July 29, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day in 1588, the Spanish Armada, the great fleet sent by King Philip II to invade England, was first sighted by the English off Lizard Point, Cornwall.
QotD: “Russia must feel that every day of this war will only come at a higher cost for it. We need to weaken the aggressor and keep up the pressure to bring an end to this war closer,” Ukrainian president Zelenskyy said on social media while in Washington.
IRAN/US/IRAQ/MIL – Fear of war’s spread as US, Saudi hit Iran-backed fighters in Iraq.
The United States and Saudi Arabia jointly struck Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq on Wednesday, the first U.S. airstrikes in the Middle East since President Donald Trump suspended the U.S. bombing campaign against Iran last week.
Iran, for its part, said it had fired on U.S. bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Trump to promise retaliatory strikes against Iran, which earlier reported a U.S. projectile hitting its northwestern city of Piranshahr near the Iraqi border.
"We'll be hitting them hard," Trump told Fox News, adding, however, about the possibility of future talks with Iran: "We're going to let them keep talking."
In a diplomatic setback, Tehran earlier rejected an Omani proposal to jointly manage the strait.
With renewed fighting and no quick end in sight to the war that broke out in February, oil prices rose sharply for the first time since last week.
Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, powerful Iran-backed paramilitary groups incorporated into the Iraqi security forces, said at least 20 members were killed and 32 wounded in U.S.-Saudi strikes targeting several bases across Iraq.
MORE/CHINA – Iran to get Chinese shoulder-launched missile systems in weeks, sources say.
Iran is expected to receive within weeks a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defence missile launchers, three sources familiar with the deal told Reuters, as it rebuilds its defences amid war with the United States.
The purchase, valued at $60-70 million, is one of Tehran's largest-known efforts to strengthen its short-range air defences since the outbreak of its war with the U.S. and Israel, which exposed gaps in Iran's ability to protect military sites and strategic infrastructure.
China's Foreign Ministry said: "The relevant reports are completely groundless. China has consistently played a role in promoting peace and ending the conflict."
Under a plan agreed by the parties, deliveries will initially be by air from Urumqi in western China, then transiting through Pakistan to Iran, according to the sources, who did not clarify whether the transfers would take place by air or by road.
MORE/US/STOCKPILE – US weapons stockpiles continue to dwindle with permanent end to Iran war nowhere in sight.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/29/politics/us-weapons-stockpiles-dwindle-iran-war
In a Monday report, researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank estimated that fewer than 827 Patriot interceptors remain in US stockpiles, and fewer than 278 THAAD ballistic missile interceptors are left. The three sources familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to discuss the US stockpile, told CNN that the CSIS estimates were close to internal government figures.
The figures represent a significant depletion of the pre-war stockpile, which CSIS estimated numbered around 2,200 Patriots (of the platform’s two most-modernized variants) and 452 THAAD missiles. The systems are the US military’s primary means of taking down incoming enemy ballistic missiles, and each interceptor missile costs millions of dollars.
“Diminished stockpiles may force the United States and its coalition partners to take more risks with interceptions. There are no good alternatives to Patriot and THAAD for ballistic missile defense. Navy ships, with Standard Missiles that can intercept such threats, generally are too far away,” the authors of the CSIS report wrote.
US/INTEL – Trump’s pick Jay Clayton confirmed as intelligence chief.
https://www.dw.com/en/us-trumps-intelligence-chief-pick-jay-clayton-confirmed-by-senate/a-78152450
The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence at a time when President Donald Trump has started reiterating his false claims about the 2020 election, which he lost.
The 51-47 vote in the Senate was along party lines with Republicans supporting the appointment and Democrats voting against.
After the vote, Trump heaped praise on Clayton posting on Truth Social: "Jay is outstanding in every way, and will do a spectacular job as Director!"
He is a former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman and US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Democrats opposed Clayton's nomination after he repeatedly declined during his confirmation hearing to explicitly state that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, saying only that the result had been "certified."
"I'm not an election denier," Clayton said, without directly answering the question.
ISRAEL/SETTLERS/SYRIA – Fringe Israeli settler group is sneaking into Syria to try to claim land for a Jewish outpost.
The Israeli military was about to launch a nighttime strike on a group of men in southern Syria when the soldiers noticed the long curls dangling from the temples of their targets. The troops held their fire.
These were not Syrian militants attempting to breach Israel’s border, but religious Jews who had slipped into Syria and were on their way back.
The episode, first reported last week by Israel’s public broadcaster and confirmed to The Associated Press by the Israeli military, has helped raise the profile of a fringe group of Israeli settlers that has staged numerous incursions into Syria, where they hope to establish Jewish settlements.
Israel’s military has occupied the area in southern Syria for more than a year, but forays by civilian settler groups into the region have only recently became a regular occurrence.
The groups, with members numbering in the dozens, have attempted to cross from Israel to Syria every few days in recent weeks. The military is tasked with reining them in and, while most Israelis regard them as fringe, the wider settlement movement in Israel has strong backers in the country’s far-right government.
The most prominent of the groups behind the incursions in Syria is known as “Pioneers of Bashan.”
FRANCE/SPAIN/WILDFIRES – Major wildfire stabilizes in central Spain but rising temperatures bring new alerts.
A major blaze in central Spain has stabilised, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Wednesday, in a rare reprieve as soaring temperatures in France and Spain increased the threat from wildfires in both countries.
Blazes have forced large-scale evacuations of people, scorched through forests and killed wildlife in Spain and France over the past days, and the minister had warned of "three tough days" ahead, with strong winds and high temperatures.
In France, temperatures in the southwest, hit by devastating fires, were expected to rise from around 33 C on Tuesday to peak at 42 C, according to Meteo France, while dry winds in the afternoon could stoke flames.
French firefighters kept a major blaze west of Bordeaux stable overnight. And near Bordeaux's airport, which has remained open, tramway services resumed and hotels reopened.
JAPAN/EARTHQUAKE – Japan earthquake toll rises to 13 as rescuers haul people from collapsed mall.
Rescuers frantically searched for survivors on Wednesday, a day after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake shook southern Japan, killing at least 13 people, knocking out power to thousands of homes and rupturing roads across the region.
Eight people were pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed shopping mall near the city of Kumamoto that was torn apart by an explosion just over an hour after Tuesday's earthquake. Of them, three died.
Another three workers at the shopping centre remain unaccounted for after checks of the roughly 2,700 staff, Akio Yoshida, president of mall operator Aeon told a press briefing on Wednesday. Customers had been evacuated right after the initial quake.
"Even now, there are people waiting to be rescued, and this is a race against time," Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters in Tokyo. "We will marshal all available resources on the ground to save and rescue as many people as possible."
Overall, 13 people were killed, five were in cardiac arrest and at least eight others seriously injured, authorities said. Hospitals were reported to be treating dozens of other patients.
UKR/RUS/MIL – Ukraine says it hit two major Russian oil refineries hours after Zelensky meeting with Trump.
Ukrainian forces hit two of Russia’s biggest oil refineries overnight in its latest long-range strikes, officials said Wednesday, as Kyiv deepened its economic, military and diplomatic pressure on Moscow.
Ukraine’s almost daily long-range drone and missile strikes using domestically developed weapons have battered Russian oil facilities for months. The operation has brought a fuel crisis that is embarrassing the Kremlin more than four years after Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor.
The overnight attacks started fires at a Lukoil refinery in Russia’s Perm region, more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) from Ukraine, and a refinery in Ryazan, about 400 kilometers (180 miles) from the border, Ukraine’s Security Service and General Staff said in separate statements.
The refineries have a combined annual production capacity of around 220 million barrels of oil, according to Ukraine, and make a vital contribution to Russia’s military effort and its government revenue.
“Russia must feel that every day of this war will only come at a higher cost for it. We need to weaken the aggressor and keep up the pressure to bring an end to this war closer,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
RUSSIA/TELEGRAM – Russia charges Telegram founder Durov with aiding terrorism.
Russia's Federal Security Service on Wednesday said it had charged Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder of the Telegram messaging app, with aiding terrorist activities.
The agency also issued an international warrant for his arrest.
The FSB said the charge formed part of "an ongoing criminal investigation" against Durov.
The security service accused Telegram's management of failing to remove channels, chats and bots allegedly used to organize attacks and acts of sabotage inside Russia.
According to the FSB, Ukrainian intelligence services had used the platform to prepare and coordinate sabotage, terrorist attacks, mass killings and cyberfraud.
These actions, as well as crimes committed by what the FSB described as terrorist and extremist organizations, had allegedly caused numerous deaths, including those of women and children, as well as billions in material damage.
Soon after the news of the warrant broke, Telegram's account on X posted a picture of Durov giving a middle finger to the camera.