🇮🇷⚔️🇺🇸🇧🇬🇨🇾 Iran has considered striking U.S. military targets in southeastern Europe, including Bulgaria and Cyprus, if Washington escalates the war, according to two regime insiders cited by the FT.

📝: Iran has missiles capable of hitting targets over 2000km away meaning U.S. bases in Italy (Sicily) and even Germany could become a target considering that Iran has attempted to strike Diego Garcia in the past.

Also, the city of Mombasa, Kenya (not visible on the map) is within the 4000 km range. Mombasa is a key U.S. Navy logistics hub used to resupply the CSGs in CENTCOM's Area of Operation.

🔗 Faytuks

🇺🇦 Vladimir Zelensky dismissed deputy presidential chief Irina Mudra on Wednesday following an anti-corruption raid on her home over allegations she helped launder $3.4 million through a state-owned bank. - FT

🔗 Faytuks

🇺🇸 The U.S. is spending 3.31% of its GDP to service its debt, surpassing the 3.2% milestone it hit in the 1990s.

@CIG_telegram

🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 The battle for Dobropolye has begun.

Russian troops broke into the city and occupied a dozen houses on the city's northern outskirts.

🔗 AMK Mapping

🇮🇱⚔️🇸🇾🇹🇷 Israeli strikes on Abu al-Duhur Airbase in northwestern Syria came just one day after a Turkish delegation visited the base to inspect ongoing rehabilitation work.

The timing makes it pretty clear the strike was a message to Turkey not Syria.

🔗 EGYOSINT

🇦🇪❌🇮🇷 The UAE's decision to sever economic ties with Tehran threatens Iran's primary commercial lifeline, cutting off a trade conduit that supplies more than 30 percent of Iranian non-oil imports and handles up to $29 billion in annual bilateral merchandise flows.

Clear numbers on the trade volume between the UAE and Iran are tricky, as reports from the two nations and international bodies provide vastly differing figures. However, one thing is clear: bilateral flows are extremely lopsided.

UAE and international reporting mechanisms like UN Comtrade registered $6.6 billion in total non-oil trade in 2024, while Iranian customs authorities (IRICA) reported annual volumes reaching $29.1 billion, reflecting the immense volume of third-country goods transiting through Emirati ports into Iranian markets.

The outbound flow is heavily tilted toward Tehran. In 2024, UAE-reported exports to Iran stood at $6.07 billion, which is 91 percent of the $6.6 billion in total non-oil trade between the two nations.

Meanwhile, Iranian official data indicated imports from the UAE reached approximately $21.9 billion in 2024, 75 percent of the total trade reported in Iran. Goods re-exported from third nations typically comprise 85 to 95 percent of all outbound shipments leaving Emirati ports for Iran.

By contrast, Iranian shipments in the opposite direction have been in decline for several years now.

UAE data logged just $545 million in imports from Iran in 2024, down sharply from $5.81 billion in 2018.

Even under the significantly higher figures that Iran reports, non-oil shipments to the UAE reached only $7.2 billion, demonstrating that Abu Dhabi’s direct domestic exposure to Iranian merchandise is negligible.

🔗 https://clashreport.com/world/articles/explained-uae-wants-to-cut-off-iran-trade-it-could-cost-tehran-billions-3i6xt27w5u

🇦🇿❌🇷🇺 Baku summons Russian ambassador as rift deepens again

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry summoned Russian ambassador Mikhail Yevdokimov on August 18 to protest what it called provocative, insulting and threatening statements against Azerbaijan, its people and leadership circulating in Russian media, a day after the Prosecutor General's Office placed three Russian citizens on an international wanted list.

The dispute coincided with the deportation of Bakhtiyar Hasanov, chairman of the Moscow Azerbaijani National-Cultural Autonomy, from Russia, deepening strains between the two countries that have built up over the past two years.

The Prosecutor General's Office said on August 17 that Ivan Knyazev, a presenter on the Moskva 24 television channel, political consultant and media expert Semyon Uralov, and Aleksey Chadayev, an adviser to Russia's transport minister who also works as a television correspondent, are accused of inciting terrorism, calling for the forcible change of Azerbaijan's constitutional order, and stirring ethnic hatred and enmity.

As the men are outside Azerbaijan, prosecutors said they have asked partner states to locate and detain them, and have sought an international search through Interpol channels for their extradition to Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's statement on August 18 also referenced other broadcasts it deemed hostile, including a Sputnik radio programme on August 7 concerning claims that Azerbaijan's leadership had been placed on a Russian list of terrorists and extremists, and further material aired on the Spas television channel on August 16. The ministry said discussion of interference in Azerbaijan's domestic political processes and calls for physical violence against its people and leadership were unacceptable, adding that Baku expected urgent and effective measures from Moscow to end what it called provocations, threats and violent rhetoric in the Russian information space.

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded that the views of the individuals named do not reflect Russian government policy, saying Russian-Azerbaijani relations should continue to develop on the basis of the existing bilateral legal framework, including the Declaration on Allied Interaction signed in Moscow on February 22 2022, according to a report by NEWS.ru cited by Report.

The latest friction comes as Azerbaijan has more visibly diverged from Moscow's position on Ukraine. Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov visited Kyiv and Irpin on August 6, his first official visit since Russia's full-scale invasion, reaffirming Azerbaijan's support for Ukraine's territorial integrity within internationally recognised borders and discussing possible gas supplies to Ukraine. Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko visited Baku on August 16-17 and met Aliyev, who was presented with honorary citizenship of Irpin, a gesture likely to be read in Moscow as symbolic.

🔗 https://www.intellinews.com/baku-summons-russian-ambassador-as-rift-deepens-again-462013/

🇪🇸🇲🇦⚡️ — Spain plans to transfer 500 unaccompanied migrant girls from Ceuta to the mainland, reversing its earlier position that irregular arrivals would be returned to Morocco.

The government says the girls are being prioritized because of their vulnerability, with minors placed in protected facilities following reports of sexual violence and assault during the migration crisis.

☪️🇵🇸🤜🐶🐱 Massacred cats and devoured pigeons and seagulls found in Ceuta following the migrant invasion: “They’re wiping out the colonies.”

Sometimes they do it to eat the animals, other times out of sheer malice and barbarity. Several marine animals, including crabs, limpets and other endangered species, have also been seriously affected.

All the green and left-wing organisations remain silent.

https://t.co/JuDyccN0wf

#info #meta
#nationalism
#Spain

🇺🇸🇪🇨 U.S.-Registered Drone Detected at Site of Suspected CIA Boat Strike

Dropsite uncovered that the US Coast Guard is likely utilizing the Shield AI V-BAT drone to assist with the CIA's operations again Ecuadorian fisherman.

To summarize some of the recent findings: the US Coast Guard is terrorizing civilians in the Eastern Pacific by monitoring their targets with Shield AI surveillance drones, attacking them with FPV drones, and then picking up and torturing shipwrecked survivors with the assistance of the CIA, who are operating out of the infamous Ilopango airbase that was the central hub for arming the Contras in Nicaragua and trafficking cocaine back to the US.

When an Ecuadorian prosecutor tried to investigate these drone attacks on civilians, she was gunned down in broad daylight.

🔗 https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/drone-boat-strike-cia-ecuador-shield-ai

🇺🇸🗳 James Fishback nearly beat out Byron Donalds in under 35 voting precincts with Donalds absolutely dominating 55 and up voters.

Collins remained a steady force throughout each voting precinct.

🔗 AF Post (@AFpost)