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President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to scale back major joint military exercises with South Korea just days after North Korean missile tests, saying the drills were too hostile toward Kim Jong-un.

This comes as Ukraine says it has knocked out seven of Russia's ten biggest Wildberries warehouses in a month-long strike campaign, and as President Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it "gets in the way" of his own Iran talks.

More below ⤵️

Top 5 Stories

1️⃣ 🇺🇦🇷🇺 Ukraine hits seven of Russia's biggest Wildberries warehouses: A month-long Ukrainian drone campaign has knocked out seven of the ten largest logistics hubs belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, according to Kyiv's defence ministry and the Institute for the Study of War. Kyiv says the retailer supplies drone components and navigation equipment to the Russian military alongside consumer goods, and roughly 20 Wildberries facilities have now been struck since the campaign began in July.

2️⃣ 🇺🇸🇮🇷🇴🇲 Trump threatens to bomb Oman as US-Iran truce expires: US President Donald Trump threatened to "bomb the s*** out of" Oman, a US ally, if it "gets in the way" of Washington's own Iran talks, hours after Tehran said it was close to a deal with Muscat on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump also claimed a direct backchannel with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a claim the IRGC denied, and said he was "not in a hurry" to end the war as the 60-day US-Iran memorandum expired.

3️⃣ 🇷🇺 Russian anti-war politician jailed for 11 years: A court in Pskov sentenced Yabloko deputy leader Lev Shlosberg, 63, to 11 years and one month in a penal colony for "discrediting" Russia's armed forces and spreading "false information" about them. Shlosberg said the verdict's only task was to "punish" him for his "political, public and civil position," and his party, the only one to have opposed the invasion of Ukraine, is now barred from next month's election.

4️⃣ 🇮🇱🇺🇸🇵🇸 Netanyahu and Kushner meet for hours with no Gaza breakthrough: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told envoy Jared Kushner there can be no Israeli withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas fully disarms, an Israeli official said, with the three-hour meeting yielding no breakthrough beyond agreement on two working groups. Haaretz reported the US agreed Israel could keep striking Gaza, contradicting President Trump's earlier statement, as regional powers accused Israel of "obstructing" peace efforts.

5️⃣ 🇮🇱🇵🇸 Israeli settlers pitch tents for new West Bank outpost: Israeli settlers erected tents near Ramallah to establish new outposts in the Wadi Zeytun area and in Burqa, as a separate siege of three Palestinian families in the village of Qusra entered a second week. UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said Israel has "outsourced coercion to the settlers" to "advance ethnic cleansing," while Palestinian official Mustafa Barghouti said settlers were carrying out "an average of 30 attacks every day."

Major Story

🇺🇸🇰🇷🇰🇵 US-South Korea Alliance Gutted

US President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back major joint military exercises with South Korea, just days after North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles, saying the drills sent a "totally inappropriate and hostile" signal to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The order affects Ulchi Freedom Shield, an 11-day exercise involving about 18,000 South Korean troops rehearsing missile strikes, drone incursions and cyberattacks.

President Trump also tied the decision to South Korea's earlier refusal to join the US war against Iran, acknowledging the two issues were "somewhat unrelated" even as he punished Seoul over both.

Democratic senators called the move "inane" and "shortsighted," warning it undermines the 73-year-old alliance and, by freeing North Korean troops from deterrence duties, hands an indirect benefit to Russia's war effort in Ukraine.

Roughly 28,500 US troops remain stationed in South Korea under the alliance dating to the 1953 Mutual Defense Treaty, even as President Trump's own administration's threat assessment describes an "increasingly confident" North Korean regime.

Other News

1️⃣ 🇮🇶🇸🇾 New Syria-Iraq oil pipeline still years away, sources say: Iraq's plan to export oil through Syria to a Mediterranean port, bypassing Hormuz, will take about four years and cost at least $15 billion, sources told Reuters, since it needs entirely new infrastructure rather than rehabilitating the war-damaged Kirkuk-Banias line. The project, backed by a consortium including Chevron, is part of a US-touted strategy to cut reliance on Hormuz, though the timeline is roughly double what officials have suggested.

2️⃣ 🇨🇳🇷🇺 China launches first regular Arctic shipping route to bypass Hormuz: Chinese shipping company Sea Legend has launched a regular Arctic container service, cutting the China-to-UK journey to as little as 18 days compared with more than 40 days via the Suez Canal, as Beijing seeks routes bypassing the turmoil around Hormuz. Experts warn the route's environmental and political risks, including fuel spills, sanctioned "shadow fleet" tankers and reliance on Russian icebreakers, could offset any emissions savings.

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