guard’s drone command post in the settlement of Dobropolye in the Donetsk People’s Republic using four FAB-500 high-explosive aerial bombs, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said.
Russian forces strike defense industry facilities, oil refinery, steel plant
Russian forces struck defense industry facilities in Kiev, the Kremenchug oil refinery and a steel plant in Krivoy Rog, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“Russian forces struck Fire Point in Kiev, a company producing components, warheads and solid-fuel boosters for Flamingo ground-launched cruise missiles. Russian troops also struck Ukrdefense Company in Kiev, which produces components for strike drones, Khrushch interceptor drones and Garpiya air defense drones,” the Defense Ministry said.
Below the previous attack on Fire Point facility launched one week ago
Russian forces struck the Kremenchug oil refinery in the Poltava Region, where the remaining storage tanks continue handling fuel and lubricants supplied from abroad. The Russian military struck steelmaking facilities in Krivoy Rog in the Dnepropetrovsk Region, producing rolled steel for weapons and military equipment.
Russian forces also struck a dry cargo ship carrying military equipment for Ukrainian forces at the port of Odessa, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Russian forces hit Ukrainian uncrewed boats production facility
Russian drones struck facilities for the production and storage of components for uncrewed boats used by Ukraine to attack Russian coastal cities, ships and infrastructure facilities in the Black Sea, the Russian defense ministry said.
“During the day, Russian attack unmanned aerial vehicles struck in the settlement of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky (40 kilometers southwest of Odessa): a production facility and a depot holding warheads and components for uncrewed boats used to attack ships and energy infrastructure facilities in the Black Sea, and Russian cities on the Black Sea coast,” it said.
Russian forces hit three dry cargo ships, two tankers at Odessa port
Russian forces struck three dry cargo ships and two tankers, as well as fuel tanks at the port of Odessa, the Russian defense ministry said.
“Three dry cargo ships and two sea-going tankers used to deliver military cargoes and fuels for the Ukrainian army, as well as fuel tanks and warehouses holding military products were struck at the port of Odessa,” it said.
Russian air defenses down 822 Ukrainian drones overnight
Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over Russian regions and the Black and Azov Seas overnight (august, 16, 2026), the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“Russian air defense forces intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles over Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol, Rostov, Ryazan, Tambov and Tula regions, the Moscow Region, the Krasnodar Region and the Republic of Crimea, as well as over the Azov and Black Seas, from 8 p.m. Moscow time (5 p.m. GMT) on August 15 to 8 a.m. Moscow time (5 a.m. GMT) on August 16,” the Defense Ministry said.
Three killed, one injured in drone attack on Russia’s Rostov Region
Three people were killed and one more was injured in a drone attack on southern Russia’s Rostov Region, Governor Yury Slyusar reported.
“Last night, three people were killed as a result of an aerial attack on the Rostov Region, and one more has been hospitalized with injuries,” he wrote on Max channel.
More than 150 UAVs were destroyed over three cities and nine districts in the region in the Ukrainian attack, the official added.
Below the previous UAV attacks on Russia town of Nizhenekamsk wichiu killed 11 civilians including children
Three injured as Moscow comes under massive drone attack
Three people were injured in a drone attack near the Moscow Automobile Ring Road (MKAD), according to Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
“Defense Ministry air defense capabilities have downed another nine drones targeting Moscow. Three people were injured near MKAD, they are being given all necessary assistance. Emergency specialists are working at the scene where [drone] debris fell,” Sobyanin wrote on Max channel.
Since midnight (August,16,2026), as many as 132 unmanned aerial vehicles flying toward the Russian capital have been shot down, calculations by TASS based on the mayor’s posts show.
Updates on AUGUST, 16, Breaking News in Video
Elon Musk’s Starlink promised faster data for US Drone, Iran’s air defenses promised faster downing
Iranian state television is showing, for the first time, evidence that Elon Musk’s “Starlink” devices are being used in U.S. military drones.
The IRGC is now displaying wreckage from 171 downed US and Israeli aircraft and drones — including MQ-9 Reapers, Hermes 900s, an F-15 fighter jet, and Starlink modems recovered from the wreckage.
Saudi-linked port halts operations following attacks by Yemeni armed forces (Houthis)
Yemen’s Mokha port has suspended commercial and maritime operations after the Yemeni armed forces targeted it with more than 25 missiles in recent days, the port’s director said on Saturday.
The attacks killed seven people and caused an estimated $16 million in losses, the director told a news conference.
Mokha is a Red Sea port near the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a strategic chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and a key route for international shipping.
The port is controlled by Saudi-linked mercenaries. It has a smaller cargo capacity than Yemen’s main ports of Aden and Hodeidah, according to Iranian Press TV.
On Friday, spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a statement that the armed forces subjected Saudi Arabia-linked targets to fresh heavy strikes.
He added that the servicemen targeted “warships belonging to its (Riyadh’s) tools and mercenaries in the al-Mokha area, using a large number of ballistic missiles.”
Hezbollah: Israeli Occupation’s Continued Attacks on Lebanon will receive an Appropriate Response
Hezbollah condemned on Saturday the major Israeli enemy’s escalation in southern Lebanon, affirming the Israeli occupation army carried out brutal massacres against civilians and warning that continued attacks and violations of Lebanese sovereignty would be met with an appropriate response, Al Manar Lebanese TV has reported.
In a statement, Hezbollah said Lebanese residents woke at dawn to an aggressive escalation and a brutal massacre allegedly carried out by the criminal Zionist enemy against civilians in the south. It said Israeli strikes targeted a home on the outskirts of the southern town of Ansar and a building in Deir Al-Zahrani, killing 11 people, including women and children, and wounding 12 others.
“Those grave crimes add to Israel’s long record of “massacres, crimes, and the shedding of Lebanese blood, as well as the destruction of homes, the bulldozing of farmland, and the erasure of entire villages,” the statement read.
Hezbollah said responsibility for the Israeli enemy’s continued aggression and violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty rested with the Israeli government and the United States, which it accused of providing Israel with political and military backing and cover.
At the same time, the group called on the Lebanese authorities to explore every available means to halt the Israeli attacks rather than persist with the humiliating direct negotiations and offer “Israel” free concessions, despite the Israeli enemy’s repeated crimes and attacks, as well as its openly stated aggressive and expansionist intentions toward Lebanon.
The Lebanese Parents of Child Martyrs Association on Saturday condemned a new Israeli massacre in the southern town of Ansar that killed a family of six, including four children, and called on Lebanese authorities to document the attack and pursue accountability through regional and international legal channels.
«In a statement, the association condemned the Israeli occupation army’s pre-dawn attack on a family in Ansar on August 15, 2026, which killed Ali Al-Hajj Hassan, his wife, Zeinab Nassereddine, and their children Zahraa, Hassan, Hussein, and Abbas» Al Manar Lebanese TV has reported.
Updates on AUGUST, 14-15, Breaking News in Video
Aoun, Salam condemn Israeli massacres in South Lebanon
Israeli forces carried out a series of airstrikes and attacks across South Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding 11 in the past 24 hours, according to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent, citing the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Our correspondent reported that an Israeli strike on Deir al-Zahrani targeted a building along the town’s main highway. Ambulances rushed to the scene amid initial reports of a massacre, while rescue teams worked to assess the casualties and search for survivors.
The Health Ministry reported that the preliminary toll from the Deir al-Zahrani attack stood at two martyrs and nine wounded, bringing the reported toll from the two attacks to at least nine martyrs and 11 wounded.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned on Saturday the Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, stressing that these violations constitute a “clear message to the negotiating process and to US efforts aimed at implementing the framework agreement”.
For his part, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam described the Israeli escalation since dawn as “extremely dangerous”, saying that the strikes and heavy bombardment targeting Nabatieh, Ansar, Deir al-Zahrani, and neighboring villages were undermining efforts to establish stability in the South, as he posted on his X account.
The Israeli escalation began with an Israeli airstrike on an inhabited home in Ansar, in the Nabatieh district, killing seven people, including three children and two women, while two others were wounded, according to the Health Ministry.
Houthis used 6 ballistic missiles in al-Makha attack, Yemen army says
Yemen’s Houthi rebels used six ballistic missiles in their Friday attack on the port of al-Makha, the internationally-recognised government’s army has said in a statement.
One port security official was killed while two sailors went missing, the army’s statement said. At least 8 civilians were injured in the attack, it added.
Attacking the port, a key hub for the inflow of food and goods, as well as civilian infrastructure, shows the Houthi group’s “determination to impose a suffocating siege on the Yemeni people”, military spokesperson Colonel Majid al-Nuzaili added.
Yemeni Armed Forces Strike Aramco Refinery in Jizan with Two Drones
A Yemeni military source told the Saba News Agency: “The Yemeni Armed Forces targeted an Aramco refinery in the Jizan region with two drones, and the strike was precise”
“The targeting comes in response to the Saudi enemy’s violation of Yemeni airspace and the country’s sovereignty in the governorates of Saada and Hajjah,” the sources added.
Qalibaf says he halted talks, warned of immediate strike after Israeli assault on Beirut’s Dahiyeh
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf says he halted negotiations following the latest Israeli attack on Beirut’s Dahiyeh and said Iran will hit the regime immediately.
Speaking at a gathering of cultural elites on Saturday, Qalibaf said, “In the latest attack on Dahiyeh, I halted the negotiations and announced: ‘Tonight, we will strike the regime, and if the regime responds, we will strike the entire region.’”
He said the outcome was that “the blockade was lifted that same night.”
The top Iranian negotiator also referred to talks over the Strait of Hormuz, saying a reopening had been scheduled for 30 days under an understanding.
He said that after US President Donald Trump said on social media that the blockade and the Strait of Hormuz would be opened together “tonight,” he warned, “If the false claim about the Strait of Hormuz is not corrected, we will carry out an attack.”
According to Qalibaf, Trump was forced to correct his post, which he described as an example of “negotiating as a form of fighting.”
Teheran Govt: “Hormuz cannot be conquered with a tweet or an aircraft carrier”
Iran, however, was quick to react to the US president’s statement.
“The Strait of Hormuz was Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian. This strait will be opened and closed only on Iran’s orders,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi reiterated on X on Saturday morning.
“It cannot be conquered with a tweet or an aircraft carrier, nor with a presidential decree, nor with an election campaign speech,” he added.
US Navy official denied worsening conditions on USS Abraham Lincoln which is leaving Persian Gulf
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is en route to the United States after completing an extended mission of more than 260 days in the Middle East, necessitated by specific operational needs in the area.
«A U.S official told NBC News that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is set to head home from the Mideast. It comes as some families report poor living conditions for the sailors and marines on board». NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez reports.
Acting Secretary of the US Navy Hung Cao says that reports of dire conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln amid the US-Israel war with Iran, including accounts of sailors trying to jump overboard, have been blown out of proportion.
“Legitimate challenges of a long combat deployment are being twisted into a false narrative, while the genuine difficulties faced by military families are being used for headlines,”Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell chimed in on X. “That is shameful.”
Earlier today, US President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump rejected the assertion that the families of those on board the aircraft carrier are worried about their loved ones.
“The Sailors aboard the Lincoln are doing what American warriors have always done: remaining resilient, focused on the mission, and proud of their service on this historic deployment,” Parnell added. “We stand with them”.
Trump wants to declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory: “I’ll Never Apologize” War Crimes
Trump wants to declare the Strait of Hormuz a US territory
Donald Trump said that after the completion of the military operation against Iran, he intends to declare the Strait of Hormuz the territory of the United States.
“After we finish defeating Iran … pretty soon I will declare the Strait of Hormuz the territory of the United States,” the American president said, adding that the United States allegedly already controls the passage of ships through the strait.
Meanwhile, a large-scale oil spill was reported in the Strait of Hormuz after a missile strike on the Minoan Pioneer bulk carrier. The oil slick spread over more than 300 km, an area comparable to about 40,000 football fields.
“I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing” — Trump on his war-crime spree in Iran
Don told Americans to show some patience and PAY MORE for gas while he bombs more girls in Iran as part of his ego play.
“What we’re doing is a great service for — not only for ourselves, for the world,” the failed emperor declared.
Russian attacks hit 11 locations across Ukraine as grain ports come under fire
Cities across Ukraine are facing near-daily Russian attacks, with 11 locations hit overnight on Thursday, including Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and Kramatorsk.
Several people were killed and more than two dozen wounded, including children. Ukraine says more than 100 drones were launched, but it is no longer releasing figures for missiles used, citing security concerns and shortages of interceptor missiles.
Ukraine’s grain industry is also suffering from repeated Russian attacks on ports. Hundreds of vessels have been targeted by both sides in the Black Sea over the past month, prompting Ukraine to propose a ceasefire covering civilian vessels.
Kyiv says this would allow ports to reopen and farmers to export their harvest during a crucial period. Russia has not yet responded to the proposal.
These attacks came in retaliation for the ongoing lethal attacks on civilian buildings launched by the Ukrainian military.
Russian Armed Forces liberate Rybalskyoe in Zaporozhye Region
The Russian Armed Forces liberated Rybalskyoe in the Zaporozhye Region within 24 hours, the Defense Ministry reported.
“As a result of decisive actions by units of the Battlegroup East, the village of Rybalskoye in the Zaporozhye Region has been liberated,” the statement reads.
The liberation of Rybalskoye in the Zaporozhye region allowed the Battlegroup East to expand its zone of control northwest of Novoye Pole and continue its advance, the ministry added.
“During the fighting, units of the Battlegroup East broke through the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ defenses. The enemy suffered losses of up to a company of personnel. Seven armored combat vehicles, 10 vehicles, 13 ground robotic systems, and more than 20 R-18 heavy hexacopters were destroyed. The liberation of Rybalskyoe allowed units of the Battlegroup East to expand their zone of control northwest of Novoye Pole and continue their advance in the special military operation zone in the Zaporpzhye region,” the ministry said.
Updates on AUGUST, 12-13, Breaking News in Video
US Ambassador to Israel: “Settler Siege of Palestinian Homes Is Terrorism”
“The actions of those who carried out this horrific act of terrorism, aimed at intimidating and harassing this family, are abhorrent,” the US ambassador to Israel wrote on X, referring to Israeli settlers besieging the home of two Palestinian families in Qusra, in the West Bank.
“There is no excuse for such violent behavior,” Mike Huckabee wrote on X. Among the homes targeted is one owned by a US citizen.
The Israeli army (IDF) has reversed its decision to evacuate Palestinian families whose homes are under siege by settlers in the West Bank village of Qusra, near Nablus, for several days.
The public broadcaster Kan reported, specifying that the commander of the IDF Central Command, General Avi Blot, ordered that soldiers enter only unoccupied homes.
The decision, Kan emphasizes, follows criticism of Israel for its handling of the situation in Qusra. The IDF had initially asked residents of the besieged homes, as well as other residences, to leave their homes for a few days in anticipation of a military operation in the area.
Israeli settlers lay siege to Palestinian family with two daughters
Armed Israeli settlers and Israeli occupation forces have besieged two Palestinian families in their homes since the weekend in an effort to usurp their properties in the West Bank village of Qusra through intimidation.
On Sunday afternoon, armed settlers and Israeli soldiers surrounded Yousef Hassan’s home, erecting a tent just outside and effectively trapping him inside with his wife and their two young daughters, leaving the family confined as the intimidation campaign unfolded around them.
The Israeli men gathered only meters from the location where 28-year-old Amir Moatasem Odeh was killed by a settler in March. Another attacker stabbed Odeh’s father. No arrests have been made in connection with the killing and assault.
“Every night, the settlers throw stones, use obscene language, and shout during the night. We are living in a state of terror,” Hassan said.
‘We will not withdraw’: Katz on Israeli forces in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza
Israeli War Minister Katz openly declared that Israeli forces intend to maintain a long-term occupation of areas in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, ruling out withdrawal from what “Israel” has designated as so-called “security zones” and ordering the military to prepare for a prolonged presence.
Katz made the remarks on Wednesday during a visit to Israeli occupation forces deployed inside southern Lebanon, according to Israeli media platform Divuhim Online, as senior commanders discussed military preparations for a possible future confrontation with the Lebanese Resistance.
“The Israeli army is here to stay in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza and to protect the entire State of Israel,” Katz said. “We are up above and they are down below. I have instructed the Israeli army to take all necessary steps to prepare for a long-term presence in the area.”
The declaration comes almost two months after Lebanon and “Israel” agreed to a US-sponsored framework involving the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, the disarmament of Hezbollah, and the deployment of the Lebanese Army, beginning in designated test areas known as “pilot zones.”
«His remarks provide an unusually explicit articulation of an Israeli policy increasingly centered on maintaining military control beyond occupied Palestine’s internationally recognized borders, under the pretext of creating buffer or “security” zones.» Al Mayadeen Lebanese TV freported.
https://gospanews.net/en/2023/12/08/the-greater-israel-scheme-and-its-global-power-play-a-delusional-recipe-for-armageddon/
Such declarations reinforce longstanding warnings that Israeli military expansion is not intended as a temporary security measure, but as an effort to entrench occupation and impose new realities by force.
IRGC: No Ship Can Safely Pass through Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s Permission
Spokesperson for the Central Headquarters of Khatam al-Anbiya (PBUH) affirmed that no ship can pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz without Iranian permission and supervision.
The Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters is the highest operational military command center of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, located in Tehran.
Washington’s baseless claims about the normal movement of ships through Hormuz are nothing but lies, he added.
Meanwhile, hte head of the Basij Mobilization Group, Hojjatoleslam Hussein Taeb, said, “The Americans ignited a war in the Strait of Hormuz to change the balance of power, but they were defeated once again.”
He added, “The Strait of Hormuz is under the administration and control of the Islamic Republic, and Iran continues its path in complete security and stability.
Updates on AUGUST, 11, Breaking News in Video
HUNTER BIDEN to Carlson: “Bibi Netanyahu evil incarnate…”
HUNTER BIDEN: ‘If it’s antisemitic to point out that Bibi Netanyahu evil incarnate… don’t know what to say to people anymore… just open your eyes’
TUCKER: ‘It’s such an obvious lie’
HUNTER: ‘How is it possible that they’re dividing us on things like that?’
TUCKER: ‘I agree’
Russian armed forces launched a coordinated attack on defense facilities in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia
The Russian armed forces launched a coordinated attack on defense industry facilities and transportation and logistics hubs in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense.
The video shows the aftermath of one of the attacks in Kyiv.
Defense Ministry’s statement quoting by TASS:
“The Russian Armed Forces carried out a coordinated overnight strike using ground-based precision-guided weapons, resulting in the destruction of military-industrial facilities and transport and logistics centers in the cities of Kiev and Zaporozhye” the military said in a statement
The ministry later revealed in another statement that the targets of the overnight strike were successfully hit.
The Russian Armed Forces struck a Nova Post logistics terminal in Kiev, an automated compound storing and distributing dual-use goods, including components for long- and medium-range UAV production, robotic vehicles and electronic warfare systems.
Russian servicemen also hit the Kiev-3 transport and logistics center, also known as San-park, a large warehouse facility of approximately 50,000 square meters that stored up to 15,000 attack FPV drones, including those equipped with thermal imaging cameras, such as Beshket, Spuk, Komik-A, and Gorobets, as well as ground control stations and related components.
The Russian Armed Forces struck the Zaporozhstal steel mill (PJSC Zaporizhstal), a part of the Metinvest Group.
Leader makes new appointments to top military posts; Vahidi named IRGC commander
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei has made new appointments to six top military posts, including the head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
In six separate decrees issued on Monday, Major General Ali Abdollahi was appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, with Brigadier General Kioumars Heidari as his deputy. Major General Ahmad Vahidi, promoted to the rank of Major General, was appointed commander-in-chief of the IRGC, with Major General Mostafa Izadi as his deputy.
Rear Admiral Ali Ozamaei was appointed IRGC Navy commander, and Hojjatoleslam Hossein Taeb was named head of the Basij Organization.
Gen. Abdollahi appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces
In another decree, the Leader appointed Major General Ali Abdollahi as Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, following the martyrdom of his predecessor, Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, in a US-Israeli airstrike.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the appointment was made in view of Mousavi’s “glorious and honorable martyrdom” at the hands of the Zionist-American enemy and in appreciation of Abdollahi’s worthy services and valuable experience.
Updates on AUGUST, 10, Breaking News in Video
Iran Links Hormuz Reopening to End of US Blockade
Spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Esmaeil Baghaei said the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen as long as the US maintains its naval blockade against Iran, stressing that Washington must end and make amends for its “destructive actions” before further steps can be discussed.
Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday, Baghaei said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz was a result of the US and Israeli military aggression against Iran.
He noted that negotiations between Iran and Oman over a shipping route are naturally a bilateral matter involving the two coastal states.
The spokesman stressed that reopening the Strait of Hormuz depends on the conditions imposed on Iran and the waterway by the US and the Zionist regime, saying that the necessary conditions for reopening do not exist while the US naval blockade remains in place.
“As long as the US naval blockade continues, the necessary conditions for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz do not exist,” Baghaei stated. He added that it is up to the US to stop and make amends for its destructive actions so that the sides could then discuss the next steps.
Asked about the possibility of Iran imposing transit fees on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, Baghaei said discussions on such details are still underway and that Iran is not currently discussing the issue.
Drone attack on Nizhnekamsk kills thirteen people killed, including child
he number of people killed as a result of the drone attack on facilities in Nizhnekamsk has increased to 13, the press service of the head of Tatarstan told journalists.
Russian Investigative Committee Spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, told TASS that a child was among those killed. Industrial and civilian facilities in Nizhnekamsk came under a large-scale drone strike, causing fatalities.
Later, it was reported that 12 people had been killed and 39 were injured Later, the press service of the head of Tatarstan told journalists that the number of people killed as a result of the drone attack on facilities in Nizhnekamsk had increased to 13.
According to the investigation, Ukraine used drones to strike residential areas and industrial facilities in Nizhnekamsk.
Ukraine lost 11 locomotives, having received 41 blows to the railway infrastructure
The Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsia officially called the past days one of the most difficult and destructive weeks in its history. In five years, the country’s transport infrastructure has been attacked 41 times.
11 locomotives were damaged and disabled, tracks and station facilities used for military transportation were destroyed.
Passengers from trains had to be evacuated 350 times due to threats and arrivals. The loss of a key locomotive fleet and the constant destruction of tracks cause critical damage to the entire transport system of the country.
YAF-HOUTIS announce targeting of Saudi-backed factions in Mokha
The strikes by the Yemeni Armed Forces (aka Houtis) on Al-Mukha and Marib decimated Saudi officers and their troop concentrations, targeting a heavy and medium weapons depot alongside a secret storage facility, a senior Yemeni source told Al Mayadeen‘s correspondent in Sanaa.
Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the operation, carried out using a large number of ballistic missiles and drones, came in response to Saudi Arabia’s continued mobilization of its proxies, its supply of weapons and equipment to them, and its ongoing attacks along the western coast and in Taiz governorate aimed at deterring the Yemeni people from confronting the blockade and aggression imposed on them for the past 12 years.
“The strikes were precise and caused extensive damage to the equipment and weapons, killing and wounding dozens, including Saudi nationals”,Saree said on Telegram.
The Yemeni Armed Forces reaffirmed their commitment to the declared equation of “blockade for blockade and escalation for escalation,” vowing to continue targeting any military buildup directed against the Yemeni people and the free governorates.
The strike on Mokha is the second operation carried out by the YAF on Sunday. Earlier in the day, the YAF announced that they targeted a Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, stating that the operation comes as a response to Saudi drone incursions into Yemeni airspace.
Saree announced that the forces successfully targeted the Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, achieving a precise hit. He said the operation came in response to Saudi drone incursions into the airspace of Yemen’s Saada and Hajjah provinces.
The announcement came after Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry reported earlier that a fire had broken out at a facility belonging to Saudi Aramco’s refinery in Jizan, southwestern Saudi Arabia. The ministry said Aramco’s industrial security firefighting teams extinguished the fire and that there were no injuries.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman pays tribute to journalists killed in Iran, Lebanon, Palestine
“During the last two years, we have lost so many of your colleagues in Iran, Lebanon and Palestine. They have lost their lives for the sake of doing their jobs. We have lost so many of our loved ones,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, said in a news conference on Monday.
“We send a big salute to all of our martyrs who have lost their lives for the sake of our country and for the sake of the mission of journalism,” he added.
Updates on AUGUST, 9, Breaking News in Video
Israel rejects 15-point Gaza document, not to withdraw until Hamas disarms — Netanyahu
Israel rejects the 15-point document on Gaza and will not withdraw its forces until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the government’s weekly meeting.
“Israel does not accept the 15-point document. The Israel Defense Forces will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. And when I say the disarming of Hamas, it means heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry. We are talking about genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament,”Netanyahu said, according to his office.
“Right now, we are talking with the Americans about this issue. They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some of which are unacceptable, and we know how to stand firm against these things,” he added.
Israel will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons regardless of whether Washington and Tehran reach an agreement, Netanyahu said. “I greatly appreciate the historical partnership with the US against Iran’s attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. And I wish to emphasize once again: with or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Iranian TV Airs Footage of Captured US and Israeli Aircraft
Footage appears to show a drone, aircraft parts, and other machinery.
This week, US media reports said that Washington faces depleted missile stockpiles—including long-range and air-defense systems—following the conflict with Iran, a claim the White House denied. The developments follow a war of words after Donald Trump said the two sides were talking again, which Tehran rejected.
Updates on AUGUST, 7-8, Breaking News in Video
Russian MOD: “Plant Producing Warheads for Flamingo Missiles Hit in Kiev” – VIDEO
The Russian military struck the Fire Point industrial plant in Kiev, which produces components and warheads for FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“The following were struck in Kiev: the Kiev-111 industrial enterprise (Fire Point LLC), which produces components and warheads for FP-5 Flamingo ground-launched cruise missiles,” the ministry said.
According to the Russian ministry, Russian forces launched a strike overnight with ground-based precision weapons against a military industry enterprise and a fuel and lubricants depot in Kiev.
According to preliminary data, the asphalt-concrete plant in Kiev, used for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was damaged.
In the Obolonsky district, fuel tanks caught fire, and armament depots were hit in Goloseevsky. In addition, the Fire Point enterprise, which produce kamikaze-drones, components and warheads for missiles, was hit in Kiev.
The Russian army also attacked the Grandterminal fuel depot, which supplies petroleum products to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Long-range Hundreds drones striking Russia are assembled in secret factories underground
The British TV channel Sky News published a report from a secret underground enterprise in Ukraine, which acts as the main hub for the production of long-range attack drones. Technicians, welders and engineers work around the clock at the plant, assembling over 200 drones per day.
The chief designer of Fire Point, Stilerman, also appeared in the frame, telling the journalist that the purpose of his work was to “dismantle the Russian Empire” with the support of Europe 02:01.
The FP-1 and FP-2 long-range drones are being produced on an underground conveyor. The cost of one such device is about $ 60 thousand, and the claimed flight range is up to 3,000 kilometers with an accuracy of 2-3 meters. The project is funded by Western donors through the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
Kiev began the construction of factories underground involuntarily, after the destruction of the traditional defense industry in the early days of its independence. Some of the enterprises have completely gone underground, while others are disguised with fake decorations.
Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Defense repeatedly delivered effective strikes against such centers. At the end of July, the assembly plant of the American corporation Terminal Autonomy, which produced noise-resistant drones for strikes deep into the territory of Russia, came under attack.
On July 19, the UKRTAC factory, which produced tactical equipment and ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was completely destroyed. Despite the underground execution, Russian intelligence and precision weapons continue to methodically open and destroy military installations of the Kiev regime.
Ukraine’s Missile Shield Crumbles as US and Europe Run Short on Interceptors
The refusal by the US and Europe to provide Ukraine with more Patriot missiles points to depleted stockpiles and sluggish interceptor production, military expert and Arsenal of the Fatherland columnist Alexander Sinyugin tells Sputnik.
The earlier plan for European countries to buy Patriot missiles from the US and pass them on to Ukraine is no longer viable, the pundit explains. The US lacks sufficient missile stocks, while Europe has already depleted much of its arsenal by supplying Ukraine.
“Only three countries currently manufacture these missiles: the US, Japan, and Germany, which secured a production license in 2024,” Sinyugin says. With production capacity well below Lockheed Martin’s, Germany is expected to use all of its missile output to meet Europe’s own needs, he projects.
Lockheed Martin presently produces 50-60 Patriot missiles per month, while it typically takes two to three interceptors to destroy a single ballistic missile, the pundit notes. But Russia produces roughly 120 ballistic missiles per month, meaning that Ukraine needs at least twice as many.
Meanwhile, Russian hypersonic missiles, including Kinzhals and Zircons, easily overcome Patriot air defenses.
Iranian strikes leave hundreds of US troops with lasting brain injuries
Hundreds of US troops have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in Iranian missile and drone strikes since Washington launched its war on Iran, highlighting the mounting physical cost of the US aggression and the potentially lasting consequences for American forces, according to Iranian Press TV.
Nearly 700 US troops have been wounded in Iranian missile and drone attacks on US bases since Washington’s aggression against Iran escalated, according to US military officials. Most were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries and returned to duty after treatment, the Associated Press reported.
The Pentagon has described most of the injuries sustained over a two-week period as “minor concussions.” But medical experts warn that an apparently mild concussion can develop into persistent neurological problems, including headaches, dizziness, memory loss, difficulty concentrating and chronic fatigue.
Doctors say there is currently no reliable way to determine immediately which blast injuries will result in lasting complications. They are also continuing to study how powerful explosions can damage the brain even without a direct blow to the head.
The widespread use of Iranian missiles and drones has heightened concern within the US military, as explosions can occur in close proximity to American troops, increasing the risk of blast-related brain injuries.
The scale of the injuries has revived concerns that traumatic brain injury could once again become a major legacy of a US war, as it did during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 500,000 US soldiers were diagnosed with TBIs between 2000 and 2025, according to US military data.
Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan joint defence agreement signals closer cooperation
Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have committed to closer military cooperation in a joint defence agreement modelled on NATO’s Article 5, under which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
The deal comes as regional countries increasingly look to each other for security following Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, its strikes on several countries in the region and the renewed conflict with Iran.
For Turkiye, which already fields NATO’s second-largest army and one of the world’s fastest-growing defence industries, the pact is a major strategic gain, expanding its reach into the Gulf and South Asia and opening access to new financial resources through a joint weapons programme.
But the real test, as Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas reports from Ankara, will come if a member is actually attacked — determining whether the agreement becomes a genuine regional security architecture or remains just a political declaration.
Updates on AUGUST, 6, Breaking News in Video
Yemeni Armed Forces (Houtis) launch large-scale op. against Saudi troop concentrations
The Yemeni Armed Forces (aka Houtis army) carried out a large-scale military operation against Saudi military reinforcements, reporting hundreds of casualties and significant material damage, the YAF spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced.
The Yemeni military spokesperson said the operation was a response to continued Saudi actions, stating that “in light of the criminal Saudi enemy’s persistence in continuing the siege and aggression against our dear Yemeni people for nearly 12 years, our Armed Forces monitored large Saudi military concentrations that were in their final stages, aimed at escalating against the free provinces and the Yemeni people to deter them from their position on ending the unjust siege.”
The operation, according to the YAF, resulted in:
- the killing and wounding of hundreds of “Saudi enemy mercenaries”
- the destruction and burning of a large number of Saudi enemy camps, concentrations, weapons depots, and military equipment in the al-Wadi’ah area, east of the country
- the destruction of a large number of military vehicles stationed at the targeted bases
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have confirmed targeting multiple Yemeni Emergency Forces camps in the Marib and Hadramout governorates, including in the Ruwaik, Al-Abr and Al Thaniyah areas.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the group used “a large number of ballistic missiles and drones” to destroy and burn campgrounds, troop concentrations, depots, weapons and military vehicles.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have killed at least 30 government soldiers and injured 15 in missile attacks on Yemeni military camps in Hadramout and Marib governorates, government sources told Al Jazeera.
Service fees for transit through Strait of Hormuz to depend on services provided
The fees for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz will vary based on the services rendered by Iran and Oman, according to a report by Fars News Agency, citing a source within the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
The source dismissed recent reports of disagreements between Iran and Oman over the percentage of cargo value – specifically, a tariff of 7% versus 3% – to be used as transit fees, stating these claims are false.
“Payments by vessels will depend on multiple factors, including the scope of services we can provide,” the official emphasized.
Previously, Reuters reported that Iran and Oman are engaged in negotiations to introduce transit fees ranging from 3% to 7% of the declared cargo value, as part of efforts to restore shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Russian forces strike Ukrainian army’s infrastructure sites, logistics centers in past day
Russian forces struck infrastructure sites and logistics centers used by the Ukrainian army and its deployment areas over the past 24 hours in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.
“Operational/tactical aircraft, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of the Russian groups of forces struck fuel and energy and transport infrastructure, logistics centers used by the Ukrainian army, sites for the storage of attack unmanned aerial vehicles, and also temporary deployment areas of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries in 155 locations,” the ministry said.
The Ukrainian army lost roughly 1,395 troops in battles with Russian forces in all the frontline areas over the past 24 hours, according to the latest data on the special military operation in Ukraine released by Russia’s Defense Ministry.
UNICEF says one child killed per day in Gaza since ‘ceasefire’
At least 300 children have been killed in Gaza in the roughly 300 days since a so-called “ceasefire” was announced on October 10, 2025 – an average of one child a day, the United Nations children’s agency says.
Hundreds more have been wounded, many severely, UNICEF said in a statement on Thursday as it pressed parties to a proposed US-led peace plan to translate pledges into action.
“A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Children in Gaza are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised.”
Families are now confined to about a third of the enclave, sheltering among destroyed buildings, rubble and uncleared waste, the agency said.
Children continue to face acute malnutrition, disease, unsafe water and damaged sanitation, while a shortage of incubators has left some premature newborns sharing machines.
Updates on AUGUST, 4-5, Breaking News in Video
A massive overnight strike on Kiev and the Kiev region by Russian Armed Forces – 3 VIDEOS
On the night of August 5, the Russian Armed Forces hit seven large logistics centers in Ukraine. The Russian ballistic missile attack on the region surrounding Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, has killed at least 14 people and injured 27 others, the city’s military administration said.
The strikes early on Wednesday morning come after at least 27 people were killed in separate attacks in both Ukraine and Russia earlier this week, with the five-year-long conflict showing no signs of slowing down.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has revealed details of a massive overnight strike on Kiev and the Kiev region. High-precision ground-based weapons and long-range attack drones have hit transport, logistics and distribution centers involved in the storage, production and supply of equipment and components in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In the capital of Ukraine, the goals were:
- MLP-Chaika is a warehouse complex for storing components for medium and long—range UAVs.
- The innovative Novaya Pochta terminal is an automated sorting hub for dual—use goods, including components for assembling drones, robotic systems and electronic warfare.
- Trans-Logistics is an enterprise for the production of various modifications of drones and the storage of logistical assets of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
- The Epicenter warehouse is a large automated order processing center with dual—use goods and parts for creating UAVs.
In the territory of the Kiev region, the following targets were hit:
- Brovary Terminal — storage of components for drones, including foreign-made ones;
- Raben Ukraine is a key hub for the distribution of parts for various types of drones;
- The Novaya Pochta sorting complex in Brovary is a storage facility for aircraft—type vehicles and their spare parts.
In addition, three dry cargo ships delivering weapons and military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine were hit in the sea south of Odessa.
Death toll among minors from Kiev’s attack on Gelendzhik up to 4
The death toll among minors from Ukraine’s attack near Gelendzhik has risen to four, Russian childerns’ rights ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova said.
“An awful tragedy. Ukraine’s aggression. By now, we have reports about four killed children, three more children are in hospitals. One child has been operated on, two others are being examined, they have shrapnel wounds,” she told reporters.
According to earlier reports, the attack on Gelendzhik killed seven people, including three children, and left 58 people injured.
Casualties, fire at Wildberries sorting center, 475 UAVs: aftermath of drone attacks
Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 475 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, as well as over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov overnight, the Defense Ministry reported.
In the Tula Region, one person was injured as a result of a drone attack, and a fire broke out at the Wildberries sorting center.
According to its statement, the drones were shot down over the Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Rostov, Ryazan, Saratov, Smolensk, Tula, Ulyanovsk, Krasnodar, Tatarstan and Moscow Regions, Crimea, as well as over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
Gaza Healthy Ministry reports 6 martyred, toll exceeds 900 since truce
Six Palestinians were martyred and eight others were injured over 24 hours as Israeli attacks on the besieged enclave continue despite the declared ceasefire, the Health Ministry in Gaza announced on Monday.
According to the Ministry, the victims included five people martyred in new Israeli attacks and one who succumbed to previous injuries.
The Ministry added that a number of victims remain trapped under rubble or stranded on roads and in inaccessible areas, as ambulance and civil defence crews continue to face difficulties reaching them.
The Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed since the announcement of the ceasefire on October 11 has risen to 904, while 2,713 others have been injured. Authorities also reported that the bodies of 777 Palestinians have been recovered during the same period.
According to the latest figures released by the Ministry, the cumulative death toll since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, has reached 72,797, in addition to 172,821 injuries.
Israeli forces continue their relentless attacks across the Gaza Strip despite the announcement of a ceasefire agreement, amid ongoing destruction and humanitarian deterioration throughout the enclave.
Israel kills 19 (4 children) in Gaza as attacks escalate despite latest Trump plan
On August, 2, Israeli forces have killed at least 19 Palestinians in Gaza, despite United States President Donald Trump announcing a plan he described as a “monumental step” towards peace and security in the shattered enclave.
Medical sources said that 14 Palestinians, including four children, have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Sunday.
The deaths on Sunday included three people killed in an air raid on a residential apartment in Al-Sousi Tower in western Gaza City – Abdullah Abu Taif, 33, his pregnant wife, Abeer Anan, 29, and their five-year-old son, Azzam – according to medical sources at Al-Shifa Hospital.
An attack on an apartment in al-Qarara, northwest of the city of Khan Younis, killed three members of the Al-Hams family – father Mahmoud, 38, his wife, Fatima, 37, and their young daughter. Three others were wounded, medical sources at Nasser Hospital said.
Kamu Abu Muailiq, 68, and his wife, Huda, 59, were killed in an attack on their home near Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, medics said. In the same area, two brothers were killed as they rode a motorbike.
In northern Gaza, a Palestinian was killed after being directly targeted in the Jabalia refugee camp. In al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, one Palestinian was killed, and five others were wounded in an Israeli attack on a tent.
Two Palestinians, including one, were killed in an Israeli drone attack on a tent for displaced people in the Remal neighbourhood, west of Gaza City. Four others were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza City.
The Israeli attacks since dawn caused the largest daily death toll in weeks, according to Palestinian health officials.
Gaza families bury 112 people recovered nearly three years after Israeli strikes: 44 Kids and 43 women among martyrs
Palestinians on Tuesday buried 112 members of a single clan killed in Israeli air strikes in November 2023, after their remains were recovered from beneath the rubble last month. Relatives of the Abu Shari’a and al-Hasayna family gathered in Gaza City to bid a final farewell to their loved ones, whose bodies lay in rows draped in Palestinian flags.
For many, it was a moment of both relief and renewed grief after nearly 1,000 days of waiting to recover the bodies of their relatives.
“There is a feeling of both pain and joy,” Amer Abu Shari’a, who lost relatives in the attack, told Middle East Eye. “Joy because we will bury and honour these martyrs after three years. But the sorrow has returned, as if the massacre happened today.”
On August, 4, Gaza and Palestine bid farewell to the largest funeral procession of martyrs in all of Palestinian history. Around 112 martyrs have been recovered from beneath their homes after nearly three years of war.
Today, the Al-Hassaneh and Abu Sharia families are burying 112 martyrs out of 308 family members who were killed and later recovered. Does the world see 44 children in a single funeral? Does it see 43 women?
Does it witness these scenes and still remain silent These are scenes from Gaza scenes that will forever remain in the history of Palestine.
Iran-Oman Strait of Hormuz corridor talks enter new phase despite US obstruction
The ongoing negotiations between Iran and Oman regarding the future operational arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz represent a pivotal moment in the region’s strategic landscape amid the US destabilising activities, Iranian Press Tv has reported.
These discussions, which began in the very first days following the Iran-US ceasefire on April 8 and entered a more serious phase after the June 18 agreement to end the imposed war, are a testament to Iran’s commitment to diplomatic engagement and its determination to safeguard its legitimate sovereign rights.
However, what should have been a straightforward bilateral process between two littoral states has been systematically disrupted and derailed by the United States and certain regional actors acting in concert with Washington (below the videos of latest US attack on July, 30).
Their obstructionism has not only delayed a mutually beneficial outcome but has also exposed the hollow nature of American influence in a region where Iran’s strategic interests are paramount and non-negotiable, a senior Iranian official aware of the details of ongoing negotiations told Press TV.
Yemeni forces strike vital target inside Saudi Najran Airport with drone
The Yemeni Armed Forces have struck a strategic installation inside Najran Regional Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, in response to the Riyadh regime’s ongoing aggression and blockade against their homeland.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesperson for Yemen’s Armed Forces, said on Tuesday afternoon that Yemeni military units targeted the vital target with a domestically-developed kamikaze drone. Saree noted that the retaliatory strike attained its desired objectives successfully.
He emphasized that the attack was a retaliation for Saudi Arabia’s violation of Yemeni airspace over the northern provinces of Sa’ada and Hajjah with unmanned aerial vehicles.
“We warn the Saudi enemy that any violation of our airspace will not go unanswered and unpunished,” Saree emphasized.
On July 20, the Sana’a government declared a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia, stating that its authorities have enforced “an unjust and oppressive siege” on Yemen for almost 12 years, “looting our resources and enforcing a total blockade.”
Since then, the Yemeni Armed Forces said they have launched attacks on Saudi vessels in the Red Sea.
Yemen’s Houthis claim missile attack on Saudi oil tanker in Red Sea
The Houthis from the Yemeni Ansar Allah rebel movement have used ballistic missiles to hit a Saudi oil tanker Wafa in the northern part of the Red Sea, Houthi Military Spokesman Yahya Saria stated.
According to him, rebels “struck a Saudi oil tanker Wafa in the northern part of the Red Sea near [the port city of] Yanbu using several ballistic missiles.” Saria said the strike was accurate.
Indian cargo ship sinks near Yemen after Red Sea attack, crew rescued
An Indian cargo ship sank near Yemeni territorial waters after an attack in the Red Sea, but all 14 crew members were rescued by the Yemeni Coast Guard, India’s Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Tuesday.
The vessel, identified as the Faize Noore Oliya, was struck by a projectile near Yemeni waters, causing it to capsize and sink, according to Sonowal.
“Indian MSV Faize Noore Oliya has been hit by a projectile near Yemeni waters, causing the vessel to capsize and sink. India strongly condemns this unprovoked attack on the defenseless mechanised sailing vessel. The safety of our people is our supreme priority & I am relieved to inform that ALL 14 seafarers (including 13 Indians) have been safely rescued by the Yemeni Coast Guard,” Sonowal wrote on X.
Earlier on Tuesday, Yemeni news portal HYemen24 reported that the Yemeni Coast Guard of the Saudi-affiliated Yemeni government had rescued the crew of an Indian cargo ship after it came under attack by a booby-trapped boat in the Red Sea.
Updates on AUGUST, 2, Breaking News in Video
VITAL FOOTAGE: Massive Explosions in Kiev after 25 Russian missiles were fired including hypersonic Iskander and Zircon
While Western-backed forces continue to strike at shopping malls in Russia, such as Wildberries and now Ozon the Russian military space forces are intensifying their bombing, not propaganda, but military, against targets in the enemy’s military-industrial complex.
Last night, Russian troops attacked several Ukrainian areas, with virtually no effective air defense from Western-backed forces.
More than 25 Russian precision-guided missiles were fired at Kiev alone, including Iskander-M ballistic missiles and Zircon hypersonic missiles, which hit targets in the capital of Ukraine and its suburbs (Vasilkov, Boyarka) without encountering effective air defenses, as has been the case for several days. Only one anti-aircraft missile was launched that night, but it failed to intercept the target. Even Zelensky was forced to admit this (probably in order to better request new military assistance in this area):
“Ukraine’s air defense system was able to intercept only one ballistic missile during the massive Russian attack on Kiev last night.”
Russian Wildberries Warehouse Raid, Fire Breaks Out
Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retail platform, has been targeted again by Ukrainian forces: a logistics facility in the Samara region was hit, according to TASS. A fire broke out following the attack. According to initial reports, there were no injuries.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it destroyed 635 Ukrainian drones on the night of Saturday to Sunday in several regions of its territory and in annexed Crimea. In a statement published on the Russian state-run messaging app Max, the ministry stated that “overnight, air defense assets in action intercepted and destroyed 635 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Moscow, bomb at party for Russian general, many Killed and Wounded
A private party organized in the center of the Russian capital to celebrate a high-ranking officer has turned into carnage. At least three people were killed and 21 injured in the explosion that occurred this evening outside the Balzi Rossi restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow.
According to News-Pravda the death toll from the explosion at the entrance to the Balzi Rossi restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square has risen to five that include the woman who tried to bring in the explosive device, the security guard, and a cafe customer.
Among the guests at the event was General Alexander Chaiko, appointed to command the Russian Air Force just a month and a half ago.
According to the Interior Ministry, the explosion occurred at about 08:10 p.m. (05:10 p.m. GMT) near a summer cafe near house No. 1 on Kudrinskaya Square. According to the NAC, an unknown woman tried to bring an improvised explosive device there, but a guard stopped her.
An explosive device, a 1 kg TNT bomb filled with metal balls, detonated at the entrance to the Balzi Rossi restaurant. The device was in the possession of a “suicide bomber” who was probably used “in the dark.” As a result of the explosion, she died on the spot, her fragments were captured on video.
The Shadow of the Ukrainian Secret Services behind the Terrorist Attack
Investigators and criminologists of the Investigative Committee are working at the site of the explosion, the Investigative Committee said.
The police and Russia’s National Guard Rosgvardiya restricted access near the residential high-rise on Kudrinskaya Square, where the blast took place, a TASS correspondent reported.
The attack is part of a long series of targeted actions that, since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, have targeted senior officials, military leaders, and prominent public figures close to the Kremlin.
Over the past four years, several generals and Russian administration officials based in the occupied territories have been victims of bombings and ambushes claimed or attributed to Kiev’s intelligence services with the help of NATO’s 007 and in particular of the British military counterspionage MI6 vvery active in the conflict as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is an agent of London, as also confirmed by high-profile arrests.
Updates on AUGUST, 1st, Breaking News in Video
NYT, TASS confirm Gospa News scoop: “US used aerial bomb weighing almost ton to hit apartment building in Iran”
«The US military used one of its most powerful non-nuclear bombs to strike a residential building on the Iranian island of Qeshm, killing three people on Thursday night, The New York Times reported, quoting satellite imagery and an expert opinion»
TASS Russian news agency has reported confirming the first report by Gospa News International on July, 30 (read below update “Two children rescued from the rubble of the Trump’s Evil Bombs – VIDEO”) which specified that bunker-busting explosives had been used to destroy two family homes.
It said that the diameter of the crater and fragments of ammunition indicate the use of a heavy MK-84 aerial bomb weighing 2,000 pounds (about 907 kg). The newspaper said that it was not possible to find any evidence of military installations nearby. The strike was carried out in a densely populated area, the newspaper adds.
Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the US Central Command (CENTCOM), told The New York Times that the US military leadership is aware of the strike and is looking into it. He also said the United States never targets civilians.
Russian forces destroyed a large Ukrainian ammunition depot in Ukrainian-occupied Kramatorsk.
Russian forces destroyed a large Ukrainian ammunition depot in Ukrainian-occupied Kramatorsk. The depot, carefully concealed by Ukrainian militants, was struck by two loitering munitions. The detonation of the munitions lasted for several hours. Several Ukrainian air defense systems were also hit in Kramatorsk.
In the Sumy region, at least ten FAB strikes with UMPK-based missiles and at least 45 Geran/Lancet/Molniya/FPV strikes were carried out over the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, in the Kharkiv region, at least 11 guided bomb strikes, two MLRS/OTRK strikes, and at least 56 Geran/Lancet/Molniya/FPV strikes were carried out over the same period. Additionally, morning Geran and FAB strikes “visited” the outskirts of Illichivsk (Chornomorsk) in the Odessa region and Vasylkivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
It is also reported that new modifications of the Geranium family of attack UAVs are recently equipped with a laser rangefinder. The laser rangefinder is designed to partially implement the air-to-air detonation function of the warhead.
During the final stages of flight (during a dive or approach to a target), the rangefinder measures the exact distance to the ground or object in real time, after which, upon reaching the optimal altitude, the electronics initiate the detonation of the munition in mid-air. Air-to-air detonation of a high-explosive fragmentation charge significantly increases the area of destruction caused by the fragmentation. Thus, unlike the contact detonation of a kamikaze UAV’s warhead, air-to-air detonation covers a larger area.
Russian missile attack kills three in Ukraine’s Kyiv
A Russian missile attack has killed at least three people in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and injured 15 others, the city’s mayor said.
The strikes hit early on Saturday, triggering more than a dozen explosions that reverberated across the city, witnesses told the Reuters news agency. Kiev was battered by “Iskander-M” and “Zircon” missiles.
Residents were trapped in damaged buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi and Solomyanskyi districts, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. All 15 injured people, including two boys aged 13 and 17, were hospitalised, with one in serious condition.
Fires and damage were also reported in several other districts of the capital, including burning warehouses in Darnytskyi and debris falling on buildings in Holosiivskyi. Emergency services remain on the scene as rescue efforts continue.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Kyiv in recent months, taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of air defences capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
Russian forces hit over 80 vessels involved in cargo deliveries for Ukrainian army in July
Russian forces struck more than 80 seagoing vessels in Ukrainian ports and at sea that were involved in delivering cargo for the Ukrainian military, according to TASS estimates based on Russian Defense Ministry data.
Among them were two dry cargo ships, a sea ferry transporting military cargo and a screening boat hit in overnight group strikes on July 12, according to the ministry. On the same day, the ministry released footage that showed Geran-4 Seeker drones destroying a seiner converted to launch unmanned boats, a patrol boat, a ferry and a dry cargo ship.
According to the ministry, Russian forces struck 24 seagoing vessels used by the Ukrainian military during the week of July 11-17, including 14 dry cargo ships and one tanker.
PREVIOUS Daily Updates on WARS in VIDEO (until July 2026)
PREVIOUS Daily Updates on WARS in VIDEO (until June 2026)
ZIONISTS’ Neverending WAR CRIMES, as GENOCIDES. Iran: “US, Israel GUILTY of gravest MASSACRES since 1949”. Children’s Murdering in Lebanon, Qeshm, Minab
The cover image shows Netanyahu and Trump on the list of those wanted for war crimes published by an Iranian newspaper.
by Carlo Domenico Cristofori
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) denounced the US and the Zionist regime for the most severe violations of international humanitarian law
«On the 77th anniversary of the adoption of the Four Geneva Conventions, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has issued a statement denouncing the United States and the Zionist regime for committing some of the most severe violations of international humanitarian law in modern history through their ongoing military aggression against the Islamic Republic» Iranian Press TV has reported.
The statement, released on Thursday, August, 13, 2026, by recalls that on August 12, 1949, the four Geneva Conventions established binding principles for armed conflict, including the distinction between military and civilian targets, proportionality, military necessity, and the prohibition of unnecessary suffering.
Common Article 1 of the conventions obliges all states parties not only to respect these rules “in all circumstances” but also to ensure their respect by others. These principles now form an integral part of customary international humanitarian law binding on every nation.
«Yet the world continues to witness unprecedented breaches. The Zionist regime, the ministry declared, remains the single greatest violator of international humanitarian law. Over the past eight decades it has perpetrated the most serious international crimes — war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity — in occupied Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and across West Asia» Press TV wrote reporting Abbas Araghchi sentences..
The statement identifies the Zionist regime’s aggressive operations against Iran in 2025 and 2026, carried out with the full complicity and participation of the United States, as among the gravest violations of humanitarian law since the conventions were adopted.
And Gospa News previous investigations that we published and we recalled below can prove that this denounce is really true and founded so much so as to configure, as denounced by several nations of the world, brutal genocides in various countries of the Middle East.
Trump: “I’ll never apologize” on War Crimes in Iran
We recall that in the latest days US president Donald Trump, never quoted in the statement as the Israeli prime minister Benjiamin Netanyahu by Iranian Minister Araghchi, said that after the completion of the military operation against Iran, he intends to declare the Strait of Hormuz the territory of the United States.
“I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing. What we’re doing is a great service for — not only for ourselves, for the world” Trump added on his war-crime spree in Iran where US-Israeli preventive attacks started on Febryuary, 28, killed around 7,000 people among wich the most part civilians and children.
“The war crimes committed by the terrorist US army and the genocidal Zionist regime during their military aggression against Iran over the past year and a half have pushed the boundaries of savagery and barbarity,”the ministry said one day before another massacre perpetrated by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Southern Lebanon.
The Latest War Crimes by IDF in Southern Lebanon: Children within Family Massacre
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned on Saturday the Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, stressing that these violations constitute a “clear message to the negotiating process and to US efforts aimed at implementing the framework agreement”.
The Israeli escalation began with an Israeli airstrike on an inhabited home in Ansar, in the Nabatieh district, killing seven people, including three children and two women, while two others were wounded, according to the Health Ministry.
The Lebanese Parents of Child Martyrs Association on Saturday condemned a new Israeli massacre in the southern town of Ansar that killed a family of six, including four children, and called on Lebanese authorities to document the attack and pursue accountability through regional and international legal channels.
«In a statement, the association condemned the Israeli occupation army’s pre-dawn attack on a family in Ansar on August 15, 2026, which killed Ali Al-Hajj Hassan, his wife, Zeinab Nassereddine, and their children Zahraa, Hassan, Hussein, and Abbas» Al Manar Lebanese TV has reported (more details here in the Daily Updates on WARS in VIDEO)
The One-Ton Bunker-Bomb on residential homes in Qeshm
It cited specific atrocities: the massacre of students and teachers in Minab with Tomahawk missiles; the attack on the Lamerd stadium with cluster munitions on February 28, 2026; and the bombing of residential homes in Qeshm with one-ton bombs on July 30, 2026. These, it stressed, represent only a fraction of the thousands of war crimes inflicted on the Iranian people.
«The US military used one of its most powerful non-nuclear bombs to strike a residential building on the Iranian island of Qeshm, killing three people on Thursday night, The New York Times reported, quoting satellite imagery and an expert opinion»
TASS Russian news agency has reported confirming the first report by Gospa News International on July, 30 (read below update “Two children rescued from the rubble of the Trump’s Evil Bombs – VIDEO”) which specified that bunker-busting explosives had been used to destroy two family homes.
It said that the diameter of the crater and fragments of ammunition indicate the use of a heavy MK-84 aerial bomb weighing 2,000 pounds (about 907 kg). The newspaper said that it was not possible to find any evidence of military installations nearby. The strike was carried out in a densely populated area, the newspaper adds.
Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the US Central Command (CENTCOM), told The New York Times that the US military leadership is aware of the strike and is looking into it. He also said the United States never targets civilians.
Open and Systematic contempt shown by the US ruling establishment vs international humanitarian law
The ministry pointed to the open and systematic contempt shown by the US ruling establishment for the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.
Explicit statements by high-ranking American officials — including the president, the secretary of war, and the secretary of state — together with a repeated pattern of strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure, demonstrate a clear intent to commit grave, severe, and organized violations of the laws of armed conflict.
Attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime on hospitals, universities, schools, residential areas, bridges, airports, and fire stations, along with the deliberate killing of civilians, women, and children in places such as Minab, Lamerd, and Qeshm, fall squarely under the grave breaches listed in Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These include willful killing, the infliction of great suffering, and the extensive destruction of property. Both the material and mental elements of these crimes have been fully established.
Repeated admissions by US officials of a policy of “no quarter, no mercy,” open threats to strike Iranian infrastructure, bridges, and power plants, and rhetoric about “returning Iran to the Stone Age” or “completely destroying Iranian civilization,” combined with the systematic targeting of civilian objects, provide irrefutable evidence of premeditated intent and a deliberate pattern of grave breaches under Article 147.
Once attribution, causation, and the other legal elements are confirmed in each case, criminal responsibility attaches to the perpetrators and those who ordered the acts under Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires states parties to search for and prosecute those responsible for such violations.
«The continued commission of these serious breaches by the United States and the Zionist regime, coupled with the inaction of the United Nations, the states parties to the Geneva Conventions, and Switzerland as depositary, has normalized violations of humanitarian law and fostered a culture of impunity for war crimes. This trend, the ministry warned, is not merely a threat to one nation but a catastrophic regression for the entire legal order that humanity constructed to civilize conflict and restrain violence» Press TV highlighted.
DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”
UNICEF says one child killed per day in Gaza since ‘ceasefire’
At least 300 children have been killed in Gaza in the roughly 300 days since a so-called “ceasefire” was announced on October 10, 2025 – an average of one child a day, the United Nations children’s agency says.
Hundreds more have been wounded, many severely, UNICEF said in a statement on Thursday as it pressed parties to a proposed US-led peace plan to translate pledges into action.
“A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Children in Gaza are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised.”
Families are now confined to about a third of the enclave, sheltering among destroyed buildings, rubble and uncleared waste, the agency said.
Children continue to face acute malnutrition, disease, unsafe water and damaged sanitation, while a shortage of incubators has left some premature newborns sharing machines.
VITAL VIDEO – Prof. John Mearsheimer: Between 1971 and 2021, the US murdered 38 million people
Prof. John Mearsheimer: Between 1971 and 2021, the US murdered 38 million people.
John Joseph Mearsheimer born December 14, 1947) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.
Mearsheimer developed the neorealist (or structural realist) theory of offensive realism, which describes the interaction between great powers as being primarily driven by the rational desire to achieve regional hegemony in an anarchic international system.
In accordance with his theory, in the 2001 book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, Mearsheimer says that China’s growing power will likely bring it into conflict with the United States.
In his 2007 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, Mearsheimer argues that the Israel lobby wields disproportionate influence over U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
His more recent work focuses on criticism of the “liberal international order” (laid down in his 2018 book The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities) and why he believes that the West is to blame for the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Carlo Domenico Cristofori
ASSAD SENTENCED TO DEATH by JIHADIST GOVT. After MI6 in Damascus to meet Al Jolani, Russia Agrees to train Al Qaeda Militia on the Coast
BREAKING NEWS ON AUGIUST, 11, 2026
Introduction by Fabio G.C. Carisio
Syrian court sentences Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia
A court in Damascus has handed down a death sentence to former President Bashar al-Assad in absentia, Qatari TV channel Al Jazeera reported.
According to it, former head of the political security directorate in the Syrian province of Daraa Atef Najib was also given a capital punishment sentence. The court found them both guilty of “crimes committed during the civil war.”
Although the sentence was pronounced by a court of judges, it should be remembered that the regime-change led by former jihadist terrorist Al Jolani assumed the interim presidency without elections but only with the approval of the NATO countries that have financed the Syrian Civil War since 2011 (and by CIA since 1983).
Intel Reminder. CIA TOP SECRET FILE: US WAR IN SYRIA PLANNED SINCE 1983
Since then, an Islamic dictatorship has been imposed that has changed all institutional hierarchies, eliminating from every center of power any official loyal to Assad or even those not aligned with the former jihadist regime.
Read below to better understand the political situation in the country.
POSTED ON AUGUST, 10, 2026
MI6 in Damascus and Russia Agrees to train Al Qaeda Militia on the Coast
by British journalist Vanessa Beeley – originally published on her Substack
All links to previous Gospa News posts or videos have been added in the aftermath
UK National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell visited the ‘reformed’ Al Qaeda chief, rebranded as Ahmad Al Sharaa but better known as the head of some of the most savage terrorist factions in Syria since 2011 – Abu Mohammed Al Jolani.
Officially talks centred around ‘enhancing bilateral relations” and coordination ‘in a manner that serves shared interests and contributes to regional stability’. Stability however is not something that can be historically attributed to the British in West Asia.
Jonathan Powell, former Chief of Staff under former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and strongly linked to the MI6 was very much a part of the history of grooming Jolani to become the brutal ruler of Syria. I covered Powell’s long-term involvement in a previous article here. The role that Powell played in supporting Blair and the Weapons of Mass Destruction narratives that took Britain to war against Iraq is a well-documented one.
Also attending was so-called Foreign and Expatriates Minister Asaad Al Shaibani, another former Al Qaeda Levant founder now coached by MI6 in international relations.
What was not on the meeting agenda? The ongoing security vacuum in Syria, the daily abductions now expanding to include Sunni Muslim Syrians not only the routinely persecuted religious minorities including Christians, Alawites, Druze, Shia and Ismaili. The nation’s bankruptcy and crony capitalist regime bleeding the country dry and further impoverishing the Syrian people. The lack of water, electricity, fuel and hope.
The rising inflation and crippling food prices. The repression and extra-judicial executions, torture, sectarian violence and lawlessness. The descent of Syria into a rubbish tip with roads covered in detritus and filth and no functioning systems of authority other than Saudi-backed religious Sheikhs now determining regional laws based on their oppressive version of Islam.
The role of the Russian personnel in Syria
Nope none of this was discussed. What was clearly discussed however was the role of the Russian personnel in Syria. Two days after Powell’s visit the following happened:
Syria and Russia reached a memorandum of understanding to “reorganise” Moscow’s presence on the Syrian coast. Civilians facilities are to be transferred to HTS state management which removes any slender hope of protection for the Alawite minorities should Jolani’s thugs escalate the attacks as they did in 2025.
Russian military bases will be transformed into joint training centres which means that Russia will be training alongside Al Qaeda, the terrorist entity that they had fought against since their entry into the war in 2015.
The agreement follows 18 months intensive negotiations between the Jolani quisling regime and Moscow which included visits by Jolani and Shaibani to the Kremlin where they were welcomed with the pomp and ceremony reserved for ‘heads of state’.
Their genocidal campaigns were not mentioned during these meetings to my knowledge. The Syrian people were secondary to Russian interests in maintaining a foothold on the Syrian coast as a launchpad to Africa.
Civilian facilities like Hmeimim Airport will be under the control of HTS and the fourth commercial shipping berth at Tartous Port.
The memorandum sets a deadline of no more than three months to complete the transition, after which the new arrangements will take effect, according to the ministry.
This serious capitulation by Moscow may be attributed to the build up of Ukrainian special forces in Syria or to the ongoing threats from factions within Jolani’s militia who want revenge for the Russian bombs that fell when they were slaughtering Syrians in the US/UK-led regime change war to topple the former Syrian government.
Russia miscalculated the longevity of their sphere of influence in Syria
The Shaibani Foreign Ministry has stated that this is the most significant development since negotiations began 18 months ago. “It opens the way for a new phase in Syrian-Russian relations”. One where Russia is increasingly isolated in the ‘Middle East’ and dependent upon forces allied with Ukraine to ensure the security of their bases and personnel inside Syria.
Russian News Agency TASS reported the following:
Russia has two military facilities in Syria – a Russian navy logistics center in the port city of Tartus and the Kmeimim airbase located near the city of Jableh in the Latakia governorate. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with journalists from Arab countries on October 13, 2025 that Damascus was interested in preserving Russian military bases in Syria, which, however, could be reorganized to serve other purposes.
In February 2025 Jolani spoke with Russian President Putin. According to the TASS press release:
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa have exchanged views on the situation in the country, the Kremlin press service reported, citing the content of the telephone conversation between the heads of state.
“The sides held a substantive exchange of views on the current situation in Syria,” the statement said. “The Russian side stressed its principled position in support of the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian state,” the press service said.
Under the former President Assad, Russia could negotiate from a position of strength. Since the fall of Damascus and the rise to power of foreign mercenaries (including Chechen terrorists) under the banner of a MI6-remodelled Al Qaeda, Russia negotiates from a position of vulnerability and will continue to do so until perhaps they no longer have a presence in the region.
by British journalist Vanessa Beeley – originally published on her Substack
APPENDIX TO THE ARTICLE
The Jihadist Terrorists’ Support to Trump and NATO Wars
by Carlo Domenico Cristofori – originally posted inside the previous Gospa News analysis Weapons Lobby – 22
«As I had predicted in my first article related to Trump’s apparent decision to use the quisling, unelected Syrian “President” Abu Mohammed Al Jolani (Ahmed Al Sharaa rebrand) as a battering ram against the resistance in Lebanon»
British journalist Vanessa Beeley wrote in her Substack titled “What did Jolani and Trump agree at the Ankara NATO summit and was Erdogan sweet-talked into alliance?”.
She pointed out two crucial topics:
- Trump met with Ukrainian President Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO Summit – Trump promised to give Ukraine the license to manufacture Patriot Air Defence Systems. Remember that there are reports that Ukrainian forces are in Syria alongside the New Syria Takfiri strike force.
- Syria was removed from the US list of state sponsors of terorrism
«The irony is almost beyond satire: Julani and Shibani proudly pose with a signed decree from Donald Trump declaring Syria removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, despite Julani having led Jabhat al-Nusra, an organization long designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. itself and many other governments. If there were ever a definition of geopolitical hypocrisy, this would be it: yesterday’s “terrorist” becomes today’s photo opportunity, not because history changed, but because political interests did» she added confirming our previous investigation about.
«Removing the designation is expected to unlock international trade, allow Syria to reconnect with the global financial system, and attract significant foreign investment, particularly from Gulf states» Beeley added.
Syria to help address Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon
Donald Trump, when asked whether he still wants Syria to help address Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon: They could help. We’ll find out. I think we’re making a lot of progress. They could help. They would do a very good job.
When Trump was later asked whether Jolani had made any commitments regarding the Lebanese Resistance during their meeting. Trump responded:
“He did. I am not going to say what he said, but yeah, he was great today”.
In light of all this, the meeting between the American president and the Lebanese president Joseph Aoun becomes very suspicious.
Trump said that the Israeli army is “in the process” of withdrawing troops from Lebanon: “They are in the process of redeploying to other areas.”
Meanwhile, on the battleground, the Lebanese army said Israeli soldiers fired in the vicinity of its troops, who were beginning their deployment to a southern village under an agreement with Israel, whose army said it had fired “warning shots.”
The framework agreement reached between Israel and Lebanon at the end of June provides for the deployment of the Lebanese army in “pilot zones” evacuated by Israel—which occupies a portion of the south of the country it calls a “safe zone”—on the condition that Hezbollah disarms.
The pro-Iranian group opposes the agreement with Israel and refuses to be disarmed due to the hundreds Israeli violations of the numerous truces…
This is why Trump has even asked for help from the Syrian army of the former Al Qaeda terrorist… This prediction by the British journalist was confirmed by a recent article on the Al jazeera TV (link among the sources)….
«Sitting alongside his Lebanese counterpart, Joseph Aoun, at the White House on Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump repeated a suggestion that Syria could intervene in Lebanon to “do something with Hezbollah”» the media has reported.
«Despite widespread opposition, Trump has multiple times floated the idea that Syria, under new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, could militarily interfere in the neighbouring country, whose government has come under US and Israeli pressure to disarm the Iran-backed group» Al Jazeera added in a detailed geopolitical analysis.
by Carlo Domenico Cristofori
RELATED POSTS
“I WILL NEVER SERVE THE UNITED STATES OF ISRAEL”. Disruptive Analysis by Scott Ritter, Ex US Navy Intel Official, on Trump-Netanyahu Affairs
by Scott Ritter – originally published on his Substack
Scott ritter is a former US Navy Intelligence official, now writer, historian, geopolitical analyst, arms control specialist, military expert.
All links to previous Gospa News article or video have been added in the aftermath
When I was travelling to Israel on a regular basis back in the mid- to late-1990’s as part of my duties with the United Nations, I was always struck by how closely many Israelis identified with the United States. On national holidays, many Israeli motorists would fly two little plastic flags from the windows of their cars—one the blue and white Star of David, and the other the Stars and Stripes. “We see ourselves as little America”, my Israeli host would explain when I pointed this out.
The reality was far different. The Israelis conspired against their American counterparts behind their backs, and the US intelligence and security services viewed Israel as a threat to US national security.
I know—I was caught up in the middle of this power dynamic, and ended up being accused by the US government of spying on behalf of Israel. The charges were eventually dropped as unfounded and politically motivated, but the sentiment behind the accusations was real—a significant part of the US defense, intelligence and security establishment of the United States viewed Israel as a threat.
Collaboration and cooperation ongoing between the US and Israel
Because Israel was a threat. This doesn’t mean there wasn’t collaboration and cooperation ongoing between the US and Israel—while I was in Israel, the hotels were full of CIA officers, US military officers, and State Department diplomats who were on official business.
But there was a Chinese Wall separating the US and Israel, and interactions were governed by strict protocols that kept this wall up at all times. After I left the United Nations, I worked for a while as an on-air analyst for NBC News.
I also signed with a New York City speakers bureau, Greater Talent Network (GTN). And it was these two experiences which exposed me to the level to which pro-Israeli interests had infiltrated every aspect of American media and information management.
I was approached repeatedly by NBC producers who would hand me their business cards—not the NBC ones, but rather their AIPAC cards (the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, a literal front for the Israeli government.)
AIPAC called the shots for influential Senators and Congressional Representatives, and Senate and House staffers
GTN networked me directly with AIPAC, as well as its affiliate entities that had taken root in American academia and the think tank industry.
Through these networks, I was brought into a secretive world of backroom connectivity with the US Congress, where AIPAC called the shots for influential Senators and Congressional Representatives, and Senate and House staffers openly collaborated with employees of various US government agencies to set policy.
I was offered a great deal of money by Paul Wolfowitz, who at the time of the pitch was the Dean of the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), if I would join the team.
All I had to do was get onboard with the notion that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. I declined Wolfowitz’s offer, and walked away from the AIPAC cabal.
Unfortunately America’s elected representatives have not shown such moral clarity or loyalty to the Republic they ostensibly serve.
We live in an age where the Israeli Prime Minister openly brags about having bought the US Congress.
Pro-Israeli operatives spent $30 million to evict Thomas Massie from the US Congress
Where AIPAC brags about spending $100 million to accomplish just that. Where pro-Israeli operatives spent $30 million to evict Thomas Massie from the US Congress because he dared challenge the surrender of American sovereignty to Israel.
Where the US Secretary of State has openly declared that criticism of Israel is grounds for being denied a visa into the United States. Where Israeli politicians openly advocate for the suppression of free speech in America.
And where the Chinese Wall that separated US and Israeli interests is being torn down by a compliant Congress, all the while the mainstream media, which long ago surrendered its independence and integrity to Israeli interests, remains silent.
The surrender document that signals the capitulation of the Constitutional Republic formerly known as the United States of America to a new entity which could more accurately be called the United States of Israel is the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), in particular Section 219 of the House version, and Section 1217 of the Senate’s version.
Secretary of Defense to designate an Executive Agent (EA) to expand and accelerate deeper integration of Israel into US institutions.
Section 219/1217 directs the Secretary of Defense to designate an Executive Agent (EA) to expand and accelerate deeper integration of Israel into US institutions. The EA authority would take precedence over the authority of the other DoD Component heads per DOD Instruction 5101.01, meaning that the EA would be able to overrule determinations by other DOD agencies such as the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA) on Israeli access to US technology.
This new EA would end direct Congressional oversight with supervision by the Secretary of Defense. There would be no Congressional confirmation or ability for removal of an executive agent by Congress.
In short, it is the surrendering of the constitutional duties of Congress to a politically appointment agent of the Executive branch of government.This is not what the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution.
Section 2191217 integrates American and Israeli research and development programs in a way which makes the United States dependent on Israel’s provision of specific technologies, thereby granting Israel a significant amount of leverage over future American policy and infrastructure, entangling defense supply chains of Israel and the United States across government, private and academic sectors, blurring the lines of territorial integrity and political sovereignty.
Section 219/1217 targets defense related procurement and acquisition processes so that it will be impossible for future Administrations to separate Israeli technologies or agreements from major defense procurement programs, holding DOD Program Executive Offices and Program Managers hostage to the inclusion of Israeli-origin technologies in US systems. These procedures make moot current “Buy-America” provisions, and give Israeli companies access to intellectual property for weapons systems they are directly competing against.
Section 2191217 grants the EA the authority to re-allocate the funding and focus of the Defense Department by prioritizing the integration of Israel into the US’ national defense structures. It is literally subordinating the totality of the most sensitive aspects of US defense to Israel, outside the purview of Congressional oversight.
At a time when the majority of the American people are waking up to the horrific crimes committed by Israel against the people of Palestine, and the role played by Israel in getting America involved in permanent wars in the Middle East, Section 219/1217 will permanently tie the United States to Israel, making the US Department of Defense and, by extension, all of the American people, complicit in these crimes.
The Greater Israeli Project in the Middle East is floundering.
The Greater Israeli Project, which seeks the territorial expansion of the Israeli State in the Middle East at the expense of Israel’s neighbors, is floundering. Israel itself is going through an existential crisis because of its permanent state of war.
I have previously written that the relationship between Israel and the United States is like that of a parasite to its host. Section 219/1217 would codify this status as law.And in doing so, destroy the Constitutional Republic.
Congress has specific duties and responsibilities demanded of it by the Constitution.Surrendering these responsibilities to a foreign nation is not one of these duties.
If Section 219/1217 becomes law, Israel will have permanently attached itself to the American enterprise.
Right now, we have a Congress which has considered criminalizing and criticism of Israel.This, or course, is an affront to the very notion of free speech.By making Israeli security and US security indistinguishable, as would happen if Section 219/1217 becomes law, the inevitability of the criminalization of speech critical of Israel is assured.
The 2027 NDAA is America’s last stand.Remove Section 2191217, and we have a chance at survival.Turn Section 219/1217 into law, and we have lost the Republic.
I swore to defend the United States of America, a Constitutional Republic.
I will never serve the United States of Israel. And neither should anyone who calls themselves an American.
by Scott Ritter – originally published on his Substack
William Scott Ritter Jr. (born July 15, 1961) is an American former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector, author, and commentator.
RELATED POST
Fighting Iran & Israel’s “Hegemony”! Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan Defense Pact Aimed at Tehran & Jerusalem: Analyst
A defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan could totally reshape the Middle East. Analysts believe that it could deter Iran, offset an unpredictable United States, and send a strong message to Israel.
This alliance binds three Sunni nations that are strategic allies of the United States with a NATO-style clause that considers any attack on one country as an attack on all.
Analysts doubt this provision will be enforced, as the trio seeks resolutions to the war, with Pakistan and Turkey acting as intermediaries.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has positioned itself at the center of this new alliance, signed in Islam’s holiest city, Mecca, but what does this agreement mean in practical terms?
Nearly six months into the Iran war, the US has failed to knock out Iran, while Tehran continues to choke off traffic in and around the Strait of Hormuz and its Houthi allies disrupt shipping in the Red Sea.
This reality has upended the region’s security architecture — forcing a rethink of decades of conventional wisdom rooted in US military supremacy.
Despite the archipelago of US bases across the region, American forces have struggled to intercept all of the drones and ballistic missiles fired by Iran and its proxies.
The new alliance shows “American deterrence has been significantly weakened and that the Iranian threat will increasingly need to be managed by regional powers,” wrote Ali Shihabi, a political analyst close to the Saudi government.
Since the onset of the war, Saudi Arabia has grown closer to Turkey, with whom it previously had fraught ties, as well as Egypt and Pakistan. The four nations have supported mediation in the conflict.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have a history of security ties and had already signed a similar agreement last year.
This Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan defense pact is less about creating a new NATO-style alliance and more about an insurance policy. Riyadh is using its financial muscle to buy military assurance from Ankara and Islamabad. The mutual defense agreement is largely symbolic — neither Turkey nor Pakistan is likely to go to war with Iran on Saudi Arabia’s behalf — but the real message is clear: the Gulf can no longer rely solely on Washington and is determined to shape its own regional security architecture.
Andreas Krieg, lecturer at King’s College London, says: “The three countries are unusually complementary. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has wealth but limited indigenous military-industrial depth… Turkey has technology and manufacturing capacity but needs markets and investment. Pakistan has manpower, military institutional depth and nuclear deterrence but needs financing and industrial opportunities.” “It is in Saudi Arabia’s interest to seek several layers of security rather than one American umbrella.”
Asfandyar Mir, Senior Fellow, Stimson Center, says: “What matters is three militarily capable states, in crucial geographies, with diverse relationships, are committing to one another’s defense. It is not intended to replace the United States. But it certainly reflects a judgment that U.S. commitment alone is no longer sufficient to ensure security and maintain stability.”
Will Turkey and Pakistan attack Iran?
Pakistan has not done much for Saudi Arabia despite coming under attack from Iran and the Houthi militia.
“Turkey and Pakistan will not fight Iran. These countries view themselves as ‘stabilizers’ and want to create a political momentum to push for that,” wrote Asli Aydintasbas, a fellow at Brookings Institution.
HA Hellyer, geopolitical analyst, says even if it is unlikely for Pakistan and Turkey to hit Iran in retaliation for strikes on Saudi Arabia, “this pact sends a politically symbolic signal to Iran and Israel”.
Saudi Arabia has grown closer to Pakistan and Turkey as deep divisions plague the Gulf, even as it reeled from repeated attacks from Iran and its allies.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE were embroiled in a public rift even before the war, and though they recently appeared to reconcile, the UAE is likely to be wary of the new pact, analysts say.
The United States has long sought to build on the Abraham Accords that saw the UAE, Bahrain and others normalize relations with Israel, pushing for a regional alliance that integrates its close ally. But the new defense pact consolidates major US allies into an alternative security architecture that rejects Israel’s hegemony, analysts said.
Pakistan and Turkey have been vocal against Israel, while Saudi Arabia has insisted it will not normalize unless Israel agrees to a path to Palestinian statehood.
“Washington would have wanted a security architecture that includes Israel, and they’re still keen for Saudi Arabia to normalize ties. This alliance doesn’t point to that in the slightest,” said Hellyer.
The alliance, he said, “shows a desire to interrupt both the project of Iranian hegemony and that of Israeli paramountcy”.
By Agence France-Presse and ET Online Desk
The post Fighting Iran & Israel’s “Hegemony”! Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan Defense Pact Aimed at Tehran & Jerusalem: Analyst appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
Iran Flaunts U.S. F-15E Wreckage as “War Trophy” Alongside Near-Intact Israeli Hermes & MQ-9 Reaper Drone
As the Trump administration weighs its next moves amid a fragile halt in hostilities, Iran has put on public display a selection of war trophies: wreckage from a downed F-15E Strike Eagle and what it claims are two nearly intact drones.
The US (in collaboration with Israel) launched “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran on February 28, hoping to decapitate the Iranian regime and destroy its military capabilities.
However, about six months later, the Iranian state media published images showing the wreckage of multiple US and Israeli aircraft that it managed to take down during the 40-day war.
This includes the debris of an F-15E Strike Eagle, Call Sign DUDE 44, a US Air Force (USAF) fighter jet now identified as airframe 00-3000.
On April 3, an F-15E Strike Eagle was downed by ground-based fire from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while conducting a combat mission over southwestern Iran.
This marked the first confirmed loss of a manned US combat aircraft to Iranian fire over Iranian territory in the conflict, and triggered a 36-hour intense search and rescue operation for the Weapon Stations Officer (WSO) who went missing.
The USAF incurred additional losses during that operation, including the self-destruction of aircraft that became defunct, to deny sensitive material to the IRGC, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times.
From IRGC images.
Remains of Lakenheath-based
USAF F-15E 00-3000 #AE178B, callsign DUDE44, which was shot down April 3rd over Iran.
DVIDS image from 2014 of F-15E 00-3000 over Afghanistan in 2008. pic.twitter.com/oAugzvAAyi
— Evergreen Intel (@vcdgf555) August 7, 2026
However, the F-15E shoot-down, which belonged to the 48th Fighter Wing from RAF Lakenheath, quickly became the centerpiece of Iranian narratives of successful air defense.
In fact, the Iranian media had released crash-site photos and video almost immediately, showing a vertical stabilizer section with USAFE markings, a red tail flash, and other features consistent with the aircraft.
The current exhibit includes the canopy and an ACES II ejection seat, the latter of which is among the more intact components recovered.
Additionally, some remains attributed to the C-130s abandoned and destroyed during the rescue are on display, though they are less visually prominent.
Iran has recovered largely intact US MQ-9 Reaper and Israeli Hermes 900 drones.
IRGC engineers are expected to examine the captured systems, study their technologies and reverse-engineer key components to help develop advanced indigenous drone models. pic.twitter.com/3cOBvPVzNx
— Jackson Hinkle
The more striking trophies, however, are the two drones Iran claims to have recovered in largely intact condition during Operation Epic Fury: a US MQ-9 Reaper and an Israeli Elbit Systems Hermes 900 serial 923.
Iranian authorities assert the Reapers were intercepted by air defenses, and the Hermes 900 was brought down by electronic warfare.
It is worth mentioning that Iran managed to down at least 24 MQ-9 Reapers until the ceasefire, accounting for 57% of all USAF losses in the war. However, several more of this class of drones were downed in intermittent exchange of hostilities after the ceasefire, bringing the total to about 30, according to claims made by US officials in early July.
Despite the attrition, the Chief of Staff, Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, endorsed the Reaper as the MVP of the Iran war, stating, “We’ve made many, many strikes” with Reapers. “It’s an unmanned platform, so we get a lot of utility out of them, and don’t put our folks at risk,” Wilsbach said, as reported by the EurAsian Times at the time.
Separately, the open-source trackers documented at least four to five Israeli Hermes 900s lost during the main phase of the war with Iran, with some assessments running as high as eight. However, the EurAsian Times could not independently verify total losses.
Notably, while collecting and parading war trophies is fairly common—as done by Russia and Ukraine in their ongoing war—it has its own risks.
For example, Iran could exploit recovered drones primarily through technical intelligence (TECHINT), reverse engineering, and adaptation for its own programs.
These platforms are medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAVs used for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and strike missions.
Iran could disassemble the drones and obtain key technologies, such as optics, detectors, stabilization, laser systems, and processing units, to improve its electro-optical or infrared (IR) packages, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capabilities, and multi-sensor fusion for integration with its vast inventory of existing platforms.
Additionally, it could get access to satellite communications (SATCOM) for encrypted command and control, line-of-sight datalinks, beyond-line-of-sight control, and possible tactical links.
To improve the long-endurance capabilities of Iranian aircraft and payload integration, the IRGC might also investigate structural design, sensor vibration isolation, and modular bays.
In a hypothetical situation, even partial insights could enhance the day-and-night, all-weather ISR capabilities of current Iranian drones or provide guidance for electronic warfare, jamming, and air defense strategies against comparable Western weapons.
Furthermore, Iran could also choose to share its exploits with key partners like Russia, which has assisted Tehran in its military operations.
Iran, on its part, has demonstrated it could reverse-engineer Western drones.
When Iran Took Down & Reengineered A US Drone
Iran hit the jackpot on December 5, 2011, when its cyber warfare unit commandeered the US’ Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel UAV and forced it to land near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran, about 225–250 kilometers from the Afghanistan border.
The US officials later confirmed it was a CIA-operated unmanned aircraft involved in a reconnaissance mission, with reports indicating it was part of efforts monitoring Iranian nuclear and other military facilities.
At the time, Iran’s government announced that its cyberwarfare unit had detected the aircraft in Iranian airspace, commandeered it, and landed it with minimal damage rather than shooting it down. Iranian officials, including commanders from the IRGC Aerospace Force, claimed they jammed the drone’s satellite and control communications links, forcing it into an autopilot or lost-link mode, then used GPS spoofing to make the aircraft land.
Some American analysts and officials expressed skepticism about Iran’s electronic-warfare claims, noting that the RQ-170 relies primarily on an inertial navigation system, which is harder to jam or spoof than pure GPS.
Interestingly, though, the relatively intact airframe fueled competing theories of a controlled recovery versus a soft crash after loss of control.
The former US President Barack Obama publicly acknowledged the incident and, on 12 December 2011, stated that the United States had formally requested the drone’s return.
However, Iran denied the US’s demands to return the UAV, and Iranian state television on December 8 broadcast footage of Iranian military officials inspecting what they identified as an RQ-170 Sentinel drone. Additionally, Tehran went so far as to claim that countries like China and Russia had approached it to get information on the drone.
The event exposed details of a previously highly classified surveillance operation over Iran and raised fears about possible technology transfer, constituting a major intelligence and technological defeat for the United States.
By 2012, the IRGC had claimed to have succeeded in gleaning data from the US drone and was building a process to create a replica of the aircraft. The Sentinel was then reverse-engineered to create what is now the Saeghe/Simorgh drone.
Similarly, in 2012, Iranian state television showed images of what it said was a US ScanEagle drone in its airspace.
Iran has never denied. Instead, it has chosen to flaunt the fact that its UAVs have been reverse-engineered from US drones as a major victory.
It is safe to say that an adversary will almost always be able to obtain some degree of intelligence from an aircraft’s wreckage, regardless of the measures taken to prevent it. While this does put US and Israeli military technology at risk, it is an inevitable prospect that both countries were likely aware of when they embarked on this war with Tehran.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
The post Iran Flaunts U.S. F-15E Wreckage as “War Trophy” Alongside Near-Intact Israeli Hermes & MQ-9 Reaper Drone appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
Iran’s $500 Billion Bonanza: How Trump Could Enrich Iran More Than Apple, Nvidia & Microsoft Combined
Amid reports that the US has virtually exhausted all its long-range precision munitions, as well as missile interceptors, it is becoming increasingly clear that Washington is in no position to fight a protracted war with Iran and has no real leverage over Tehran.
On August 5, CNN reported that the US military has exhausted nearly 80% of its interceptors for a key missile defense system.
“The US military has burned through nearly four-fifths of its THAAD missile inventory compared to pre-war numbers and roughly half of its Patriot interceptors since the start of the war, according to two sources familiar with the latest inventory report,” it said.
Similarly, the US has exhausted virtually the entire stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles, such as ATACMS and PrSMs.
Consequently, any possible US-Iran ceasefire agreement is likely to be on terms favorable to Tehran.
During previous rounds of negotiations, Iran has indicated that while it is agreeable to some compromise on the nuclear issue, it will not compromise on the issue of managing the shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and charging a fee from all ships transiting the narrow maritime corridor.
For instance, according to the June 2026 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed between Tehran and Washington, Iran will make arrangements for the safe passage of commercial vessels “with no charge for 60 days only,” followed by dialogue with Oman and other Persian Gulf littoral states, “to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz… in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states.”
Iranian officials interpreted the limited 60-day free period plus the “maritime services” reference as implicitly allowing “service fees” for navigation, security, and environmental protection, once the 60-day window has lapsed.
While the US administration rejected this interpretation, the US media itself, including The New York Times, acknowledged that the language of the MoU was vague and that it formalized Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Again, multiple media outlets reported earlier this week that Iran and Oman are close to finalizing a deal between them for joint management of the Strait of Hormuz.
Details included Iranian management of vessel entry, joint oversight of exits near the Oman coast, and a “central corridor.”
According to a Reuters report published on August 6, Iran is seeking fees of between 5% and 7% of the price of cargoes from ships using the strait, according to the senior Iranian official. Oman is discussing fees of around 3%, while Washington wants no fees at all.
In normal (pre-war) times, the narrow waterway handled roughly 20–21 million barrels per day of crude and petroleum products, amounting to nearly one-fifth of the world’s total oil consumption and roughly 25% of seaborne oil trade.
According to a Gulf News estimate, this would generate a net profit of US$385 million per day for Iran, or up to US$140 billion per year gross.
A typical Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) can carry up to about 2 million barrels.
At an oil price of US$80/barrel, the cargo is worth US$160 million; a 7% fee would equal roughly US$11–11.2 million for that one voyage.
Given that Iran would have to spend a minimal amount of money to oversee the entry of cargo vessels into the Strait of Hormuz, most of this annual revenue of USD140 billion would be ‘net profit’ for Tehran.
Even if Iran spends USD5 billion annually on these expenses, Tehran would still pocket a net profit of USD135 billion.
That is a staggering amount.
For perspective, Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority reported US$4.67 billion in revenue for the 2025/2026 fiscal year.
The income of Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority looks meager when compared to Iran’s prospective income from the Strait of Hormuz if indeed it is able to charge a 7% fee on all cargo vessels passing the maritime corridor.
Indeed, Iran will get control of the world’s most lucrative and profitable tollway.
The disruption in the Hormuz traffic during the last four months has shown that many countries would not mind paying a fee to Tehran as long as it can ensure a steady supply of oil and LNG from the maritime corridor, even if there is no provision under the International Law (International Convention on the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS) allowing a coastal state like Iran to charge for passage through a natural waterway, impose a “toll” or a “service fee”.
In fact, according to Bloomberg, Iran has already started charging a transit fee from commercial vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
The report said that Iran charged as much as USD 2 million per vessel as a transit fee, and many countries paid the fee to Tehran to let their cargo vessels pass from the narrow maritime corridor.
Reports also said that these payments were made in Chinese Yuan.
In March, Lloyd’s List reported that Iran’s IRGC ran a de facto “toll booth” system requiring vetting, clearance codes, and escorts via a controlled corridor.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported that transits were mostly linked to Chinese, Indian, or Gulf-linked owners, including some “dark fleet” vessels.
What’s even more is that at USD 135 billion, Iran’s profit from the Strait of Hormuz would beat some of the world’s biggest and most profitable technology companies.
For instance, in 2025, Google’s Alphabet made a profit of USD 132 billion.
Similarly, in fiscal year 2026, Nvidia made a profit of USD 120 billion. Apple made a profit of USD 112 billion. Microsoft made a profit of USD 101 billion. And Saudi Arabia’s oil major Aramco made a profit of USD 105 billion.
These are some of the world’s biggest technology and oil companies, which have reached here after years of hard work and innovation.
However, if Iran’s plans to collect a 5-7% toll fee from all commercial cargo vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz materialize, Iran will start making more profit than these companies from the first year.
Furthermore, this would be a vicious cycle, as a toll fee of 5-7% would mean that oil prices would go up. This would also mean that insurance prices for these cargo vessels would shoot up, further increasing the oil prices.
As oil prices rise, the absolute value of Iran’s proposed 5–7% toll – calculated on cargo value – would increase in tandem. Consequently, Tehran would benefit twice over: its toll revenues would grow both from higher shipping volumes and from escalating oil prices.
Notably, Iran holds the world’s third-largest oil reserve.
In addition to this windfall gain, another condition of the June Iran-US MoU was that Washington would “undertake with regional partners to develop a definitive mutually agreed plan with at least USD 300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Another condition was: “The United States of America undertakes to make fully available for use the frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran upon the implementation of this MoU. The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran will mutually agree on the procedures related to the release of these funds during the negotiations.”
Estimates of the frozen assets involved ranged from roughly US$12–37 billion; however, some Iranian sources claimed that the frozen assets amounted to over USD 100 billion.
If all these conditions are met, Iran would get a windfall of over USD 500 billion within the first two years. A substantial part of this money is set to be invested in the further development of Iran’s ballistic missile program.
In effect, it could mean that a few years down the line, Iran could be a much stronger adversary, militarily as well as economically.
The repercussions of that for the US and Israel could be devastating.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
The post Iran’s $500 Billion Bonanza: How Trump Could Enrich Iran More Than Apple, Nvidia & Microsoft Combined appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
Saudi, Turkey, Pakistan Defense Pact Not a Military Axis or Sectarian Bloc Against Any Country: Riyadh & Ankara
A Saudi official said Friday that the joint defense pact signed with Turkey and Pakistan was not linked to “any nuclear ambitions” and was not a threat to any country in the region.
“The agreement does not represent an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc. Nor is it linked to any nuclear ambitions or arms race; rather, it is focused on building sustainable capabilities,” said Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly in a post on X.
He said the deal “does not constitute a threat to the security of any country in the region, nor does it represent an escalation of tensions between any two states”.
Meanwhile, Turkey insisted on Friday that its joint defense pact signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan amid the US-Iran war was “not aimed at any particular country”.
“The Mecca Agreement, which is not aimed at any particular country, will strengthen the shared security and collective deterrence of the three nations… thereby making significant contributions to the preservation of peace and stability in our region,” Burhanettin Duran, the Turkish presidency’s communications director, posted on X.
Saudi, Turkey & Pakistan Sign Defense Pact
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a joint defense pact amid the US-Iran war.
Riyadh is looking to strengthen its security ties against the backdrop of war between the United States and Iran, which has drawn in surrounding nations and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea.
The war has emboldened Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, both of which have attacked Saudi Arabia, while analysts say Washington is now seen as an increasingly unreliable partner.
In a joint statement published by the official Saudi press agency and Pakistan’s foreign ministry, the three countries announced the signing of the “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement”.
They declared a “shared commitment to further strengthening their collective security and to promoting peace, security and stability in the region and beyond”.
The Pakistani foreign ministry said the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”.
Since the onset of the regional war, Saudi Arabia has grown closer to Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan, which have been pushing for mediation and a resolution to the conflict.
Umar Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy at the University of Birmingham, called the deal a “highly significant development”.
The alignment “is clearly oriented towards Iran and meant to address Iran’s new strategic approach which is geared towards dominance of the broader Gulf region”.
The fact that Turkey and Pakistan border Iran means they could “exercise a different kind of leverage” on Tehran, he added.
A source close to the Saudi military and government told AFP before the signing that although the agreement had been under discussion for a long time, “the latest developments in the region expedite it”.
Andreas Krieg of King’s College London said the deal showed a clear desire to diversify alliances beyond the United States.
“Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are not trying to replace the United States. They are building the capacity to protect their interests when Washington cannot or will not do so.”
Riyadh, in particular, he said, “wants several layers of security rather than one American umbrella”, after the shock of the Iran war.
The deal will support Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to become an organizer of regional security and diversify its defense umbrella, while Turkey and Pakistan gain political clout and access to potential Saudi investments, he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Mecca on Friday, the Turkish presidency said on X, sharing an image of the meeting.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir also traveled to the Gulf kingdom for the signing.
“Although taking place against the backdrop of heightened tensions in the Gulf, the visit will carry significance beyond the immediate crisis and short-term considerations,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday.
The deal reflects closer ties between the three Muslim-majority nations.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had already announced a mutual defense pact in 2025, a move that drew attention because Pakistan is the Muslim world’s only nuclear-armed state.
Pakistan has also sought to mediate efforts to end the US-Iran war, while Turkey has played a diplomatic role in negotiations aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
Renewed Houthi attacks
The deal also comes as a truce between Riyadh and the Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen has broken down, with the Houthis launching attacks on Saudi soil and declaring a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia, which they have attempted to enforce by attacking Saudi tankers.
The Houthis, backed by Iran, have added pressure to Gulf energy exporters, who are already under strain from Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, by threatening Red Sea shipping — another key route for oil exports.
Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthis since 2015.
A truce was agreed four years ago which largely held until hostilities broke out again in recent weeks.
On Thursday, the Houthis killed at least 58 Yemeni government troops in missile and drone attacks, a military source said, in one of the deadliest days in the conflict for years.
Yemen’s civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.
By AFP
The post Saudi, Turkey, Pakistan Defense Pact Not a Military Axis or Sectarian Bloc Against Any Country: Riyadh & Ankara appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
🔴DRONI SI SCORTE NO | TG 05.08.26
– Kiev sotto le bombe, Europa senza scorte di Jeff Hoffman
– Gas, Ue vieta Belgio compra di Margherita Furlan
– Hormuz chiuso salvadanaio aperto di Jeff Hoffman
– Karbala prega New York tiene la cassa di Margherita Furlan
– Israele compra il racconto, Parscale lo scrive di Jeff Hoffman
– Board of Peace: la resa a Netanyahu di Jeff Hoffman
– Ceuta: scontro Madrid Roma di Jeff Hoffman
– Interfacce neurali, Pechino sorpassa Musk di Margherita Furlan
– Buon giro intorno al Sole
A cura di Margherita Furlan
Con la collaborazione di Jeff Hoffman
Editing di Davide Marletta e di Simone Orletti
SOSTIENI CASA DEL SOLE TV
Casa del Sole TV è un progetto di giornalismo indipendente autofinanziato, senza editori, senza partiti, senza padrini politici.
Per donazioni:
IBAN: IT63P0326822300052392596590
Intestato a: La Casa del Sole Edizioni
Causale: Donazione Casa del Sole TV
Membership YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@CasadelSoleTVChannel
— Analista Multipolare €5/mese
— Inviato della Verità €15/mese
— Architetto del Futuro €25/mese
I LIBRI DI MARGHERITA FURLAN
BRICS Scacco Matto (disponibile in italiano, inglese, russo), La Casa del Sole Edizioni
SEGUI CASA DEL SOLE TV
YouTube: @CasadelSoleTVChannel
TAG:
CasaDelSoleTV, CasaDelSoleTG, MargheritaFurlan, GiuliettoChiesa, censura, russofobia, Trump, NATO, Crisi, Transizione, Ucraina, Kiev, EuroMaidan, Crimea, Donbass, Donetsk, Syria, Iran, PardonSnowden, Nuova Via Della Seta, Pechino, Putin, Libano, guerra, mondomultipolare, multipolarismo, Mosca, XiJinping, Levante, Medio Oriente, Palestina, Gaza, MiddleEast, BRICS, Hormuz
L'articolo 🔴DRONI SI SCORTE NO | TG 05.08.26 proviene da Casa del Sole TV.
U.S-Iran War: Freak Mid-Air Crash Survivor KC-135 Stratotanker Flies Back Home with Donor Tail
One of the two US Air Force’s KC-135R Stratotankers that collided mid-air earlier this year during hostilities with Iran is now flying with a replacement vertical stabilizer sourced from another aircraft.
During the height of the clash between the US and Iran, two USAF KC-135 refuellers collided mid-air in friendly airspace in Iraq in a freak accident on March 12, 2026.
One of these tankers, call sign Zeus 95, was unable to recover from the impact and crashed close to Turaibil on the border between Iraq and Jordan. Meanwhile, the other aircraft managed to steer away and land safely at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel—the hub of USAF’s aerial refueling capability during the conflict—despite sustaining damage to its vertical stabilizer, or tail, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times.
“U.S. Central Command is aware of the loss of a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft. The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury, and rescue efforts are ongoing. Two aircraft were involved in the incident. One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely. This was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on the day of the tragic accident.
As it turns out, the surviving KC-135 has been repaired by cannibalizing the vertical stabilizer from another aircraft of the type. It was spotted at RAF Mildenhall, UK, during its transit from Israel to the continental US, featuring two distinct serial numbers: although the fuselage itself carried 63-8017, the original serial number, the tail bore 63-8002, as seen in photos shared by UK-based aviation photographer Havoc Aviation.
The U.S. Air Force KC-135 "Stratotanker" that survived the fatal midair collision with another KC-135 over Iraq in March is now en route towards the United Kingdom, likely beginning its return to the United States.
Based on the extensive structural damage sustained in the… pic.twitter.com/1aHcRvPXhg
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 2, 2026
According to reports, the donor aircraft had previously served with the 22nd Air Refueling Wing and was last noted at the KC-135 depot at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, where it appears to have entered retirement or storage. The repair work was apparently carried out at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, which recently made headlines for refusing to accommodate additional USAF tankers amid overcrowding.
Further maintenance is expected upon the aircraft’s arrival in the US, including a repaint to apply the correct markings, if the donor vertical stabilizer is permanently retained.
This repair approach—using a donor component from another airframe—is an established practice for returning heavily damaged aircraft to service.
Earlier, the USAF successfully reassembled two damaged F-35 stealth fighters into one Frankenbird. One of the F-35s was damaged in a catastrophic engine fire at Eglin Air Force Base in 2014, whereas the other was damaged in a nose-gear collapse at Hill Air Force Base in Utah in 2020. The team developed specialized tooling, supports, and other equipment to assemble and connect the aircraft components, as you can read about here.
Similarly, the B-2 Spirit of Georgia, whose wing composite was severely damaged after it suffered a landing-gear collapse at Whiteman AFB in 2021, was later repaired by equipping it with an 8×4-foot donor composite skin panel from Test Article 0998.
Nevertheless, the KC-135 with two different numbers at RAF Mildenhall remains a unique sighting, particularly as the mid-air crash occurred during intense combat and killed six crew members.
Iran’s proxies in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack as soon as the crash was announced by official channels.
“In defense of our country’s sovereignty and its airspace violated by the aircraft of the occupation forces, the mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq targeted, with appropriate weaponry during the past twenty-four hours, a second aircraft of the KC-135 type belonging to the American occupation in western Iraq. Its crew managed to escape with it after it was hit, and it made an emergency landing at one of the enemy’s airports,” the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), an umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militias, said in a statement at the time.
The claim was unsurprisingly amplified by Iranian state media and others, though CENTCOM immediately refuted it.
USAF Has Lost Many KC-135 Tankers
The KC-135, introduced nearly 70 years ago, remains the most numerous aerial-refueling aircraft in US service and the backbone of the tanker force. It enables long-range operations by fighters, bombers, and other aircraft of the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and allied nations.
Ben Gurion Airport became a major forward operating location for both KC-135s and newer KC-46 Pegasus tankers before and during Operation Epic Fury. The concentration of refueling and cargo aircraft there grew substantially as the conflict continued past the April ceasefire, at one point reaching 70–75 aircraft and prompting Israeli authorities to press for a drawdown to protect commercial airline operations.
However, for the one KC-135 that the USAF managed to restore, it has lost many others during its high-tempo war with Tehran.
Following the fatal accident on March 12, media sources on March 14 stated that an Iranian missile and drone attack had destroyed five KC-135s while they were on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The refuellers were parked in the open on the apron, making them “sitting ducks” for Iranian missiles and drones, because the base, which is roughly 600 kilometers from Iran, lacked shelters for large planes like the KC-135.
Due to a lack of clear information from CENTCOM, the extent of damage to each tanker remains unknown.
In fact, the latest arrival of the KC-135 at RAF Mildenhall was the third of a damaged tanker at the British facility, according to reports.
The Mildenhall transit of 63-8017 marks at least the third appearance of a battle-damaged KC-135 at the British base.
On April 12, 2026, KC-135R 59-1444 arrived covered in temporary battle-damage-repair patches before continuing to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex at Tinker AFB. On May 23, 2026, Alaska Air National Guard KC-135R 63-8028 of the 168th Wing arrived with shrapnel repairs on its tail and flaps and without its refueling boom.
The substantial damage to the USAF’s KC-135 aircraft in the Middle East has spurred discussion about the attrition and pressure on the aging tanker fleet during high-tempo operations. As of now, parts cannibalized from boneyard-decommissioned aircraft are essential to the KC-135 fleet.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
The post U.S-Iran War: Freak Mid-Air Crash Survivor KC-135 Stratotanker Flies Back Home with Donor Tail appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
“Finish The Job”: Ex-American VP Says It’s Time for U.S. & Israel To Eliminate Iran Once For All: Latest News
Former US Vice President Mike Pence supported continued military operations against Iran and urged the US and Israel to “finish the job.”
In a Fox News interview, he praised Donald Trump for directly attacking Iran and urged the U.S. President to order the military to strike Tehran’s remaining nuclear facilities and eliminate its ability to project power in the Strait of Hormuz and across the region.
“They don’t make peace with the enemy, they make peace with a defeated enemy,” Pence added.
He added that given the Islamic Republic’s positions and denial of negotiations, he is confident that a time will come when Trump will decide that enough is enough. Pence called the joint US-Israeli operation against Iran “historic” and said that now is the time for the military forces of the two countries to complete this mission.
Earlier, Trump said negotiations with Iran were ongoing despite Tehran’s contradictions, and Tehran was facing a “last chance before decapitation.”
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said he agreed to continue to pursue talks with Iran at the request of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and other countries.
Iran’s foreign ministry denied that talks with Washington were taking place, but Trump insisted they were. “We are talking right now,” he said.
“This is a last chance for them to sign a good document,” the US president added. “I want to give them every last chance before decapitation.”
The discussions are focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump said could come “literally by tomorrow,” and the denuclearization of Iran, which he said could “take a little while.”
Washington and Tehran have been at war since February 28, when the United States and Israel launched surprise strikes against Iran, though months of on-and-off diplomacy have led to periods of relative calm.
More than five months later, Iran remains able to fire missiles and drones at US and allied targets in the region and retains its enriched uranium stockpiles.
Early Tuesday, the UK maritime security agency UKMTO said that a cargo vessel was struck by an “unknown projectile” in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman.
The vessel, which was not named, reported being hit and authorities were investigating, UKMTO said, without giving specifics on damage or injuries.
In what has become a routine pattern, Trump last week had threatened to hit Iran “very hard” — potentially with renewed attacks against energy infrastructure — only to pull back on Saturday, saying the “perimeters” of a deal were there.
Iran, for its part, said it is not currently negotiating with the United States.
“Our negotiations are with Oman to secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” the critical oil corridor, foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said.
Hormuz has been a major sticking point in efforts to end the war. Since a ceasefire broke down, Iran has reprised a blockade of the waterway that it first imposed early in the war, obstructing vessels attempting to pass and firing on commercial ships.
Calling Tehran “duplicitous” for “openly and proudly” saying it was not negotiating, Trump wrote on social media: “Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades.”
He pointed to the United States’ counter-blockade of Iranian ports, adding: “Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished.”
Before the war, there was free passage through Hormuz, but Iran now insists on retaining control and charging fees, something the United States rejects.
Tehran has refused to let ships travel any route other than one that hugs the Iranian coast.
On Sunday, Baqaei told state television that a deal was close on managing Hormuz together with Oman, which sits on the other side of the narrow waterway.
“We are now going to reach an understanding on a route acceptable to both sides — neither the northern route nor the southern route — but one that respects the sovereign rights of both sides and safeguards our national interests and security,” he said.
But he insisted that such an agreement did not mean the reopening of the strait.
The US president said at the start of the conflict that the war was necessary to deal with Iran’s nuclear program and he repeated on Monday that “the denuclearization of Iran has to happen.”
Western nations accuse Iran of seeking a bomb, though Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian in nature.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One over the weekend, Trump said he had been asked by Iran as well as regional US partners to hold off on further strikes, which he claimed would have been “the biggest attack since World War II.”
Iranian media denied that Tehran had asked Trump not to strike.
A previous ceasefire deal fell through last month. It was supposed to open the Strait of Hormuz to ships carrying vital energy exports from the Gulf to feed the global economy.
By Agence France-Presse
The post “Finish The Job”: Ex-American VP Says It’s Time for U.S. & Israel To Eliminate Iran Once For All: Latest News appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
Russians “Hold the Key” to Israel’s PM Office: Why Netanyahu’s Fate Hinges on the “Putin Aliyah”
In June 2025, as Israel and Iran fought a brief 12-day war, Russian President Vladimir Putin was pressed on why Moscow was not providing more direct military support to Tehran.
Rather than answering directly, Putin deftly redirected the question, drawing attention to an often-overlooked reality about Israel: its large Russian-speaking population and the growing political weight of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
“I want to draw your attention,” Putin said, “to the fact that almost two million people from the former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation reside in Israel. It is almost a Russian-speaking country today. And, undoubtedly, we always take this into account in Russia’s contemporary history.”
As Israel heads into polls in October this year that could close the country’s most difficult period in recent decades, Putin’s words will ring like a warning to Israeli politicians, especially Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister who is facing his toughest poll contest.
Indeed, the votes of Russian-speaking immigrants to Israel, many of whom are also called “Putin Aliyah,” those who migrated to Israel from Russia and former Soviet Union republics during the Putin era, could be the most decisive factor in the upcoming elections.
How Russian-Speakers Became the King-Makers in Israel
In Israel’s peculiar election system, just a few seats could decide the outcome of the country’s upcoming general elections, scheduled for October 27.
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has 120 seats, and a party, or a coalition, needs 61 seats to form the government.
However, in the last eight decades, Israel never had a single-party government, and the country has always been ruled by multi-party coalitions.
These 120 Knesset seats are filled by proportional representation and a 3.25% electoral threshold.
The whole country is treated as a single electoral district. Voters do not elect individual candidates or local representatives. Instead, they vote for a party, or a coalition of parties. Seats are distributed roughly in proportion to each list’s share of the national vote, provided the list clears the electoral threshold of 3.5%.
Meaning, all political parties/alliances that receive more than 3.5% of the electoral vote will get seats in the Knesset in proportion to their vote share.
For instance, if a party receives 10% of the total vote share, it will have 12 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
Given the history of multi-party coalition governments in Israel, and a deeply fractured polity and mandates, 5-10 seats could very well decide the outcome of elections.
In the October elections, Israel’s Russian-speaking population could be the X factor that makes or breaks Netanyahu’s dream of coming back to power for a record seventh time.
Russian-Speaking Population in Israel
According to various estimates, Russian-speaking immigrants constitute 12 to 15% of eligible voters in Israel. However, some reports give a number as high as 17%.
This figure primarily covers immigrants and their descendants from the former Soviet Union/post-Soviet states who arrived mainly in the large 1990s wave.
After Putin launched an invasion of Crimea in 2014, and then attacked Ukraine in 2022, a second large wave of Russian-speaking Jews immigrated from Russia and Ukraine to Israel. These new Russian-speaking immigrants are known as “Putin-Aliyah.” Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from other countries to the Land of Israel.
Russian speakers could number around 1.3 million in the country’s population of 9.6 million.
Russian is described as the third most common native language in Israel after Hebrew and Arabic.
Furthermore, Russian-speakers are known for their high voter turnout and for voting as a bloc.
According to estimates, Russian speakers could influence 14-15 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
Given that in the current Knesset, the largest political party, Netanyahu’s Likud, won 34 seats, whereas the second-largest party, Yesh Atid, won only 24, 15 seats could very well decide who will form the next government.
Furthermore, nearly 125,000 Russian-speakers have migrated to Israel since Putin launched its military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.
Therefore, in the October 2026 election, the influence of Russian-speaking immigrants in the electorate would be even stronger.
Another 125,000 Russian-speakers had migrated to Israel earlier after the occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014.
Together, these 250,000 Russian-speaking immigrants, or “Putin-Aliyah,” could influence 5-6 seats in the Israeli Knesset, and the scramble for these votes has already begun.
Voting Preferences of Russian-Speakers in Israeli Elections
“People form norms and habits, and it is very hard to change their minds. Even when reality changes, they adjust their internal priorities to maintain the same voting patterns. For example: ‘Likud is terrible on religion and state issues, but I vote for them out of security considerations.’ That is why the new immigrant community is worth its weight in gold. The vote of this audience in the upcoming elections could set a trend for decades,” political psychologist Dr. Hagay Elkayam-Shalem told Haaretz.
There have been many studies on the voting behavior of these Russian-speaking immigrants. While these studies have reached different conclusions, it is safe to say that the Russian-speakers are not a monolithic bloc.
Elkayam-Shalem’s study of more than 600 Russian-speaking Israeli residents who arrived after 2012 found that 73% described their political views as “moderate” – 25% center-right, 30% centrist, and 18% center-left. Among those who arrived after 2022, more than a quarter identified as left-wing (27%).
The same study also found that in the 2022 elections, 45% of new Russian-speaking immigrants supported today’s opposition, and only 13% chose parties represented in the ruling coalition.
If these trends continue, it would mean that Netanyahu will have a hard time convincing these people to vote for his party.
However, Netanyahu and his Likud party were not always this unpopular among Russian-speaking immigrants.
According to multiple studies done by Prof. Zeev Hanin, a professor with the Department of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University and a lecturer at the Department of Israel in the Middle East and Political Science at Ariel University in Judea and Samaria, the Likud won 26.7% of the immigrant vote in the 2019 election, behind 40.2% of the vote share for Yisrael Beytenu; the Blue and White party won 15.1%; and the Kulanu party won 5.8% of the sector’s vote.
The rest of the votes were divided between the Labor party (2.3%), the New Right (3.2%), and Sephardic Ultra-Orthodox party Shas (1.5%).
So, in 2019, Netanyahu’s Likud won the second-highest share of votes among Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel.
However, together with Yisrael Beytenu, the right-wing parties in Israel got nearly 67% of the vote of Russian-speakers.
Hanin explains this preference for right-wing parties among Russian-speakers as the result of their experience in Russia in the troublesome 1990s.
“Immigrants from the former Soviet Union believe in strong leadership more than they believe in the democratic apparatus,” Remennick said. “The drunken democracy they experienced in the 1990s immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union was essentially chaos: there was no law and order, no work, and nothing to eat, which is why [Russian President] Vladimir Putin was able to rise to power and stay there for 20 years. People cling to the order and stability that a strong leader can provide.”
However, the voting preferences of Russian speakers are not static and have evolved over time and with changing circumstances.
For instance, they helped Labor’s success in 1992 and contributed to Netanyahu’s narrow 1996 prime ministerial win. They supported Ehud Barak in 1999 and later Ariel Sharon.
However, in the 2022 election, according to Elkayam-Shalem’s study of more than 600 Russian-speaking Israeli residents who arrived after 2012, only 13% chose parties represented in the ruling coalition, including Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Netanyahu is perhaps already aware of the criticality of this bloc and conscious of his falling support among them.
In April this year, Israel’s Channel 14 announced the acquisition of the Russian-language news site Mignews, one of the oldest Russian-language resources in Israel. Channel 14 is often called Israel’s equivalent of Fox News and is considered a mouthpiece for the Netanyahu camp and far-right views.
Another critical factor could be the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. The Russian-speaking immigrants have historically adopted a hawkish attitude on the Palestine issue and support a strong security state, a preference they might have carried from the security-focused Russian state.
In this new atmosphere where security issues are set to dominate the election debate, many Russian speakers could again shift to the right, which could benefit Netanyahu. A strong showing among Russian speakers could help Netanyahu balance some of his losses in other sections of Israeli society.
Whether or not Netanyahu is able to win back support among Russian speakers, the bloc is set to play the king-makers in the 2026 elections.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, The Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
The post Russians “Hold the Key” to Israel’s PM Office: Why Netanyahu’s Fate Hinges on the “Putin Aliyah” appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
MI5 Intelligence Chiefs Secretly Lobbied UK government to designate IRGC as ‘Terrorist’ Organization
MI5 directors secretly pushed for Britain’s decision to designate the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization
MI5 directors secretly pushed for Britain’s decision to designate the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization and helped the government adopt the draconian National Security Act, a report says.
The report, published by The Grayzone on Friday, revealed that MI5 Director General Kenneth Douglas McCallum and former MI5 chief Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller privately worked to advance the IRGC designation and expand state security powers before the measure was adopted.
McCallum discussed the proposed IRGC proscription with then-Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in 2023, while acknowledging that its “direct operational benefit” was likely to be “modest.”
Despite recognizing the limited practical impact, McCallum told Cooper that granting authorities such powers was still “sensible to contemplate” as Britain debated whether to formally proscribe the IRGC.
The leaked emails showed that the IRGC designation gained momentum amid false claims by British security officials that Iran had been involved in plots inside the UK, including McCallum’s statements that MI5 had disrupted multiple Iran-related threats without disclosing any evidence.
The UK government officially designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization on July 13, granting authorities expanded powers to prosecute individuals for activities to support or promote the group under Britain’s so-called terrorism laws.
The intelligence campaign to the passage of the National Security Act,
The report also linked the intelligence campaign to the passage of the National Security Act, a controversial law that expanded government powers against activities considered threats to national security.
In one leaked email, McCallum thanked Manningham-Buller for helping secure the legislation, writing, “Many thanks for your support (and stamina) in getting the NS Act over the line.”
The report said the legislation introduced offenses targeting unauthorized disclosures of state information, while parliamentary debates explicitly referenced preventing future “WikiLeaks-type” disclosures.
Grayzone: “The Act could have a “chilling effect” on legitimate journalistic activity”
The Grayzone also cited warnings from lawyers involved in drafting the legislation that the Act could have a “chilling effect” on legitimate journalistic activity. The leaked correspondence showed McCallum continued promoting warnings about foreign threats, including unfounded claims that Iran had carried out plots against British targets.
In October 2024, Manningham-Buller praised McCallum’s public security warnings, writing, “You could not have hoped for fuller coverage. Hope it helps with SR,” referring to the government’s spending review.
The report said the exchange highlighted how claims of foreign threats were used to support calls for increased intelligence resources, with the government later announcing a seven-percent rise in spending on domestic and foreign intelligence operations.
originally published by Iranian Press TV
RELATED POST
Iranian Army backs IRGC, slams UK Parliament’s banning of elite force
One-Ton Bomb on House in Iran: 3 Dead.” NYT and TASS Confirm Gospa News Scoop on Trump’s War Crimes
Patriot and THAAD Inventories Collapse in Ongoing Iran War as U.S. and Israel Pause New Strikes
President Donald Trump said the US and Israel had decided to hold off on new strikes on Iran — provided that a deal to end the ongoing conflict is reached quickly.
Meanwhile, a report published by a US-based think tank recently warned that American inventories of key air defense interceptors have fallen sharply, raising the prospect that US and coalition forces may need to accept greater risks in future missile defense operations.
When the US launched Operation Epic Fury in February 2026, President Donald Trump said the hostilities would last only a few days, a deadline that was subsequently moved to a few weeks. However, five months later, there is no end in sight to the war, which has now spilled over into much of West Asia.
During the war, the US has severely drawn down its air defense interceptors, as documented by the US-based think tank CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies). The CSIS report estimates that stockpiles of the Patriot and THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) have been greatly reduced in the ongoing conflict.
Published on July 27, 2026, the report—“Renewed Iran War Would Test Diminished Interceptor Inventories” authored by Mark F. Cancian and Chris H. Park—updates an earlier CSIS assessment released around the ceasefire agreed to by both sides on April 8, 2026.
“The air defense campaign has been largely successful with high—though not perfect—interception rates. While some Iranian attacks got past defenses, causing casualties and extensive base damage, these attacks have been unable to diminish U.S. and coalition operations. This has required extensive use of interceptors, with Patriot inventories now under 1,000 and THAAD inventories at about 250,” states the report.
The previous report had estimated that the US Patriot interceptor inventory shrank by 55%. However, the updated figures suggest the stockpile has further shrunk by an additional 10% since the truce, and that approximately 65% of US Patriots have now been lost since the war began.
The report estimates that Patriot inventories now stand at under 1,000 (the most recent figures place the range at 759–827) and that THAAD inventories stand at about 250 (the latest figures put it at roughly 234–278).
Both systems have been heavily used to defend US bases, Gulf partners, and Israel against Iranian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and related threats. CSIS apparently draws its estimates from publicly available legislative and Pentagon budget documents, supplemented by open-source data on rounds expended in the Gulf.
“Diminished stockpiles may force the United States and its coalition partners to take more risks with interceptions. There are no good alternatives to Patriot and THAAD for ballistic missile defense. Navy ships, with Standard Missiles that can intercept such threats, generally are too far away,” the report warned.
Notably, an NBC report recently stated that US commanders are choosing not to take down Iranian projectiles that are headed into uninhabited regions of US sites in the vicinity because they do not want to squander their interceptor missiles.
This alleged tactic, if true, marks a shift from previous air and missile defense procedures in the region, such as when a US-manned Patriot detachment protected a mostly evacuated Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar from a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles in response to Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025.
Despite a dearth in air defense interceptors, the US has vowed to hit Iran very hard, a move that will almost certainly trigger Iranian retaliation and further cause depletion in Patriot and THAAD interceptors. The situation may become dire, given that the production of these missiles takes woefully long—Lockheed delivered just about 600 interceptors in 2025, and only 96 THAAD interceptors are manufactured per year.
The United States is therefore consuming its most valuable air-defense munitions far faster than industry can replace them. Some analysts have suggested that depleting offensive and defensive stockpiles contributed to the Trump administration’s decision to accept a ceasefire, including the latest one where the U.S. and Israel agreed to hold off on new strikes on Iran.
Other reports indicate Trump may have changed the offensive plans after talking with Saudi Arabia and after Iran also spoke to Riyadh, besides Pakistan and Turkey.
Trump insisted the US was still “locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” but added that Tehran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked him to hold off on fresh strikes. “Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
Meanwhile, Strategists also warn that the shortages create near- to medium-term risks for U.S. readiness in other theaters, particularly a potential conflict with China in the western Pacific. “Expended munitions create a near- to medium-term risk for U.S. readiness to fight a war against China in the western Pacific,” the report stated.
In the near term, Washington is unlikely to spare Patriots for Ukraine, which continues to face intense Russian attacks and has repeatedly requested additional interceptors. Russia has been exploiting the vacuum in air defense coverage to strike Kyiv with lethal ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as the EurAsian Times reported.
Pentagon Boosting Interceptor Production
Noteworthy steps have been taken in 2026 to rapidly expand production of Patriot (primarily PAC-3 MSE) and THAAD interceptors.
These efforts use a new “Acquisition Transformation Strategy” approach that emphasizes multi-year framework agreements, undefinitized contract actions (UCAs), long-term demand signals, and parallel investments in facilities, the workforce, and bottleneck components.
For instance, the US Army awarded Lockheed Martin a contract on July 29 worth up to $58.6 billion to produce Patriot interceptor missiles.
This comes after the US awarded Lockheed Martin a $4.7 billion contract in April 2026 to accelerate the production of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptors. The agreement stipulated that the annual output of PAC-3 MSE interceptors would be increased from nearly 600 to 2,000 units.
The Army states that the latest contract establishes a multiyear procurement strategy for the interceptors from fiscal 2026 through 2032 by converting a prior one-year deal awarded in April into a seven-year draft agreement.
The Pentagon Munitions Acceleration Council (MAC) also reportedly signed an emergency procurement agreement with key vendors to boost production.
Meanwhile, Lockheed has stated that it is investing $8–9 billion through 2030 across more than 20 sites in the United States.
Additionally, the US has agreed to grant Ukraine a license to produce Patriot interceptors, making it the latest European country to manufacture these prized munitions, alongside Germany, Romania, and Poland.
Not just that, Lockheed Martin announced the introduction of the PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector (PAC-3 ACE), a low-cost interceptor built to defeat a wide range of threats for less than half the cost of a PAC-3 MSE.
As for THAAD, the Pentagon signed a framework with Lockheed Martin to quadruple annual production from 96 to 400 interceptors.
The framework was intended to lead to a formal contract award (subject to congressional appropriations). This was later executed in June 2026 with an undefinitized contract action (UCA) valued at up to $35 billion to increase manufacturing through 2030.
The Pentagon, in collaboration with L3Harris and Lockheed Martin, announced two historic seven-year framework agreements earlier this week to increase production capacity for critical components of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptors.
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
The post Patriot and THAAD Inventories Collapse in Ongoing Iran War as U.S. and Israel Pause New Strikes appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
F-35: U.S. Rejects Iran’s Claims Of Destroying Three Stealth Fighter Jets at Jordan Air Base
The US has outrightly rejected Iran’s claims that it managed to destroy American F-35 fighter jets.
CENTCOM wrote on X: Over the past few hours, Iranian state media have continued to report false claims by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
FIRST CLAIM: The IRGC (again) claims free and open routes through the Strait of Hormuz are dangerous for commercial vessels. FACT: The immediate dangers posed to commercial vessels and their civilian crews are the IRGC’s verbal threats and attempted attacks.
SECOND CLAIM: The IRGC claims three U.S. F-35 stealth fighters and three other aircraft were destroyed during a recent Iranian attack on an American air base. FACT: No U.S. aircraft were destroyed or damaged in recent attempted Iranian attacks. All missiles and drones were intercepted or failed to reach targeted areas.
THIRD CLAIM: Iranian state media is reporting that a commercial oil tanker, M/T Nora, has broken through the U.S. blockade.FACT: The commercial vessel has not broken through America’s steel wall blockade. More than 20 U.S. warships, hundreds of aircraft, and thousands of service members remain vigilant and continue to fully enforce the blockade.
Earlier, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) had claimed that three US F-35 jets were destroyed and three others were damaged in a missile attack on Jordan’s Al-Azraq air base.
However, this claim has not yet been confirmed by US or Jordanian officials, or by any independent source.
IRGC’s public relations department claimed the attack was in response to US airstrikes on two residential homes on Qeshm Island, which killed three members of the same family, including a child, and wounded two other children.
The Revolutionary Guards also claimed that a hangar for the installation and repair of fighter jets at Al-Azraq Air Base was also targeted, resulting in the deaths of several American officers and technical staff members. However, no specific numbers or further details were provided.
Washington has not yet issued any official statement.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that a ballistic missile strike destroyed three US F-35 fighter jets and severely damaged three others at Jordan’s al-Azraq air base.
The Guards said that several US officers and maintenance personnel were killed.
The attack targeted…
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) July 30, 2026
Earlier, IRGC said on Thursday that three of its members were killed in an attack by the United States on the northwestern province of Zanjan.
“In the brutal attack carried out by the terrorist regime of the criminal United States on 30 July 2026, three brave and devoted members of the Ansar al-Mahdi IRGC in Zanjan province… attained martyrdom,” the Guards’ provincial branch said in a statement, according to Tasnim news agency.
Earlier in March, as EurAsian Times reported, a US F-35 made an emergency landing at a US air base in the Middle East after it was hit by possible Iranian fire.
Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for US Central Command, said the fifth-generation stealth jet was “flying a combat mission over Iran” when it was forced to make an emergency landing. Hawkins said the aircraft landed safely and the incident is under investigation.
“The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot is in stable condition,” Hawkins added. “This incident is under investigation.”
Iran has a well-documented pattern of issuing bold claims about successful strikes on advanced U.S. military assets, particularly F-35 stealth fighters.
Throughout the current conflict, the IRGC have repeatedly claimed to have destroyed or damaged US warplanes and other high-value assets at bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and elsewhere. Earlier claims in June and mid-July similarly described the destruction of fighter hangars and multiple aircraft at Al-Azraq, often accompanied by assertive language.
By asserting the destruction of the F-35—one of the most advanced fighters in the U.S. inventory—Iran seeks to project strength, boost morale at home, and portray its missile forces as capable of neutralizing American air power.
By ET Desk
The post F-35: U.S. Rejects Iran’s Claims Of Destroying Three Stealth Fighter Jets at Jordan Air Base appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
Iran Encircles Saudi Arabia From All The Sides — Threatening Its Economy, Oil Lifeline & Future Investments
Iran is deliberately outsourcing the risk. If a Houthi drone hits a Saudi tanker or an Iraqi militia rocket lands near a pumping station, Tehran retains deniability while Riyadh still pays the price. It is attrition by proxy, and it is highly effective.
Saudi Arabia is being encircled by Iranian proxies targeting its oil infrastructure and crippling its maritime trade. The picture is a terrifying scenario for the world’s biggest oil exporter — jeopardizing its plans to diversify its economy and attract investment & tourists.
Despite calls for a diplomatic solution, Saudi forces have faced attacks from both Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi rebels as they impose a Red Sea blockade on Saudi ships, and from pro-Iran militias in Iraq targeting its energy facilities.
Early on Wednesday, the kingdom struck back. Joint US-Saudi strikes in Iraq killed 20, according to the alliance of former paramilitary groups and factions whose bases were targeted.
“Saudi Arabia understands that becoming drawn into a prolonged war of attrition with Iran and the so-called Axis of Resistance does not serve the Kingdom’s long-term interests,” Danny Citrinowicz, a senior Iran researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, wrote on X.
Still, as one Saudi analyst close to the government put it, “restraint has limits”.
With several Saudi tankers hit in the Red Sea, the Houthis are seeking to limit access to a critical artery delivering Saudi crude to the international market after the Strait of Hormuz was largely choked off by Iran.
The repeated attacks have already done something more damaging than physical destruction: they have punctured the Gulf’s carefully cultivated image as a safe harbor for capital. Once that perception cracks, the cost of repairing it is measured in years, not months.
The threats on multiple fronts come just months after Iran itself launched waves of strikes targeting Saudi energy installations, including refineries, petrochemical plants and power facilities.
The salvos hit “key” installations, according to Saudi state media, impacting oil production capacity.
The repeated barrages against Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors also shattered the wealthy monarchies’ hard-earned reputation for stability.
“For the Gulf states, stability is not an abstract concept; it is the foundation of their economic model,” Citrinowicz wrote in an online commentary.
“Their long-term prosperity depends on regional predictability, investment, trade, and uninterrupted energy flows.”
Such attacks risk a bigger backlash from a cornered Riyadh, which experts say has so far held off on a larger retaliation.
“The kingdom has the capacity to impose severe punishment on the Houthis and the Iraqi militias, but has so far exercised considerable restraint,” Ali Shihabi, a political analyst close to the Saudi government, told AFP.
“That restraint has limits and should not be mistaken for weakness.”
Fear is also mounting that the Houthis will copy Iran’s playbook in the Hormuz Strait by charging ships to transit the Red Sea — giving them a revenue stream to bolster their arsenal and project power across Yemen.
On Wednesday, a minister in Yemen’s internationally recognized government claimed the rebels had already begun working under Iranian guidance to establish a fee system.
Information minister Moammar al-Eryani described the move in remarks to AFP “as a dangerous escalation aimed at transforming one of the world’s most strategic maritime corridors into a permanent source of funding for the militia’s military and terrorist activities”.
Even if fears over the tolls are not realized, analysts say the group’s ability to disrupt one of the world’s most vital waterways sends a powerful message.
“That capability is itself the warning,” H.A. Hellyer, analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told AFP. “It’s a preview of what Iran-aligned actors elsewhere on Saudi Arabia’s periphery can also bring to bear.”
With AFP Inputs
The post Iran Encircles Saudi Arabia From All The Sides — Threatening Its Economy, Oil Lifeline & Future Investments appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
Iran War News: U.S. Commander Warns Cellphone Videos Help Iran Target Bases; Troops May Have to Surrender Mobiles
As the Iran war intensifies again, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East has warned that cellphone videos and images shared online by American soldiers could help Iran attack U.S. bases, and some service members may soon be ordered to surrender their phones.
Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), raised the concern in a previously unreported letter dated July 28.
He said Iran was gaining real-time data into the success or failure of its missile and drone strikes by monitoring news reports and online content that included “reactions, photos, and footage from the cellphones of our troops.”
“The direct, unavoidable cost of this open-source intelligence could be measured in the lives of American service members and civilian residents in targeted Gulf countries,” Cooper wrote. He urged forces to “redouble our focus on operational security” but stopped short of recommending specific measures in the memo.
According to Reuters, some US troops stationed in Jordan have already been notified their phones will be seized in the coming days. More comprehensive restrictions are possible across the tumultuous region because of operational security concerns.
Cooper cited one specific example in the letter: a video captured on a service member’s Meta smart glasses and posted on Instagram during an Iranian missile and drone attack. The footage showed where and how the individual evacuated to a bunker. Without such publicly available material, Cooper said, Iran would struggle to determine whether its weapons had missed by tens of meters, struck an empty tarmac or hit a populated facility, thanks in part to U.S. electronic jamming and other battlefield tactics.
“Iran knows the weapons were fired; however, their forces do not know if they missed by 50 meters, hit an empty tarmac, or successfully struck a crowded facility,” he wrote.
“Detailed lists, descriptions, and analyses of what was hit, openly published by news outlets, are essentially performing Iran’s Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) for them, free of charge.”
Public disclosures of strike details, he added, could serve as “an immediate green light” for secondary, more devastating follow-up attacks.
The warning comes as the conflict that began in late February has killed 18 U.S. troops and wounded more than 600, according to official figures.
On July 13, the Financial Times reported that mobile phone networks across the Middle East had been targeted by a wave of cyberattacks aimed at locating American forces and contractors around the same time as U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian positions.
CENTCOM spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins confirmed the authenticity of Cooper’s letter, describing it as “a general reminder to our service members on the importance of maintaining operational security.” He declined to discuss specific protective measures.
Meanwhile, the US military conducted a “heavy wave of strikes” against Iran on Thursday in retaliation against Tehran targeting American bases in Jordan.
US President Donald Trump had vowed to hit Iran “hard” after Tehran launched missiles at Jordan.
American forces “successfully completed a heavy wave of strikes against Iran”, and struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard targets including military command centers, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
In Iraq, the joint US-Saudi air operation followed attacks by “terrorist militias loyal to Iran” on its oil facilities. The US military said logistics and weapons sites belonging to an Iran-aligned group were targeted in the strikes.
Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi alliance said the attacks killed at least 20 of its members. It condemned a “dangerous escalation” against an “official security institution”.
Two Hashed officials said five Iranian advisors were among those killed.
Iraq slammed the US-Saudi strikes and said it rejects “all acts of aggression, regardless of the party responsible or the justifications presented”.
The Ministerial Council for National Security said it would “confront any violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and prevent any source from using Iraqi territory to threaten neighboring states”.
According to Fox News, however, Trump said the strikes were “coordinated with the Iraqi government”.
The strikes follow growing US pressure on Iraq to disarm pro-Iran groups. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi visited both the US and Iran.
With AFP Inputs
The post Iran War News: U.S. Commander Warns Cellphone Videos Help Iran Target Bases; Troops May Have to Surrender Mobiles appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.
