🇮🇷| Important points emphasised by Iran’s Leader, Imam Mojtaba Khamenei: 1. Economic pressure needs serious attention: inflation, unemployment, prices, investment, production, and living standards should be central priorities. 2. Reduce dependence on dollar. 3. New technology & young talent needs to be used more intensively: The gov should adopt innovations proposed by young experts and be willing to abandon outdated routines. 4. Government needs to preserve national and social unity. Economic, political, cultural, security, and social fields should be evaluated according to whether they strengthen or damage social cohesion. 5. No bad rhetorics. Such as “war or negotiations,” “consensus or extremism,” and “compromise or warmongering”. 6. Socially important professions and families should be supported, such as teachers & educators. 7. Iran’s development should come primarily from internal capacity, better governance, technology, production, and public participation, not from accepting foreign demands.

🇵🇱 Polish PM Tusk claims the next 7-8 months will be critical for the security of Ukraine, Poland, and the whole region. He says there are signals that Russia is seriously preparing for escalation "both in the war with Ukraine and across the entire region," with autumn and winter reportedly a key period for Moscow. "We must be ready for different scenarios, and it's clear the next seven-eight months will be critical. The Russian-Ukrainian war is at a turning point," Tusk said. He also claimed various intelligence services assess Russia intends to mobilize around 600,000 people.

❗️President Putin was seen personally taking the new Russian VOLGA K50 SUV for a test drive.

Iran and Oman agree to OPEN shipping route through Hormuz — Pezeshkian Iranian president says implementation depends on the US lifting sanctions and releasing Tehran’s funds

🇺🇸❌🇺🇦 The US updated its advisory summary for travel to Ukraine, and recommends their citizens do not travel there for any reason

🇷🇺 This year, 105 deposits of solid minerals have already been discovered in the Far East, as the head of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources Kozlov told TASS in an interview ahead of the Eastern Economic Forum.

🇺🇸🇻🇪 Trump announced they secured majority control of over 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan proven oil reserves

🇺🇸 SpaceX will begin test launches of the Starship space system almost every week next year, NASA head Jared Isaacman said. “I think you're going to start seeing Starships launch on a near weekly cadence going into 2027,” he said, adding that SpaceX is working on creating a lunar lander.

Russian Authorities: Three people killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Belgorod region.

🇺🇸 US July budget deficit hits $432 billion — largest since COVID lockdowns The US federal budget deficit jumped to $432 billion in July, a record for the month and up 48% from July 2025, marking the largest monthly deficit since March 2021, according to the Treasury Department, cited by Reuters. Fiscal year-to-date, the deficit has reached $1.799 trillion, already surpassing all of fiscal 2025 with two months still remaining. July outlays rose 22% to a record $766 billion. Adjusted for calendar effects, the deficit was $333 billion, up 18% year-on-year. Customs revenue was negative: after $33.38 billion in tariff refunds, net outflow hit $8.55 billion — the third straight month refunds have exceeded receipts. The refunds stem from the Supreme Court's ruling striking down Trump's broad emergency tariffs from last year. US Customs and Border Protection had processed roughly $100 billion of about $166 billion owed in refunds by end of July. The administration continues imposing tariffs on other legal grounds — in July, 10-12.5% duties were set for 60 major trading partners covering over 99% of US imports, with more decisions expected in coming weeks. The Congressional Budget Office now expects tariff revenue to come in roughly $250 billion below earlier projections for the year.

🇺🇦🇺🇸 Ukrainian drone operators "destroyed" US armored brigade in Germany exercise — WSJ Ukrainian drone operators eliminated a US armored brigade during the Combined Resolve exercise in Germany this spring, according to US officials cited by The Wall Street Journal. Around 3,500 US troops from the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division (rotating from Fort Hood, Texas) were tasked with storming positions defended by OPFOR, reinforced by AFU operators from the 412th Nemesis Unmanned Systems Regiment. Sources say Ukrainian operators easily detected US units and armor equipped with standard EW and counter-drone systems. Heavy armor kicked up dust, making it easier to spot for reconnaissance drones, which were followed by bomber and FPV drones. US equipment was destroyed so fast it had to be repeatedly reintroduced into the drill as new units. Over two weeks, American forces improved at dispersing, camouflaging, and using EW countermeasures. The drill echoes a pattern seen across the Ukraine war and in South Lebanon, where Hezbollah drones blocked Israeli forces from achieving deep breakthroughs — underscoring how drones are eroding armor's traditional role as the backbone of offensive doctrine.

Another exchange of fallen soldiers has taken place. Russia returned the bodies of 261 fallen Ukrainian soldiers, while Ukraine has returned the bodies of 24 fallen Russian soldiers.

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️ — It appears that electronic warfare (EW) equipment is being installed on Geran drones to disrupt Ukrainian FPV drone interceptors. One such incident was reportedly captured by Ukrainian sources, showing an interceptor suddenly losing its video feed as it approaches a Geran.

— 🇮🇷 Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Major General Mohsen Rezaee: ‘Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Indonesia bear the collective responsibility of taking steps towards achieving the unity of the Islamic world.’

— 🇰🇼 NEW: Kuwait announces it foiled a ‘terrorist plot’ to target vital facilities in the country with drones

🇨🇳🇺🇸🇷🇺 China has signaled it will retaliate if the US imposes secondary tariffs over purchases of Russian oil. Liu Chang, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said passage of the US "hell sanctions" bill would backfire on Washington itself. "The use of double standards, as well as coercive and pressure tactics, will ultimately backfire on those who employ them," Liu Chang stated.

🇷🇺💬🇪🇺 Dmitry Medvedev: Western European dogs are making a lot of noise about the so-called "Russian shadow fleet." Let's figure out what this is all about. This refers to ordinary merchant ships that sail under non-Russian flags but carry out transportation in our interests. Such flags are usually called "convenience flags" or "flags of convenience." This is a system where a ship is registered in a country different from the country of its owner, in order to save on taxes and regulations. These countries include Panama, Liberia, the Marshall Islands, the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Malta, and the Seychelles. Of course, European countries have no right to detain such ships, either under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or under national legislation. This is pure arbitrariness. However, this leads to one important conclusion: the vast majority of Western European ships also sail under convenience flags. And what does that mean? It means that, using a symmetrical approach (which is fair), Russia has the right to attack any merchant ship of enemy countries, whether in our waters or in neutral waters, if there is sufficient suspicion that it is carrying cargo in the interests of the enemy. That is, any cargo! And there are many such ships. Our Armed Forces are capable of significantly expanding their operations beyond the Black Sea region! This is exactly what the Commander of the Pacific Fleet reported to the Supreme Commander today.

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 Contradictory signals on whether the US-Iran truce, set to expire Aug. 17, will be extended. Turkey's Anadolu Agency reports that Pakistani government sources say the US and Iran have "agreed" to extend the 60-day ceasefire under the Islamabad MoU, though the two sides are still exchanging messages on the length of the extension. But a senior Iranian source tells Reuters otherwise: there's no talk of an extension because, from Tehran's view, no defined period ever began — so there's nothing to extend. The US violated the interim agreement 48 hours after it was signed and pulled out of it days later. The Iranian source added that Washington returning to the interim agreement and setting a timeframe for implementing its commitments is under discussion via mediators, but there's been no progress on it. Neither Washington nor Tehran has issued an official statement.