Syrian Court Sentences Assad to Death
A Syrian court sentenced former president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia on Tuesday after convicting him of premeditated murder, torture and crimes against humanity, marking the first criminal verdict against the former leader since his government collapsed in December 2024. The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus sentenced nine defendants to death in total, including Assad's brother Maher al-Assad in absentia and former Political Security chief Atef Najib, who was tried in person following his capture in early 2025, according to Reuters. Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said Assad "used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity" during a session broadcast live on state television. Najib, Assad's cousin, led the Political Security Branch in Daraa in 2011, when his forces detained and tortured teenage schoolboys for writing anti-government graffiti, an episode widely regarded as the catalyst for the nationwide uprising that evolved into Syria's civil war, according to…
Russia Shifts Missile Production to Beat Ukraine’s Defenses
Almost every night this summer, Kyiv's residents have learned to listen for the difference between a drone's engine and the silence before a ballistic missile hits. That silence may now be shaping Vladimir Putin's calculus on whether to negotiate at all. Retooling the Missile Arsenal Russia has quietly abandoned two missile programs it once relied on. Production of the Kinzhal and Kh-32 has been halted since April, according to Ukrainian military intelligence deputy chief Vadym Skibitsky, after repeated combat failures to fix their accuracy. Kinzhal's deviation from target reportedly runs 30 meters or more, against a required 5–7 meters. Rather than keep chasing that fix, Moscow redirected the freed resources toward missile types it already knows can penetrate Ukraine's depleted Patriot interceptor stock: Iskander-M ballistic missiles and missiles launched from S-400 systems on ballistic trajectories, Kyiv Post reported. The payoff shows in the numbers. By August 3, seven months into…
Mecca Pact Hedges Against Unreliable U.S. Backing
Three leaders converged on Islam's holiest city on August 7 to sign what could become the most consequential Middle Eastern defense pact in a generation. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived a day early to perform the Umrah pilgrimage in Mecca. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew in to join him and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the signing of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, a pact born from this year's Iran war and renewed fighting by Saudi Arabia and Yemen's government against Houthi forces. The agreement's core clause is blunt: an armed attack on any one of the three states will be treated as an attack on all three. That mechanism is not unprecedented. Riyadh already led the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, a Saudi-led coalition of Muslim-majority states formed in 2015, and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a bilateral mutual-defense pact in 2025 that CSIS described…
Russia Removes Sole Anti-War Party From Vote
Russia's Supreme Court on August 10 canceled the registration of Yabloko's federal candidate list for next month's State Duma elections, removing Russia's oldest liberal party from the national ballot, AP reported. Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov granted a lawsuit filed three days earlier by the nationalist Rodina party. Yabloko said it would appeal within the required five-day window, and the ruling does not take legal effect until that process concludes. The Rodina party, led by State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlyov, accused Yabloko candidates of receiving foreign funding, violating copyright law in campaign materials and promoting extremism. Russia's Central Election Commission told the court that data from the financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring showed foreign transfers to several Yabloko candidates through third parties in the United States and Germany. Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov rejected the accusations and told supporters outside the courthouse that he could see how many people in Russia wanted peace and an…
Overnight Strikes Hit Russian Refinery and Ukrainian Cities
Ukraine and Russia traded overnight strikes on August 11. Drones struck two facilities in Orsk, Orenburg Oblast — the Orsknefteorgsintez oil refinery and a mechanical plant — some 1,500 kilometers inside Russia, according to 24 Kanal. The refinery strike ignited its hydrocracking unit, an asset Moscow struggles to repair independently, since it depends on sanctioned Western catalysts and reactor components now routed through slower parallel-import channels. Orsk's mayor confirmed the attack and local authorities imposed temporary flight restrictions at the city airport. A separate strike burned a 156,000-square-meter Wildberries warehouse near Voronezh, one of over 20 such sites hit since July. Kyiv alleges these hubs move sanctioned microelectronics and military components once handled through conventional defense channels. Russia responded with Zircon and Iskander-M/KN-23 missiles, along with roughly 120 Shahed drones and decoys, targeting Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, according to Ukraine's Air Force. Fedorov reported five killed and 20 wounded in Zaporizhzhia,…
Bombing Kills Haftar Intelligence Chief in Benghazi
A bombing killed Fawzi al-Mansouri, the military intelligence chief of Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army, when an explosive device detonated in his vehicle outside his home in Benghazi's Hawari district on August 10, Reuters reported, citing two security sources. Haftar's command described him as a "martyr" and vowed to punish those responsible. No group has claimed responsibility. Mansouri had led LNA military intelligence since 2024, after previously commanding forces in the southern Sebha region. His killing is a shock less for his rank than for its location. Benghazi is the administrative and security core of Haftar's eastern command, and a successful bombing there exposes vulnerabilities inside a security structure that has projected control for years. The timing is politically sensitive. Libya has spent months on renewed efforts to bridge its east-west divide, including UNSMIL-led security-unification talks in Benghazi and a previously unreported Pakistani mediation effort, Reuters reported in July, that…
