Ukraine Hits Rocket Plant Behind Russia’s Starlink Rival
Ukraine struck Russia's Progress Rocket Space Centre (TsSKB-Progress) in Samara last night, targeting what Ukrainian officials and multiple regional reports describe as Russia's only facility that serially assembles the Soyuz-2 family of launch vehicles used to place military, reconnaissance and communications satellites into orbit. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike was carried out using domestically produced FP-5 "Flamingo" cruise missiles as part of a broader overnight operation that also targeted the Savasleyka air base in Nizhny Novgorod region and an oil facility at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga. Ukrainian officials say Progress supports launches for Rassvet, Russia's planned low-Earth-orbit communications constellation, which Kyiv has described as Moscow's answer to Starlink. Reuters reported the strike. Samara Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev confirmed that a missile struck an industrial facility in the region and said two people were injured, without identifying the site. Progress is located in the same industrial zone as the…
Kremlin Expands Global Influence Network
The Kremlin is expanding an established global influence network by training foreign journalists, supporting state-backed media programmes and investing in digital tools designed to spread Russian narratives abroad, according to assessments by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and European counter-disinformation institutions. Russia's influence infrastructure has moved beyond traditional state broadcasting. A SputnikPro internship session held in Moscow in July 2026 drew young journalists from sub-Saharan Africa, run jointly with Rossotrudnichestvo's "New Generation" project, Russia's state agency for cultural and humanitarian cooperation abroad. RT Academy runs a parallel track, training journalists from ASEAN, South Asian and African countries with Rossotrudnichestvo's support. The programmes aim to cultivate local voices that can distribute Kremlin-aligned narratives even where Russian state media face formal restrictions. European governments have moved to counter that expansion. On July 29, 2026, the French Interior Ministry issued an expulsion order against Xenia Fedorova, former head of RT…
Yemen Edges Toward Renewed War
UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg warned the Security Council on August 13 that Yemen faces its most serious risk of returning to large-scale conflict since the 2022 truce, citing intensified military activity along frontlines and recent Houthi attacks in Ma'rib, Hadramawt and Mocha, according to Reuters. He also warned that renewed Houthi attacks on Red Sea and Gulf of Aden shipping risk pulling Yemen further into the regional confrontation already straining the Strait of Hormuz. The Houthi-run Saba news agency said on August 13 that the group had launched two drones at a Saudi Aramco refinery in Jazan, the second such strike in less than a week, according to Bloomberg. A Houthi military source called it retaliation for alleged Saudi airspace violations over Saada and Hajjah. Saudi authorities had not confirmed the strike at the time of reporting. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the council that more than half…
Russia Rejects Black Sea Shipping Truce Proposal
Russia rejected Ukrainian and Turkish proposals for a Black Sea maritime ceasefire on August 14, signaling it has no interest in limiting attacks on civilian shipping despite mounting disruption to global grain trade. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow saw "no grounds for half-measures," arguing such an arrangement would benefit Ukrainian forces, Reuters reported. The rejection covered both a Ukrainian proposal, relayed through a third party, to halt attacks on civilian targets and a separate moratorium initiative that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara had presented to both sides on August 8. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko had said days earlier that Moscow had received no formal proposal, according to the state news agency TASS. Zakharova also said reviving the 2022–2023 Black Sea Grain Initiative – the UN- and Turkey-brokered agreement that allowed both countries to continue exporting grain during the war – was not feasible, describing…
Washington Tests NATO Loyalty Again
The Trump administration has circulated a private questionnaire to NATO allies gauging their loyalty to the president's policies ahead of a possible reduction in U.S. military assets in Europe, according to Bloomberg reporting. The document asks whether each country has "been publicly supportive" of U.S. foreign policy and what restrictions it has placed on American forces using its bases. The questionnaire directly references disputes that have already divided the alliance. It asks whether allies align with the "strong, clear, and quiet" approach associated with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and revisits base-access restrictions after Spain barred the U.S. from using certain facilities for strikes on Iran, Raw Story reported. Bloomberg's reporting says the document also touches on European reaction to January's U.S. raid capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, an operation widely viewed in Europe as a violation of international law. The review also probes defence-industrial loyalty, asking whether allies steer contracts…
US Ramps Up Economic and Naval Pressure on Iran
The United States is expanding pressure on Iran through a combined economic and military strategy as hopes for an immediate reduction in tensions fade. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would soon announce economic measures against Tehran that he said "have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country," in an interview on Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" on August 13, according to Reuters. The comments followed President Donald Trump's renewed push in recent days for economic pressure over military escalation, telling Axios over the weekend he was "low-keying it" with Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth separately said the naval blockade of Iranian ports could continue indefinitely through ship rotations, telling reporters in Panama following the PANAMAX exercises, according to Reuters. Iran has signaled it is prepared to match that timeline: a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps adviser said on August 12 that Tehran is ready to…
