🇷🇺 - Three years ago today, Russia's Putin killed the heads of the Wagner Group, Dmitri Utkin and Yevgeny Prigozhin. Since then, Russia's ability to project influence abroad has spiraled downwards with setbacks across several key theatres, including Syria, the Sahel, and the Caucasus.

🇺🇸⚡️- Around 18,700 customers in Gary, Indiana, have been without power for twelve days after a storm knocked out most of the power in the city.

When the state utility company NIPSCO was sent out to make repairs on Aug. 15th, unknown residents of the 76% Black city fired upon the marked company vehicle.

The Gary PD is now acting as a security force for the NIPSCO workers as they attempt to repair the electrical infrastructure.

🇺🇸 - 30 years ago, Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington founded Valve. Their corporation would go on to revolutionize gaming on several occasions. They gave gamers the Source engines and the game series of Half-Life, Portal, Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress as well as the Steam platform. They have given countless small developers a chance to create and live off their work, feeding passions for three decades now. Valve stands as a unique giant among gaming corporations, showing us that greed will never replace passion when it comes to quality.

"It used to be that you needed a $500-million-a-year company in order to reach a worldwide audience of consumers. Now all you need is a Steam account." - Gabe "GabeN" Newell.

🇾🇪🇸🇦⚡- Ansarullah struck a tanker in the Red Sea off the coast of Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

🇦🇲⚡- "It's possible for a country to be removed from the CSTO. I would be delighted if the alliance removed Armenia from the collective treaty agreement. It would free us from the dilemma of leaving or not," - Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia.

Note, the CSTO's collective defense clause closely resembles NATO's Article 5, stipulating that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. However, the alliance did not support Armenia during the 2020 war or the subsequent border clashes with Azerbaijan between 2021, 2022, and 2023, a failure that has fueled growing frustration in Yerevan. Pashinyan in 2021 and 2022 directly requested support, citing the CSTO mutual defense clause, but fell on deaf ears in Moscow, and has even gone as far as accusing Belarus (a CSTO member) of supporting Azerbaijan (a non-CSTO member) against Armenia.

🇦🇲🇷🇺⚡- "For two hundred years Armenia's relations with Russia were built on the idea that Russia will be the guarantor of security of the Armenian people.

The events of 2020-2023 have shown that Russia, because of its own security problems, had significant limitations in fulfilling its role as guarantor," - Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia.

🇸🇩🇪🇹⚡- A second drone in less than 24 hours has been downed by the Sudanese Armed Forces. The drone also originated from Ethiopia.

🇬🇧🇺🇦⚡️- UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, during his first foreign visit to Ukraine to attend the country's Independence Day parade, announced that Britain has agreed to share Storm Shadow missile technology with Kiev, paving the way for Ukraine to manufacture the long-range cruise missiles domestically.

🇩🇿🇲🇱⚡️- In a significant thaw in relations between Algeria and Mali, Malian Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga has arrived in Algiers for high-level talks.

🇰🇪🇸🇴⚡- For the second time in just two days, al-Shabaab launched a cross-border attack on a Kenyan military base near the town of Konton, northeast Kenya (the base is located at 2.0361126, 40.9083649).

Kenyan military sources report repelling the attack and pushing al-Shabaab back towards the Somalian border. The number of casualties on either side currently remains unknown.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- BREAKING: President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have announced the start of "Operation Economic Outcast" against Iran.

"We are launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe. Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone." - Scott Bessent, US Secretary of the Treasury.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡- The State Department is issuing a reward of up to $10 million for information on key Iranian IRGC figures.

They include:
- Ahmad Vahidi, Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC.
- Ali Abdollahi, Chief of Iran's Central Military Command.
- Sa’id Aghajani, IRGC Aerospace Force Commander.
- Hamidreza Lashgarian, Chief of IRGC's Cyber-Electronic Command.
- Majid Khademi, IRGC Intelligence Chief.

🇺🇸⚡️- BREAKING: The Supreme Court lifted a judicial order blocking President Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting, clearing the way for its use ahead of November's midterm elections.

The decision does leave room for additional lawsuits, which some states are likely to file with the first mail-in ballots set to be sent out in a few weeks.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- The U.S. State Department announced part of the measures in Operation Economic Outcast will target an Iranian cyber group "responsible for extensive intrusions into U.S. critical infrastructure."

🇺🇸🇹🇷⚡️- YouGov, one of the largest and most trusted polling firms in the country, has partnered with Hasan Piker to release new polling about Israel-Palestine among Democrat party voters.

🇮🇷🇴🇲⚡- Overnight, Iran struck an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, causing damage to the engine room. The vessel has been disabled.

🇩🇪⚡- German outlets report that a third drone, packed with 50g of RDX explosives, was also found near the Leipzig/Halle Airport 10 days ago.

🇺🇸⚡️- Up to 45,000 Nevadeans have been evacuated as fires rage near Reno.

🇺🇸🇷🇺⚡️- A C-17A Globemaster belonging to the U.S. Air Force flew from Riga to Moscow this morning.

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇱🇻⚡- Kremlin spokesman Peskov says he has no information regarding the C-17A that arrived in Moscow from Riga, Latvia.