🇸🇦🇦🇪⚡- The UAE's Mohamed bin Zayed penned a handwritten letter directly to Saudi's 90-year old King, Salman bin Abdulaziz, in an effort to amend ties between the two Arab Gulf nations.

However, notably, the letter completely bypassed the Kingdom's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The letter addressed directly to the King will not sit well with MbS, but the Emirate State hopes relations can be restored with Riyadh via Salman without making the concessions required on Yemen, Sudan, Syria, and Israel.

The letter was delivered to King Salman through UAE's embassy in Riyadh, and while MbS was abroad on a diplomatic visit to Paris.

🇺🇸🇪🇺🇷🇺⚡- The European Commission Office says they were not informed in advance of CIA Director John Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow.

🇺🇸🇩🇪🇷🇺⚡- U.S. intelligence reports the three drones with explosives found at Leipzig/Halle Airport, Germany, have devices used by Russia's GRU.

🇸🇩⚡- The Rapid Support Forces have launched a large-scale attack on the al-Kili height, the last defensive position before the town of Khandaru, Ad Damazin direction, Blue Nile region, southeast Sudan.

Earlier this morning, a Rapid Support Forces-operated Chinese/Turkish-made drone was downed in the area as well.

🇪🇹⚡- Very unusual: Air defenses activity reported in Bamadon, southwest Ethiopia.

🇷🇸⚡️- Ratko Mladić, the Butcher of the Balkans, has died in a prison hospital in The Hague at 84.

🇳🇵⚡️- The death toll from the floods in Tibet and Nepal reaches 362, with several thousands still missing.

🇨🇩🇷🇼🇧🇮⚡- A medical plane was shot down as it attempted to land in the Minembwe region, M23-allied Twirwaneho-controlled South Kivu region, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

All four on board were killed in the crash. Initial reports suggest the anti-aircraft missile was fired by the Kinshasa-funded Wazalendo or the Burundian military.

🇺🇸⚡️- The jury in the Lindsay Clancy case has begun deliberating whether Clancy is guilty of first-degree murder of her three children.

🇸🇴⚡- Ilhan Omar’s son’s apartment was raided by police, where officials seized firearms and ammunition from the apartment before arresting his roommate, Abdulrahman Abdi.

Abdi has been convicted more than ten times on various charges.

🇺🇸🇨🇦⚡️- "EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Lake Ontario is renamed to LAKE AMERICA!" - White House on X.

🇺🇸🇬🇧⚡️- Andrew Tate will testify in a U.S. court hearing today to push for his release from a Florida jail as he faces a possible extradition to the UK, according to his lawyer.

🇸🇾⚡- Explosions heard in Damascus, Syria.

🇸🇾🇮🇱⚡- BREAKING: Two Israeli airstrikes on Beit Jinn, Damascus countryside, Syria.

🇸🇾🇮🇱 - Update: New reports suggest Israeli artillery struck the heights around Beit Jinn, Damascus countryside, with two shells.

🇺🇸🇻🇪⚡️- The U.S. and Venezuela are in talks over a "massive" deal that would give the U.S. an ownership stake in Venezuela's oil fields, according to Axios.

The deal would reportedly allow the U.S. to tap into over a dozen Venezuelan oil fields, more than doubling current U.S. oil reserves.

🇺🇸🇬🇧⚡️- Andrew and Tristan Tate will remain in federal custody after a U.S. judge declined to rule immediately on whether they could be released.

The two brothers will stay in a Miami jail until the judge issues a ruling.

🇺🇸🇨🇩 - Several prominent journalists and media outlets in Kinshasa are blaming U.S.-backed mercenaries for the downing of the medical aircraft over the Minembwe region in M23-allied Twirwaneho-controlled South Kivu.

The shift in blame can be viewed as an indirect acknowledgement of DRC-aligned responsibility for the attack on the civilian aircraft which killed four.

Note, U.S., Israeli, Emirati, and Russian mercenary groups are known to be operating in eastern DRC against M23 and its allies.

🇻🇪⚡️- Venezuela is now considering plans to leave OPEC after decades in the oil cartel, though no final decision has been made, according to Bloomberg.

🇺🇸🇲🇽⚡️- The U.S. military struck three Mexican drug cartel drones using high-energy laser weapons near the border this week, according to Reuters.

🇳🇴⚡- The King of Norway, Harald V, has died at the age of 89. His son, Prince Haakon, will succeed him.