French FM Barrot: Iran must halt the executions of protesters from the January 2026 uprising and release political prisoners. A joint declaration by France, Canada, the UK, Australia and the EU opposes the death penalty against dissidents. Iran is still executing arrested protesters after unfair trials, seven months after a crackdown that killed thousands.

Reports indicate that Russia's Orsk refinery has completely halted operations after a successful Ukrainian strike. Authorities acknowledge that repairs will take at least 6 months due to reliance on imported equipment and are bracing for the worst. Fuel is planned to be brought in "from the outside," as only 80% of gas stations are currently operational.

Reports indicate that the Galaktika shopping center is heavily on fire in occupied Yenakiieve, Donetsk region, following a drone attack.

Video footage captured a massive explosion earlier today at the KNDS Ammunition Plant in Colleferro, Italy, just to the southeast of Rome, following reports of a fire inside the facility’s powder pressing department, with multiple firefighting teams currently working to extinguish the flames, according to the ANSA.

President Trump has directed the Navy to abandon the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) being used on the Gerald R. Ford class carriers and return to traditional steam catapults, according to U.S. officials cited by the Wall Street Journal. Trump signed a national security memorandum directing the Navy to redesign the fourth Ford class carrier, Doris Miller, and subsequent ships around steam catapults. The first three carriers, Gerald R. Ford, John F. Kennedy and Enterprise, will retain EMALS. The decision reverses years of Navy and industry resistance to Trump's proposal, largely because replacing EMALS would require significant redesign and could cost billions of dollars. Trump has criticized EMALS for years, arguing that it is overly complex and less reliable than steam catapults. The move effectively locks in a major technological reversal for future U.S. aircraft carriers.

Citing The New York Times, TWZ reports that a senior U.S. military official said Iranian drones provided commanders with the F-15E’s location, speed and direction, potentially allowing a dispersed missile team to target the aircraft. The significance may be less about a sophisticated “drone swarm” than the use of inexpensive drones as airborne sensors. After U.S. and Israeli strikes degraded Iran’s conventional air defense network, drones could provide a relatively cheap and expendable way to detect and track aircraft and pass targeting information to dispersed shooters. The report also connects the account to the previously reported “jellyfish” or “minefield” of drones seen by the F-15E crew shortly before they ejected, while cautioning that it remains unclear whether those drones were actually involved in the shootdown. If accurate, the incident illustrates a broader lesson demonstrated in Ukraine: cheap, distributed sensors can help cue much more expensive weapons against high value targets.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has announced that she will be leaving the Trump Administration at the end of August, in order to spend more time and energy on her two young children, the youngest of which was born on May 1. Leavitt said in a post earlier today, “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.”

A U.S. Army exercise in Germany earlier this year highlighted the growing challenge posed by battlefield drones. During Combined Resolve, Ukrainian drone operators from the 412th Unmanned Systems Regiment reportedly overwhelmed a U.S. armored brigade, using reconnaissance drones to locate armored vehicles before employing First Person View (FPV) and bomb dropping drones to simulate their destruction, according to the Wall Street Journal. The exercise was specifically designed to test large scale ground combat against an opposing force incorporating small battlefield drones. U.S. forces improved during subsequent iterations by dispersing and concealing themselves more effectively and making greater use of electronic warfare. The experience gap remains significant. Ukrainian operators have spent more than four years adapting drone tactics under combat conditions, while U.S. forces have comparatively limited experience operating, repairing and employing drones in a contested battlefield environment. Similar results have reportedly occurred in exercises involving British, Swedish and other NATO forces. The takeaway is less about the vulnerability of any individual armored platform and more about the system required to protect and employ armor in a drone-saturated environment: concealment, dispersion, electronic warfare, counter-drone systems and the ability to rapidly adapt tactics.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth: "Designated Terrorist Organizations with partnered governments will be legitimate targets of the United States government with partner governments, to include Colombia."

The Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat complex, one of Russia’s largest oil and petrochemical refineries, is currently on fire following a Ukrainian drone attack this morning. Multiple Ukrainian drones reportedly struck the facility.

Sevastopol, the largest city in Russian-occupied Crimea, has been thrown entirely into the dark tonight from a total loss of power, resulting from a second night in a row of drone strikes against the Balaklava Power Station by Ukraine.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Cuba: "All options are on the table to include military options. Cuba would be wise to pay attention to the willingness of President Trump to assert American strategic prerogatives, and their certainty is no match for the United States of America."

"I don't understand you." - Anatolie Nosatîi, the Minister of Defense of Moldova, refused to listen to the language of the Russian occupiers at a briefing and interrupted a journalist who tried to ask him a question in Russian. Following this, the journalist immediately switched to the state language. Interestingly, the minister's biography states that he speaks Russian and studied in Ukraine for four years, having completed a tactical intelligence course at the Kyiv Higher Combined Arms Command School and an infantry training course in Odesa.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth: "Narco terrorists, gang members and drug and human traffickers -- designated terrorist organizations, the ISIS and al-Qaeda of the western hemisphere. They're no different, and they should be treated as such." Hegseth says Trump will treat cartels like ISIS in the Western Hemisphere.

Heavy gunfire and explosions rocked Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea tonight amid a reported Ukrainian drone attack.

Footage of destroyed Russian transports littering the side of the critical Russian R-280 supply route in occupied southern Ukraine. Ukrainian mid-range strike drones have swarmed the route this summer, destroying numerous vehicles.

Hamas has rejected new measures from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas designed to bar the group from the November 28 legislative elections, the first Palestinian vote in two decades. Hamas: "We reject any political preconditions for candidacy that would exclude the resistance factions from national institutions."

🚨 U.S. military helicopter crashes south of Salado, Texas, killing 2 people. The crash sparked a wildfire.

Total solar eclipse seen over Iceland. - RÚV

Ukraine's General Staff says that the overnight drone and missile attack on the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk damaged four Russian warships: the Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen, a Buyan-M-class corvette, and the Vasily Bykov.