Aug. 7, 2025 - Daily News Digest

On this day: in 1794, U.S. President George Washington invokes the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

QOTD: “Myanmar has now reestablished itself on the path to democracy and is moving toward a better future,” Min Aung Hlaing said. “As the new government, we have now begun working on national stability, peace, and national reconciliation.”

KSA/PAKISTAN/TURKEY/MIL - Saudi ⁠Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye sign defence deal amid regional turmoil
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/7/saudi-%E2%81%A0arabia-pakistan-and-turkiye-sign-defence-deal-amid-regional-turmoil

Saudi ⁠Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye have signed a ⁠joint defence agreement, deepening ‌security cooperation amid heightened military tensions and conflicts in the Middle East.

A joint statement shared by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Saudi state media on Friday says the agreement states ⁠that an armed ⁠attack on any one of the ⁠three countries would be ⁠regarded as an ⁠attack against them all.

It reflects “the three states’ shared commitment to further strengthening their collective security and to promoting peace, security, and stability in the region and beyond, in pursuit of a secure and prosperous future,” the statement added.

The deal comes a day after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, accompanied by powerful army chief Asim Munir, arrived in Saudi Arabia and performed the Umrah pilgrimage in Mecca.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also travelled to Saudi Arabia on Friday to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose country has been struck repeatedly by Iran, as well as by Tehran’s Houthi allies in Yemen and Shia armed groups in Iraq, since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

The conflict has imperilled Saudi Arabia’s oil exports and ⁠ambitious development plans, and raises big questions about the reliability of its longstanding US security umbrella.

While Turkiye and Pakistan have avoided significant direct attacks, both are anxious to calm regional conflicts that threaten their security and economies.

The deal, named the “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement”, follows nearly a year of negotiations. Sealing the agreement in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam, adds symbolic heft to a pact that builds on longstanding bilateral military ties.

US/ECON - U.S. Lost 23,000 Jobs in July, While Unemployment Ticked Lower
https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/july-jobs-report-unemployment-0d7c08a7?mod=WSJ_home_mediumtopper_pos_1

The U.S. labor market shed jobs in July, an unexpected contraction likely to renew questions about the economy’s fundamental strength at a time when it is also facing elevated inflation.

The Labor Department’s July jobs report showed that the economy lost 23,000 last month, a big shortfall versus the gain of 83,000 that economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected. Also, revisions to May and June payrolls numbers showed that the economy added 103,000 fewer jobs in those two months.

More Americans stepped back from the labor market entirely, according to the Labor Department’s separate monthly survey of households. As a result, the unemployment rate eased to 4.1%, from 4.2% in June, even though fewer people were working.

US/RUSSIA/EUROPE - U.S. Intel Finds Putin Could Test NATO’s Resolve With Limited Incursion
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/u-s-intel-finds-putin-could-test-natos-resolve-with-limited-incursion-e3b02e2c?mod=hp_lead_pos1

Russian President Vladimir Putin could try to test NATO’s resolve with a limited assault on an allied country in the next few years, according to new U.S. intelligence reports that posit possible scenarios ranging from a cyberattack to a small-scale land incursion.

The assessments, described by U.S. officials, come amid a shortfall in certain critical munitions that the military would need to confront Russia or China in a potential future war. The U.S. has severely degraded its stockpile of these weapons because of transfers to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, as well as the U.S. conflict with Iran. Stockpiles at risk include long-range Precision Strike Missiles and Army Tactical Missile Systems, as well as short-range Stinger surface-to-air missiles, other officials said.

The U.S. had previously assessed that Putin wouldn’t provoke a North Atlantic Treaty Organization country while he is still fighting in Ukraine. But that assessment changed earlier this year, the U.S. officials said, as Putin is squeezed in Ukraine and under pressure at home to secure a victory. Kyiv’s drones are inflicting growing damage on both Russia’s army and oil industry, while Putin’s forces are making smaller gains at the front line amid heavy casualties.

U.S. and European leaders increasingly see signs of Russia conducting probing attacks to test NATO’s resolve, including Russian cruise missiles that have landed in Poland and drones flown into Romania.

UKRAINE/RUSSIA/MIL/FOOD - Ukraine Grain Exports to Slump After Russian Strikes on Odesa
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-07/ukraine-grain-exports-to-slump-after-russian-strikes-on-odesa?srnd=homepage-americas

Ukraine’s agricultural shipments could fall by more than half this season after Russian attacks disrupted Black Sea ports, threatening the country’s biggest source of export revenue.

The country may export about 29.6 million tons of agricultural products in the 2026-27 marketing year, down 54% from an earlier estimate of 64.4 million tons, according to Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry. Wheat exports could plunge 53% to 8.3 million tons from a previous forecast.

Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest grain shippers, with the farm sector generating more than half of the country’s export revenue last year. Russian attacks on the port of Odesa, which usually handles about 90% of its grain shipments, are choking off those flows, while alternative routes via the Danube are limited by a drought that’s left water levels in the river at record lows.

US/WATER/PUERTO RICO - Puerto Rico Will Begin Rationing Water Amid Fresh Crisis
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/07/us/puerto-rico-water-crisis-drought.html

Across Puerto Rico, residents are being forced to forgo showers and housecleaning.

A restaurant owner in San Juan collects condensation from an air-conditioning unit so customers can use the water to flush toilets.

Miles away in the town of Loíza, residents flock to Peter Pabón, who weaves his tanker truck through narrow streets to fill buckets, storage bins and plastic bottles. Bedridden and sick residents depend on him.

“Everyone knows me already, and I know where everyone is,” said Mr. Pabón, 34, who delivers about 10,000 gallons of water daily for a private water company dispatched by the island’s government.

Similar scenes are unfolding in other parts of Puerto Rico, as it plunges into yet another water crisis driven by notoriously fragile infrastructure, and that has been worsened by a recent drought.

MYANMAR/THAILAND - Leader of Myanmar’s military-backed government seeks political legitimacy in Thailand visit
https://apnews.com/article/thailand-myanmar-asean-min-aung-hlaing-40b15f180969717a7260e7093fa1d6fb

The head of Myanmar’s military-backed government arrived in Thailand on Thursday for an official visit that could serve as a major steppingstone in his effort to win political legitimacy more than five years after seizing power from an elected civilian government.

President Min Aung Hlaing’s two-day visit with members of his Cabinet included meetings with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and other officials at Government House, where several memorandums of understanding were signed covering Myanmar migrant workers, water quality management in rivers shared by the two countries and space technology for Earth observation.

At the meeting with Anutin, Min Aung Hlaing sought to reassure Thailand that his government was restoring stability and steering Myanmar toward democracy.

GIFT LINK: Trump Vowed to Thwart Iran’s Nuclear Program. Here’s Where That Stands.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/07/world/middleeast/iran-nuclear-program.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3lA.thAF.3RffPt9aViEt&smid=url-share

Chief among President Trump’s reasons for launching the war in Iran was preventing it from building a nuclear weapon. More than five months in, officials and experts say, the conflict may have slowed Iran’s nuclear program but not stopped it.

Because Iran has barred U.N. inspections of its most sensitive nuclear sites — a key part of any eventual peace deal — the precise fate of its highly enriched nuclear fuel is unknown. And despite strikes on three key nuclear sites in 2025 and 2026, Tehran appears to have retained a stockpile of enough near weapons-grade fuel to quickly develop as many as 10 nuclear bombs, according to U.N. inspectors.

So far, the war has shown that Mr. Trump’s “‘maximum pressure’ policies and military misadventures did not, and cannot, destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons capacity,” Daryl G. Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, wrote in a recent analysis.

“The capability is largely still there,” said Ellie Geranmayeh, author of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Iran Nuclear Monitor.

US/IRAN/SHIPPING - Iran says Hormuz deal with Oman won’t fully reopen strait
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/08/06/iran-says-hormuz-deal-with-oman-wont-fully-reopen-strait/

While Iran and Oman appear to be nearing an agreement to manage traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian officials are now warning that the deal will not fully reopen the crucial waterway.

The news injected fresh uncertainty into negotiations that President Donald Trump previously described positively.

Oil prices jumped Thursday following Tehran’s comments. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose about 4 percent to over $82 per barrel. Prices previously had fallen about 8 percent after the Trump administration expressed optimism over talks.

The status of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil travels, has emerged as one of the most contentious issues between Iran and the United States. Iran effectively closed the waterway, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and the wider world, days after the United States and Israel launched their war in February.

Now, as the Trump administration pushes Iran to allow traffic through the choke point to return to prewar levels, Tehran is using its hold to extract further concessions. When Iran and the United States agreed in June to halt fighting and begin peace talks, it was the deal’s vague language regarding the strait that caused it to collapse.

Iran and Oman, a U.S. ally, have agreed that incoming ships will enter through Iranian territorial waters and outgoing ships will exit through Omani waters, Tehran has said.

Such an arrangement would formalize Iranian control of the waterway. It’s unclear whether the Trump administration would accept it.

“Any temporary routes will be without any impediments — meaning no approvals or permissions and no tolls or charges,” a U.S. official told The Washington Post. “The Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway, and no party controls the lanes or the ability to transit through them.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the administration.