GET UP TO SPEED They’re already there. On Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed that North Korean troops are in Russia, backing up earlier reports from South Korean intelligence. This news came as Ukrainian intelligence officials warned that thousands of North Korean soldiers will soon be deployed to Kursk, near Russian territory that
JUST IN Three hundred and seventy-six days later, he is dead. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of last October’s terrorist attack on Israel, which set off a year of war in the Middle East, was killed by Israeli soldiers today in the Gaza Strip. Sinwar’s death follows Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
GET UP TO SPEED There’s a message in the missiles. Iran’s 180-missile barrage against Israel on Tuesday was largely ineffectual (though it did reportedly kill a Palestinian man in the West Bank) due to Israeli air defenses and US assistance. The assault was Tehran’s response to the assassination of top Hezbollah figures, including the group’s
GET UP TO SPEED The August surprise came from Ukraine. Beginning on Tuesday, as many as a thousand Ukrainian troops reportedly crossed the border into the Kursk region in Russia, capturing an estimated seventeen square miles of territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the move a “major provocation,” while the Ukrainian government has largely declined
GET UP TO SPEED Two days, two earth-shaking strikes. This morning, an air strike killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, one day after a rocket strike killed Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut. Israel reportedly launched both strikes as it continues its response to Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, and an
JUST IN Uno, due, tre. As the Group of Seven (G7) summit kicked off Thursday in Apulia, Italy, US President Joe Biden presented three big steps to help Ukraine in its ongoing fight against Russian aggression. First, G7 leaders agreed to send Ukraine fifty billion dollars that will be paid for by future interest from
JUST IN One hand may be coming untied. The White House announced Thursday that it will allow Ukraine to use US weapons for limited strikes inside Russia—a reversal of a policy that had been criticized for, in the words of the Czech foreign minister, leaving Ukraine to fight “with one hand tied behind its back.”
JUST IN Help is (finally) on the way. The US House on Saturday approved $60.8 billion in aid for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, after months of delays that have seen Russian gains on the ground. The bill, part of a four-piece national security package put forth by House Speaker Mike Johnson over
GET UP TO SPEED The volley has been returned. Israel reportedly struck at a military facility in Iran in the early hours of Friday—a response to Iran’s drone-and-missile attack on Israel just days earlier. As the smoke cleared in Isfahan, both Israel and Iran appeared eager to downplay the effects of the strike. With an
JUST IN The skies lit up over Jerusalem. Overnight, Iran launched more than two hundred drones and missiles, each shuttling its destructive potential through the dark sky toward Israel. Israeli, US, and other allied forces intercepted most of the Iranian blitz, with only minor damage reported on an Israeli military base. But the unprecedented direct
