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A record-high heatwave is sweeping through the Korean Peninsula, sending temperatures skyrocketing, reaching 42.5C (108.5F) on Sunday. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention ​Agency, at least 14 people have died since mid-May as a result.

Mexico deployed more than 1,500 troops to its main avocado-producing state after the US suspended export inspections over security concerns. The halt has frozen shipments to Mexico’s biggest market, threatening thousands of jobs and a multibillion-dollar industry.

A few of Friday’s editorials reflect the anger about the government’s early release scheme for prisoners in England and Wales. The Daily Express, external calls on the prime minister to halt what it calls a “preposterous plan”, which it says will reward sex offenders and the killers of police officers. The Sun calls Andy Burnham’s failure to exempt two of PC Andrew Harper’s killers from the scheme a “terrible decision”, external.

The Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph lead on Conservative proposals to scrap social housing for many foreign nationals. The Mail calls it a “bold move”, external. According to the Telegraph, the Tories believe the change will stop Britain from being treated as a “cash machine for the world”, external. But it also highlights concerns from Labour about the effect on long-term UK residents, including “NHS staff”.

The Guardian, external says the government’s review of youth unemployment will recommend that primary schools in England should identify children at risk of leaving education at 16 without a job. Alan Milburn, who is leading the review, tells the paper that “the warning signs are there from a very, early age”.

The Financial Times calls the sale of EasyJet, external to an American private equity firm the “latest foreign swoop”. The paper says the £5.7bn-takeover paves the way for “another London listed company to be taken private”, with the airline joining an “exodus from UK listings”.

“Number 10 aides show blokey Burnham the red card”, declares the Times. It says Downing Street social media experts have told the prime minister to tone down his “blokeish”, external videos – by limiting references to “football and the pub”.

Some of the papers poke fun at the suggestion drinkers could be discouraged from standing in pubs in London’s West End. The Daily Mirror, external asks “wouldn’t this effort be better spent making it a crime to leave when it’s your round?” The Daily Star , externaldeclares it “madness”, and pictures the band of the same name standing in a Soho pub.

Kratos has built the first landing gear-equipped versions of its stealthy XQ-58 Valkyrie drone, with several additional examples now in various stages of construction. The company is also still producing XQ-58s designed for rocket-assisted takeoffs via static launchers, and Valkyrie production is ramping up overall. Both types offer certain advantages in different operational scenarios. Valkyrie flight test activities are currently paused following the crash of one of the drones on Tuesday, which TWZ was first to report and that readers can get caught up on first here.

In reporting on the crash, TWZ had a chance to speak yesterday with Steve Fendley, President of Kratos’ Unmanned Systems Division, who provided additional updates on the Valkyrie program. The U.S. Marine Corps notably previously announced that it is acquiring a fleet of Valkyries in the landing gear-equipped configuration under its Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft (MUX TACAIR) Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. Fendley also discussed developments across other parts of the company’s tactical drone portfolio.

To provide some quick additional context, the rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO) and landing gear-equipped conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) versions of the Valkyrie are the two main known configurations of the design. The RATO type, which first flew in 2019, also lands via parachute. Kratos has also developed a special launch trolley that allows RATO Valkyries to conduct runway takeoffs, though they still land using the parachute recovery system.

The CTOL version was first publicly announced in 2024. Drones in this configuration can also be launched via rocket, but then land conventionally. The addition of the landing gear does reduce the available internal payload space, as well, something we will come back to later on. In January, Kratos had told us it was targeting the early 2026 timeframe for a first flight, but we cannot confirm whether this has occurred. The Valkyrie crash on Tuesday did come after “takeoff from a test-range runway,” but Kratos would only say the drone in question was in “test configuration.” Whether or not this may have been the first flight of the CTOL variant is not clear.

More generally, Valkyrie is a highly modular design with an open mission systems architecture intended to be readily configurable to meet customer needs. Kratos has told TWZ in the past that it has developed at least five distinct versions of the drone. The company has also been steadily working to expand the performance envelope of the design.

“We have several CTOL aircrafts [sic] … we’ve been working on it for about a year and a half,” Kratos’ Fendley told TWZ. The CTOL configuration is now “in production. Started on those earlier this year, and again, those aircraft are – some are ready, and some still in the pipeline.”

Overall, work on the CTOL version is pressing ahead, he added, while noting that RATO versions are also still being actively produced. Kratos has customers now for both versions.

The U.S. Air Force was the first known XQ-58 operator, and continues to utilize RATO types in support of research and development and test and evaluation activities. The Marine Corps also has a handful of RATO Valkyries, which it has been using to help lay the groundwork for its future operational fleet of CTOL types, which are now sometimes also referred to as MQ-58Bs. The Marines are hoping to see the delivery of the first of these drones in 2029.

Kratos has also publicly announced a partnership with European aviation giant Airbus to develop a version of the Valkyrie aimed at meeting German requirements for a CCA-type drone. When asked about other Valkyrie sales opportunities yesterday, Fendley told TWZ that there are a “number of other international customers,” but could not elaborate.

“We have a set of customers for each configuration, and in many cases, we have customers that want both configurations,” he did note. “They’ll do test and training ops generally with the CTOL variant, but then for forward-deployed scenarios or for scenarios where they want to maximize the payload capacity, they’ll use the RATO configuration. which allows capacity inside the bomb bay.”

At the time of writing, Kratos’ website says RATO XQ-58s can carry up to 1,200 pounds of stores in their internal centerline bay, as well as payloads weighing up to 600 pounds on a single hardpoint under each wing. The bay itself is also said to be sized around a loadout consisting of four 250-pound-class GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs (SDB). The SDB is just under 71 inches long and has a body that is 7.5 inches in diameter. The CTOL has half the internal payload capacity, both in terms of weight and physical space, per Kratos’ factsheet. RATO and CTOL types can both also carry additional payloads weighing up to 600 pounds on two external hardpoints, one under each wing.

As TWZ has noted in the past, the ability to operate from traditional runways and conduct static RATO launches both offer certain advantages in different contexts. As Fendley reiterated yesterday, RATO types offer valuable runway independence for forward-deployed operations, and dramatically expand the total number of potential launch and recovery points. Previously, Kratos has shown a concept for an entirely containerized static launch system, which would offer further operational flexibility.

All of this, in turn, could help enable distributed concepts of operations that are also intended to reduce vulnerability and otherwise complicate an opponent’s decision-making cycles. The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force, in particular, see distributed deployment concepts as critical to success in future conflicts, especially a potential high-end fight, such as one against China in the Pacific. The Air Force’s particular set of operational concepts, which it currently calls Aegis Combat Employment (ACE), were baked into the requirements for its CCA drone program from the start.

In general, static RATO launch does impose constraints on maximum takeoff weight and, by extension, on range and payload capacity. Kratos has previously told TWZ that just using the trolley launch method offers an increase “in the 10s of % for both fuel and payload capacity.” How exactly the CTOL’s payload and performance compare to the RATO version in either of these different launch modes is unclear. As already noted, the CTOL version does have less capacity available in its internal bay because of the landing gear.

Kratos Valkyrie Trolley Launch System

Still, as we have previously written:

“The CTOL version offers a single platform with the flexibility to take off from conventional runways, which could allow for heavier overall weights, or to use the existing rocket-boosted method from a much wider array of potential operating locations. In a real-world operational scenario, the drones could fly a rocket-boosted mission to start, recover on a runway at a tertiary site, and then continue to fly sorties from there, or be deployed elsewhere. This would combine the benefits of runway independence, including the difficulties imposed on enemies trying to target what could be widely distributed launch points, during an initial wave, and the advantages offered by normal runway-centric tactical air operations for follow-on sorties.

…

“An XQ-58 that can land like any other fixed-wing aircraft on a runway offers advantages for resetting the drones and getting them back into the fight. It takes far more time and effort to get runway-independent types ready for relaunch after they touch down via parachute. That method of landing also relies on airbags to cushion the impact, and a failure of that element of the system can lead to significant damage. There is, of course, always the potential for accidents while operating from traditional runways. Regardless, a Valkyrie that uses a runway should be able to achieve significantly higher sortie rates.”

“The CTOL variant’s flexibility could also have benefits outside of a tactical scenario. TWZ has previously noted that a landing gear-equipped version would be easier to integrate, overall, with other tactical air assets that rely on traditional runways, which would also be relevant for training and other day-to-day peacetime activities. That being said, a significant portion of the Marine Corps’ future CCA fleets, as well as those that the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy plan to acquire and field, may not ever be daily fliers.”

As noted earlier, Fendley spoke directly to these latter points as important benefits of the CTOL configuration during his interview with us yesterday. There are still tradeoffs with the landing gear-equipped Valkyries, especially since they have to find a runway to touch down on even after a rocket-assisted launch. All of this, in turn, speaks to Fendley’s other comments about interest from customers in operating mixed fleets of RATO and CTOL types.

Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie Test Flight

Beyond the core RATO and CTOL configurations, “we have many different configurations of Valkyrie for many different mission profiles and scenarios that our customers want to resolve, handle, address with unmanned, uncrewed systems,” Fendley also told us. “The ability for that system to couple with either a fourth-gen or a fifth-gen system and increase the survivability, increase the lethality of either of those systems is fantastic.”

This “has really served us with respect to our customers who want to be able to have a defensive capability like that without expending their entire annual budget,” he continued.

The current price point for Valkyries in either the RATO or CTOL configurations is unclear. Kratos has told TWZ in the past that RATO versions are in roughly the $4 and $6 million unit cost range. Years ago, the company also said it was hoping to eventually drive the purchase price down to around $2 million. Economy of scale benefits could be on the horizon as Kratos works to ramp up Valkyrie production. The company is hoping to see the annual production rate rise to 40 airframes by 2028.

“We have increased our full year 2026 organic revenue growth forecast up to approximately 18 percent to 23 percent as compared to full year 2025, which now also includes an expectation of approximately 10 percent organic growth for our Unmanned Systems business based upon recent contract awards, including Valkyrie,” Kratos’ President and CEO Eric DeMarco said just earlier this week around the comapny’s release of its second quarters earnings report.

Kratos is also seeing a surge in interest across its tactical portfolio more broadly, driven by demand both for reusable platforms and long-range one-way attack drones. In speaking to us yesterday, Fendley specifically highlighted the company’s Tactical Firejet design, also known as Airwolf, which has now been adapted into a kamikaze drone. That work has been done in partnership with Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST). You can read more about this variant, which is also called the Chien Feng IV (Mighty Hornet IV), here.

“And then, of course, our Mako system, which was our original tactical system, that we have a couple of customers who have become very interested in that,” Fendley also noted. This “is interesting because we developed that system in about the 2015-2016 timeframe, and all was quiet for a long time, and it’s really heated up in the, I would just say, in this calendar year. And I think some of that is based on world events, and some of it is based on the increase in budgets, particularly.”

Mako, also known as the UTAP-22, is a tactical combat drone derived from the BQM-167A Skeeter target drone, which Kratos also produces. Mako was at the center of a number of important experimental U.S. military drone programs in the late 2010s and early 2020s, but had appeared to be overtaken by the XQ-58, as well as more advanced designs from other companies. The design does still offer a tier of loyal wingman-type capability that could also come at lower cost compared to other options on the open market now. Mako might be adaptable to the one-way-attack role like the Tactical Firejet/Airwolf, as well.

In addition, Fendley offered positive assessments of ongoing development of the secretive Apollo, Athena, and Thanatos drones, but said he could not offer additional details given the level of classification surrounding those programs. This also just represents work the company is doing in the classified realm that we know about.

The Valkyrie family does remain front and center in Kratos’ tactical drone portfolio. This only looks set to continue with CTOL versions now being built and production ramping up overall for a growing number of customers globally.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The Houthi rebels of Yemen have launched one of their biggest attacks on Saudi-aligned forces in that country in years. The strikes are a flare-up in what up until recently has been a largely dormant conflict. They took place in eastern Yemeni provinces of Marib and Hadhramaut, which are areas controlled by local forces opposed to the Houthis. This unfolded as the Iranian-backed rebel group is also expanding its campaign against Saudi shipping in the Red Sea region and its oil production infrastructure.

The Houthis claim they killed and injured hundreds of the Saudi-aligned troops. Yemeni government officials said that at least 30 troops were killed while there has been no official comment from Riyadh. However, the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, the Yemeni Defense Ministry and the Saudi-led forces confirmed the attacks.

“Our armed forces carried out a broad and precise military operation targeting the Saudi enemy’s mobilizations in the areas of Al-Ruwaik, Al-Abr, and Al-Thaniyah, and other camps belonging to what is called the First and Third Emergency Divisions, using a large number of ballistic missiles and drones,” Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree stated on X. In addition to “the deaths and injuries of hundreds of Saudi enemy mercenaries,” Saree claimed the “destruction and burning of a large number of Saudi enemy camps, mobilizations, storage depots, and weapons in the Al-Wadiah area in the east of the country” as well as the “destruction of a large number of vehicles.”

Saree added that the actions were preemptive to prevent an assault on Houthi forces.

In a statement on X, the Yemeni Defense Ministry said the Houthis “carried out a treacherous attack using ballistic missiles and drones, targeting several camps and units of the Armed Forces deployed in the provinces of Marib and Hadramaut… The Ministry of Defense affirmed that the Yemeni Armed Forces will respond to this aggression at the appropriate time and place, and that this treacherous attack will not undermine the resolve of the Armed Forces’ heroes or affect their ability to perform their national duties; rather, it will increase their steadfastness, cohesion, and determination to defend the Republic, restore the state, and end the coup.”

The target of these strikes, the Yemen Emergency Forces (YEF), acknowledged they had been hit. 

“In a new military escalation, the Houthi terrorist militias targeted several military bases and military units, including emergency forces, resulting in material and human losses,” YEF claimed on Facebook. “This targeting comes after the military forces’ success in carrying out their duties under the directives of the Minister of Defense, aiming to secure areas, protect international roads, pursue gangs of kidnappers and smugglers, and apprehend those involved in robbery, kidnapping, and organized crimes.”

The Yemen Emergency Forces “are made up mostly of Salafi-aligned fighters from Yemen’s northern governorates and fall entirely under the Yemeni Forces Authority, itself commanded by the Saudi-led Joint Forces Command,” according to Defenseliney, an independent Yemeni media platform focusing on security issues. “Their roots trace to an earlier nucleus called the ‘Happy Yemen Forces,’ formed with Saudi funding, training, and support since 2019 and deployed along the Saada border strip extending north into Al-Jawf; most of its brigades had earlier operated under separate presidential decrees before being absorbed into the Emergency Forces.”

The U.S. Embassy in Yemen derided the Houthi attack as an act of terrorism.

“The U.S. Embassy to Yemen expresses our deepest condolences to the families of the brave Yemeni soldiers killed today in Hadhramawt and Marib,” the embassy announced on X. “The Iran-backed Houthis’ cowardly attacks represent yet another example of their terrorism against the Yemeni people. We wish the wounded a speedy recovery.”

Several videos emerged online purporting to show the Houthi attacks. They depict plumes of smoke wafting from what appear to be strikes and the sounds of small arms fire and what appears to be a drone strike can be heard, but they offer little real sense of the scope of the incidents or the damage inflicted.

Yemen’s Houthis frame the strikes as a pre-emptive response to a large Saudi military build-up they say was in its final stages, aimed at escalating against them to force them to abandon their push to end the blockade.

Houthi statement warns Saudi Arabia against any “folly,”… https://t.co/WkpUIyGxTQ

— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 6, 2026

Reports are emerging of a significant Houthi assault on the Saudi backed Yemen Emergency Forces encampment near Marib, Yemen with several casualties reported. This video purports to show the aftermath of one of the attacks, though it has not been verified.

Marib is the… pic.twitter.com/6LmQyHkhW2

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 6, 2026

🔴 Update 3 |

Exclusive sources: The 13 ballistic missiles launched by the Houthi group were fired from three Yemeni governorates: Sana’a, Ma’rib, and Al-Jawf, while the drones were launched from Al-Bayda governorate.

💢 Missile launch sites identified:

▪️ The mountainous… https://t.co/fICrwP6KBV pic.twitter.com/7FDHTMQeXz

— عاصم المجاهد | Asem Al_Mujahed (@Asem22mo) August 6, 2026

There was also video purporting to show Houthi missile launches against the Saudi-backed forces; however TWZ cannot confirm any of claims about these videos.

Today’s engagement marks a major escalation both in Houthi-Saudi hostilities and in the battle for Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries, but strategically located along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The civil war in Yemen erupted in 2014 and expanded a year later when a Saudi-led coalition joined forces with the government ousted by the Houthis. For a while, the U.S. was supporting that coalition’s bombing campaign by providing aerial refueling and intelligence. However, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis ended that in 2018 during the first Trump presidency after growing concerns over the large number of civilian casualties being inflicted. The Saudi coalition’s fight against the Houthis also complicated the U.S. counterterrorism campaign against Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The fighting between Saudi-led forces and the Houthis largely abated after a tenuous ceasefire was signed in 2022. Tensions, however, reignited in recent weeks after the Houthis joined the U.S.-Iran conflict on the side of their major supporter. The Houthis imposed a blockade on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, and began striking Saudi ships in the southern part of the Red Sea as well as refineries along the northern portion. As we noted yesterday, the Yemeni rebel group said it was expanding its campaign against Saudi Arabia to strike vessels in the northern part of the Red Sea.

All this is adding to the pressure on oil supplies flowing out of the region, which has created global economic stress.

In response to attacks on its shipping, Saudi Arabia hit Houthi missile-launch platforms, a rocket-launch site, and weapons depots. However, the Saudi reaction was limited in nature. It remains to be seen how the kingdom will respond now given that many of the fighters it supports have been killed.

The uptick in Saudi-Houthi fighting comes as the region is already roiled in conflict, though efforts are underway to achieve a diplomatic solution to the U.S.-Iran war, now paused in an uneasy ceasefire.

As we have reported in the past, the two countries and Oman are working toward a deal that would essentially give Iran control over the Strait of Hormuz. 

Tehran is “insisting the framework represents a new security model for the strategic waterway rather than a full reopening of the strait,” CBS News reported on Thursday, citing Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

The proposed mechanism would regulate the movement of commercial vessels, with ships entering through Iranian waters and exiting through Omani waters.

IRNA said the talks are aimed at defining “a new model that is different from the 60-year-old practice of the past” in which ships passed through the strait at will.

Iran state media Fars: according to the negotiations between Iran and Oman, after an initial period, “passage of vessels through both the northern and southern corridors [of the Strait of Hormuz] will cease, and all traffic will occur through the central corridor. However, the… pic.twitter.com/ezIj2Bf5We

— Steve Lookner (@lookner) August 6, 2026

The flow of traffic through the strategic chokepoint has become the main sticking point between Washington and Tehran as the two sides work toward ending hostilities. U.S. President Donald Trump has insisted that Iran must fully open the vital chokepoint or face new and more intense attacks that would include power plants, other civilian infrastructure and even leadership.

How much increased fighting between the Saudis and Houthis complicates these matters is an open question. As we have frequently noted, the closing of the BAM to Saudi oil traffic and now threats to the transit route north to the canal have already raised the specter of the U.S. having to get as involved as it did during the previous Houthi campaign against shipping that ended last September, which could pull resources away from Iranian-focused operations. It’s possible Egypt would have a major problem with such actions too, as it would impact the canal’s revenue and freedom of movement. 

A major intensification of Saudi-Houthi hostilities represents yet another complication in a region already in turmoil. 

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Justice Department Watchdogs Face Sharp Decline

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is facing growing scrutiny after internal watchdog offices responsible for investigating attorney misconduct and departmental wrongdoing experienced significant staffing losses during President Donald Trump’s second term, even as complaints against the department reached record levels.

According to a Reuters review of government records and interviews with former Justice Department officials, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) have seen substantial reductions in personnel, raising concerns about their ability to independently oversee the country’s top law enforcement agency.

Federal judges have increasingly criticized DOJ attorneys for alleged misconduct, including accusations of making false statements, ignoring court orders and using legal processes against political opponents.

Misconduct Complaints Rise as Investigations Fall

The Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates misconduct by Justice Department lawyers, has seen its workforce fall from 29 employees to just 16 since Trump returned to office.

At the same time, misconduct complaints have climbed to their highest level in two decades.

Despite receiving 1,666 complaints during the 2025 fiscal year, the office opened only seven formal investigations, the lowest number recorded in the past twenty years. Over the previous decade, the office averaged more than 18 new investigations annually.

Former Justice Department officials told Reuters that staff departures, combined with concerns about political retaliation, have significantly slowed oversight activities.

Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels rejected those concerns, saying OPR remains committed to investigating attorney misconduct and ensuring accountability.

Inspector General Office Also Loses Staff

The Department’s Office of Inspector General, responsible for investigating fraud, waste and abuse across the DOJ, has also experienced notable staff reductions.

Government employment records show the office lost 99 employees since the end of former President Joe Biden’s administration, reducing its workforce to 477.

Former officials interviewed by Reuters said the office has become increasingly reluctant to pursue politically sensitive investigations, although Inspector General spokesperson John Lavinsky denied that claim, insisting the office continues to conduct independent oversight regardless of political sensitivity.

Jack Smith Investigation Remains Unresolved

Among the most prominent internal cases is the ethics investigation involving former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led federal prosecutions related to Trump’s handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The investigation examined allegations by Republican lawmakers that Smith’s team improperly influenced the 2024 election and pressured witnesses.

Reuters reported that Smith had already been interviewed by investigators and the inquiry was expected to conclude last year. However, the investigation remains unresolved after reportedly being paused by political appointees.

Separately, the Justice Department has since launched a criminal investigation into Smith, who has denied wrongdoing.

Federal Judges Increase Criticism of DOJ Conduct

The weakening of internal oversight coincides with an increasing number of judicial rebukes directed at the Justice Department.

Federal judges have criticized government attorneys in several high profile cases involving evidence handling, courtroom conduct and legal strategy.

Among the most notable rulings was a decision by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, who accused senior Justice Department officials, including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, of failing to properly defend the government in litigation involving former President Trump and instead negotiating what she described as an inappropriate settlement.

DOJ officials have disputed those judicial findings, arguing that several courts have demonstrated political hostility toward the administration.

Concerns Over External Oversight

The Trump administration has also moved to limit outside scrutiny of Justice Department attorneys by challenging state level ethics investigations and seeking expanded authority to restrict oversight by legal licensing bodies.

Administration officials argue that many state investigations are politically motivated and designed to discourage government lawyers from implementing the president’s policies.

Legal ethics experts, however, warn that diminishing both internal and external oversight risks undermining public confidence in the department’s accountability mechanisms.

Analysis

The reported weakening of the Justice Department’s internal watchdog offices comes at a time when judicial scrutiny of government conduct has intensified, placing institutional accountability under renewed focus. While the administration argues that oversight mechanisms remain fully operational and that many judicial criticisms are politically motivated, the decline in staffing and investigations raises broader questions about the effectiveness and perceived independence of internal accountability structures. As politically sensitive cases continue to move through U.S. courts, the credibility of the DOJ’s oversight institutions is likely to remain central to debates over the balance between executive authority, legal ethics and public trust in federal law enforcement.

With information from Reuters.

Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo reports from Buenos Aires, where police fired tear gas as thousands protested against a private property bill. Opponents fear it will lead to foreigners owning too much land, while the Milei government says the law would attract investment.

Boeing has been cleared to start producing Joint Direct Attack Munition-Long Range (JDAM-LR) precision-guided weapons for the U.S. Navy. The JDAM-LR is essentially a small cruise missile derived from the JDAM family of precision-guided bombs. The weapon will give the Navy, and potentially other services, a new way to bolster stocks of air-launched stand-off munitions. This all follows the Navy’s announcement of successful test launches of JDAM-LRs from F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters back in April.

In a press release yesterday, Boeing announced that it had received an Undefinitized Contract Action (UCA) from the U.S. Air Force valued at $75 million related to JDAM-LR production for the Navy. The Air Force serves as the central manager for the joint-service JDAM program. By definition, a UCA means the parties still have to work out the final details of the deal, which could include the price point. UCAs are often used to kick-start work in response to urgent requirements.

“This first production contract is a major milestone for the JDAM LR program, demonstrating our ability to deliver long-range precision-strike capability at a significantly lower cost,” Bob Ciesla, Vice President of Boeing Precision Engagement Systems, said in a statement, underscoring confidence in the new UCA. “Scaling production of the GBU-75 will provide the fleet with an affordable, sustainable solution designed to eliminate long-range land and sea-based threats to U.S. and international forces and enable them to safely and effectively operate in a contested battlespace.”

GBU-75/B is the designation that has been applied, so far, to complete JDAM-LR munitions. Boeing’s release yesterday also revealed that the core component of the weapon, the so-called Payload Delivery Unit (PDU), has now also been designated BSU-111/B.

Like unpowered JDAMs, the JDAM-LR is more of a kit than a munition by itself. The PDU contains the guidance section, systems to interface with the launching aircraft, a pop-out wing kit, and a compact turbojet engine (understood to be the TDI-J85). PDU is then combined with a standardized low-drag 500-pound-class bomb as its ‘warhead’ to create a complete weapon.

As with JDAM variants – which also come in 1,000-pound-class and 2,000-pound-class variations – the modular kit-type design creates immense flexibility for how JDAM-LRs can be configured. In the past, Boeing has shown depictions of what it originally called the Powered JDAM (PJDAM) paired with general-purpose high-explosive bombs and air-dropped shallow-water anti-ship mines. There are many other 500-pound-class bombs with this same form factor already available, including specialized designs intended to reduce the risk of collateral damage.

In terms of guidance, JDAM-LR leverages the GPS-assisted inertial navigation system from the unpowered JDAM family. This guidance method can only be used to target static coordinates. Boeing has previously shown concepts for multi-mode guidance packages that could also include active seekers, such as a radar or imaging infrared system, which would enable strikes on moving targets at sea and on land. Boeing already produces a version of the 500-pound-class JDAM that adds a laser seeker to allow for the engagement of moving targets.

The biggest capability boost offered by the JDAM-LR over existing JDAM types is, of course, the stand-off range. Boeing says the powered version can hit targets more than 345 miles (300 nautical miles) away. A typical underpowered JDAM can still glide after release, but only out to around 15 miles, according to the Air Force. With the addition of a pop-out wing kit, JDAM-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) types have greater reach, extending out to roughly 45 miles. This all depends on various factors, especially release altitude and the speed of the launch platform.

There are also benefits to this design, and to leveraging existing technology from the JDAM family, when it comes to cost and scalability of production. Boeing says it has also invested nearly $100 million of its own money in this program, which traces its roots back to the late 2010s, at least.

What the exact unit cost of a typical JDAM-LR will be is unclear. However, historically, standard JDAM kits have cost between $20,000 and $30,000. The current price point for a TDI-J85 engine is unknown, but TWZ has used the Williams F107, a larger turbojet used in various cruise missiles, as a point of comparison in the past. Past reports have put the F107’s price tag at some $190,000. A typical 500-pound-class low-drag bomb would add another few thousand dollars to that total.

Regardless, for the Navy especially, JDAM-LR offers a lower-cost and lower-risk pathway to bolstering the standoff munition capabilities of its carrier air wings, and stockpiles of those weapons for future fights. The sevice notably cancelled previous plans to acquire a turbojet-powered version of the AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW) glide bomb back in 2021 in favor of a new version of the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRAM) with secondary land attack capability. In 2024, the Navy also disclosed that it was axing plans to incorporate land attack functionality on the AGM-158C-3 variant. It should also be noted here that LRASM is a very capable, but also very expensive weapon, with unit costs generally pegged in the $3 million range, regardless of version.

Navy carrier air wings do also have access to the AGM-84K Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) missile, which can be employed by F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. An air-launched land-attack outgrowth of the Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile, the SLAM-ER’s maximum range is reportedly around 170 miles. These missiles also have unit costs in the $3 million range.

US President Donald Trump expects the conflict with Iran to end “pretty soon”, while Tehran reports that an agreement with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is “on the verge of being finalised” following a route agreement between both nations.

Detroit, Michigan – The sighs in the audience were audible as United States Congresswoman Haley Stevens closed in on Abdul El-Sayed’s lead in the Michigan Democratic primary for the US Senate.

El-Sayed, a public health advocate, took the stage after midnight as uncertainty had dampened the once-celebratory mood among supporters in Detroit early on Wednesday.

“I wish I could tell you that I was declaring victory right about now. It turns out it takes a long time to count some votes in Michigan. It’s a big state,” he joked.

The progressive candidate went on to remind the crowd of what his campaign was up against: tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other special-interest groups.

“I want you to remind them that if we come through this, when we come through this, inshallah [God willing]”, he said, “that we’ll have taken $70m on the chin and kept fighting back.”

Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, continued to shrink El-Sayed’s lead as the votes came in, bringing the margin between them down to less than 1 percent.

The final results arrived later on Wednesday morning, long after the sun had risen on a new day. El-Sayed had won by a razor-thin margin.

He had fended off not just Stevens but also the pro-Israel groups and Democratic power brokers in Michigan, including top officials from the party, like Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who had endorsed his opponent.

The result appeared to stun the US political system, dealing yet another setback to the pro-Israel Democrats and sparking a response from President Donald Trump, who was quick to label El-Sayed as a “Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel”.

But the message from the vote results was clear: Campaign spending and big-name endorsements may no longer be enough to secure victory within the Democratic Party.

‘It’s not just the status quo anymore’

El-Sayed’s supporters say the delayed celebrations and the smaller-than-expected margin of victory should not diminish the significance of the elections.

Democratic state legislator Alabas Farhat said El-Sayed’s victory sends a message that, if candidates run on an anti-war platform and are willing to take on special interest groups like AIPAC, people will vote for them.

“It’s not just the status quo anymore and these establishment politicians who are used to coasting through these elections,” Farhat told Al Jazeera.

“It’s now folks who want to come in and disrupt and deliver big, bold agendas and relief for the working families of Michigan and anywhere else.”

Stevens had overwhelming support from the Democratic Party establishment. She was backed by Whitmer, former Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and retiring Senator Gary Peters, whose seat she was running for.

Defeating Stevens allows El-Sayed to compete in November’s general elections against former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, who is backed by Trump and will likely receive support from pro-Israel groups.

AIPAC has already indicated it will continue its spending in Michigan to beat El-Sayed in the general election. “Our members remain determined to ensure that voters reject Dr El-Sayed and his radical anti-Israel agenda in November,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

The pro-Israel lobby group also downplayed El-Sayed’s victory, highlighting wins by other pro-Israel candidates, including in Missouri, where Congressman Wesley Bell comfortably won against his progressive challenger, former Congresswoman Cori Bush.

“While disappointed that some of our AIPAC-backed candidates did not prevail, our community is proud to support pro-Israel Democrats and Republicans who stand for our values, and we are encouraged that voters in races across this primary season continue to broadly choose leaders who support a strong US-Israel partnership,” AIPAC said.

Even with polls showing that the general election is up for grabs, analysts are emphasising the historic nature of El-Sayed’s primary victory.

Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders called El-Sayed’s win the “most extraordinary victory” in modern US politics.

“Have you ever heard of a candidate in a major race getting outspent nine to one, taking on the entire establishment and winning?” Sanders said on the Pod Save America podcast.

“I cannot recall somebody having done that.”

Left-wing victories

El-Sayed was not alone in security victories in the state’s primary races. The overall result in Michigan is seen as another major achievement for the progressive left in this election cycle.

In Tuesday’s election, progressive state legislator Donavan McKinney defeated pro-Israel incumbent Shri Thanedar in a US House Democratic primary. In a district north of Detroit, left-wing climate organiser William Lawrence also won a Democratic primary for Congress by 15 points.

Across the US, from California to Colorado to Pennsylvania to New Jersey to New York, progressives have won similar races, ousting several incumbents and claiming open seats in safe Democratic districts.

What makes El-Sayed’s win significant is not only the spending and endorsements he faced, but also that he won a state-wide race in a swing state that voted for Trump less than two years ago. Michigan is home to more than 10 million people.

Progressive Pennsylvania State Representative Chris Rabb, who is on his way to Congress after winning a competitive primary for a heavily Democratic seat in May, said left-wing candidates are prevailing because they are able to engage voters with a compassionate and substantive approach.

He said El-Sayed’s victory sends a message to the Democratic establishment: “They’ve got to take a look at the electoral calculus going forward.”

“The things that used to work are old and are arcane and do not reach the types of people that will come out who won’t vote for normal traditional Democrats,” Rabb said. “But he’s bringing out folks who haven’t come out in a long time or ever.”

He added that El-Sayed’s ability to broaden the Democratic base will help him defeat Rogers in November.

El-Sayed’s campaign slogan is, “Money out of politics. Money in your pockets. Medicare for all.”

His platform is focused on affordability and expanding access to healthcare. But AIPAC’s involvement in the race and the polarisation over Israel made the conflict in the Middle East a key issue in the election.

Russell Ellis, the social media commentator known as Jolly Good Ginger, said voters across the US are showing that they are “fed up” with Israel and AIPAC.

“The amount of voters that are drawing a red line at sending bombs to continue a genocide is much larger than people are accepting that it is. It’s massive,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I think most Americans can agree that we can’t support genocide, and that using American taxpayer dollars and American bombs to commit genocide in Gaza, in Sudan, in Congo, anywhere is unacceptable.”

‘We want to fund healthcare, not warfare’

Despite his criticism of Israel, El-Sayed always brought the political conversation back to Michigan.

The US has spent billions of dollars on military support for Israel, its Middle East ally, and even more on the war with Iran – a conflict that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking for decades.

El-Sayed has argued that the money spent on war should go to help communities across the US and Michigan.

His supporters say the progressive wins in Michigan show that this approach is resonating with voters.

“Today’s historic victories in Michigan prove that Palestine will win at the polls again and again,” Iman Abid, the political director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action, said in a statement.

“AIPAC can try dumping millions of dollars into propaganda, but at the end of the day, American voters don’t want our tax dollars to go toward bombing families abroad. We want to fund healthcare, not warfare.”

Sally Howell, a history professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn who pioneered academic research about the Arab community, said El-Sayed’s win represents “genuine change” for Michigan.

“It tells us that voters are very frustrated with the establishment – the establishment in Washington and the establishment in the Democratic Party,” Howell told Al Jazeera.

“They want leaders who are going to bring change, not more of the same.”

Trump’s latest effort to limit birthright citizenship comes after Supreme Court ruled against his initial push to reinterpret the constitutional right.

United States President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders seeking to limit birthright citizenship, weeks after the Supreme Court upheld the practice as protected under the Constitution.

The orders signed on Thursday were far more narrow than Trump’s previous attempt to restrict the practice, which confers citizenship to nearly all children born on US soil.

One of the orders seeks to expand a narrow exception to birthright citizenship, which bars US citizenship from being conferred to the babies of foreign diplomats or invading forces.

The second order calls on the secretary of state and the secretary of homeland security to halt so-called “birth tourism”, the practice of mothers travelling to the US for the sole purpose of giving birth.

Like Trump’s earlier attempt, the new executive orders are expected to face legal challenges.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump denounced the Supreme Court for making a “very unfortunate decision” in striking down his initial effort to limit birthright citizenship.

“They’ve taken birthright citizenship and they’ve made a joke out of it,” said Trump, adding that his administration is “making adjustments” to its approach.

On January 20, 2025 — the first day of his second term — Trump had signed an executive order seeking to reinterpret the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, to tighten the category of people who qualified for birthright citizenship.

That order argued that the children born to immigrants on temporary visas or without documentation were not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the US — and therefore could not  be automatically granted citizenship.

But in June, the US Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s “attempts to narrow” birthright citizenship were unlawful, citing the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause.

“If Congress intended to limit American citizenship to the children of those domiciled in the United States, nothing in the succinct language of the Citizenship Clause conveyed that design,” the majority opinion said.

Trump has made a hardline approach to immigration a centre-piece of his political career. However, the Supreme Court ruling represented one of the largest legal setbacks of his second term.

Despite a conservative supermajority on the nine-judge panel, six justices voted against Trump’s effort to transform who is eligible for birthright citizenship.

The crux of the administration’s argument was that the 14th Amendment was meant to apply only to the children born to newly freed slaves and had been misinterpreted since its ratification in 1868.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, wrote that there was “scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view”.

“The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,” he wrote. “We keep that promise today.”

Photos of the United Arab Emirates’ Falaj 3 class patrol boat are a reminder that a vessel doesn’t need to be a corvette or even a frigate to be armed like one. At a little over 200 feet long, the Falaj 3 is officially designated an offshore patrol vessel (OPV), but it boasts a weapons suite that would be impressive on a missile corvette and, in some respects, even a light frigate. In fact, at around 670 tons full load displacement, and a crew of just 39, it may be one of the most heavily armed warships anywhere in the world for its size.

OPVs are generally built for constabulary duties rather than high-end naval combat. Their primary missions include enforcing exclusive economic zones, countering piracy and smuggling, fisheries protection, search and rescue, and humanitarian assistance. As a result, they typically prioritize endurance, seakeeping, and low operating costs over heavy armament. Many Western designs in this category carry little more than a medium-caliber gun and a handful of remotely operated weapon systems, with no dedicated anti-ship missiles or significant air-defense systems.

The Falaj 3 takes a very different approach, as is immediately apparent from these photos.

Forward sits a Leonardo 76mm OTO Super Rapid gun equipped with the STRALES guided ammunition system, giving the ship a weapon capable of engaging everything from surface targets to fast-moving aerial threats. The STRALES system combines the 76mm gun with DART projectiles, which are guided to the target by a radio beam. The projectile is fitted with a proximity fuze, and the result is claimed to be especially effective against manoeuvring supersonic missiles, as well as fast-manoeuvring small boats. The DART ammunition also comes at lower cost than dedicated anti-air missiles, an increasingly important consideration, especially in the Middle East, where costly surface-to-air missile effectors are routinely expended, in significant quantities, against far cheaper incoming threats.

Strales system with DART ammunition

Directly behind the gun is an eight-cell vertical launch system loaded with MBDA VL MICA surface-to-air missiles. This ‘fire and forget’ missile can intercept targets at a range of up to around 12 miles and at altitudes of up to 30,000 feet.

VL MICA (Sea)

Further aft is a 21-cell Raytheon Mk 49 launcher for the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), giving the vessel a second, independent layer of point air defense. Most OPVs are fortunate to carry an adapted man-portable air defense system, if they have any dedicated air-defense system at all.

The offensive fit is equally notable. Four MM40 Exocet Block 3C anti-ship missiles provide over-the-horizon strike capability, while two 12-cell Low-cost Guided Imaging Rocket (LOGIR) guided rocket launchers offer an inexpensive way to engage drones, uncrewed surface vessels, and fast attack craft without expending much more costly missiles.

The MM40 Block 3C is the latest iteration of the well-known Exocet sea-skimming missile and has a range of around 150 miles.

The LOGIR, a weapon we have discussed in the past, is part of a growing number of 70mm rockets with an infrared seeker on the market now. A U.S.-South Korean co-production, the LOGIR was developed primarily for coastal defense and other maritime applications. It has a maximum range of around a few miles.

[밀당] 해상침투 방어 최강자 ··· 대한민국 첨단기술의 정밀유도무기 ‘비궁’

Completing the package are two Electro Optic Systems (EOS) R400-M 30mm remote weapon stations and two 32-barrel Rheinmetall Multi Ammunition Soft-kill System (MASS) decoy launchers, providing close-range firepower and survivability against incoming guided weapons, respectively.

The Falaj 3 class is also well equipped with sensors, including a Leonardo Kronos 3D G-band multifunction radar for air and surface search in the conical radome of the integrated mast. The mast also features the SPYNEL infrared search and track suite.

Combining all of these systems results in a ship with genuine layered air defense, anti-ship strike capability, counter-swarm weapons, modern electronic self-protection, and a sophisticated medium-caliber gun, all crammed into a hull roughly one-third the displacement of many contemporary corvettes.

Instead of sacrificing armament for patrol endurance, the Falaj 3 concentrates an extraordinary amount of firepower into a compact hull. The design is closer to a ‘pocket’ missile corvette optimized for Gulf operations than a conventional OPV.

The Persian Gulf is a relatively confined operating environment where naval combat is more likely to occur at short ranges, with vessels operating under constant threat from anti-ship missiles, drones, helicopters, and swarms of fast attack craft. In that environment, packing as many defensive and offensive systems as possible into a relatively inexpensive platform makes considerable operational sense.

For more demanding missions, including in true blue-water environments, the United Arab Emirates Navy can call upon close to a dozen true missile corvettes, with four different active classes constructed in France, Germany, and Italy. These carry many of the same weapons as found on the Falaj 3, but the largest examples displace close to 3,000 tons, and all can also embark a helicopter.

Based on the Fearless class patrol vessel operated by the Republic of Singapore Navy, the Falaj 3 class is built by the Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB), a subsidiary of the UAE’s Edge Group. The first ship of the class, Altaf, was commissioned in February 2025.

ADSB Launches First Vessel in the FALAJ 3 Programme

The Edge Group is also building eight vessels of the same design for Kuwait, these being known as the Al Dorra class.

The design of the Falaj 3 reflects a broader trend in naval warfare. Advances in radar, combat management systems, vertical launch technology, and compact missile designs increasingly allow capabilities once reserved for frigates or larger vessels to be integrated successfully in much smaller vessels. Rather than relying exclusively on a handful of expensive large combatants, navies that operate heavily in littoral geography have the opportunity to field larger numbers of smaller ships that still possess credible offensive and defensive capabilities.

The Falaj 3 represents perhaps one of the most extreme examples of that philosophy.

Special thanks to X user @D__Mitch for alerting us to this story.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Suspects recruited via encrypted app and offered money for violent acts, Toronto police reveal after arrests.

Toronto police have announced two arrests in connection with the shooting at the US Consulate last month, calling the suspects “criminals for hire.”

Authorities on Thursday said they arrested a 19-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy in the second shooting at the United States Consulate in five months.

The latest shooting in July followed a March 10 attack on the diplomatic mission that also occurred before dawn. Police arrested two people in that case in June.

No one was injured in either event, but police described both as “national security” incidents, and the initial shooting on March 10 prompted beefed-up protection for US and Israeli diplomatic buildings in multiple Canadian cities, as war gripped the Middle East.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also opened a parallel investigation, treating the shooting as a national security incident.

Police on Thursday said they believe the suspects were recruited through an encrypted messaging app and were offered money to open fire on the consulate.

“There has been significant public interest and speculation about who is behind these crimes,” Police Chief Myron Demkiw said. “That remains a key focus of our investigation.”

Police identified the adult suspect as 19-year-old Xen-Ul-Abdeen Syed, who faces multiple firearm, arson and stolen-property charges, as well as a charge of attacking the premises of an internationally protected person. A 15-year-old was also charged but cannot be identified under Canadian law.

Since the first shooting, police have maintained a visible presence outside the consulate. The July 27 shooting occurred despite a marked police cruiser stationed nearby.

Police said a white Honda Accord pulled alongside the consulate at about 4:46am (08:46 GMT) and a single shot was fired, striking the front of the building. A brief police chase followed, but the chase was called off when the driver was travelling at excessive speed.

Toronto Police Chief Superintendent Joe Matthews of Detective Operations said investigators believe shootings, homicides and arsons are increasingly being commissioned through online apps, with suspects offered varying amounts of money depending on the crime.

Individuals are hired to shoot at various targets and record the shootings for payment. The targets the police have mentioned included synagogues, Jewish schools, a waste management company, and the US Consulate.

“In many circumstances we know they are not getting paid,” Matthews said.

Police also allege the two suspects were involved in setting fire to a vehicle in a community outside Toronto three days before the latest consulate shooting.

Two men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested in June as part of the investigation into the March shooting. Police said the men were recruited to carry out violent acts, but did not provide further details.

New Israeli air and artillery attacks have hit Lebanon after soldiers were killed for the first time since a fragile ceasefire began in June.

The latest military assault comes despite Lebanese-Israeli talks in Rome, part of a US-brokered peace process.

So, where do things stand now?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Maha Yahya – Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut

Jennifer Gavito – Former US Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs

Rami Khouri – Distinguished Public Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut

Critics say the 39 percent cap was a safeguard against excessive concentration of media ownership in the US.

The United States Federal Communications Commission has voted to rescind the rule that bars local broadcast station owners from reaching more than 39 percent of the total number of US TV households in a move that could help spark industry consolidation.

The FCC on Thursday voted 2-1 to lift the cap in favour of a new case-by-case approach. The commission’s sole Democrat, Anna Gomez, said the proposal was illegal and argued only the US Congress can lift the cap. Many critics argue the move will lead to excessive market power among station owners.

Under the rules, stations with weaker over-the-air signals can be partially counted against a company’s ownership cap. The FCC has limited ownership of local broadcast stations since 1941 and most recently raised the cap to 39 percent in 2004.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the move is about helping local broadcasters survive and pointed to the sharp decline in local newspapers.

“We should stop hamstringing this one segment of the broader market with outdated restrictions,” Carr said.

“The FCC kept a rule on the books in the name of localism that contributed to the gutting of local newspapers … I don’t want local broadcast TV to go the way of local newspapers.”

The FCC said the new rule would consider applications on television company mergers that would go above 39 percent on an individual basis to determine if they are in the public interest. The agency said it would “remove artificial restrictions on opportunities for broadcast television to attract capital and generate revenue”.

Gomez said the decision is “an invitation to bring in a lot of transactions”.

‘More control’

Lifting the cap hands “more control of the public airwaves to a small number of companies whose coverage pleases this administration … It is putting its thumb on the scale in favour of content that this administration likes,” she added.

Carr has said the change would allow local television owners to increase investment in local programming and give them more leverage against national networks.

In March, the FCC approved the $3.54bn sale of ‌local television station owner Tegna to Nexstar despite objections from Democratic-led states.

The acquisition, if not reversed by courts, will expand Nexstar’s presence to cover 80 percent of US TV households. The FCC has said it was waiving the 39 percent rule in approving the deal.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz, a Republican, said last month that he is sceptical the FCC can hike the 39 percent cap without an act of Congress.

Clayton Weimers, executive director at Reporters Without Borders North America, said in a statement that with this latest move, the FCC has “abandoned” one of the last significant safeguards against excessive concentration of media ownership in the US, which ensured that “no single company or individual should be allowed to dominate what millions of Americans see, hear, and understand about the world”.

“Today’s vote eliminates that safeguard and only benefits a handful of already powerful media conglomerates. This is not deregulation in the public interest. It is consolidation in the interest of the powerful,” Weimers said.

He said that the action exceeds the FCC’s legal authority and that Reporters Without Borders was evaluating every available legal avenue to challenge this decision.

The 26-year-old Brazil international had been linked with a move to English champions Arsenal.

Real Madrid have secured ⁠the ⁠future of Brazilian winger Vinicius Jr, extending his contract until ⁠June 2032, the Spanish giants announced, ⁠bringing an end to months of speculation over his future.

The 26-year-old Brazil international has been ‌a central figure in Real’s attack in recent seasons and had been linked with a move to English champions Arsenal.

His previous contract was ⁠due to expire in ⁠June 2027.

“Real Madrid and Vinicius Jr have agreed to extend our player’s ⁠contract, which now keeps him with the ⁠club through June ⁠30, 2032,” Real said in a statement on Thursday.

“Vinicius has become one of the most ‌important players during one of the most successful periods in ‌our history.”

Since joining from Brazilian club Flamengo in 2018, Vinicius has scored 128 goals and registered 100 assists for Real.

Spanish and British media had reported prolonged contract negotiations between the player and the club, while Arsenal were said to be monitoring the situation and exploring a potential move.

The extension removes the prospect of Real losing one of their most valuable players ⁠on a free transfer.

Vinicius also had a demanding summer with ⁠Brazil at the World Cup, where they were eliminated by Norway in the last 16.

The forward has built an impressive trophy collection during his time in Madrid, winning two Champions League titles and three ⁠La Liga crowns among numerous other honours.

He is set to work under Jose Mourinho for the first time after the Portuguese ⁠coach returned for a second spell in charge ⁠at Real in June.

The appointment followed a disappointing campaign for the record 15-time European champions, who finished runners-up to archrivals Barcelona in La Liga, exited the Champions League in the quarterfinals and ended the season ‌without a major trophy.

Tying down Vinicius represents another significant step in an active transfer window for Real.

The club have also strengthened their squad with the arrivals of winger Yan ‌Diomande, ‌midfielder Bernardo Silva, centre-back Ibrahima Konate, left-back Marc Cucurella and wing-back Denzel Dumfries ahead of the new season.

Women displaced by Sudan’s war are speaking publicly about surviving rape by Rapid Support Forces fighters. UN investigators verified 546 incidents affecting at least 838 victims, warning the documented cases represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – facing a crucial election later this year – has hinted that he may be considering taking unilateral action to prolong a costly war with Iran, even as Washington and Tehran appear to be close to an interim deal to open the Strait of Hormuz.

“We heard today the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ahmad Vahidi, declare that Iran intends to continue developing a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu claimed in an assertion, even though no official statement from Vahidi on the matter has been released by the Iranian government or official media.

Still, Netanyahu saw the opportunity to once again frame Iran’s nuclear threat as existential.

“As Israel’s prime minister, I am determined to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu told attendees at a state ceremony in West Jerusalem.

Describing the United States as “Israel’s greatest ally”, Netanyahu nevertheless added that he was prepared to do “whatever is necessary” to guarantee Israel’s security.

Israel has officially struck Iran only once since April’s initial ceasefire between the US and Iran took effect, even after it later broke down and the two sides resumed hostilities in the US-Israel war on Iran.

But observers – including US President Donald Trump – believe that Netanyahu wants to keep the US engaged in the fight against Iran, which began in late February with a joint US-Israeli attack that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Addressing reports that Netanyahu planned to bring fresh intelligence to Washington alleging that Iran was stockpiling uranium at its Pickaxe Mountain facility near Natanz in central Iran, Trump told reporters: “I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved.”

He then sharpened his criticism of the Israeli prime minister, adding: “Why don’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?”

Fight alone

With the US and Israel unable so far to topple the Iranian state or force concessions on the Strait of Hormuz, many analysts believe that the war has been unsuccessful.

Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz – formerly a free waterway – has paralysed much of the world’s economy.

Global oil prices have increased, with shortages in the supplies of liquified gas, fertiliser exports, sulphur supplies, and petrochemical feedstocks all threatening to ripple through international supply lines.

“The war against Iran is a strategic catastrophe,” said Ahron Bregman, an Israeli security analyst and senior teaching fellow in the Department for War Studies at King’s College London. “None of the original aims has been achieved… Trump is desperate for an exit. Almost at any price. He only cares about opening the [strait].”

But in Israel, the focus is less on the world’s economy, and more on the perceived danger posed by Iran and its allied groups across the region.

Netanyahu has consistently pursued a hawkish line on Iran, a power he has repeatedly claimed is on the brink of crossing the threshold to nuclear weapons capability.

He is also thought to have been among the loudest voices that pushed for Trump to withdraw in 2018 from a nuclear deal agreed to by previous US President Barack Obama.

“Israel’s strategy is clear,” said Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Israel’s Misgav Institute for National Security. “Iran remains close to achieving nuclear capacity and has shown it’s able to continue producing ballistic missiles and supplying its proxy forces in the region.”

The war on Iran was currently a fiasco from Israel’s perspective, Michael added, with both the US and Iran insisting that they had won.

Michael, however, framed the current negotiations as “useless”, and unlikely to produce lasting security in the region, reflecting the sentiment in the Israeli security establishment.

Israel, Michael said, was prepared to fight alone if necessary.

“Israel can only have one strategy,” Michael said, “to strike directly at the head of the octopus that threatens global civilisation and to do that alone, if necessary.”

That might inflame tensions with the US, Michael added, concluding, “I can’t see any other option.”

Inconceivable

However, while some in Israel were confident of the country’s ability to strike unilaterally at Iran in defiance of US wishes, others expressed caution, suggesting that Netanyahu’s talk of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon might simply be little more than rhetoric ahead of an election that could conceivably jeopardise both his legacy and, as a result of his long-running corruption trial, his personal freedom.

The US relationship is important to the Israeli electorate, but relations between Netanyahu and Trump appear to be frostier than normal.

Beyond friction over Israel’s reluctance to accept terms apparently imposed on it in Gaza by the Trump-sponsored Board of Peace, there have also been widespread reports of tensions over Israeli strikes in Lebanon that have repeatedly threatened to derail US negotiations with Iran. Those attacks, however, have stopped far short of the unilateral strikes on Iran hinted at by Netanyahu on Wednesday.

“Israel launching unilateral action against Iran is inconceivable,” the US author and former diplomat Aaron David Miller said. “Something like that might be possible if Iran or Hezbollah struck Israel directly, but talk of Israel striking Iran now, when US negotiations are so close to a conclusion, is impossible.”

Relations between the two allies were entering a unique phase, he said. While the US had never cooperated so closely with an ally militarily since its relationship with the United Kingdom during World War II, diplomatic ties had rarely been so fraught.

“Trump’s leaked, expletive-laden criticism of Netanyahu; his direct negotiations with Hamas over Gaza; his lifting of sanctions on Syria despite Israel’s objections; and his negotiations with Iran without Israel’s involvement all point to a changing relationship,” Miller said. “What that might mean for future US military assistance to Israel – including defence cooperation, intelligence sharing, research and development, and diplomatic support in international forums – remains to be seen.”

However, he added: “Let me be clear. Netanyahu had a hell of a role in how this war started. He’s not going to have a role in how it shifts to its next phase.”

A chapbook by Henry Opeyemi 

Publisher: Felis Catus Press

“The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.”

T.S. Eliot

Henry Opeyemi is an oracle, and this chapbook is a miracle of sorts; it is a prayer of consolation, a hymn, a psalm, a song that gives birth to awakening after awakening, enlightenment after enlightenment. It starts with conscientising and ends by raising a phoenix-like awareness of boyhood and its challenges on the African continent. Where Rumi, Khalil Gibran, Weldon Kees, Mzi Mahola, and Ken Saro-Wiwa walked, where Rethabile Masilo walks, now Henry Opeyemi walks alongside these giants. There was Derek Walcott, Langston Hughes, those constellations feeding galaxies, and now there is Henry Opeyemi.

Perhaps all poets have an innate sense of clairvoyance. They can recognise the pains of the land, the masculine and feminine pains of the vessel of an African body, the psychological torment, the mental despair, the stigmatized struggle, the social alienation, the estrangement from the land of our ancestors, and the unbearable loneliness that every waking moment a poet experiences, lives with, suffers from, and the devastation of the internal landscape of the wounded children of Africa. Yes, yes, yes. Henry Opeyemi has turned blood into ink, and the veins are enriched with shelter.

These poems, each one “peeling itself into joy” (from the poem, Wanderers on pg.5).

This manuscript cleanses like the sea. Writing is a spiritual act, a spiritual dance. It is meditative and comes with instructions. It is sacred. When the hand of God moves through the pen, the poet must obey, and Henry Opeyemi has obeyed. The title of this chapbook speaks about black vulnerability, black stigma, the rallying cry of injustice and inequality, systemic racism, the undertow of the vision of poverty-stricken, disenfranchised and marginalised Africa. Henry Opeyemi writes about miracles in the same breath that he confronts suicide ideation, and when he writes, as he does in his dedication, “of the land of his youth”, he is addressing the social ills of the day, he is speaking to every man, woman, youth and child on the African continent. 

The dedication is a searing polemic, a testimony to a time that came before, and that sadly, heartwrenchingly still exists. The bittersweet river of the sands of time through the hourglass, the tapestry of exile, the memory of the silent witness, the memory of the historian and recorder and poet, the novel dispensation that we are living and co-existing in with the pains of a wandering soul, and history, have not erased anything. We, as African poets, living on the African continent beset with problems of despair and conflict, a continent ravaged by “hungry bowls” as the poet writes, we are the angry souls, the grief, heartbreak and emptiness of our rages.

There is beauty in the poetic sense and sensibility of Henry Opeyemi, and a sense of isolation. Every poet from this continent writes about what we have faced, endured, survived (colonialism, liberation, independence, civil war), and the terrible price we have had to pay, the debts of love of our mothers, the considerable debts of love of the maternal figures in our lives. There is the moral distress, the psychiatric distress, and cry of the poet, the language of moral decay in these verses, and the injury, the sickness, the mental tension, the utter mental turmoil and devastation, and the moral distress of the decay of the mind, of the psychological framework, of the alienation, the social ineptitude and isolation, the rejection from the church, from the community, from society who has labeled the citizens and inhabitants of African descent as interlopers, from the immediate and maternal and paternal family of the individual, of the poet.

Henry Opeyemi is the poetic version of Moses Molelekwa, and in his verses abound “genes and spirits”, ancestral kingdoms and bloodlines.

Every African writer, every African novelist and African poet who lives on the continent and finds themselves elsewhere in the world, writes about stigma, whether they acknowledge this consciously or subconsciously. It is written on the blueprint of our consciousness. Henry Opeyemi (remember this name) writes about the wounded child, the boy, the youth’s fractured sense of self and the youth’s spoiled identity, marginalised identity, wanting to seek validation and approval from the powers that be, from the same gender parent, from adult supervision, from their contemporaries, from leaders, from mentors. Every poet is a wanderer, a directionless nomad, a seeker, a believer if he has found the certainty of faith, of religious instructions and meditative practices. When I write, I write as an African, who lives on the African continent first and foremost; secondly, I write as a woman.

On these pages, a particular tenderness is personified in the writing. The wound is sacred and as omnipresent as the omega, and the grief our mothers have carried is a sacred kind of grief that their cells carried when they were in the womb of the maternal grandmother. The mother-figure is the portal, the origin of humanity. It is where the tension and spark of history coincide with the psychological repair, release and repair of life. 

The poet serves grief, heartbreak, their loneliness on a silver platter to humanity, like a beacon, an anchor, a lighthouse in the storm, like the being of light, like daybreak, like an oyster it is consumed, eaten, studied, investigated, and it is this noble endeavour, the practice of writing poetry about grief, heartbreak, and loneliness, that serves us, our collective humanity, exile and history, that is a remainder of colonialism that will last the test of time, that will serve as proof of evidence that we existed, that we were here, that this was our collective emotional pain on the face of the African continent.

The grief of Africa is, unfortunately, not bloodless. Even her tears are, in fact, tears of blood, of war, of strife, of conflict, of genocide. Poetry is our only method of self-defence. It is the survival, coping and defence mechanism of the novelist, the journalist, the filmmaker, the editor, most of all, the poet. It always has been since the onset of slavery and colonialism and independence. Henry Opeyemi does what poets have done before and after colonialism, he discusses emancipation, personal freedom, personal growth, missionary education, liberation, self-improvement, his youth, his Africa, he addresses the ritual of bone, blood, bowl, the question of God and religion, yes, how immortal religion defies and defines us, guides and interrogates us, he mentions the roles of Big Pharma, and the use of pharmaceuticals in society, are they of help or hindrance? He speaks about the mother-figure, the abandonment of Eve, the resurrection of Lady Macbeth on these pages. The mosque becomes an education, the mind of the young intellectual like a feverish young tree, eager for verdant-green growth, branches like limbs, eager to be acknowledged in a garden of other poets, all vying for attention and literary prizes, or, or, humility, imaginative grace, which is, to all intents and purposes more powerful than attention and literary prizes. 

Creative writing, the practice of writing poetry, is an intellectual pursuit. It is the cultural endeavour of the modern-day philosopher, and all poets are wanderers for an eternity of time.

Sidenote: Henry Opeyemi, welcome to the African Renaissance. May you mentor other poets, you, young poet, young leader, young intellectual. Africa is in good hands. Be, go forth, onwards and upwards; be as all princes from this continent who write poetry; be King of the World. Take the empire back. Build your own empires of gold from the dust of the colonial masters, from the powers that be.

Rear Admiral Abdullah bin Salem Al-Shehri will lead the multinational coalition’s naval defence to protect trade, energy routes.

Saudi Arabia has announced the appointment of a commander for a multinational maritime defence alliance to protect freedom of navigation through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Saudi Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Thursday that Rear Admiral Abdullah bin Salem Al-Shehri has been appointed commander of the coalition a week after its establishment.

Al-Shehri will oversee joint naval defence, coordinate with member states and other maritime coalitions, and carry out missions under the coalition’s charter, it added on X.

Bahrain, Bangladesh, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Turkiye and Yemen announced the formation of the coalition on July 30.

More countries are completing the procedures to join the coalition with some having already signed the joint declaration and others preparing to sign the declaration and charter before their formal accession as founding members, the Saudi statement said.

The ministry described the coalition as “an open international coalition that welcomes the accession of all countries that align with its goals and principles”, adding that it continues to receive new membership applications.

The coalition will hold a planning meeting August 12-13 to finalise its institutional framework and pave the way for more countries to join, according to the ministry.

The 14 countries that announced the formation of the Multinational Maritime Defence Coalition declared their intent to protect freedom of navigation and secure international trade routes and energy supply routes in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which form a strategic maritime corridor linking the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean.

This comes as the United States-Israel war on Iran has become focused on the Strait of Hormuz. The virtual closure of the route, through which about 20 percent of global oil and gas supplies transited before the conflict, is weighing heavily on the global economy.

The Trump administration has repeatedly pushed back on reports of shortages of both offensive and defensive weapons.

United States President Donald Trump has vowed to hunt down “leakers” after several news reports detailing a dangerous depletion of munitions stockpiles amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.

While several reports had previously documented munitions depletions since the war began on February 28, the latest reports painted a more dire picture.

Reuters news agency and CBS News reported that the military had burned through nearly all of its offensive Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMSs) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs), which experts said could require relying on more perilous close-range and aerial attacks in the event of a renewed escalation.

A CNN report showing low levels of Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors has caused greater concern, with experts noting there is no viable short-term alternative to the air defence missiles. Replenishments of pre-war stockpiles are expected to take years.

Still, Trump on Thursday again denied that the US faced any strategic disadvantage when it came to weapons stores after five months of war.

“The US has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

He added that “large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed” and that defence contractors are “building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history”.

“The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long-term jail sentences will be sought!”

The US president did not provide further details on the claims, although experts have warned that even with an influx of funding, it will likely take at least three years to restore Patriot and THAAD interceptors to pre-war levels.

Only Japan and Germany currently have licences to produce Patriot interceptors. No other country produces THAAD interceptors.

CNN’s report, released on Tuesday, said that the US military had depleted 80 percent of the THAAD interceptors it had prior to the war and about half of its Patriot interceptors. Sources described the levels as “dangerously low”.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described the information as “not true”.

Separately, the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on July 27 calculated that, as of that date, the military had just more than a third of its Patriot interceptors left and about half of its THAAD interceptors.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, one of the authors of that analysis, retired US Marine Corps colonel Mark Cancian, said current levels of interceptors are already hurting US deterrence capabilities against military powers like China.

A shortage of interceptors has also reportedly led to the military taking a more judicious approach to missile interceptions, increasing the likelihood of miscalculations, he noted. The killing of three US soldiers in an Iranian strike on a military base in Jordan on July 17 has further underscored those concerns.

“We don’t have that many left, and there are no good substitutes,” Cancian said of the interceptors. “If we run out of Patriots, then the missiles get through.”

Despite the latest rhetoric, the Washington Post on Thursday reported that Trump confronted Hegseth during a cabinet meeting at Camp David last week, accusing the Pentagon chief of misleading him on munitions shortages.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt dismissed the report as “100 percent fake news”.

EasyJet has agreed to be taken over in a £5.7bn deal by US firm Apollo.

The deal was announced after rival suitor Castlelake said it was dropping out of the bid battle for the no-frills airline.

EasyJet is one of Europe’s largest airlines. It employs more than 19,000 people, and flies around 1,200 routes across 35 European countries.

It was founded by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou in 1995 to offer cheap air fares to Europe from the UK.