🪖🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️ — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte:

Build up your armed forces. Make sure we make those investments and keep Ukraine strong.

We must keep our eyes on the objective: preparing ourselves for the possibility of a major Russian threat that could one day trigger Article 5.

🪖🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️ — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte:

The Russian threat is not necessarily manifesting itself directly on our borders right now, because so many of those soldiers are occupied in Ukraine.

But we know that once that is over, that enormous army will not exist simply for the sake of having an enormous army.

🪖🇺🇦⚡️ — Host: Is there something you and Zelensky are going to do together after the war ends?

NATO's Mark Rutte: We're going to get drunk on a Swiss mountain. We will sit on a Swiss mountaintop and get super drunk.

I told Zelensky, "Well, I'll take care of the red wine."

🇮🇷🇷🇺⚡️ — Iran and Russia are negotiating the delivery of advanced S-400 air defense systems, according to The Telegraph.

Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei delivered a personal letter from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to Vladimir Putin on Thursday, with Tehran optimistic about securing the systems it has sought for years.

Iran hopes to rebuild its air defenses following this year's U.S. and Israeli strikes.

Moscow may hesitate to deliver S-400 systems because of its own air defense requirements amid Ukrainian drone and missile attacks, as well as concerns about relations with Israel and other regional countries.

🇾🇪⚡️ — WSJ has published an article detailing the role of Ansarallah's Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center in transit through the Red Sea. Vessels usually do not need to contact the HOCC if they aren't affiliated with Israel, the United Kingdom, or the United States; but more vessels without links to these countries have been contacting the HOCC to ensure safe passage after the start of the Ansarallah-Saudi Arabia confrontation in July.

The only thing required is to send the HOCC an email, where they typically respond within 24 hours. Vessels usually state they have no connections to Israel, the United Kingdom, or the United States, and acknowledge Ansarallah's blockade against Saudi ports. Ansarallah usually requests AIS and VHF Channel 16 stay enabled to ensure they can monitor the vessel transiting.

🇮🇶🇮🇷⚡️ — Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein proposes a regional initiative establishing a committee of foreign ministers to visit Tehran and Washington to de-escalate tensions and reach peaceful understandings in a phone call with Iranian FM Araghchi, reports Tasnim.

🇮🇱🇮🇷⚡️ — The head of Iran's parliamentary National Security Committee dismissed reports quoting Israeli officials about Tehran planning to use chemical weapons, calling them false, in an interview with RIA Novosti.

🇸🇦❌🇾🇪 — Yemen's Ansarallah announces over the past 24 hours, Saudi forces conducted 67 airstrikes and surface-to-surface missile strikes against Ansarallah-controlled Ta'izz, Lahij, Sa'adah, Al-Jawf, and Ma'rib governorates, announcing dozens of casualties as a result of the strikes.

Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 and Typhoon fighter jets based in King Khalid AB and King Fahd AB conducted airstrikes, while surface-to-surface missiles were launched from Najran Province, southwestern KSA.

🇸🇾🇸🇦🇾🇪⚡️ — Syria has sent military advisers and trainers to Saudi Arabia amidst KSA's war with Ansarallah, two Syrian military sources and a senior U.S. official tell Reuters. A senior U.S. official says the Syrian teams arrived to train both Saudi forces and Yemeni PLC forces operating inside KSA.

A senior Syrian diplomat and a Saudi official denied the presence of Syrian units was related to Ansarallah, saying the Syrians were there to be trained by KSA.

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇮🇷⚡️ — President Trump via Truth Social:

Israel and, in fact, the entire Middle East, WOULD NOT EXIST TODAY if I did not stop Iran from having a Nuclear Weapon. Nobody wants to say that, but everybody knows it’s true!

🇮🇷⚡️ — Explosions in the Strait of Hormuz. An anti-ship cruise missile launch was conducted by Iran's IRGC Navy from Bandar Abbas, coastal southern Iran.

🇺🇸⚡️ — President Trump announces Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has lost her position and will be replaced with Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

🇺🇸⚡️ — U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth via X:

Patriots in control.

🇺🇸🇨🇦🇮🇷⚡️ — U.S. Department of the Treasury announces sanctions against eight Canada-registered financial and currency exchange businesses, adding them to the SDN list for alleged ties with Iran.

🇸🇦🇾🇪⚡️ — Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen announces intercepting a UAV operating above Riyadh Province, central KSA.