July 28, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day: in 2005, The Provisional Irish Republican Army calls an end to its thirty-year-long armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland.
QOTD: "We are going to build the consensus needed to turn decisions into results for citizens," Fujimori said.
UKRAINE/RUSSIA/IRAN/MIL - Two Wars Converge in the Caspian Sea as Ukraine Hits Iranian Supply Line to Russia
https://www.wsj.com/world/two-wars-converge-in-the-caspian-sea-as-ukraine-hits-iranian-supply-line-to-russia-e036fb27
Ukrainian drones have hit military-supply lines connecting Russia and Iran through the Caspian Sea, exploiting a new front in two increasingly intertwined wars.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed responsibility for the strikes, saying in a tweet Saturday, “We also achieved very strong results with long‑range strikes in the Caspian Sea—including vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran, as well as a warship.”
The Security Service of Ukraine, an intelligence agency, said that it had launched drone strikes in the Caspian against a Russian oil field, a Russian missile boat and ships used to transport Iranian drones to Russia.
The strikes, part of a long-range drone campaign that has also reached deep into Russia, have brought Iran and Ukraine one step closer to a direct confrontation.
For years, Iran has supplied lethal drones that Russia has used against Ukraine, while the Kremlin has helped Tehran this year with intelligence to assist in its response to the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaigns.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, blamed Zelensky on Sunday for a strike that he said killed a sailor on an Iranian commercial vessel.
Araghchi said in a social-media post that he phoned Russian and European Union leaders to say that Kyiv’s actions couldn’t go unanswered. Iran summoned the Ukrainian chargé d’affaires in Tehran.
The strikes come at a critical time in both the Iran and Ukraine wars.
President Trump paused strikes on Iran over the weekend while also deliberating over a possible escalation in attacks intended to break Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz. The Caspian trade offers Iran one way to circumvent a U.S. military blockade of its ports along the Persian Gulf and the northern Arabian Sea.
OMAN/IRAN/SHIPPING - Oman presents Iran with Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Hormuz
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/gulf-states-back-plan-let-iran-collect-voluntary-fees-use-hormuz-2026-07-28/
Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran had yet to respond to the Omani proposals, intended to serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend in his latest strategic U-turn, said there were "good talks" under way with Iran but threatened to restart strikes unless negotiations deliver. Iran denies seeking to resume talks with the United States.
Washington launched its renewed bombing campaign earlier this month to break Iran's grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.
Iran effectively shut the strait to ships other than its own after the United States and Israel attacked on February 28. A deal last month between the United States and Iran partially reopened it, but the agreement collapsed in early July after Iran fired on ships using a channel it does not approve.
MORE: Iran rules out US talks as Hormuz Strait remains closed
https://www.dw.com/en/iran-rules-out-us-talks-as-hormuz-strait-remains-closed/live-78127467
· Iran says it has not sought to resume talks with the US
· Tehran and Washington are not currently holding talks, but mediators remain active
· The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, according to Iran
· Oil prices lower on Monday as the US-Iran strikes pause
· Trump says he won't allow 'much time' before restarting attacks
· Saudi Arabia says it intercepted drones launched from Iraq
US/CHINA - US looks to boost anti-China spending worldwide by hundreds of millions, documents say
https://apnews.com/article/trump-countering-china-funding-e8ed66bd2d8a2a06dd750b6157979a1e
The Trump administration is preparing to ramp up funding by hundreds of millions of dollars for programs designed to counter China’s growing influence around the world, after it had put a halt to many of those initiatives last year during a flurry of budget and personnel cuts.
The administration notified Congress late last week that it intends to spend $175.8 million to replace outdated and aging undersea telecommunications cables in the Caribbean and Central America to prevent China from moving in. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the notification on Monday.
The administration has expressed deep concern about China’s activities in the Americas, pushing back on Chinese ownership of ports at either end of the Panama Canal, infrastructure projects funded by China’s Belt and Road initiative in the region, and Chinese investment in the telecommunications sector.
A State Department official said China’s economic activities in the Western Hemisphere pose risks to U.S. national security and prosperity. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the subject and spoke on condition of anonymity, said China’s offerings may seem cheaper but in the end wind up being more expensive due to cost overruns, hidden maintenance fees and poor performance.
The underseas cable funding appears to be part of a broader push to restore support for initiatives aimed at blunting Chinese influence globally that would cost many hundreds of millions of dollars more. That is even as President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping put on a show of cooperation and Xi prepares to visit the U.S. this fall.
PERU/POL - Peru's Fujimori takes power, extending Latin America's rightward tilt
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/perus-fujimori-takes-power-extending-latin-americas-rightward-tilt-2026-07-28/
Keiko Fujimori will be sworn in as Peru's president on Tuesday, becoming the latest in a string of conservative leaders elected across Latin America by voters frustrated by crime, weak economic growth and political instability.
The 51-year-old daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori will become Peru's first-ever elected female head of state.
Her victory in June's presidential runoff marked the return of one of Peru's most influential and polarizing political dynasties and capped a political comeback after years of failed bids.
Fujimori will be Peru's 10th president since 2016 following a tumultuous decade in which no leader completed a full five-year term.
Her election extends a broader rightward shift across Latin America, with a string of recently elected leaders advocating closer ties with the United States and tougher policies on crime.
Fujimori has said there is “very significant space” for cooperation with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and expressed interest in Peru joining the "Shield of the Americas," a regional initiative proposed by Trump to combat transnational crime.
Washington has made one of its strongest efforts in years to deepen ties with Peru, a major copper and critical minerals producer, with strategic Pacific ports, in an effort to counter China's influence in the region.
IRAN/POL/WHAT A GOOBER - Regime change? Inside Reza Pahlavi’s faltering bid to lead Iran
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/regime-change-inside-reza-pahlavis-faltering-bid-lead-iran-2026-07-27/
As the U.S. and Israel went to war on Iran this year, a transformative moment seemed to have arrived for Reza Pahlavi, son of the autocratic shah who was overthrown in 1979.
Despite not having set foot in Iran in almost half a century, Pahlavi had been actively campaigning in the U.S. and Europe, giving speeches about a bright new future for his homeland, raising money and meeting elected officials.
“The Iranian people have called on me to lead the transition after the regime is gone,” he declared on the social-media platform X shortly after the war began in late February. “I have accepted that responsibility.”
In Texas this March, Pahlavi received one of the most enthusiastic receptions at the Conservative Political Action Conference. As he took the stage, staunch supporters of President Donald Trump and a large contingent of Iranian Americans, many draped in the pre-revolution Iranian flag that flew during his father’s rule, lavished him with a 45‑second standing ovation.
ASIA/THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING REALITY YOU DON’T READ ABOUT ON FACEBOOK GROUPS - UN says human trafficking into Asian scam centres is surging
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/un-says-human-trafficking-into-asian-scam-centres-is-surging-2026-07-28/
The U.N. migration agency on Tuesday warned of a dramatic increase in the number of people forced into working in Asian scam compounds, saying people from more than 80 countries have been lured in through social media, with some being sexually abused.
Huge scam centres employing as many as 300,000 workers across Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have emerged to deploy online schemes to defraud often older individuals in the West, the International Organization for Migration said.
But a significant portion of those were themselves tricked into employment, the U.N. agency said, describing fake job advertisements offering lucrative work contracts for those with strong English skills and a college education.
Once duped, they are stripped of their documents and forced to carry out online scam operations amid threats and violence, IOM said. Many suffer stigma and debt as well as trauma after sexual abuse or bouts of solitary confinement, Amy Pope, director general of the IOM, said.
SOCIAL MEDIA EXPANDS REACH
"People trapped in scam compounds are victims of trafficking, forced to commit crimes through violence, threats and coercion," said Pope, who formerly worked as a prosecutor of human trafficking cases.
KSA/IRAN/YEMEN/ACCUSING WATER OF BEING WET - Saudi Arabia Blames Iran-Backed Militias for Attack on Oil Facilities
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-blames-iran-backed-militias-for-attack-on-oil-facilities-eb6cf40c
Saudi Arabia said Monday it had intercepted a “number of drones” that Iran-backed militias in Iraq had launched at the kingdom’s oil facilities.
Riyadh demanded in a statement that Iraq take “all necessary measures to ensure the prevention of the use of its territory as a launching point” for attacks.
Iraqi militias haven’t claimed responsibility for the attacks, and another pro-Iran militant group, Yemen’s Houthis, said it had attacked Saudi oil facilities, making it unclear Monday who was responsible for the drone strikes.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered security authorities to investigate and said his country wouldn’t allow its territory to be used as a corridor or launchpad for any attack against friendly countries.
Pro-Tehran Iraqi militias have conducted repeated drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states since the U.S. and Israel jointly launched a war against Iran in February, drawing in some of the world’s largest oil producers. The militias operate independently of the Iraqi government and are often at odds with the central authorities.
A Saudi assessment concluded that up to half of the nearly 1,000 drone attacks on the Saudi kingdom have come from inside Iraq, according to a person familiar with the report. They included strikes on a Saudi refinery in the Yanbu oil hub on the Red Sea and on oil fields in the kingdom’s eastern province where Monday’s attacks took place, people familiar with the matter said.
RUSSIA/CHINA/EGYPT - Russia Drives Up Oil Flows Through Arctic to Maintain High Exports
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-28/egypt-deliveries-arctic-transits-help-russian-oil-avoid-red-sea?srnd=homepage-americas
Russia is driving up shipments of crude oil through the Arctic Sea, supporting Moscow’s historically high rates of exports while slashing delivery times and helping to avoid any pitfalls from sailing through the Houthi-threatened Red Sea.
The country’s crude exports remained above 4 million barrels a day for a fifth week, edging lower to 4.03 million barrels a day in the period to July 26, tanker-movements data compiled by Bloomberg show.
One tanker, the Breeze, is already on its way its way across the Laptev Sea, more than halfway along Russia’s Arctic coast, escorted for part of its journey by a nuclear-power icebreaker. A further five have gathered off the Russian port of Dikson, just short of the ice fields, where two icebreakers are smashing a path through the pack. Those ships are 1,000 miles east of Murmansk and Primorsk, where their cargoes were loaded.
While the shipments have become a regular feature of Russia’s export machine during warmer summer months, July’s northern transits have come earlier in the season, and look set to surpass the scale of prior years. The six ships seen beginning the passage this year compare with just a single oil tanker that began the northern crossing last July.
The Arctic route doesn’t directly boost Russia’s exports, but faster deliveries will enable vessels to get back to collect their next cargoes quicker, boosting the fleet that’s available to transport the nation’s barrels. The vessel movements will also help the ships to avoid any tensions in the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthis have announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia.
Although the Houthi warnings were specifically aimed at ships calling at Saudi Arabia, several tankers in Russia’s shadow fleet have previously found themselves under attack as they passed Yemen, raising the risks of using that route even for supposedly “friendly” vessels.
Separately, Egypt is emerging as a small-but-important destination for Russian crude. At least 15 cargoes of the Moscow’s flagship grade Urals have been delivered to its Mediterranean port of Mersa el-Hamra this year, with the traffic soaring in recent months. It’s unclear whether all the crude is being refined in the country, or whether some is being blended and reexported.
CHINA/ENERGY - One Megabuyer—China—Finds a Way to Get Mideast Oil
https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-iran-us-war-6b523a89?mod=world_lead_pos1
Wartime disruptions at two shipping chokepoints in the Middle East are sending shock waves through global markets. China has still found a way to get oil from the region.
Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen began last week to attack Saudi-linked oil tankers at the Bab al-Mandeb strait, expanding the Iran conflict and disrupting a crucial Red Sea route that Saudi Arabia has used to bypass the embattled Strait of Hormuz and deliver oil to customers in Asia.
But the rebels gave safe passage to two Chinese oil tankers carrying Saudi oil through the Bab al-Mandeb. Both ships broadcast “Chinese crew and owner” as they sailed.
At least two more China-bound supertankers, loaded with Saudi oil, have since cleared the strait. The rebels appear to be holding fire on behalf of Iran’s friends.
Meanwhile, across the Arabian Peninsula at the Strait of Hormuz, the resumption of a U.S. blockade and the threat of Iranian attack have impeded the transit of oil tankers.
That hasn’t stopped China from importing Iranian oil by drawing on a floating reserve off Malaysia that has been available throughout the war, an established channel that circumvents U.S. sanctions.
“Fuel security is a major geopolitical lever and China has historically been in a vulnerable position as a big importer, but they’ve gone to great lengths to reduce that vulnerability,” said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Financial, a Sydney-based financial services firm.