The Royal Navy has stepped up operations against Russian warships and submarines around Britain amid a sharp increase in Moscow’s naval activity. Warships and helicopters spent 21 days monitoring Russian vessels in UK waters and the North Atlantic during July, with four Royal Navy ships deployed alongside submarine-hunting aircraft. The Ministry of Defence said the number of Royal Navy operations launched to monitor Russian activity during the first seven months of this year was 25 per cent higher than during the same period in 2025. HMS Somerset, HMS Tyne, HMS Mersey and HMS Severn were deployed during July, supported by…

Ukraine has sharply increased long-range drone attacks on Russia, striking oil refineries, military factories, logistics hubs and other targets hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border. The growing reach of Kyiv’s drone force was demonstrated this week when Ukrainian aircraft struck Nizhnekamsk in Tatarstan, around 750 miles east of the Ukrainian border. Russian authorities said 13 people, including a child, were killed and dozens wounded in the attack. Ukraine’s military said its intended target was Tatneft’s TANECO oil refinery, where a fire was reported following the strike. The raid was one of the deadliest Ukrainian attacks inside Russia since Moscow…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly rejected a US-backed proposal intended to bring an end to the war in Gaza, exposing an unusual disagreement with President Donald Trump only weeks after the White House announced what it described as “a historic agreement”. The proposal, presented in July by Trump’s Board of Peace, set out a 15-point framework under which Hamas would surrender its weapons in exchange for the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the eventual transfer of authority to an independent Palestinian governing committee. Trump said the agreement would be implemented in stages as…

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have signed a defence agreement committing each country to come to the aid of the others in the event of an armed attack, marking one of the most significant shifts in the region’s security landscape in recent years. The agreement was signed in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif after months of negotiations. In a joint statement, the three leaders said the agreement reflected their determination to strengthen security co-operation. “The Agreement aims to bolster collective deterrence against all forms of aggression…

By Andre Pienaar The Iranian regime published its terms for reopening the Strait of Hormuz today on state media, and they read less like a maritime framework and more like a ransom note. On Thursday, 06 August, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Fars News Agency released an initial draft plan setting out the conditions under which Iran would permit commercial shipping to resume through the world’s most important energy chokepoint. The draft is strikingly restrictive. American and Israeli vessels would be banned from the strait outright. Ships flagged to other nations that Iran deems to have “harmed” it would…

In 1942, the uranium that fuelled the Manhattan Project travelled from a single mine in the Belgian Congo, Shinkolobwe, in the Katanga copper belt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to the laboratories of Los Alamos. Eight decades later, history is repeating itself in reverse. Strategic quantities of uranium are once again leaving Katanga and the DRC, but this time the destination is the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the method is concealment inside cobalt ore, and the beneficiary is the fastest nuclear weapons build-up in the world. A landmark investigation published last week by Lighthouse Reports, a…

Britain’s MI6 has been rated Europe’s leading foreign intelligence service by intelligence professionals from across the Western alliance, according to a survey that placed the Secret Intelligence Service well ahead of its continental counterparts. The assessment, published by the French magazine L’Express, drew on the views of 60 serving and former intelligence officials from 25 countries. Over three months, the publication canvassed members of allied intelligence communities to rank the effectiveness of their opposite numbers, producing a rare peer assessment of Europe’s principal espionage agencies. France’s General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) secured second place, earning praise for its global…

Iran prepared plans to strike three targets in Ukraine before abandoning the operation after Kyiv offered what Tehran described as an apology for a deadly attack on an Iranian vessel, a senior adviser has claimed. Mohsen Rezaei, a senior adviser to Iran’s leadership, said Iranian forces had completed preparations for retaliatory attacks after the ship was hit in the Caspian Sea on 25 July. “We were set to strike three sites in Ukraine, but cancelled the attack following Ukraine’s apology,” Rezaei told Iranian state television. He gave no details of the targets and produced no evidence that an attack had…

Iranian forces have launched a drone attack on a US military facility in Kuwait while a cargo vessel has been struck by an unidentified projectile near the Strait of Hormuz, in the latest sign that the war is expanding across the Gulf. A source familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post that at least three drones were used in the attack on the US base. Regional media later reported explosions in Kuwait and Iraq’s Basra province, which borders both Iran and Kuwait. Iranian state media also reported a large fire in Kuwait, although the cause has not been independently…

Russian fuel shortages are becoming increasingly visible across parts of the country after months of Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries and energy infrastructure, disrupting supplies and prompting emergency measures by the Kremlin. Long queues have been reported at filling stations in parts of southern Russia, Crimea and Siberia, while regional authorities have introduced restrictions on fuel sales in some areas. Repeated strikes on refining facilities have reduced production capacity and placed growing pressure on domestic fuel supplies, according to reports. President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the impact of the attacks during a government meeting on fuel supplies. He told officials:…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the US government for an emergency package of 300 Patriot missile interceptors before winter, warning that Ukraine’s air defence stockpiles are almost exhausted as Russia continues launching large-scale ballistic missile attacks. In an interview with Axios following his White House meeting on Tuesday with President Donald Trump, which lasted more than an hour, Zelensky said Ukraine urgently needs additional interceptors to protect its energy infrastructure ahead of winter. “We needed the Patriots yesterday,” Zelensky said. According to Zelensky, Russia launches between 30 and 40 ballistic missiles during each major strike and carries out three…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday as Kyiv seeks additional air defence systems and closer defence cooperation following an escalation in Russian missile and drone attacks. After arriving in the United States, Zelensky said strengthening Ukraine’s air defences would be his government’s immediate priority. “Our number-one priority is anti-ballistic defence and strategic cooperation with America. Peace needs to be brought closer,” he wrote on X. The meeting will take place before both leaders attend a memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters in Congress,…