Month: August 2026

August 17, 2026 News Briefing

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Iran’s War Losses, US/Israel Comparison

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Iran’s Evolving Military Strategy 

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Iran’s Underground Military Strategy

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Daily News Briefing: August 17, 2026

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 Audio Posts Review – 10:28 AM 8/16/2026

NEWS REVIEW – AI REPORT

Unprecedented Drone Assault

On Sunday, August 16, Ukraine launched one of its most massive drone assaults since the war began, directing an estimated 600 drones toward the Moscow region.

Ukraine War: Escalated Aerial Attacks https://share.gemini.google/a9htpT1oV13b
Here are the main developments in the Russia-Ukraine war over the past week, defined by a massive escalation in long-range aerial attacks by both sides:

Ukrainian Strikes Inside Russia

Unprecedented Drone Assault: On Sunday, August 16, Ukraine launched one of its most massive drone assaults since the war began, directing an estimated 600 drones toward the Moscow region.
Targeting Logistics and Economy: A primary target was a 200,000-square-meter warehouse in Podolsk belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest e-commerce retailer, which was severely damaged in a resulting fire. Kyiv has increasingly targeted the company—which it accuses of supplying dual-use drone components to the Russian military—including a coordinated cyberattack on its payment systems earlier in the week.
Strategic Deep Strikes: Throughout the week, Ukrainian forces struck military logistics networks, an industrial site in Samara, a major oil refinery deep inside Russian territory, and launched a combined missile and sea drone attack against Russia’s Black Sea naval stronghold in Novorossiysk.

Russian Bombardments on Ukraine

Intense Aerial Barrage: According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia launched more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles (primarily ballistic) at Ukrainian cities and communities over the past week.
Exploiting Air Defense Gaps: Russian ballistic missiles successfully struck industrial targets and civilian areas in Kyiv and Kryvyi Rih. These strikes exposed a critical vulnerability, as Ukraine is currently experiencing a severe shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors, which are the only weapons in its arsenal capable of shooting down high-speed ballistic missiles.
Damage and Casualties: The strikes caused multiple civilian casualties across several regions. In Kyiv, the attacks ignited severe fires that destroyed a large portion of the historic Petrovka book market, a major cultural hub. Russia’s defense ministry stated its strikes targeted defense production facilities, an oil refinery in Kremenchuk, and the ArcelorMittal metallurgical complex.

Black Sea Diplomacy

Proposed Shipping Truce: In a pragmatic move ahead of the harvest season, Ukraine reportedly offered a deal to Russia—mediated through a third party—to mutually halt attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea. The overture is aimed at reopening crucial maritime corridors for Ukrainian grain and Russian oil to stabilize international food and energy markets.

Spillover into NATO Territory

Airspace Incursions: The intense aerial warfare resulted in multiple drones crossing into NATO airspace. A Spanish F-18 fighter jet, operating as part of a NATO patrol, shot down a suspected Russian drone over Romania. Separately, another drone exploded near a gas pipeline in Bulgaria, prompting the country to summon the Ukrainian ambassador.
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AI Mode:
Unprecedented Drone Assault: On Sunday, August 16

Ukraine launched one of its largest coordinated drone assaults of the war overnight into Sunday, August 16, 2026, targeting multiple regions across Russia. Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed to have intercepted 822 Ukrainian drones. Over 600 of those unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were reportedly directed toward Moscow alone. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Casualties and Damage in Russia

Moscow Region: An 83-year-old man was killed in Podolsk when a drone struck a private residence. The attack sparked a massive blaze at a major Wildberries e-commerce warehouse, sending columns of thick black smoke into the air. Another warehouse facility in Domodedovo, near a major airport, was also damaged. [1, 6]
Rostov Region: A swarm of more than 150 drones hit three towns in the southwestern region, killing five people. The strikes damaged residential homes, hit a railway station, and ignited a forest fire. [1]
Logistics & Aviation: The intense aerial raid forced flight suspensions and massive delays across all four major international airports serving the Moscow metropolitan area. [7]

Simultaneous Russian Strikes and NATO Spillover

Kyiv & Kryvyi Rih Bombardment: In a parallel escalation, Russian forces fired missiles and deployed a barrage of 106 drones targeting 13 separate locations in Ukraine. The strikes killed two people in Kryvyi Rih, one in Sumy, and two in the Zaporizhzhia region, while setting fire to a prominent book market in Kyiv. [8, 9]
NATO Jet Interception: The conflict briefly crossed into eastern Europe early Sunday morning when a Spanish F-18 fighter jet, flying on a NATO mission, shot down a stray drone that breached Romanian airspace from Moldova near the Ukrainian border. [10]

Ukraine has progressively expanded its long-range strategy to target Russian economic, infrastructure, and retail distribution centers, stating these operations are essential responses to continuous Russian bombardment. [11, 12]

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Review of Articles

Frustration with Trump grows among U.S.’s Persian Gulf allies, officials say

Sunday August 16th, 2026 at 7:42 AM

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Frustration with Washington is growing in the Persian Gulf region, where U.S. allies are increasingly concerned that President Donald Trump is unable to manage the diplomacy necessary to secure peace with Iran, Arab and Western officials say.

Trump in recent weeks has repeatedly issued threats against Iran, only to withdraw them, citing progress in talks. After months of conflict, and continuing missile and drone strikes by Iran and its proxies, three officials and a former U.S. diplomat told The Washington Post, the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are now united in their aggravation with the administration. Some have begun to debate the utility of continuing to host large U.S. military installations on their territory.

“Trump started this war,” one Gulf official said, “and we are paying the price.” Like others in this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject. Anger with the United States, the official said, was at its highest point since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February.

The Gulf states continue to rely on Washington as a close security partner and major arms supplier, and Qatar and Bahrain host large U.S. bases. But the frustration is leading some states to consider new arrangements. These dynamics are unlikely in the near term to significantly reorder the region, analysts say, but some countries have begun to explore their options.

A mutual defense agreement signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan last week was “a signal to the U.S.,” a senior European official said.

The pact shows the three powerful Sunni Muslim states “are trying to diversify their security and defense partnerships,” said the official, who is in regular contact with Gulf leaders. “In their mind, the U.S. is not enough.”

A White House official said Trump “has extraordinary relationships with all of our Gulf partners.”

“The United States has been in regular contact with all of our regional allies since before Operation Epic Fury,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House. “Iran is more isolated than ever before as a result of its terrorist actions.”

Representatives of the Saudi, Emirati, Qatari, Kuwaiti and Bahraini governments did not respond to requests for comment.

“There has been frustration from the get-go,” said Firas Maksad, director for the Middle East and North Africa practice at the Eurasia Group. U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, he said, feel they were “unnecessarily entangled” in a war that Trump is now struggling to resolve.

Maksad, who has extensive contacts within Gulf leadership, said Trump’s Iran policy is often described in the region as “erratic” and “unpredictable.”

Anna Jacobs, a fellow with the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said there has been “diminished trust” of the U.S. since the start of the war. U.S. allies think the country’s “conduct in the region is making them less safe, not more safe,” she said.

One Western diplomat in the region said these changes don’t amount to a significant shift in sentiment toward the United States. Even before the war with Iran, he said, U.S. forces in the region were not “enthusiastically” welcomed. “It was more something that was a necessary evil,” the diplomat said. “Now, the necessity of it is being put in question.”

Saudi Arabia has come under particular pressure in recent weeks. In addition to attacks from Iran and Iran-backed groups in Iraq, the kingdom has been targeted by Iranian-aligned Houthis in Yemen.

Houthi forces have repeatedly struck Saudi energy infrastructure and are attempting to shut down the Bab al-Mandab strait at the mouth of the Red Sea. Since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in the early days of the war, Saudi Arabia has depended on its Red Sea ports to export its oil.

Attitudes toward the war among Gulf leaders have shifted. Oman has opposed the conflict from the outset, but Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have at times backed it.

Emirati forces have conducted “numerous” strikes on Iranian territory in recent months, according to the Western diplomat, and Saudi forces have struck back at Iranian-backed groups attacking from Iraq.

“At the beginning of the war, they were — I don’t want to say, supportive — but honestly, they were not totally against the war,” the senior European official said. The thinking in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, he said, was that a quick, definitive victory could prove beneficial.

That began to shift in the lead-up to the first round of talks between Iran and the United States in April, the official said, when it became clear that not only would the Iranian regime not fall, but it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

In the months since, Trump’s inconsistency has alarmed the Gulf, said Bader Al-Saif, an assistant professor of history at Kuwait University.

“Even before all this back and forth with Trump, there was no clear strategy,” said Al-Saif, a fellow of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He cited the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran in June.

“The MOU was a joke,” he said. The agreement didn’t address the Gulf states’ top concerns, including Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal or Tehran’s support for proxy forces.

“Those terms were not terms of our liking,” Al-Saif said, “and that’s why it died out sooner than later.”

Trump, the White House official said, “has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy.

“Unfortunately, Iran chose the path of violence by killing American troops, committing international acts of terrorism, and lashing out at its neighbors in the region — and the Commander-in-Chief ensured that they reaped the consequences of those decisions.”

The Gulf states lack an immediately viable alternative to their decades-long security partnerships with the United States. As the conflict continues, the Gulf official said, their only choice is to double down on their alliances with Washington.

“Whatever we do,” he said, “we cannot say no to the United States.”

Douglas Silliman, a U.S. ambassador to Kuwait and Iraq under President Barack Obama and Trump, said he heard frustration with Washington on a recent visit to the region. But in recent weeks, he said, he is also hearing growing anger at Tehran for its continued attacks on infrastructure and refusal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Silliman, now the president of the Arab Gulf States Institute, described the feeling in the region as “kind of this odd contradiction of being mad at the United States for starting the war and being dependent upon the United States” for equipment, munitions and intelligence.

If the conflict continues, the economic pressure on the Gulf will grow. Even during peacetime, the region quiets over the summer, tourism slows and residents hole up indoors to escape 100-degree days.

But in autumn, temperatures fall and activity resumes. This year, the conferences, summits, festivals and Formula One races that pack the calendar from October through December are all in limbo.

Saudi Arabia’s 10th annual Future Investment Initiative Institute in late October, the “Davos in the Desert,” could be an early test of whether senior officials and top CEOs are willing to visit the region, the Western diplomat said.

“They may tweak the theme” to acknowledge continued insecurity in the region, he said. “To postpone would send the wrong message.”

Iran continues to launch drones and missiles against Kuwait, but in the capital, much of life has returned to normal, Al-Saif said. “We have been through worse,” he said, referring to the 1990 invasion by Iraq that triggered the Persian Gulf War. “We handled the occupation. We can handle this.”

The security lockdown from the war’s earlier stage has been largely lifted. Businesses are open, traffic has returned to city streets and Al-Saif has resumed teaching in person. But the conflict, he said, must not continue much longer.

“A quick end is obviously something we want,” he said. “The Gulf War was much more straightforward than today.”

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Putin Gets Chilling ‘Revolution’ Warning From One of His Own

Sunday August 16th, 2026 at 7:16 AM

The Daily Beast Latest Articles

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A Russian state bank official has warned that the country is headed for a “social crisis.”

Russian Propaganda Stars Admit Scale of Putin’s Problems

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Ukraine launches one of its largest aerial attacks of the war, killing at least 6 people in Russia

Sunday August 16th, 2026 at 7:10 AM

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

Kyiv has stepped up its attacks on Russia this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones increasingly targeting military industries and energy facilities. It has also increasingly pummeled giant Wildberries depots, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise belonging to the Russian online retail giant and bringing the war home to the Russian public nearly 4½ years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that it had destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight. Some 600 drones were detected headed toward the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with a third of those destroyed over the Moscow region itself.

An 83-year-old man was killed after a Ukrainian drone hit a private home in the Moscow region, local Gov. Andrey Vorobyov said. He also confirmed that a Ukrainian attack had sparked a blaze at a Wildberries warehouse in the town of Podolsk.

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

Russian strikes kill 5 in Ukraine

A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media Sunday. He also said that one more person had been killed in the city of Sumy.

Elsewhere, a man and a woman both died when their home was hit by a Russian strike in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, said Ivan Fedorov, the head of the local military administration.

More attacks sparked fires throughout the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, wounding six people.

“Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said. “Since this morning, air raid alerts have continued in many regions — the Russians launched another wave of drones.”

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had targeted a metallurgical plant in Kryvyi Rih and several military-industrial sites in Kyiv, including a manufacturing facility for Ukraine’s Flamingo missiles.

The domestically produced missiles are increasingly key to Ukraine’s long-range attacks on Russia, with Zelenskyy announcing Saturday that Kyiv had used the weapons to attack a rocket research and production center in Samara approximately 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

NATO jet downs drone in Romanian airspace

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said Sunday that a Spanish Air and Space Force F-18 fighter jet shot down a drone that had entered Romanian airspace.

The drone’s entry into the NATO member’s airspace was detected by surveillance systems at 4:44 a.m., the ministry said, about 24 kilometers (14.9 miles) north of the eastern city of Galati near the border with neighboring Moldova. Moldova is a landlocked country between Ukraine and Romania.

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A Spanish F-18 aircraft that was performing air policing duties “made radar contact with the target and received engagement approval,” the ministry said. “The drone was safely shot down by the F-18 aircraft at 05:01.”

Officials did not specify the drone’s origin.

The incident comes weeks after Romanian pilots shot down the three drones over three days from F-16 fighter jets, as Russia intensified attacks against Ukraine near the border. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Romania has reported dozens of drone incidents, including some that have crashed and exploded on its territory.

Acting Foreign Minister Oana Toiu said in a post on X that the Spanish deployment in Romania was scaled up “at the request of Romania and NATO to bolster the Eastern Flank following prior drone incidents,” and that it was Spain’s fourth such deployment.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Five wounded in shooting at Virginia State University, suspect arrested

Sunday August 16th, 2026 at 7:02 AM

Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera

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According to police, the suspect is not a student at the university, nor were four of the five injured.

A 19-year-old has been arrested in connection with a shooting on a Virginia university campus that wounded five people, one critically.

Police arrested Camron Harris of Henrico, Virginia, on Saturday after finding the suspect hiding in a dormitory closet.

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According to Chesterfield County Police, Harris is not a student at the university, nor were four of the five injured.

The shooting, just after 1:30am (5:30 GMT) on Saturday, triggered an hours-long campus-wide lockdown. The university lifted the lockdown hours later, at 8:21am (12:21 GMT).

All five of the wounded were taken to hospital, including one in critical condition, according to the university.

Authorities said the victims ranged in age from 17 to 23. One of them, a 20-year-old student, has since been released from the hospital.

The names of those wounded have not been released.

Police obtained eight felony warrants against Harris, including for malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

The authorities have not disclosed a possible motive.

Arthur Fridrich, the university’s former director of distance education, said: “For those that were shot, my heart bleeds. I hope that they all mend and somehow do not let this event define their lives.”

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The university said in an earlier statement that authorities were searching for multiple suspects, but police gave no additional information.

The shooting happened two days before the university’s autumn semester is due to start.

Virginia State University is a historically Black university in Ettrick, about 39 kilometres (24 miles) south of the state capital of Richmond.

It has about 5,700 students and was the first fully state-supported four-year college for Black Americans.

Gun violence at colleges and universities in the US is relatively common. The Gun Violence Archive, a national tracker, recorded 75 shootings at higher education institutions in 2025, with a total of 100 victims.

One of the most high-profile attacks in recent years was in Virginia, when a gunman fatally shot 32 people and wounded 17 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, also known as Virginia Tech, in 2007.

Earlier this year, a man opened fire at a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) group at Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, Virginia, killing an instructor and wounding two others.

In a statement on social media, Governor Abigail Spanberger said she and her husband were “praying for a quick recovery for those who were shot this morning at Virginia State University, and our thoughts are with the VSU community”.

She also thanked first responders and law enforcement.

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Putin loses 43K soldiers on Ukraine battlefield in one of bloodiest months since start of war

Sunday August 16th, 2026 at 2:38 AM

[Untitled]

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Russia suffered some of its most staggering losses of the war in July, while Kyiv made its largest territorial gains in more than a year, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

Moscow’s military lost 42,860 men on the battlefield last month, which includes soldiers killed and wounded, the most since January 2025 — and the fourth bloodiest month since the start of the war in 2022.

With total casualties now allegedly nearing 1.5 million and recruitment increasingly becoming an obstacle  for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the tyrant could soon be forced to engage in peace talks if he runs out of soldiers, experts have posited.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting in Moscow.

Putin is running out of men to send to the battlefield, with casualties nearing 1.5 million since the start of the war. ALEXANDER KAZAKOV/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL/EPA/Shutterstock

Putin has become so desperate in recent months, he’s had to lure his countrymen to join the war effort with false promises of “quiet service” — or recruit Africans under similarly deceitful schemes.

An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 North Koreans troops are being prepared to be deployed in Russia, according to Ukraine. The Putin ally already sent 15,000 soldiers back in 2024.

Ukraine, meanwhile, says it has liberated close to 300 square miles along the southern front, retaking 26 settlements along the frontline and placing them back under full Ukrainian control.

Kyiv has pushed Russian troops back more than seven miles on the southern front, near the intersection of the Dnipro, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, through small attacks to gradually erode Russian control gradually.

Overnight int the past day, Ukrainian forces fired missiles deep inside Russia — causing “significant damage” at a military airbase, an oil depot and a state-run aerospace center.

Large orange fire burning above dark tree line at dusk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced deep strikes inside Russia Saturday. x/ZelenskyyUa

Long-range Flamingo missiles struck the Savasleyka airbase in western Russia, 435 miles from the border. It houses MIG-31 jets carrying ballistic missiles that strike Ukrainian cities and villages, but it’s not known how many jets were hit in the attack.

Explosions were also heard in Samara, where Kyiv struck the Progress Rocket Space Center, one of the key enterprises of the state-run aerospace corporation Roscosmos.

“The progress center, which was involved, among other things, in producing electronics, was hit. Flamingo missiles were used — a good achievement,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Smoke rising from an oil facility in Ust-Luga, Russia, after a Ukrainian deep strike.

“It is important that Russia’s war potential be reduced,” Zelensky said Saturday. x/ZelenskyyUa

Workers stand in front of a residential building destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Kramatorsk, Ukraine.

Russia fired 152 Shahed drones at Ukraine over the past day. Anadolu via Getty Images

At some 560 miles from Ukraine’s border, it was Kyiv’s deepest strike into Russia of the war. Ivan Noskov, head of the Samara, called it a “massive attack.”

Kyiv also damaged an oil facility in Ust-Luga, which caught on fire, 500 miles from the border, Zelensky said.

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“It is important that Russia’s war potential be reduced,” he wrote on X. “Peace is needed, and this must be evident in Russia – through concrete damage to specific facilities.”

Ukraine fired at least seven guided bombs, 17 Flamingo cruise missiles and 1,328 drones over the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Russia responded with 152 Shahed drones, killing a 3-month-old child in Dnipro and injuring 49 others across Ukraine.

Read the whole story · · · · · · ·

Germany Beefs Up Its Intelligence Services as Threat From ‘Foreign Powers’ Rises – HSToday

Saturday August 15th, 2026 at 1:27 PM

HSToday

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Germany’s government plans to give its intelligence services broader powers for actions such as disabling sabotage and hacking attempts in response to a rising threat from powers such as Russia and extremists.

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved draft legislation meant to strengthen Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, the BND, and its domestic intelligence service, the BfV, and reduce the reliance of the European Union’s most populous nation on tips from its allies.

The powers of Germany’s intelligence services have long lagged behind those of major European counterparts. Modern Germany has traditionally been sensitive to data protection concerns, not least because of memories of repression under the Nazis and later by communist East Germany’s secret police.

Read the rest of the story at AP News.

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Russian ballistic attacks intensify as Kyiv claims Dnipropetrovsk advance

Friday August 14th, 2026 at 9:51 AM

Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera

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Ukraine has declared the successful end of an operation in which it recaptured 745 square kilometres (287 square miles) of its territory this year in its southern region of Dnipropetrovsk.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Wednesday that the campaign was carried out “exactly as it was determined” and said almost 10,000 Russian soldiers were killed in the process.

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The counteroffensive deprived Russia of almost all the territory it had gained in Dnipropetrovsk since entering that region in June 2025, and pushed it back over the regional borders of Donetsk and Zaporizhia.

But this good news for Ukrainians was overshadowed by intensified Russian missile strikes against their cities, which remain increasingly defenceless after the exhaustion of Patriot interceptors.

Combined strikes of drones and ballistic or hypersonic missiles hit Kyiv on August 8 and 11, plunged Odesa in darkness on August 9, and struck the city of Zaporizhzhia on August 11, killing at least nine people across all strikes.

Ukraine pushing back on the ground

Zelenskyy said the Dnipropetrovsk operation alone had liberated 26 settlements.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that assesses territorial control using geolocated open-source information, conservatively assessed that Ukraine had clawed back at least 627sq km (242 square miles) in the area.

Smoke rises in the city during a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 11, 2026 [Gleb Garanich/Reuters]

“This operation once again proved that the Ukrainian army is capable not only of steadfastly holding its defences, but also of launching offensives, seizing the initiative, and liberating Ukrainian land,” said former commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii, who planned it.

The ISW assessed that across the front, Russia has suffered a net loss of 233sq km (90 square miles) this year.

This is despite concerted Russian offensives in the eastern Donetsk region, whose capture Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly prioritised.

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Russian assaults in June and July have been launched out of Pokrovsk towards Dobropillia, and out of Chasiv Yar towards Kostiantynivka. In both areas, Russia has captured territory and infiltrated large areas beyond it, but this has come at a cost.

Russia suffered a reported 39,000 casualties in June and nearly 43,000 in July – its highest losses since January 2025.

One of the keys to Ukraine’s success on the battlefield has been its scaling up of short-range, first-person view (FPV) drone production, where it now fields 16 drones to every Russian 10. Such drones caused more than 70 percent of Russian casualties in June and July.

Ukraine’s success in disarming Russia of its own FPV drones has also been climbing.

Ukraine downed more than 40,000 Russian drones in July, almost one and a half times as many as it downed in May, Ukraine’s defence ministry said.

Russia goes ballistic

Russia has held command of the air throughout its war in Ukraine, unleashing glide bombs, long-range drones and missiles. It is now pressing that advantage by increasing ballistic and hypersonic missiles, deputy military intelligence chief Vadym Skibitskyi told the news service RBC Ukraine.

Ukraine has only been able to intercept these types of missiles with Patriot systems, but has now run out of interceptors because, said Zelenskyy, it has received almost three times fewer this year from its allies than it did in 2025.

Skibitskyi said Russia has stopped producing missiles Ukraine became adept at shooting down, and diverted components to build greater numbers of Iskander-M ballistic missiles and S-400 hypersonic missiles.

The latter were designed as a surface-to-air missile against enemy aircraft, but have been reprogrammed to follow steep ballistic trajectories and have proven as effective as the Iskanders.

This retooling is yielding results, said Skibitskyi, as Russian industry is beating production targets in most missile categories.

“In April there were 61 ballistic missiles, in May – 107, in June – 134,” he said. “If we talk about ballistic and hypersonic missiles … the enemy launched 198 of them in July. This is the highest figure this year.”

Russia currently produces more than 100 ballistic and hypersonic missiles a month, and may have dipped into stockpiles to launch 56 of these missiles at Ukraine in just the first week of August, but it plans to increase stockpiles for a massive winter campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Skibitskyi said.

Last winter, Russia caused up to $70bn of damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and nearly succeeded in plunging Kyiv into darkness.

A Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on August 11, 2026 added to the war-torn nation’s woes [Reuters]

Russia may also be planning a massive strike on Kyiv before Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24, said Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications.

Several Ukrainian sources said North Korea was sending a force with up to 120 ballistic missiles to Russia’s western region of Voronezh, adjacent to Ukraine, where barracks were being built for it.

In an interview with Serhiy Sternenko, former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine’s best response to Russian ballistics was to rush its own successfully tested ballistic missile into production and engage in “counter-ballistic warfare”.

“The Russians must understand that a few minutes after the launch, the entire team that launches the missile must die from our ballistic missile,” Fedorov said.

Skibitskyi also said Russia was prioritising production of its jet-powered Geran 4 and Geran 5 drones, which are harder to intercept than slower-flying, piston-engine drones.

He said Russia was launching its own version of the Starlink satellite network, called Rassvet, ahead of schedule, with 16 satellites now up and a planned increase to 292 in 2027.

Russia suffered a setback when last February, Starlink disabled the terminals it was using to communicate on the battlefield and coordinate accurate counter-battery fire.

Ukraine’s long reach

Ukraine has destroyed almost a third of Russia’s refining capacity this year with its long-range drones. During the past week it struck four refineries, including Gazprom’s Neftekhim Salavat refinery in the Republic of Bashkortostan, 1,300km (810 miles) from Ukraine.

Ukraine has also pursued medium-range strikes on Russian military logistics and Russian oil tankers, starving the front line of weapons and fuel. During the past week, it brought to 218 the number of ships it has sunk or disabled, and destroyed six air defence systems.

Its most spectacular hit was on the Russian main Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on August 12, where it struck two frigates, a missile ship, a landing ship and a patrol ship. It also hit Russia’s Sheshkharis oil offloading terminal, part of a campaign to starve Russia of fossil fuel export revenue.

Zelenskyy called the operation “unique” because it was the first time Ukraine had coordinated 14 types of domestically built aerial and surface drones simultaneously.

(Al Jazeera)

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Rubio and Bessent stayed on decoy flight from Turkey as Trump switched planes, official says

Thursday August 13th, 2026 at 9:22 AM

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The two most senior members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, flew out of last month’s NATO summit in Turkey on what was effectively a decoy plane following an Iranian threat, while Trump was secretly moved to a smaller military jet, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

The official, who was briefed on the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of presidential travel, said Rubio was aware of the switch and details of the threat behind it but could or would not say why he had stayed on the plane. The official said Bessent was likely aware but did not know for sure.

The official, however, noted that security precautions for the president — especially one who has been the target of several assassination attempts — are more robust than those for even top members of the Cabinet.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the secretaries of State and Treasury follow the vice president and the highest ranking member of each chamber of Congress in the presidential line of succession.

Trump had flown to the annual gathering of NATO country leaders in Ankara, Turkey, in a new Qatari-gifted and retrofitted red, white and navy blue jet. But ahead of departing Turkey, he said he would fly partway home on an older-model baby blue Air Force One plane instead.

The president at the time said the new luxury jet was being flown out ahead of his departure from Ankara to give some U.S. troops based in eastern England a chance to check out the new Air Force One.

The Washington Post reported this week that Trump wasn’t on the old Air Force One on the return flight from Turkey and that he instead was smuggled onto another jet via a catering cart to avoid a possible Iranian assassination plot. The ruse was carried out as journalists and some White House staff members were led to believe they were on the same plane as the president as he began his journey back to Washington.

The New York Times and CBS News had reported last month that intelligence officials had raised concerns about a potential attack on the president or his jet, triggering additional precautions and the decision not to use the newly inaugurated aircraft gifted to Trump by Qatar for the first leg of Trump’s trip home from Ankara.

Trump acknowledged the transfer late Tuesday.

“It’s only up to the Secret Service. I just follow what they’d like to do, so I go by Secret Service and the military,” the president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews. “They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it, I do what they say.”

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Early Edition: August 13, 2026

Thursday August 13th, 2026 at 9:15 AM

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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:

IRAN WAR 

A senior Iranian source told Reuters that “one of the issues being discussed via mediators is the U.S. returning to the interim agreement [with Iran] and defining a time frame for implementing the commitments. The source added that “there has been absolutely no progress on this issue.” The source further dismissed a Turkish news report quoting Pakistani government sources saying they had agreed to extend the interim deal’s 60-day period. Parisa Hafezi and Elwely Elwelly report.

IRAN WAR – LEBANON 

The Washington Post reports that the announcement in June of a preliminary peace deal between Israel and Lebanon has had little impact on daily life in southern Lebanon. According to residents, Israeli forces continue to restrict their movement, leaving many feeling trapped. “We are trapped in a prison,” Ayoub Khreish, mayor of Ain Ebel, said. “Even ambulances need permission to enter and leave.” Mohamad El Chamma reports. 

Israel and Lebanon have agreed on Britain, Italy, Switzerland, and Indonesia as potential contributors to a proposed mechanism that could see foreign troops deployed to Lebanon to verify Hezbollah’s disarmament, sources said. Alexander Cornwell and Maya Gebeily report for Reuters.  

IRAN WAR – OTHER DEVELOPMENTS 

U.S. intelligence officials were skeptical of an Iranian assassination threat against President Trump that was relayed by Israel last month, and prompted Trump’s secret Air Force One swap, current and former U.S. officials told the Washington Post. CIA analysts did not view the Israeli intelligence as compelling and conveyed this to Trump administration officials, one source said. Another called the threats “Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed as low confidence.” The Secret Service, however, deemed a threat that Trump could be targeted by a shoulder-fired missile to be credible and imminent. A source declined to tell Reuters where the intelligence came from but said officials had little time to prepare and devised the plane swap plan at the last minute. Warren P. Strobel, John Hudson, and Dan Lamothe report; Steve Holland reports. 

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR 

A Ukrainian attack yesterday hit warships at a naval base and forced two major grain terminals in Russia’s Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk to halt operations, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials. The Ukrainian attacks killed at least two people, ​including an 8-year-old child, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said. As Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, the strikes on the grain terminals raised fears ​of a disruption to global supplies. Chicago wheat futures rose around 3% yesterday after the attack on Novorossiysk. Reuters reports.  

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR 

The Trump administration was initially “disappointed” that Israel responded to the 15-point peace plan by escalating attacks in Gaza earlier this month, but is pleased that it has since eased its assault, a U.S. official said. The official added that the administration is willing to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu some leeway on domestic messaging around the peace plan ahead of elections in Israel. But in turn, “they need to give us a little bit of space in terms of no targeted killings in order to allow us to try to get to the next phase,” the official said. Myah Ward and Megan Messerly report for POLITICO.  

An Israeli drone strike yesterday hit a Hamas commander in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said, though it remains unclear if he was killed. It was the first targeted strike Israel has announced since Aug. 3. The Gaza Health Ministry has reported 45 people killed since Aug. 1. AP News reports. 

WEST BANK VIOLENCE 

Two Palestinian families have been trapped since Sunday inside their homes in the village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank by a group of Israeli settlers. Residents report that about 10 to 15 settlers have been attacking them consistently for days, throwing stones and an axe. Although Israeli soldiers arrived early Wednesday and used tear gas to disperse the attackers, they left within hours, and the settlers resumed their attacks, residents and army officials said. The Israeli army said last night that it was assigning an extra battalion to the West Bank to “strengthen order and operational control in the area.” David M. Halbfinger, Fatima AbdulKarim, and Natan Odenheimer report for the New York Times.  

OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS 

The Taliban’s General Director of Intelligence detained two Afghan members of the U.N. political mission in Herat, Afghanistan on Sunday, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday. The spokesman added that the U.N. mission has not been informed of the charges against the two men or been able to visit them. Edith M. Lederer reports for AP News.  

TECH DEVELOPMENTS 

Taiwan detected AI-assisted cyberattacks on government agencies last month, but the affected bodies successfully handled the incident, the Taiwanese Ministry of Digital Affairs said today. The investigation ​results showed the attacks displayed clear characteristics of an “overseas source,” with hackers employing a hybrid approach that combined manual operations with AI agent-assisted attacks, such as Open Claw, it said.  Ben Blanchard and Raphael Satter report for Reuters.  

Before stepping down as Google DeepMind CEO, Demis Hassabis held discussions with government officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and leaders of other AI labs about forming a new independent AI safety entity, sources said. Hassabis has likened the proposed entity to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog. Robbie Whelan, Amrith Ramkumar, and Keach Hagey report for the Wall Street Journal.  

Anthropic’s new models will add machine-readable “watermarks” to Claude-generated text and files to comply with new EU transparency regulations. Simon Hernandez-Arthur reports for Axios.  

U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Ukrainian drone units easily spotted and defeated U.S. troops and armored vehicles during a military exercise in Germany earlier this year, sources told the Wall Street Journal. The exercise, held in April and May, tested visiting troops’ ability to operate and defend against the proliferation of smaller, front-line drones that have dominated the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Alistair MacDonald, Lara Seligman, and Daniel Michaels report.

“We do bad things to bad people,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told civilian defense leaders and generals at a meeting of a U.S.-led counter-cartel coalition in Panama yesterday, adding that the collective goal is “to degrade, dismantle, and destroy narco-terrorist networks.” Hegseth also raised the possibility of joint strikes on Colombian armed groups, as he welcomed Colombia into the coalition. Eric Schmitt and Annie Correal report for the New York Times; Phil Stewart reports for Reuters.  

U.S. foreign-aid cuts have disrupted maternal and child-health programs in Nepal, already leading to increased pregnancy complications and deaths, according to government officials, aid workers, and families interviewed by AP News. Kristen Gelineau reports.

U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS  

The State Department announced this week that it has created a task force to crack down on “birth tourism,” reviewing visa holders worldwide and revoking visas of people involved. The department said more than 600 visas have already been revoked. Laura Kelly reports for The Hill. 

ICE agent Adam Saracco pleaded guilty yesterday to misdemeanor battery after throwing immigration activist Robert Held to the ground and taking his phone during an altercation near Chicago in December. Madaleine Rubin reports for the New York Times.  

A masked ICE agent in Virginia pointed a gun at Carolina Molina on Monday after accusing her of trying to run over agents with her car, but videos from the encounter appear to show her vehicle stationary and provide no evidence of an attempted attack. Madaleine Rubin reports for the New York Times.

U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS 

Former Southern Property Law Center official Heidi Beirich was charged yesterday with fraud and conspiracy as part of a revised indictment accusing the group of cheating its donors by using their money to pay informants inside right-wing extremist organizations. “I believe she was part of the effort to open bank accounts in completely fictitious companies’ names and make payments to individuals for reasons that were not accurate as described,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said. Alan Feuer reports for the New York Times.    

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS 

Karoline Leavitt will be stepping down from her role as White House press secretary at the end of this month, Trump announced yesterday on social media, adding that Leavitt is leaving to spend more time with her family. Herb Scribner and Avery Lotz report for Axios. 

The Trump administration plans to spend at least $900 million for construction projects on the White House grounds, according to records reviewed by the Washington Post, with more funding coming from taxpayers and money redirected from federal agencies, rather than through direct congressional appropriations. The Post reports that the administration has routed much of the funding through the relatively obscure White House maintenance account. Jonathan O’Connell and Sarah Blaskey report. 

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION

The Trump administration again asked the Supreme Court yesterday to intervene to fully implement Trump’s executive order restricting the use of mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections. Andrew Chung reports for Reuters.  

The Intercept, a news organization, and the Freedom of the Press Foundation filed a lawsuit yesterday against Trump over his social media platform’s program that offers paid early access to his posts, after the scheme went live earlier this month. The plaintiffs argue that the $100,000-a-month program violates their First Amendment rights to access presidential statements “on equal terms with other members of the press and public.” Emilio Perez Ibarguen reports for POLITICO.

Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions.

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ICYMI: Yesterday on Just Security

FEATURED IMAGE: WASHINGTON – JANUARY 23: Clouds move as the sun sets against the west front of the United States Capitol building January 23, 2007 in Washington, DC. U.S. President George W. Bush is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union speech before a joint meeting of Congress at 9:00 PM Eastern. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Karoline Leavitt stepping down as White House press secretary

Thursday August 13th, 2026 at 8:38 AM

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President Trump speaks to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stands nearby.

Karoline Leavitt will be stepping down from her role as White House press secretary at the end of the month, President Trump announced Wednesday in a Truth Social post.

The big picture: Leavitt is leaving to spend more time with her family, the president said. A member of Trump’s team who followed him from his presidential campaign to the White House, she’s been a fiercely loyal face of the White House.

Driving the news: Trump said in the surprise post that Leavitt will become one of his top outside advisers and “an influential voice within the Republican Party” heading into the midterm elections.

• Leavitt, 28, said in a post that being a mother and welcoming a new baby while serving as press secretary “has been the most rewarding yet challenging season of my life, to say the least.”
• She continued, “The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary.”
• When reached for comment, the White House pointed to statements made by Leavitt and Trump.

Zoom in: Leavitt made headlines for being the youngest White House press secretary to hold the role.

• She defended the White House through multiple controversies and the biggest stories of the president’s second term so far, including the Signalgate scandal, the release of the Epstein files and the Iran war.

• Even in her statement announcing her departure, she took aim at Democrats that she said seek “to destroy everything great about America.”
• Leavitt also backed the Trump administration’s tightening of press coverage, telling Axios last year that the administration wanted to expand access — opening the press corps to influencers and MAGA-friendly voices — and not limit it.

Context: The president directly chooses the White House press secretary, a position that does not require Senate confirmation.

• Trump had four press secretaries during his first term.

Editor’s note: This story was updated throughout with additional information.

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CIA Enters ‘Scale Phase’ of AI Adoption

Thursday February 26th, 2026 at 8:16 AM

Comments on: CIA Enters ‘Scale Phase’ of AI Adoption

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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is entering the scale phase of its artificial intelligence (AI) implementation and has hundreds of AI projects underway, Israel Soong, deputy director of the CIA’s Office of AI, said Tuesday. 

After years of work, Soong said during a Federal News Network webinar that the agency has successfully rolled out an AI literacy program to thousands of officers, built a state-of-the-art model repository, deployed a chatbot, and partnered with four major cloud providers to bring frontier model capabilities to the agency. 

In some cases, Soong said that the agency is able to make new models available to users within seven to 10 days after they are released. 

“Over the past few years, we’ve made significant investments in foundational infrastructure to make AI broadly available across the CIA,” Soong said. “And right now, we’re kind of at an inflection point. Like, we’ve moved decisively beyond asking, ‘Should we adopt AI?’ to asking, ‘How do we operationalize it responsibly at scale?’” 

“In other words, we successfully completed an additional adoption phase, and now we’re expanding the capabilities and trying to transform mission execution,” he added. 

The next step for the agency is to continue to accelerate the adoption of AI while eliminating redundancies and prioritizing resource allocations, Soong said. 

“Now what we need is strategic stewardship,” he explained. “Now we’re trying to work AI into our mission workflows, not just as experimental tools, but as reliable capabilities changing how our workforce operates daily.” 

One way the CIA is doing that is by embedding large language models, retrieval-augmented generation techniques, and chatbot-style interfaces directly into analysts’ daily workflows, Soong said. The goal, he added, is to free officers from time-consuming data review and allow them to focus on more complex mission tasks. 

“Already, we’re seeing significant benefits to CIA’s intelligence mission,” Soong said. “It’s not the AI or the cloud in isolation, but all the elements of the AI tech stack working together, … that integrated approach of the two stacks is key.” 

In the future, Soong says that AI agents will also play a role in the CIA’s daily operations, picturing a world where  there are “teams of CIA officers managing teams of AI agents.” 

“There’s a potential for AI to assist analysis, but also identify blind spots for the analyst and generate novel hypotheses for them to consider when they write about their analysis. Also, we could have AI autonomously identify intelligence gaps and generate novel collection strategies,” Soong explained, adding that the CIA is aiming to have officers spend 80% of their time thinking critically about intelligence instead of collecting it. 

“Imagine this in the future,” he said. “AI agents have already … triaged the overnight intelligence for you. They’ve highlighted the most relevant operational developments, and they’re also combining and collating the intelligence reporting for you to review as you drink your morning coffee.” 

For now, Soong said the CIA’s next AI push centers on deploying smaller models and AI agents at the tactical edge so officers in remote or hostile environments can use AI with little or no connectivity.   

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What we know about weapon used by suspect in Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting

Saturday September 13th, 2025 at 12:57 PM

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