Aug. 13, 2024 - Daily News Digest
On this day: in 1624, The French king Louis XIII appoints Cardinal Richelieu as prime minister.
QOTD: “You can’t get training like this in the United States,” said Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s top military leader. He said that after NATO forces exercise against Ukrainian forces, “The change is remarkable.”
RUSSIA/UKRAINE/FOOD - Russian Strikes on Dozens of Grain Ships Threaten Global Food Supplies
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/world/europe/russia-ukraine-ports-odesa-cargo-ship-attacks.html
As families strolled along a promenade in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa recently, a lone cargo ship sailed in the distance. Suddenly, a drone dropped out of the clear blue sky and slammed into the vessel, sending smoke billowing across the horizon.
The attack, which I witnessed in late July, was part of a Russian campaign targeting cargo vessels that has halted nearly all shipping in and out of Odesa, Ukraine’s most crucial link to the world economy.
Coming at the start of the harvest season, the Russian campaign in Ukraine, which is a major producer of grains like wheat, corn and barley, could throw global food supply chains into turmoil. In 2022, during the first months of the full-scale war, Russia established a blockade of Ukrainian ports, causing a spike in global food prices and placing an estimated 70 million people at increased risk of acute food insecurity.
“Russia is hunting these vessels,” Dmytro Barinov, president of the Ukrainian Ports Association, said in an interview. “It’s a professional hunting for civilian vessels.”
The Russian strikes are the latest chapter in a long-running battle over the Black Sea and the adjacent Sea of Azov. New weapons that allow for precision targeting at great distances have made slow-moving cargo vessels easy targets. In June and July, Russian forces attacked at least 50 cargo ships, according to Ukrainian officials, killing more than 30 civilians.
Ukraine has also systematically targeted Russian-linked tankers and cargo vessels. Moscow’s maritime campaign appears to be a response to Ukraine’s decimation of the Russian fleet of river-sea oil tankers in the Sea of Azov and to Kyiv’s continued targeting of ships transporting Russian goods, which has left occupied Crimea isolated and starved for fuel.
Ukraine’s latest major assault took place before dawn on Wednesday, when the country’s forces attacked the Russian port of Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea, with jet-powered drones, missiles and unmanned naval systems, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Air defense positions, piers and seaport infrastructure were struck, he said.
TAIWAN/CHINA/MIL/TECH - Taiwan Weaponizes Coast Guard to Prepare for Battle With China
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/taiwan-weaponizes-coast-guard-to-prepare-for-battle-with-china-e7235080
Taiwan is giving its coast guard an expanded role in national security as part of a defense strategy that is focused on keeping China’s landing forces from reaching its shores and warning Beijing of the difficulties it will encounter if it invades.
As part of this transformation, a coast guard cutter led four missile boats out of the port of the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung on Saturday, followed about 30 minutes later by a naval deployment of mobile radars, missile launchers, assault boats and drones—a drill illustrating how Taiwan would respond to a Chinese amphibious invasion.
In a separate exercise, the Bali, a fast-response coast guard cutter loaded with antiship missiles, joined the navy and other coast guard vessels this week in a drill featuring the escort of a commercial ship through a mock Chinese blockade, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said on Thursday.
With China at the forefront, coast guards are evolving into tools for projecting power in the Western Pacific, marking territory and deterring rivals. The U.S. has joined the trend, operating fast-response Coast Guard cutters out of Singapore and the Philippines to help challenge China.
China has bulked up its coast guard with the world’s longest coast guard patrol ships and the addition of converted naval vessels. It is using its coast guard increasingly as a military asset and a tool to pressure Taipei, including in blockade and invasion drills around Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own and has threatened to seize by force.
TURKEY/PAKISTAN/KSA/MIL - Turkey lays out plans for defence pact with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/turkey-pakistan-saudi-arabia-will-form-political-military-mechanisms-coordinate-2026-08-13/
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will group senior ministers, hold joint exercises and deepen defence industry cooperation under a military pact signed between the regional powers last week, Turkey's defence ministry said on Thursday.
The three Sunni Muslim U.S. allies, alarmed by a regional conflagration that has brought Iranian missile fire onto Gulf oil exporters, signed the "Mecca Joint Defence Agreement" on August 7. They said the accord stipulates that an armed attack against any member would be regarded as an attack on all, similar to NATO's Article 5 collective defence clause.
At a weekly briefing in Ankara, the defence ministry said the pact's fundamental goal was to ensure defence and military ties were put on a "more institutional and sustainable" footing.
"Under the accord, strategic political and military mechanisms plan to be established involving the Defence Ministers, Foreign Ministers, and Chiefs of General Staff/Armed Forces Commanders, and that coordination among the three countries will be conducted at the highest level," it said.
The ministry added that joint military exercises involving land, naval, and air forces, as well as air defence and unmanned systems were planned, in addition to deeper defence industry cooperation.
US/ISRAEL - Settler siege of Palestinian homes in the West Bank a ‘horrific act of terror,’ US ambassador says
https://apnews.com/article/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-palestinian-qusra-huckabee-aad901d8ee7cf54e5e4952bf61a4f6d1
Israeli settlers have besieged three homes in the occupied West Bank for several days, including one owned by a Palestinian American, in what the U.S. ambassador called a “horrific act of terror” on Thursday.
Mike Huckabee’s remarks on X represented an unusually sharp rebuke from the Trump administration of the latest episode in a surge of settler violencein the region.
Settlers have targeted three homes for days
Starting Sunday, settlers gathered around three houses in the village of Qusra, according to local officials, Palestinian American homeowner Loui Ridi, and Ridi’s brother. At times numbering dozens, the settlers threw stones, attempted to bring down a stone wall nearby, and prevented the occupants from leaving as their food and water dwindled.
Israeli troops have intervened to try to restore order. On Thursday morning, Ridi’s brother, Qusai Abu Rida, who had holed up in the house with his own teenage son to defend it, said they were moved by Israel’s military to another home but still cannot leave the area, which is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Palestinian city of Nablus.
GIFT LINK: U.S. and Ukrainian Forces Went Head-to-Head in an Exercise. Ukraine’s Drones Won.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/u-s-and-ukrainian-forces-went-head-to-head-in-an-exercise-ukraines-drones-won-cc3663d5?st=6uFGJF&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
U.S. Army troops faced off against Ukrainian drone operators at a military exercise in Germany earlier this year. It didn’t go well for the Americans.
During the exercise, called Combined Resolve, Ukrainian drone units easily spotted and defeated U.S. troops and armored vehicles on rotation from Fort Hood in Texas, according to people familiar with the events.
The exercise, coupled with U.S. casualties in Iran, shows American vulnerabilities to drones—years after the U.S. made uncrewed systems an essential part of warfare. America pioneered using long-range drones in war. The Pentagon has recently spent billions acquiring new drone and counterdrone technology and formed special units to operate it.
Still, in the Middle East this year, the U.S. has struggled to defend against Iran’s long-range drones, which have killed and injured soldiers and destroyed aircraft.
The drubbing in Germany conveyed lessons from Ukraine focused on short-range battlefield drones. The exercise, held in April and May, tested visiting troops’ ability to operate and defend against the proliferation of smaller, front-line drones that have dominated the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Exercises like Combined Resolve are run precisely so that forces can experience realistic combat conditions. Army leaders in Europe over recent years have taken advantage of having Ukrainian forces on hand to participate and impart their hard-won skills to U.S. and allied troops in practice, on simulated battlefields. The expectation is that failures are educational. British and Swedish exercises have also resulted in easy Ukrainian triumphs.
LEBANON/SEC - Lebanon has not agreed to shortlist of countries that could verify Hezbollah's disarmament, official says
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/lebanon-has-not-agreed-shortlist-countries-that-could-verify-hezbollahs-2026-08-13/
A Lebanese official denied on Thursday a Reuters report that Beirut had agreed with Israel to a shortlist of countries that could send troops to Lebanon to verify the disarmament of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and said it was following up on the issue with Washington.
A June 26 deal brokered by the U.S. linked the progressive withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon to the "verified disarmament" of all non-state armed groups by the Lebanese government. Hezbollah, which is not a party to the agreement, has rejected disarming.
Reuters reported last week that Lebanon and Israel had agreed to a shortlist and reported on Wednesday, citing three sources, that the list included Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Indonesia as potential contributors to the verification mechanism.
A Lebanese official on Thursday said there was no such agreement and that Beirut was still in discussions with the United States on the matter.
A State Department official said on Tuesday that a round of U.S.-brokered meetings between Lebanon and Israel in Rome last week discussed the "third-party verification" of the Lebanese army's "clearance operations" but did not mention the shortlist or the countries involved.
KSA/YEMEN/SEC/ENERGY - Saudi Red Sea oil exports go dark as Houthi attack threat grows
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/saudi-red-sea-oil-exports-go-dark-houthi-attack-threat-grows-2026-08-12/
Saudi crude exports from the Red Sea are increasingly vanishing from view as tankers switch off tracking signals to avoid attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, with analysts saying all recent Yanbu loadings have been conducted "dark".
The Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia on July 20, opening a new front against the United States and its allies in the Iran war.
Since then, they have claimed attacks on Saudi-linked tankers, Yanbu oil facilities and, most recently, the Jazan refinery on the Red Sea coast, prompting more vessels to operate without publicly visible tracking data.
The growing use of so-called dark voyages is clouding visibility into Saudi oil exports, making it harder to assess the degree to which the Houthi threats may be disrupting crude flows.
Ship-tracking firms have produced widely differing export estimates - data which is used by the International Energy Agency, OPEC and traders to assess global oil supply and forecast market trends.
In the week beginning August 3, data analytics firm Vortexa estimated Yanbu loadings fell to 2.38 million barrels per day from 2.71 million the previous week, while Kpler estimated a sharper drop to 1.78 million bpd from 4.04 million, and AXSMarine calculated a rise to 850,000 bpd from about 420,000 bpd.
OMAN - Huge oil slick hitting Oman's shoreline as agencies warn of disaster
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-tanker-grounded-off-oman-has-started-reaching-mainland-un-agency-says-2026-08-12/
A vast oil spill from a leaking tanker has started to hit Oman's coastline, its environment agency confirmed on Wednesday, in what threatens to become one of the world’s worst in years after spreading largely unchecked for weeks.
The oil could end up impacting 40 km (25 miles) of coast near Ras Madraka as well as Masirah Island, the agency said.
The slick now covers an area of more than 2,000 square km, said John Amos, an oil spill specialist who reviewed satellite imagery obtained by Reuters.
MARINE NATURE RESERVE THREATENED
The Caroline Bezengi tanker, carrying an estimated 800,000 barrels of Russian oil and under international sanctions, ran aground on June 30.
It is leaking near an island that is part of an Omani marine nature reserve that is home to wildlife including Arabian Sea humpback whales and Socotra cormorants.
The tanker first reported difficulties off Yemen on June 8 after what maritime sources said appeared to be a blast.
No party has claimed an attack, but the vessel was navigating two separate wars on its journey from Russia to India.
In April it sailed from the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, a flashpoint in the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine has carried out assaults on a so-called shadow fleet carrying Russian oil, which the Caroline Bezengi is part of.
COLOMBIA/MEXICO - Colombia Rejects Quake Aid From Mexican Search-and-Rescue Team
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-13/colombia-earthquake-aid-from-mexican-search-and-rescue-team-rejected?srnd=homepage-americas
Colombia turned down a Mexican rescue team that sought to travel to the Andean nation to assist with earthquake rescue efforts, raising questions about the new conservative government’s management of the disaster.
“Yesterday I mentioned that the rescue team — the army’s rescue brigade — had gone to Colombia, but no,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday during her morning press briefing. “Now they’re asking for another certification.”
Despite the Colombian government’s decision, the Mexican brigade remains ready to assist, Sheinbaum added. “We need to hear a ‘yes’ from the countries so that we can provide support in those places,” she said, adding the team had helped in 98 other nations.
The 7.4-magnitude quake that struck on Monday was the second strongest recorded in Colombia in the past century. At least 265 peope have died, with nearly 3,500 injured and 500 missing, according to President Abelardo de la Espriella, who took office just last week and has moved to declare an economic emergency.
Colombia’s diaster agency director said Wednesday that De La Espriella’s government would receive search-and-rescue teams from Israel, Ecuador, El Salvador and the US because they meet international protocols, are self-sufficient and arrive with their own equipment. That announcement prompted questions about whether ideology is a factor in assessing foreign aid offers.
Mexico’s experience with major earthquakes has helped create a highly specialized search-and-rescue culture. As one of the world’s most seismically active countries, Mexico has faced devastating tremors, particularly the 1985 Mexico City disaster and the 2017 earthquake, and has spent decades developing expertise in locating and extracting survivors from collapsed structures.
VIDEO: DPRK/US - Inside North Korea’s Operation to Conquer the American Job Market
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/inside-north-koreas-operation-to-conquer-the-american-job-market-93729962?mod=hp_lead_pos7
Thousands of North Korean operatives are using fake and stolen identities to land remote jobs at U.S. companies—funneling hundreds of millions of dollars back to the regime.
Leaked data, interviews and never-before-seen videos obtained by The Wall Street Journal reveal how a single team of these workers infiltrated at least eight companies in just a few months.