For review:

1. The United States tightened sanctions on Cuba on Thursday, blacklisting three officials ​tied to a state-run organization that promotes Cuba's ties ‌with foreign solidarity activists, along with nine state entities in the metals, mining and construction sectors.

2. Israel reportedly claimed to the US that Turkey was planning to set up an air defense system on the airbase in northwest Syria that the IDF struck last week, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

3. The Israel Defense Forces said it carried out an airstrike in southwest Syria on Saturday afternoon, adding it targeted an operative “who advanced terror attacks in the final stages of preparation.”

4. The IDF said Saturday it had killed a Hamas commander involved in efforts to restore the terror group’s tunnel network in central Gaza. It also said it had killed an October 7 terrorist who had held hostages.

5. Iran on Saturday slammed US plans to announce new sanctions that could put further strain on the Islamic Republic’s economy, and warned that any countries which take part in imposing these sanctions would be “considered an enemy.”

6. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Thursday that they targeted an airport and a facility belonging to state-owned oil giant Aramco in Saudi Arabia’s southern region, near the Yemeni border.

7. A new wave of N. Korean Troops, already numbering 8,500 in Russia, contains a drone unit that could attack targets inside Ukraine, according to a senior Ukrainian intelligence official.

8. Taiwan’s budget agency has announced a proposed 18 percent increase in its defense budget for 2027 as the self-governing island continues efforts to deter a potential invasion from China. 

9. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is looking to leave his role at the Pentagon around the end of 2026 a former White House official and another source familiar with the discussions told The Hill on Friday. 

For review:

1. Israel confirmed late Tuesday that it was behind overnight strikes against a Sysrian military airport, where it claimed Turkey was planning to deploy forces.

2. Turkey’s Defense Ministry denied Thursday that a Turkish military delegation had visited Syria’s Abu al-Duhur airbase ahead of Israeli strikes on the site this week, a day after Syria’s foreign minister had said that such a visit took place.

3. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared “ECONOMIC D-DAY” against Iran, warning that any country doing business with the Islamic Republic will face “TREMENDOUS economic consequences.”

4. Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned newly threatened US economic and trade sanctions, claiming they would target ordinary Iranians and amount to “economic terrorism” and crimes against humanity.

5. USS George Washington aircraft carrier is now operating in the Middle East, the US military said Thursday.

US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said on social media that the carrier arrived in the region Wednesday.

6. A Yemeni minister warned Tuesday that the country’s Houthi rebels are plotting to seize land along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which would allow the group to further threaten the vital shipping artery.

7. The US Army is issuing a call to ramp up production of ground-launched rockets.

The service sent out a request this week for manufacturing 133,014 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, rockets by 2034, 

For review:

1. South Korea on Monday expressed hopes for resumption of diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea to ease animosities on the Korean Peninsula, as President Trump reduces exercises with South Korea.

2. The runway of a military airport in northwestern Syria was targeted by unidentified fighter jets overnight Monday, with Damascus blaming Israel for the airstrike and the United States denouncing Israel for the attack.

3. The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that its inspectors had found several tons of nuclear material in Syria, at a site which the authorities said they reported to the agency last month.

4. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted during a meeting Monday with envoys from the White House and the US-backed Board of Peace that Israel would not redeploy any of its forces in Gaza or allow reconstruction to begin until the Strip was completely disarmed, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel.

5. The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday struck what it said was a meeting of Hamas commanders and elite operatives in Gaza City.

6. US President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to bomb Oman and urged Iran to surrender, after Tehran announced that it had reached an agreement with Muscat on a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between the two countries.

7. The Navy has awarded RTX subsidiary Raytheon a $22.9 billion contract to ramp up production of Tomahawk Cruise Missiles to 1,000 rounds a year.

8. US Army Selects Hanwha to Deliver 155mm K9 Mobile Tactical Cannon Prototypes.

For review:

1. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner met with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in the Egyptian coastal city of El-Alamein on Sunday, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

2. The White House established a secret backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a Sunday report, which said that the United States has been informed that the IRGC stands behind the positions of the Iranian negotiators in their talks with Washington.

3. Iranian authorities on Saturday called for the release of three pilots they said were captured in Qatar amid the US-Israel war with Iran.

4. Lebanese media reported Israeli airstrikes in the Ali Taher Ridge in southern Lebanon Saturday overnight, a day after three Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded by an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah.

Israel is awaiting US approval for a military operation aimed at taking control of the ridge, Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria reported Friday morning, citing a senior security official.

5. US Central Command announced the stand-up of a joint US-UAE task force to advance AI in the two allies’ militaries.

The task force will be “the first bilateral task force focused on accelerating the development of military artificial intelligence,” the CENTCOM statement says, with a particular focus on “AI applications for intelligence support, protecting critical infrastructure, and monitoring the regional security environment.”

6. Department of War Undersecretary for Policy Elbridge Colby pushed back against reports that the U.S. military’s stockpiles and capabilities are strained following Operation Epic Fury.

“There’s been a lot of news about the United States military being stretched. Please don’t be misinformed,” Colby told Manila’s defense and security elites at a closed-door event organized by the Stratbase Institute think tank.

For review:

1. Russia believes the United States is deeply involved in Ukrainian attacks against it and has raised the issue with ​Washington, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in comments broadcast on Friday.

He ‌said that the alleged U.S. support included the supply of intelligence.

2. US President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States will hit Iran hard economically, as Washington and Tehran struggle to reach a deal to end a nearly six month conflict.

His comments to Fox News came a day after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US was going to apply measures that have “never been seen” on Tehran as soon as next week.

3. Iran will soon join the New Development Bank, the development lender established by the BRICS group of nations, central bank governor said in a state media report published on Wednesday ahead of a BRICS finance meeting in India.

4. Surveillance soldiers on the Gaza border were reportedly sounding the alarm on Thursday about armed terrorist activity inside the Gaza Strip, in what they said feels like a repeat of their unheeded warnings before the October 7, 2023, onslaught.

5. Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired missiles at the Yemeni port city of Mokha on Friday, killing eight people, the country’s internationally recognized government said, 

A Yemeni government official said the Houthis “fired five missiles at commercial ships unloading at the port” in Mokha, setting two ships on fire.

6. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met the commander of US Central Command, Brad Cooper, and discussed defense cooperation between the kingdom and the United States as well as efforts to reduce regional tensions, the Saudi state news agency says.

7. U.S. Central Command will stand up the inaugural task force focused on multi-domain, multinational attack drones.

Task Force Falcon Strike will utilize one-way attack drones composed of unmanned systems from above, on and below the sea, managed by U.S. military support staff and regional partners.

8. The Pentagon signed two framework agreements Friday with Boeing and RTX to expand production of critical components for the Standard Missile-3, the Navy’s primary ship-launched interceptor against ballistic missiles.

9.  US Army M1E3 & XM30 Prototypes.

10.  Breaking Defense Opinion Article- concerning US Transits through the Taiwan Strait.  

For review:

1.Israel told the United States about the Iranian assassination threat that prompted the US Secret Service to take President Donald Trump off Air Force One and transfer to another military plane as he prepared to fly out of Turkey last month, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed US official.

Later Tuesday, Trump confirmed that he had indeed been smuggled off Air Force One in Ankara because the Secret Service and US military told him to switch planes.

2. Iran-backed Houthi rebels killed six people aboard a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday.

3. The Board of Peace on Wednesday denied that there is any “financial agreement” with Hamas, after the Kan public broadcaster reported that the body agreed to cover $400 million of Hamas’s debt to outside parties as part of its roadmap for the terror group’s disarmament.

4. Israel informed the White House recently that it would be willing to negotiate an agreement halting the targeted killings of Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, but that any such deal would exclude those who took part in the October 7, 2023, attack.

5. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he hoped more countries would join a the defense agreement signed last week between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan that they say is aimed at stabilizing a region wracked by conflict.

6. The US military is on track to pull all of its forces out of Iraq by the end of September, officials said Wednesday, marking the end of a presence that started with the 2003 invasion and beginning of the Iraq War.

7. An Army unit has been picked to begin training and testing out plans for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome air defense mission, according to a three-star general helping with plans.
 
 

For review:

1. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the administration of President Donald Trump is escalating economic pressure on Cuba with an unprecedented sanctions campaign and warned that "there are no escape valves."

2. Yemen's Houthis said they attacked an oil facility Sunday in southwestern Saudi Arabia, the latest attack by the Iranian-backed rebels on the kingdom.

3. Nickolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy of the US-backed Board of Peace, sought to dispel skepticism in Israel about the board’s roadmap for the disarmament of Hamas in the Strip, arguing that the plan’s full implementation is Israel’s only “guarantee” of preventing a repeat of the October 7, 2023, massacre, and that it will be based on verifiable steps, rather than trust of the terror group.

4. Iran on Monday said that it has no reason to be concerned about the new security pact between Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, arguing that it is “a sign of a change in the perception” of countries in the region toward the United States, and not a threat to Iran.

5. US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Washington was “low-keying” its approach to Iran and only “semi-negotiating” with the Islamic Republic, as it suffers in dire economic straits.

6. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has denied that Russian and German officials held talks in Azerbaijan last month to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“There have been no official contacts with Germany regarding a settlement in Ukraine, nor are there any now.” 

7. The US Defense Department has requested that American defense companies quickly boost their production and delivery of weapons amid an acute shortage of arms due to the Iran war, according to a memo reported on by the WP on Saturday.

8. The Army has officially opened up four of its domestic testing ranges and one international range where private industry can blast off interceptor missiles they have developed with their own funds, in hopes of getting promising candidates into the acquisition pipeline faster.

For review:

1. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a joint defense agreement in Mecca on Friday.

The agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all, they said in a joint statement.

2. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says that the defense pact his country signed yesterday with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is technically the same as NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense agreement.

Egypt could potentially join the pact once certain technical matters are resolved, he adds.

3. A member of Iran's Parliament and National Security and Foreign Policy Commission has criticised the new defence pact between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey and said that even though the agreement has been signed, it would not guarantee Riyadh lasting security.

Ebrahim Rezaei reacted to the defence agreement on X and wrote, "Saudis must know that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as years of one-sided nursing to the Americans did not bring them security."

4. Houthi attacks on a strategic Yemeni province killed at least 10 people Friday, according to a minister and military source, as the rebels escalated strikes on the oil-rich region.

A source close to the Saudi military told AFP that the Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government since 2015 would not stand “idly by” against the Houthi attacks and that Marib was a “red line.”

5. In an interview with Fox News, US Vice President JD Vance says that Iran has told the US that it has “no plans” to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz.

6. As the US-backed Board of Peace pushed ahead with its roadmap for postwar Gaza, Hamas asserted Saturday it remained ready to proceed with the plan and urged Washington to pressure Israel to implement it, as Israeli officials warned that the terror organization was exploiting the process to prevent renewed military action.

7. The US Senate overwhelmingly approves a punishing Russian sanctions package, the result of a year-long campaign by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.

The bipartisan legislation, which passes the Senate 86-11, would penalize countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas and other exports.

8. The U.S. Air Force has committed $75 million to an initial production run of a jet-powered guided bomb that can fly more than 300 nautical miles.

Boeing’s Payload Delivery Unit is a wing-and-turbojet engine kit that converts a 500-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) into a long-range JDAM (JDAM LR) dubbed the GBU-75. The result is a gravity bomb with the reach of a cruise missile.

For review:

1. Report: Mossad chief removes 2 senior officials behind aborted Iran regime-change plan 

2. Iran’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that Iran and Oman have agreed on a route for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz and are putting the final touches on arrangements for jointly managing the waterway.

3. Lebanon and Israel held a fresh round of US-sponsored talks in Rome on Tuesday. This week’s negotiations mark the seventh round of Washington-mediated talks.

4. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have killed at least 30 government soldiers and injured 15 in missile attacks on Yemeni military, government sources 

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the attacks, using missiles and drones, led to “hundreds” of casualties.

The Yemeni military confirmed the attacks, framing them as a response to their own attacks on the Houthis.

5. A Ukrainian cargo plane targeted by a drone carrying explosives at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport was loaded with ammunition at the time of the incident, German media reported on Aug. 6.

6. US Triples Patriot and Quadruples THAAD Interceptor Production.

For review:

1. US President Donald Trump held a phone call earlier today with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during which the pair discussed “efforts to deescalate tensions between the US and Iran,” the latter’s office says.

2. Iran and the Gulf Arab state of Oman have made progress toward a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a potential breakthrough that could help wind down the war in the Middle East, regional officials say.

Under the emerging agreement, ships would enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through a route controlled by Oman, with service fees charged for providing security and preserving the maritime environment, two regional officials tell The Associated Press.

3. In his first public comments on the matter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel has not agreed to the Board of Peace’s Hamas disarmament plan, which was accepted by the terror group last week.

4. The US-backed Board of Peace appeared to change its conditions for the IDF to withdraw from Gaza after its top officials held a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, shortly before a fresh Israeli airstrike was reported in the enclave.

5. Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's former ambassador to the U.S., has been charged with illicit enrichment, an anti-corruption prosecutor said at a hearing of the High Anti-Corruption Court on Aug. 5.

6. Ukraine will never become a member of NATO despite years of pursuing accession, Ukraine's Ambassador to the U.K. and former Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said on Aug. 3.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said Zaluzhnyi's remarks had been "taken out of context and caused a stir," noting that the ambassador's full answer referred primarily to the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), not NATO.