🇦🇲❌🇷🇺 Armenia detains former president Kocharyan on corruption charges

Armenian prosecutors detained former president Robert Kocharyan on August 25 and charged him with corruption-related offences allegedly committed during his decade in office, in a case likely to further escalate tensions between the government and its opponents.

Kocharyan, 71, who served as president from 1998 to 2008 and now leads the opposition Armenia Alliance, was accused of using his position to transfer state property to himself and associates on favourable terms and concealing the "criminal origin" of the assets, the prosecutor general's office said.

The case comes after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's re-election in June and amid what critics describe as a broadening government campaign against political opponents, church leaders and civil society groups.

Pashinyan's government is seeking to deepen ties with Western institutions while reducing Armenia's dependence on Russia, a shift that has intensified political divisions at home.

The Armenian Apostolic Church has rejected as politically motivated a case against its leader, while opposition figures Gagik Tsarukyan and Samvel Karapetyan are also facing legal proceedings.

Kocharyan has been a vocal critic of Pashinyan's policy of moving Armenia closer to the West and away from traditional ally Russia. During his presidency, he pursued close ties with Moscow, which remains an important energy supplier and hosts a military base in Armenia.

🔗 https://www.intellinews.com/armenia-detains-former-president-kocharyan-on-corruption-charges-463373/?source=armenia

🇮🇷⚔️🇺🇸 NBC: Iranian missile and drone attacks have inflicted unprecedented damage on U.S. intelligence posts and surveillance hardware in the Middle East that is more extensive than any destruction America’s spy agencies have endured and will cost billions of dollars to repair, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.

🔗 https://unwall.app/www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/iran-inflicted-billions-damage-us-intelligence-sites-sources-say-rcna591879

🇯🇵🇨🇦🇺🇸 Honda says it may not build new plant in North America without trade deal extension

A senior Honda executive said the Japanese automaker might not build an eighth assembly plant in ​North America unless a key trade deal is extended.

The Trump administration is ‌currently negotiating with Canada and Mexico over the fate of the free trade deal known as USMCA.

Honda Executive Vice President Noriya Kaihara told reporters at a roundtable in Washington the automaker ​is close to full production capacity in North America and needs a ​new factory.

However, "if there is no USMCA agreement in the future, we ⁠may have to change our direction," Kaihara said, adding the company will need ​to make a decision within a year or two and would like the plant ​to be running by around 2030.

He said currently Honda is not passing on the costs of tariffs to buyers in North America. The U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian products ​on Saturday, and Canada said it was retaliating effective September 8.

Last year, Hyundai Motor ​told the administration that uncertainty about USMCA was delaying its investment decisions.

"Early confirmation of USMCA's extension ‌would ⁠immediately unlock over $20 billion in new American investments," the automaker said in November. "Every month of ambiguity slows job creation, site selection and technology development."

Honda in May scrapped its long-term EV sales ​target, including its goal of having EVs make up a ​fifth of ⁠its new car sales in 2030. It now plans 15 new hybrids by 2030.

The Japanese automaker indefinitely suspended its Canada EV project, an $11 billion investment plan to produce ⁠EVs ​and batteries. It also cancelled three planned EVs for ​the U.S. market.

Last year, Honda said it was shifting production of its U.S.-bound five-door Civic hybrid model ​from Japan to Indiana.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/honda-says-it-may-not-build-new-plant-north-america-without-trade-deal-extension-2026-08-25/

🇺🇸⚔️🇷🇺 CIA Director Ratcliffe’s visit to the Kremlin was an ultimatum addressing recent drone incursions into NATO territory, aimed at deterring Russia from escalating attacks on Kiev following Ukrainian strikes on commercial supply chain warehouses, a senior US official has told Faytuks Network.

🔗 Faytuks Network

💰 🌍 ⛏️ Since 2012, gold production has risen at both ends of the Sahel, with Mali in the west also becoming a major sub-regional hub for gold exports - including both illicitly produced gold and legitimate exports. Resource-rich areas of Central and East Africa are also assuming an important role in the region’s gold economy and – much like the Sahel – are becoming well integrated into transnational smuggling networks. This changing geography of gold production means that major gold-mining areas increasingly overlap with unstable and conflict-affected regions.

The latest IISS Research report introduces a new matrix framework that benchmarks vulnerabilities and preparedness for tackling illicit gold mining and trafficking across ten countries in the Amazon basin, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

https://www.iiss.org/research-paper/2026/06/mapping-risk-and-resilience-in-the-global-illicit-gold-economy/

https://www.iiss.org/online-analysis/online-analysis/2026/07/beyond-blood-gold-understanding-the-spectrum-of-illicit-gold-conflict/

📎 IISS

🛢 Kpler identified 17 tankers carrying approximately 11.76 million barrels of liquids eastward through the Strait of Hormuz for the past week between August 19 and 25.

Recorded daily volumes were low across the week:

▪️ August 19: 4.71 million barrels
▪️ August 20: 2.58 million
▪️ August 21: 1.82 million
▪️ August 22: 1.59 million
▪️ August 23: 1.03 million
▪️ August 24: zero
▪️ August 25: 31,000 barrels

The crossing data remains provisional. Kpler notes that its figures can change as vessel-position data becomes available, meaning these identified transits should not be treated as the entirety of physical flows through Hormuz.

TankerTrackers meanwhile identified at least 20 ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday. The first 15 involved 25 million barrels of crude plus refined products from nearly every regional producer except Iran. Five more were later found, including one involving Iranian LPG.

🔗 DropSite

🇺🇦⚔️🇷🇺 Situational update on the Krasny Lyman direction:

The Ukrainian counterattacks north of Krasny Lyman are now entering their fourth month, as they come closer and closer to cutting off the Russian salient. Two pincers have been formed, which are both dangerously close to cutting the Russians off.

In the western part of the salient, Ukrainian assault groups have entrenched in the southern part of Shandrigolovo and are engaged in fierce battles for the main part of the village. Other forces have resumed assault operations from the north following earlier unsuccessful attacks, and are approaching the village from the north.

This has prompted the Russian command to initiate a partial withdrawal from their bridgehead west of the Nitrius River, with Ukrainian forces recapturing the now largely empty positions in and around Yarovaya, Alexandrovka, Karpovka, and Korovy Yar. This new, much more limited bridgehead will still apply pressure to Krasny Lyman from the north, and will be easier to withdraw from if they are unable to repel the Ukrainians from Shandrigolovo. Shortening the line of contact will allow Russia to re-allocate troops to more important parts of the sector, and help maintain the bulk of this crucial northern flank to Lyman.

Further east, Ukrainian forces continued their gradual advance south of Novoe, pushing south along the tactical heights and recapturing a series of important strongpoints situated along the high points, following several weeks of fierce and costly battles. Russia is now heavily bombing all of these lost positions with KABs to try prevent a further advance. From there, reinforcements are being sent in for deeper penetrations towards the northern outskirts of Kolodyez, as well as further east towards Ivanovka and the western bank of the Zherebets River.

If any further consolidation in this area is achieved by Ukraine, Russia will likely be forced to withdraw not only from their bridgehead west of the Nitrius River, but also from a large portion of the fields and tactical heights between the Nitrius and Zherebets Rivers, which they captured during a multi-stage offensive in 2025.

Furthermore, Ukrainian forces continued their counterattacks from the south, which have so far yielded them less success due to stronger Russian positions and constant Russian counterattacks. As a result of recent fighting, they were able to clear the rest of Stavky and nearby fields from earlier Russian infiltrations, reinforcing their thrust to the north into the forested gullies west of Kolodyez. These actions remain infiltrations for now, and a large grey-zone with intermingled and overlapping positions has formed in this area.

As of now, the closest point between Ukrainian pincers in the eastern part of this salient is around 6.2 km wide. The corridor between forward Ukrainian assault groups is just 2.6 km wide, however.

🔗 AMK Mapping

💵 The US will sacrifice the dollar to save the bond market.

It doesn't matter who is in power or how tough they act...

When push comes to shove, they will always choose to print to save the bond market.

Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan put it best:

"The US can pay any debt it has, because we can always print money to do that."

Greenspan = Powell = Warsh = the next Fed Chair

Just look at the poor fellow next to him as he slowly realizes...

We all don't own enough hard assets for what's coming.

🔗 Lukas Ekwueme (@ekwufinance)

🇺🇸🚜🌽 FT: US grain farmers face worst crisis in decades as Iran war sends costs spiralling

“This is the worst financial downturn in the sector since the 1980s,” said John Hansen, president of Nebraska Farmers Union.

A recent study by the American Farm Bureau Federation, an industry group, found that, without government assistance, farmers growing nine principal crops — including corn — will lose 31bn this year and 32bn in 2027.

Faith Parum, an economist with the AFBF, said losses for corn producers would stand at $131 per acre this year, rising to $167 in 2027. For soyabeans, the figure is $80 per acre in losses this year and $138 next year. She said 2027 would mark the sixth year of negative returns for most major row crops in the US.

🔗 https://unwall.app/www.ft.com/content/acb64e29-a3ce-4282-82b0-6b7b5dd4f63e

🇪🇺⛽️ Every day, a new 52-week high for European natural gas.

Europeans now pay 8.6 (!) times more for natural gas than Americans.

And the bidding war with Asia to fill storage sites for next winter has not even started yet.

🔗 Karel Mercx