“The deputy governor of a Russian region bordering Ukraine has been detained as part of a criminal case involving the embezzlement of 1 billion roubles ($12.4 million) earmarked for defensive fortifications, the TASS state news agency reported. The office of Deputy Kursk Governor Vladimir Bazarov, who previously worked as deputy governor in the neighbouring Belgorod region, was being searched, TASS reported. The detention of Bazarov was confirmed by Kursk Governor Alexander Khinshtein, who said the case related to his work in the Belgorod region. … Since Ukrainian troops smashed their way across the border and entered Kursk region last year in the biggest military incursion into Russia since World War Two, a series of Russian officials have been investigated for corruption.” (08/25/25)
“President Donald Trump greeted Lee Jae Myung, the new president of South Korea, by asserting that a ‘Purge or Revolution’ was taking place there and threatening to not do business with Seoul as he prepared to host the new leader at the White House later Monday. Trump elaborated later Monday that he was referring to raids on churches and on a U.S. military base by the new South Korean government, which ‘they probably shouldn’t have done,’ the president argued. ‘I heard bad things,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday morning. ‘I don’t know if it’s true or not. I’ll be finding out.’ The warning shot previewed a potentially hostile confrontation later Monday as Lee, the liberal leader and longtime critic of Seoul’s conservative establishment, sits down with Trump to discuss Seoul and Washington’s recent trade agreement and continued defense cooperation.” (08/25/25)
“Some National Guard units patrolling the nation’s capital at the direction of President Donald Trump have started carrying firearms, an escalation of his military deployment that makes good on a directive issued late last week by his defence secretary. A Defence Department official who was not authorised to speak publicly said some units on certain missions would be armed – some with handguns and others with rifles. The spokesperson said that all units with firearms have been trained and are operating under strict rules for use of force.” (08/25/25)
“Bitcoin has suffered a so-called ‘flash crash’ that knocked $4,000 from the bitcoin price in a matter of minutes …. Bitcoin’s sudden decline, coming amid fears a U.S. dollar ‘crisis’ could propel the bitcoin price higher, has been blamed on a single large holder cashing out 24,000 bitcoin worth over $2 billion, according to social media reports. … The sudden sell off weighed on the wider crypto market, including ethereum, wiping around $100 billion from the combined $4 trillion crypto market in just 24 hours. … The bitcoin price downturn, following the bitcoin price rising sharply on Friday, has raised fears selling could spread to the wider crypto market.” (08/25/25)
“Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s capital on Sunday, just days after the Houthi rebels [sic] fired a missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels [sic] had fired at it since 2023. The Iranian-backed Houthis said the strikes hit multiple areas across Sanaa, including a power plant and a gas station. Two people were killed and five others were wounded in a strike on an oil company, the rebels’ [sic] Al-Masirah satellite television reported. Video on social media showed a fireball erupting there.” (08/24/25)
“The Texas Legislature gave final approval on Saturday to an aggressively redrawn congressional map that kicked off a redistricting race between the parties that is likely to affect the fight for Congress long before any ballots are cast in the 2026 midterm elections. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he would sign the map into law once it reaches his desk. … Texas Democrats, who temporarily blocked the passage of the map with a walkout in the State House, said the newly drawn lines illegally diminished the voting strength of Black and Hispanic Texans. They have vowed to file suit against the map after it is adopted.” (08/23/25)
“Ukraine launched a drone attack on Russia on Sunday, forcing a sharp fall in the capacity of a reactor at one of Russia’s biggest nuclear power plants and sparking a huge blaze at the major Ust-Luga fuel export terminal, Russian officials said. … The Kursk nuclear power plant, just 60 km (38 miles) from the border with Ukraine, said that air defences shot down a drone that detonated near the plant just after midnight, damaging an auxiliary transformer and forcing a 50% reduction in the operating capacity at reactor No. 3. Radiation levels were normal and there were no injuries from the fire which the drone sparked, the plant said. … A thousand km north, on the Gulf of Finland, at least 10 Ukrainian drones were downed over the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s northern Leningrad region, with debris sparking fire at the Novatek-operated terminal – a huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal and processing complex, the regional governor said.” (08/24/25)
“A Texas homeowner fatally shot two masked men late Friday after they posed as officers serving a warrant and opened fire on the house, police say. The Houston Police Department responded to reports of gunfire in the southeast part of the city around midnight, Officer C. Jones told Fox News Digital. The suspects were wearing bulletproof vests marked with ‘police,’ but no patrol cars or flashing lights were present, raising the homeowner’s suspicions, authorities said. The two men were also wearing masks covering their faces and badges around their necks, Fox 26 Houston reported, citing the police. … Police said the men fired into the home before the residents returned gunshots, killing both, the local station reported.” (08/24/25)
“The federal government is trying to force Kilmar Abrego Garcia to accept a guilty plea or face deportation to Uganda, his attorneys claimed in a filing on Saturday. The Salvadoran man, who was wrongly deported in March before being brought back to the United States to face human smuggling charges, was released from criminal custody in Tennessee and sent back to Maryland on Friday. After Abrego Garcia declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to the human smuggling charges, his attorneys say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed them that he could be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to their office in Baltimore on Monday.” (08/23/25)
“The Syrian government on Saturday announced that elections will not be held in the provinces of Sweida, Hasaka and Raqqa when the rest of the country votes for a new parliament in September. The southern province of Sweida is majority-Druze, while most of Hasaka and parts of Raqqa are controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections said the ballot would be delayed in all three until a ‘safe environment’ was in place according to SANA state news agency. Sweida in southern Syria is the scene of long-simmering tensions between militias representing the Druze minority and Sunni Bedouin tribes over land and resources. … Beyond Sweida, the partially SDF-held provinces of Hasaka and Raqqa were also deemed too unsafe for elections.” (08/23/25)
