Bahrain was targeted by Iranian munitions as Tehran widened its retaliation to US facilities across several Arab countries. Iran’s army said fuel tanks, equipment warehouses, silos and barracks belonging to US forces at Isa Air Base were hit by Arash kamikaze drones, and Bahrain’s interior ministry confirmed air raid sirens were sounding. Two separate waves of sirens rang out, with alarms activated at 12:47 a.m. and again at 3:47 a.m. Eastern, and the interior ministry urged residents to remain calm before the defense ministry said forces intercepted and destroyed the incoming Iranian strikes. Iran also claimed drone attacks on Al-Azraq base in Jordan and on Camp Udairi, Camp Doha and Camp Arifjan in Kuwait during the same window.
https://aje.news/qknv84?update=4802567
Saudi Arabia struck Houthi targets in Yemen after attacks on its vessels in the Red Sea. The Saudi-led coalition hit the Houthi-held port of Hodeidah on Saturday, with coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki saying the strikes targeted military sites used to threaten commercial vessels. Riyadh had acknowledged that the tanker Encelia caught fire earlier in the week and later said another Saudi vessel, NCC MASA, sustained minor hull damage in a separate Friday attack. Houthi-aligned Al Masirah TV reported that telecommunications facilities were struck and that a woman was injured in a strike on Kamaran Island off Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
https://aje.news/qknv84?update=4802472
Spanish police accused a tractor driver of sparking one of the wildfires now tearing through the country. Officers arrested a man over a blaze linked to farm machinery use, and said a second suspect is being investigated over a similar incident, after authorities had already banned the use of farm equipment in tinderbox conditions. The fire he is linked to merged with another west of Madrid into a single front that has burned through 30 square kilometres, which officials have called the worst in the region’s history, with roughly 40,000 people ordered to evacuate or shelter indoors. Across Spain and France the number of people displaced by the heatwave-driven fires has now passed 100,000, and Madrid’s emergency management chief said the fire is beyond what firefighters can currently contain.
An explosion tore through an industrial unit in Essex on Friday evening in the UK. Crews were called to Southend Road between East Hanningfield and Rettendon at 4.50pm, and while more than 100 firefighters were tackling the flames, fertiliser stored in one of the units exploded. A major incident was declared as thick black smoke spread over the area and nearby residents were told to keep windows and doors shut. Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said by 10.45pm the fire was under control and surrounded with no reported injuries, and a local councillor told Sky News the blast was heard and felt for miles around.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/clyqznwpv7qt?page=2
Saudi Arabia was itself targeted by the Houthis on Saturday in a direct response to the Hodeidah strikes. Houthi spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group carried out missile strikes on industrial facilities in Jizan in the southwest of the kingdom, framing it as retaliation for Saudi attacks on Al-Hudaydah and Kamaran Island. Open source accounts reported fires at the Aramco oil terminal in Jazan following a ballistic missile attack. The Houthis had already declared a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia and have warned of further military action, and the UN secretary-general said he was deeply alarmed by the attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
https://aje.news/avpieu?update=4803273
The US talked up how much of Iran’s military it says it has destroyed. Speaking at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Friday, Trump said the war is going extremely well, told the audience not to believe the fake news, and said the US has hit Iran very hard to the point that it no longer has Navy and Air Force capabilities. That framing has been contested, since Senators pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier in the week over his claim that Iran’s military had been functionally destroyed and made combat ineffective, with Hegseth maintaining the war was a historic military victory. Notably, CENTCOM had posted about strikes for 13 consecutive nights but made no such announcement on Friday, and it was not clear whether that meant no action was taken.
https://aje.news/avpieu?update=4802961
India’s education minister resigned after weeks of protests. Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday that he had sent his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following sustained youth demonstrations over a series of examination paper leaks. The trigger was the cancellation of the NEET medical entrance exam after its question papers leaked, affecting about two million students who sat it on May 3, with roughly a dozen student suicides linked to the cancellation. The Cockroach Janta Party movement, launched on May 16 by political communications strategist Abhijeet Dipke after the chief justice likened some unemployed young people and activists to cockroaches, grew from online satire into street protests, and police used tear gas and batons on demonstrators marching toward Parliament.
A bear in Japan has repeatedly broken into the same home in a town now dealing with a full cluster of intrusions. In Shizukuishi, Iwate Prefecture, resident and Iwate University agriculture professor Kiyoshi Yamauchi said the animal entered his house at least five times, starting with pickles and cat food before zeroing in on sweets like vanilla cream sandwich cookies and karinto. Officials suspect a single repeat offender behind 14 break-ins at five locations over a fortnight, including a farm raided four times for milk-based cattle feed and a confectionery workshop where the bear opened a fridge and ate doughnuts. Iwate prefecture bear specialist Shiho Chida called it unusual for a bear to break into the same place repeatedly, and authorities have set box traps, installed electric fences around targeted houses and deployed patrols.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260723/p2a/00m/0na/027000c
The US military is deliberately letting some Iranian projectiles get through its air defenses. Two senior US officials told NBC News that commanders have been picking and choosing which Iranian missiles and explosive-packed drones to intercept, allowing through those that are off course or not expected to hit US forces, in order to preserve a dwindling supply of interceptors. CBS News separately reported that the pace at which the US is burning through its most advanced interceptors and precision-guided weapons has become a serious point of tension inside the Trump administration. Officials said the current rate is unsustainable and raises broader questions about readiness for a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTArewf3x
St Lucia’s housing minister has gone on leave amid calls for his resignation. The Office of the Prime Minister said Friday that Richard Frederick, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Urban Renewal, is on annual vacation leave until August 27, after he was questioned by police in connection with a criminal matter earlier this month. Shawn Edward takes over the Housing and Urban Renewal portfolios during his absence, while Senior Minister Stephenson King picks up Local Government. The United Workers Party has been pushing for Frederick to step down or be removed from Cabinet, though police have announced no charges, Frederick denies wrongdoing, and the government statement made no reference to the investigation.
Sudan’s army chief ruled out any truce with the Rapid Support Forces. Speaking after Friday prayers at the Al-Hadrab Mosque in Shambat, Khartoum North, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan pledged to eradicate the RSF and any group backing them, saying there would be no place for what he called the rebel militia or its supporters after today. He said pursuing justice for victims and reclaiming rights stripped during the war are non-negotiable duties for the military leadership, and assured citizens the experience would not be repeated. His comments land while international efforts to secure a humanitarian truce and get both sides to the table remain stalled, with the conflict grinding on since mid-April 2023.
https://sudantribune.com/article/316566
Congo’s Ebola outbreak has passed 1,300 deaths as health workers walk off the job. Government data released Friday put confirmed cases at 2,973 including 1,309 deaths, in what authorities describe as the fastest-growing outbreak on record. Operations at the Elikya Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia, Ituri province, were largely paralyzed Saturday after doctors, nurses and security staff stopped work over payment issues, with about a hundred workers protesting outside and saying unpaid bonuses were undermining morale and disrupting patient care. The outbreak is driven by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment unlike the more common Zaire strain, and the WHO says more than 100 healthcare workers have been infected.
https://apnews.com/article/ebola-congo-strike-4e61d1c9ae80c892efa38db95a23dd9e
The US is reopening the border to Mexican cattle as screwworm control improves. The USDA announced Friday that imports will resume on Aug. 24 at the Douglas, Arizona crossing, with steps to follow for the Santa Teresa and Columbus crossings in New Mexico, more than a year after the suspension was imposed. Imports will be contingent on compliance with a joint action plan and animals will be inspected in the US to keep out screwworm larvae, and President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico will accelerate its readiness in Sonora and then Chihuahua. The ban helped drive US beef prices to record highs as domestic cattle supplies fell to a 75-year low, and it ultimately failed to keep the pest out, though R-CALF USA’s chief executive warned that reopening will raise the risk of more infestations.
https://apnews.com/article/mexico-us-screwworm-cattle-imports-576264b4dde835df4fb0aa12d17d5485
Trump cited his old beauty pageant business as evidence he understands Venezuela. Asked in the Oval Office on Friday when the country would hold elections, he said he has known Venezuela for a long time, that he owned the Miss Universe pageant, and that Miss Venezuela always did very well in it, so he knows something about the country. The question followed a reporter noting that Republican Senator Bernie Moreno had floated the possibility of Venezuelan elections on July 24, 2027, exactly a year out, and Trump declined to back a specific date, saying they are not ready for that yet but a lot of progress has been made. He owned the Miss Universe Organization from 1996 to 2015, a period in which four Venezuelan contestants took the crown, including Alicia Machado in 1996 and Gabriela Isler in 2013.
Fact-checkers have confirmed the authenticity of Trump’s remarks about walking into pageant dressing rooms. Snopes traced the comments to an April 2005 episode of the Howard Stern show, from audio clips CNN published in 2016, in which Trump described going backstage as pageant owner while contestants were changing and characterized it as something he could get away with. Snopes noted that Miss USA and Miss Universe require contestants to be at least 18, that Trump did not admit to entering dressing rooms of underage contestants, and that he co-owned the Miss Universe Organization, which included Miss Teen USA, from 1995 to 2015. Separately, contestants from both Miss USA and Miss Teen USA have alleged over the years that he entered their dressing rooms while they were partially undressed, accounts Snopes says it cannot verify and which a Trump spokesperson denied in 2016. Full Fact has also flagged that social media posts circulating an edited version of the quote wrongly make it appear to reference teenagers, which the original remarks did not.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/07/08/trump-beauty-pageants-dressing-room
