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Ukraine has struck Novorossiysk, the port that became Russia's main Black Sea naval base after its fleet was driven out of Crimea.

Meanwhile, Russian attacks on Ukraine's own ports have pushed the country towards an economic crisis, and just eight ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz.

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1️⃣ 🇺🇦🇷🇺 Russia's port attacks push Ukraine towards an economic crisis: Vessels are avoiding Ukrainian ports for fear of being hit, and Olena Bilan of Dragon Capital estimates the country could lose 1% to 1.5% of GDP by year-end, with agricultural exports down 23% in July and rail freight tariffs up 30% this month. Serhii Vovk of the Center for Transportation Strategies said the critical moment comes in mid-September, when the corn harvest begins and storage runs out.

2️⃣ 🇷🇺🇺🇦 Air defence destroyed near Putin's Black Sea palace: Major Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's unmanned systems forces, said the S-400 fired six missiles on Sunday night before it was left "ablaze and sputtering for three hours", and satellite imagery appeared to confirm at least one launcher destroyed. Military analyst Yan Matveyev told the Moscow Times that "now Putin's palace is left unprotected", referring to the complex exposed by Alexei Navalny's foundation.

3️⃣ 🇮🇷🇺🇸 Eight ships cross Hormuz as Trump claims total control: Reuters reported that just eight ships transited on Tuesday, against a pre-war rate of 130 to 140 and a recent ten-day average of about 12, while President Trump wrote that "the U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz". Dennis Citrinowicz of the Institute for National Security Studies countered that "the United States does not control the Strait of Hormuz" and that Iran retains the ability to disrupt traffic.

4️⃣ 🇮🇱🇵🇸 Settlers besiege two Palestinian families in the West Bank: Security camera footage shows settlers tearing down a wall outside the Abu Ridi family's home on Sunday and using the stones to block the road, leaving seven people including two young girls unable to leave. The Israeli military later condemned the outpost as "illegal, reprehensible, and unacceptable", and a UN official said the West Bank was "at breaking point".

5️⃣ 🇺🇸 Rights groups sue Washington over its ICC sanctions: The American Friends Service Committee, Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and Open Society Institute say the executive order signed in February 2025 amounts to a "blatantly illegal attack on international justice", and that it criminalises their work with the court. Katherine Gallagher of the Center for Constitutional Rights said she has stopped actively practising before the ICC for fear of prosecution or fines.

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Major Story

🇺🇦🇷🇺 Ukraine strikes Russia's last Black Sea sanctuary:

Ukraine has struck Novorossiysk, Russia's main operational hub on the Black Sea and its last major naval base in the region after sustained attacks forced much of the fleet out of Crimea.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a "unique operation" and said Ukraine used Palianytsia jet-powered drones, Neptune missiles and unmanned naval systems against air-defence positions, piers and port infrastructure.

"The occupation fleet and all the infrastructure supporting it will not be safe as long as Russian aggression continues," he said, posting video that appeared to show Russian air-defence activity over the city overnight.

The base lies more than 300km from the front line, and the strike suggests Moscow's decision to move much of its fleet east from Sevastopol since 2023 has not put it beyond Ukraine's reach.

Russian authorities did not give a full account of any military damage, though local reports described explosions and air-defence activity in the area, and Novorossiysk is also a major export terminal for Russian crude.

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Other News

1️⃣ 🇪🇺 Europe's heat could cost the EU €180bn this year: Research by Triodos Bank puts the damage at about 1% of GDP against expected EU growth of roughly 1.1%, with losses to crops, power generation and transport, and the largest and hardest to measure effect on labour productivity. France is worst affected, losing an estimated 1.4 percentage points and tipping into a contraction of about 0.6%.

2️⃣ 🇫🇷 Drought and jellyfish knock out a fifth of French nuclear power: AFP calculations based on EDF data found 20.4% of capacity unavailable on Wednesday, with 13 of 57 reactors affected, eight shut down entirely and five running at reduced power. Most of the loss came at Gravelines, where a jellyfish swarm clogged cooling pumps, though an energy analyst quoted by CNews said there is enough leeway that it poses no supply problem in the short term.

3️⃣ 🇺🇸 Karoline Leavitt to leave the White House podium: Trump called Leavitt, 28, one of his "most trusted aides" and said she would become one of his top outside advisers, while she wrote that she could not be the mother her two young children deserve while doing the job. She is the second longest-serving press secretary across Trump's two administrations, after Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and it is not yet clear who will replace her.

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