NEW: Saudi Crown Prince MbS met CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper in Jeddah today.

This comes days after MbS called Trump twice asking him to strike the Houthis (Trump said no) and after the Houthi capture of Mocha and Perim Island.

Cooper was already in Saudi Arabia last week for coordination meetings when the western coast collapsed.

Spanish NATO officer who tracked Russian subs and shadow fleet tankers at allied HQ in Northwood got kicked out after a Tinder relationship with a Soviet-born woman triggered security investigations.

She attended a Christmas party at the base, visited NATO's Portugal HQ, and they tried to re-enter Northwood after his pass was revoked.

She denies being a spy:

The last time I checked I wasn't.

But admits an FSB officer named Andrei questioned her over coffee in St. Petersburg about the whole thing.

She's suing the MoD for discrimination.

Source: Telegraph

Iran's FM Spox. Esmail Baghaei:

Ansar Allah (the Houthis) and Yemeni factions are completely independent actors and make all their decisions based on their national interests and legitimate rights.

Kremlin:

Russia is steadily improving its position in the "special military operation", and this trend will continue.

Wales’s First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth has warned UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham that Wales is a nation, “not a region in England,” and urged him to support further devolution.

Ap Iorwerth said Wales should gain control over policing and justice, arguing that Burnham had more policing powers as Greater Manchester mayor than he currently has as Wales’s leader.

Source: The Guardian

Reporter: Yesterday, the Polish railway operator reported a drone strike which almost hit an EU delegation's train.

Kremlin: If I understand correctly, we are talking about the territory of Ukraine.

Our military carries out its tasks throughout the territory of Ukraine, and continues to do so, and will continue to do so.

Germany will order a fourth new signals intelligence ship, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, with funding included in a budget draft heading to parliament.

The vessels, built by Rheinmetall, are designed to intercept and analyze signals at sea.

Germany is expected to receive the new class from 2029.

NEW: Ammonia leak reported at Jordan's Aqaba industrial port complex during maintenance.

11 people with respiratory symptoms, port evacuated as a precaution.

Officials say the release was small and quickly contained.

Anthropic’s AI Slowdown Push a 'Cold War' Tactic: China State Newspaper

China’s Global Times said Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to slow frontier AI development masks an effort to constrain China by keeping it out of global AI governance.

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Two UAE soldiers killed during a "training exercise" inside the country.

No details on what happened.

UAE Ministry of Defence identified them as Major Abdalla Shamis Almenhali and Candidate Saeed Abdalla Alshamsi.

Third training-related fatality incident this year after a June death and a March helicopter crash.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus:

Ukraine needs to be able to scale up its military industry. The innovations are impressive, but without scaling, they only get you so far.

We’ve spoken with intelligence officials who say Russia may be able to produce as many as 10 million drones.

Ukraine is somewhere around eight million.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus:

Every month, more Russian soldiers are now being killed or wounded than Russia is able to mobilize.

Still, Russia is a powerful adversary. Who would have thought that a country could absorb such enormous losses?

NEW: Plaid Cymru, the SNP and Sinn Féin have signed a memorandum pledging closer cooperation and arguing that Scotland, Wales and Ireland have the right to determine their own futures.

The parties say “Westminster’s time is coming to an end” and that constitutional change is gaining momentum.

They say the future of their nations belongs in the EU and insist that no Westminster government has the right to block self-determination.

Ukraine reportedly killed Lt. Gen. Sergei Milchakov — Hero of Russia, commander of the 51st Guards Combined Arms Army, the force that took Avdiivka and led the grinding push toward Pokrovsk.

Reports say he died August 27 in a missile strike on his command post in Donetsk.

Russia hasn't confirmed it.

WATCH: Russian drone pilots taping $2 magnetic compasses to their plywood Molniya UAVs to navigate when GPS/GLONASS gets jammed.

The camera tilts down to read the needle mid-flight.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus:

Putin is trying to restore the Soviet Union all the time. And I don’t think Lithuania will be next. Moldova is much more likely, because they are much weaker in this regard.

European countries are not ready. None of them has carried out the kind of revolutionary changes needed in their concepts of warfare, defense and security.