US attacks missile launchers in Houthi base; Casualties Sky News report in Arabic: Dead and injured in an American attack against missile launch systems at a #Houthi base in central #Yemen CENTCOM:" It was determined these systems presented an imminent threat to U.S. and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions were taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels."

US official confirms first loss of F-16 in Ukraine due to pilot error, reports WSJ A US official confirmed that Ukraine lost the first of its F-16 fighter jets, the Wall Street Journal reported. The crash happened on Monday, just weeks after the first of the US-made aircraft arrived in Ukraine, according to the report. Initial reports indicate that the jet wasn’t shot down, but likely crashed due to pilot error, the official said. The incident occurred during a massive missile attack. The Pentagon referred the newspaper to the Ukrainian Air Force for comment, but the Ukrainian Air Force wouldn’t confirm the crash or the status of the pilot. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on August 7 that F-16 fighters would not become a magic pill that could influence the course of hostilities and "will be consistently destroyed by the Russian armed forces."

NATO invades Russia in Kursk Region, ex-US intel officer says #NATO has invaded #Russia, Scott #Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, said, commenting on the situation in the borderline Kursk Region. "What happened in Kursk is that NATO invaded Russia," he told the Danny Haiphong YouTube channel. "This isn’t ‘Russia invaded Ukraine so that the Ukrainians get to attack Russia.’ No, Russia didn’t invade Ukraine. Russia responded to the Ukrainian war crimes that were put in place after the 2014 Maidan coup," Ritter pointed out. "The force that’s going in is the force that’s handbuilt by NATO," he emphasized. Ritter added that the Russian army was learning from the situation in the Kursk Region and would use that experience in the future. On August 6, Russia’s borderline Kursk Region came under a massive attack from Ukraine. According to the latest reports, 12 civilians have been killed, while 121 people, including ten children, have suffered injuries. Over 120,000 people have either left or been evacuated from the Kursk Region. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Kiev has lost up to 2,030 troops, 35 tanks and 31 armored personnel carriers since fighting began in the Kursk area.

Captured Ukrainian serviceman says foreigners take part in attack on Russian Kursk Region Ruslan Poltoratsky, a serviceman of Ukraine’s 80th Airborne Assault Brigade detained by Russian border guards, has said that foreign nationals are taking part in the cross-border attack on the Kursk Region. "When we crossed the border with Russia, at first I thought there was some line noise. But then I distinguished what they were saying - they were speaking English, Polish, maybe even French. I did not understand anything, I said into the walkie-talkie - 'repeat, repeat,' hearing some gibberish," the captured serviceman said during the interrogation, the video footage of which was released by the FSB. "When they had already taken positions [in the Kursk Region], they also went on the air with their superiors, with ours as well, and I also heard them saying something in English and in some other language. Something about houses, chaos," he said. At the same time, he heard the sound of shooting coming from the two-way radio. Earlier, Major General Apty Alaudinov, deputy chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ Main Military-Political Department and commander of the Akhmat special forces commando unit, said there were a lot of French and Polish mercenaries in the Kursk area. According to Defense Ministry updates, Kiev has lost up to 1,350 military personnel, 29 tanks and 23 armored personnel carriers since it launched the cross-border attack.

IDF Explains: "All our enemies come from IRAN" A great video explainer from the IDF Spokesman. While the stage shows us Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis... the Puppeteer is all Iran. "For the past 10 months, you’ve been hearing about attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, but ultimately, they all point back to one source: Iran."

ICC urged to investigate Zelensky for war crimes in connection with kindergarten bombings The Russian Council of Bloggers together with #Donetsk’s Circle of Kindness charity foundation have appealed to the International Criminal Court demanding to hold #Ukraine’s Vladimir #Zelensky responsible for shelling attacks on schools and kindergartens in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the council’s co-founder Viktoriya Rashina said. "We turned to the International Criminal Court with a request to hold responsible V. Zelensky, former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces V. Zaluzhny as well as ex-Ukrainian Defense Minister A. Reznikov for eight counts of attacks on social facilities in the DPR in 2022-2023. We prepared an appeal to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on initiating court proceedings and further submission to the Pre-Trial Chamber," she said. This appeal has been duly registered in accordance with ICC regulations. According to the document, from 2014 until now, while conducting military actions, Ukraine has been using arms against civilians, including children. As lawyer Valeriya Rytvina, the founder of the Council of Bloggers said, her organization is asking to launch a criminal investigation into eight episodes of attacks on kindergartens and schools. "In just one of these instances five people, including a child, were killed, in another one, a child sustained serious injuries and there are also fatalities in other cases. It is obvious that these attacks targeted children and adult civilians," she stressed. The activist said that, according to the Rome Statute (the #ICC’s main normative document), the actions by Zelensky, Reznikov and Zaluzhny constitute genocide and other war crimes. The ICC now must provide an exact assessment of their actions.

Looks like IDF CoGS Herzi Halevi approved plans to counter Iranian attacks...

CENTCOM attack on Yemen The launcher was on Yemeni soil and was ready for use. The US military announced that it had destroyed a Houthi missile and a launcher.

Polish president claims NATO preparing for war #NATO is getting ready for a military conflict, Polish President Andrzej #Duda said in an interview with the Wirtualna Polska portal. "In a certain sense - yes. NATO is a defense alliance but as the old saying goes: 'If you want peace, prepare for war.' The alliance should be so strong that no one would dream of attacking it," the #Polish leader said, replying to a question as to whether NATO was preparing for war. He added that "the potential war between Russia and the West will be incredibly close" in the event Russia wins the armed conflict in #Ukraine. At the NATO summit in #Washington D.C., in an interview with Politico, Duda suggested that the world had returned to the Cold War era and urged NATO partners to increase defense spending. The NATO summit was held in Washington D.C. on July 9-11. Its final declaration noted that NATO still considers Russia the alliance’s main threat. That said, NATO countries plan on developing recommendations on strategic approaches to Russia. Additionally, the document urges not to provide any military aid to Russia in light of the Ukrainian conflict. At the same time, the summit reached an agreement to provide military aid to Ukraine to the tune of 40 bln euros in 2025.

UAE offers the USA to fight Houthis from Somaliland Arab diplomats reported that the United Arab Emirates proposed to the United States to use the #Somaliland region to deal with the campaign against the #Houthis in the Red Sea instead of American aircraft carriers, which require huge budgets and a large number of personnel. According to the report, Tahnun bin Zayed, the national security adviser and head of the UAE's foreign intelligence service, met with Jake Sullivan and other American officials in early June, when bin Zayed visited Washington. The proposal comes following the refusal of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council to allow American and Western military bases in the Gulf countries to carry out attacks on the Houthis. US officials have opened a channel of communication with Somaliland officials overseen by Abu Dhabi, as the emirate seeks to strengthen its influence in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region, and join the United States to defend the Red Sea against attacks by the Houthis and Somali pirates. Observers say such moves would anger the government in #Mogadishu and other countries in the region.