Hegseth:

For 250 years, we've needed Americans who stood up and said, "Send me."

Who will fight the Redcoats? Who will go fight the communists? Who will go fight the Islamists? Who will fight?

There's always been Americans who said, "Send me."

JD Vance:

This election is a referendum on common sense versus crazy. Let's send the crazy packing and get them out of Washington, D.C.

The Pentagon is moving ahead with mandatory testosterone screening for male U.S. service members aged 30 and older after temporarily pausing the policy earlier this month.

Under new guidelines, testing will be included in periodic health assessments and annual evaluations, with standardized treatment pathways for testosterone deficiencies. Younger troops can request testing voluntarily.

María Corina Machado is preparing to return to Venezuela from exile in Panama and push for new presidential elections, despite resistance from some Trump officials who fear her return could destabilize the U.S.-backed interim government.

“I cannot lead the process from abroad,” Machado said. “The moment to return has arrived.”

She plans to travel across Venezuela, rebuild her movement and prepare for elections in which she intends to run.

Her return date remains uncertain, but Machado says she is prepared to enter Venezuela “by land, sea or air.”

Source: WSJ

Tonight, Saudi Arabia issued an early warning over potential danger in Riyadh amid increased attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.

Saudi Civil Defence later said the danger had passed in Riyadh and al-Kharj.

The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $2.68 billion sale of air defense equipment and support to Ukraine.

The package includes extended-range air defense systems, mobile launchers, counter-drone radars, spare parts, software and technical support.

Ukraine would finance the purchase through European contributions and previously appropriated U.S. Foreign Military Financing.

Google’s Gemini autonomously hacked three companies during a cybersecurity test in May, in the first known case of one of Google’s AI systems carrying out such attacks.

Gemini went beyond the intended test scope, using public information and guessed or exposed credentials to access protected systems.

Google said the model stopped in all three cases and the affected companies were notified.

Similar testing incidents have also been disclosed by Meta, Anthropic and OpenAI.

Source: Reuters

Iranian authorities announced the execution of Hossein Pedaran, convicted of espionage and accused of providing Mossad with classified information on military and missile sites in Isfahan.

Authorities said he shared details about military locations and missile sites, and that encrypted devices and hidden recording equipment were found at his home.

Iran said he re-established contact with Mossad via Telegram after the start of the 12-day war before his arrest.

Source: Tasnim

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi:

1.5mn Algerians were slaughtered by France in their War of Independence.

Less than 1/10 of them have been recorded by Paris, which refuses any apology for its colonial crimes.

A 2026 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey found that 35% of U.S. adults could not name all three branches of government — executive, legislative and judicial.

While 65% identified all three branches, others named only one or two or none.

Americans also struggled with First Amendment knowledge, with only 9% able to name all five protected rights and 24% unable to name any.

The survey included 1,034 U.S. adults from Aug. 6–9, with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Source: Axios

Lukashenko on Iran:

Iran. Why did the Americans have to fight against the successors of the Persians? They have never kneeled before anyone.

Don’t Americans know this history? They do. They say that back in the 1970s Iranians trashed the embassy of the United States of America.

So this is the response. Well then, if during World War II nearly 30 million people of ours died, should we once again rush to the West and tear apart Germans once again? No.

They have decided to start a war. But it was not the reason. Iran’s riches are. A battle is in progress now.

Lukashenko:

They say that I am the last dictator, the one before the last dictator in Europe. Dictator and dictator.

Well, Putin and I often make jokes about which one of us is the bigger dictator.

Lukashenko:

In 1939, without any wars, the Red Army "liberated" Western Belarus and Western Ukraine.

The Soviet troops reclaimed what belonged to Belarusians and to the huge country where we lived.

We reclaimed that. We did not capture Polish lands.

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey on China:

You can steal a blueprint and order a million copies and then be protected by their government.

American patents are nothing but Chinese instruction manuals.

They will take our designs, often build copies of them, sell them to the same people that we're trying to sell.

Lukashenko:

They tried to tear us away from Russia in 2020.

Had they succeeded, we would have faced the very same situation that is currently unfolding in Ukraine.

What happened in Ukraine, a rich, powerful, and strong country, would have happened to us as well.

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey:

Deterrence for Taiwan cannot depend on convincing party leadership that they are physically incapable of getting forces into Taiwan.

The real objective is to convince Beijing that getting here is not victory.

What looks like the end of an invasion plan from the outside is actually the beginning of a fight that could continue for years or even decades.

Taiwan's job is to force Beijing into exactly that calculation, into understanding that the cost of winning makes it impossible to win.

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey on China:

This is a war that may be winnable, but it is not worth winning.

The CCP has spent years practicing how to win without fighting because they are so afraid of what the cost would be.

The answer to their dilemma is to make sure there's no version of their plans militarily, economically, socially, culturally in which they can gain an easy victory.