Kiev has conducted a “massive” drone attack on multiple targets across Lipetsk Region | Multiple Ukrainian drones attacked the city of Lipetsk in western Russia overnight, leaving nine people injured, Governor Igor Artamonov said early on Friday. ● One of the unmanned aerial vehicles was shot by the ground defenses but struck an energy infrastructure facility, leading to the detonation of explosives, the official said, adding that the blast occurred away from civilian buildings. ● A fire also broke out at an airfield outside Lipetsk, local emergency officials said. A local electrical substation was also damaged in the barrage. A total of 75 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight over Russian territory, most of them in the Belgorod and Lipetsk regions, according to the Defence Ministry.

■ IN BRIEF: What we know about overnight Ukrainian drone attack on Lipetsk Region (TASS)
■ Situation in Kursk Region remains complicated — acting governor (TASS)
■ Political and Legal Consequence of What Happened [in Kursk] (08/08/24)

[Text above:] The Union of Armenians of Russia has collected and distributed a thousand packages of humanitarian aid to the evacuated residents of Kursk region.

A high-level government commission has made the decision due to the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk Region | A federal emergency has been declared in Russia’s Kursk Region amid a cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has said. ● Kiev’s troops launched their largest attack on Russian territory since the start of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in Kursk Region’s Sudzha district on Tuesday. The Russian military said on Wednesday that the advance of the invading force had been halted but that Ukrainians remained in some areas in the district. [...] The decision to impose “a federal level of response” in the region was made during an extraordinary meeting of a government commission in charge of dealing with emergency situations and of ensuring fire safety, the statement read. ● The ‘federal emergency’ level will allow those who had their relatives killed, were wounded themselves or had their property damaged as a result of the Ukrainian incursion to receive compensation from the Russian state, it also pointed out.

■ Build-Up of Russia's Forces Fighting in Kursk Region Underway (Sputnik News)

The New York Times, as cited by The Times of Israel on August 5, reported that Iranian officials claim Russia has started delivering advanced air defense and radar systems to Iran following Tehran’s request to the Kremlin. | Local Iranian media have corroborated Tehran’s request, and two officials, including a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, have confirmed to The Times that these deliveries are underway. According to these Iranian sources, the equipment in question is likely the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, crafted by the Almaz-Antey concern. However, it should be noted that BulgarianMilitary.com has not independently verified that it is indeed the S-400 being supplied to Tehran by Moscow. ● The Times article did not specify the exact equipment requested by Iran or what has been delivered so far. Iran does already possess Russian S-300 air defense systems, although Russia has since developed the more advanced S-400 system.

Exiled Catalan politician Carles Puigdemont has managed to evade authorities | Carles Puigdemont has returned after seven years in self-imposed exile to crash the vote for the new president of Spain’s Catalonia region, even as police in Barcelona tightened security to find him. ● Puigdemont was president of Catalonia in 2017 when he unilaterally declared independence. The Spanish government responded by sacking him and ordering his arrest, so he fled to Belgium. ● The Catalan parliament convened on Thursday to approve the election of Socialist Party candidate Salvador Illa, after months of negotiations with the separatist ERC party. The vote was upstaged by Puigdemont, who appeared outside the parliament before the session began and gave a five-minute televised speech. [...] His stunt outside the parliament apparently surprised both police and the media, who were under the impression he would try to enter the building. Police had blocked all but one entrance to the Parc de la Ciutadella, where the parliament is located, and checked everyone’s credentials before they could enter.

Authorities in the UK are now arresting people for posting “inaccurate information” on social media, according to a new report. | Sky News reports that a woman has been arrested by Cheshire Police for posting “inaccurate information on social media” about the attacker who stabbed three girls to death in Southport last week. ● The 55-year-old woman was arrested near the northern town of Chester on “suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred and false communications.” ● Chief Superintendent Allison Ross gave a statement explaining how the post is alleged to have “fueled” the protests and riots in the UK over the last week, which she asserts started as a result of “malicious and inaccurate communications online.”

Nagasaki local government keeps away Israel from the event to commemorate nuclear bombing of Japan by America during World War 2. | Nagasaki has observed "moment of silence" in a ceremony marking the 1945 atomic bombing of the Japanese city by United States in 1945, but the event was skipped by many Western countries because Nagasaki's mayor declined to invite Israel amid its genocidal war on Gaza. During the World War 2, an atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more.

Jonathan Cook | There should be nothing surprising about the revelation that troops at Sde Teiman, a detention camp set up by Israel in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, are routinely using rape as a weapon of torture against Palestinian inmates. | Last week, nine soldiers from a prison unit, Force 100, were arrested for gang-raping a Palestinian inmate with a sharp object. He had to be hospitalised with his injuries. ■ At least 53 prisoners are known to have died in Israeli detention, presumed in most cases to be either through torture or following the denial of access to medical care. No investigations have been carried out by Israel and no arrests have been made. ■ Why should it be of any surprise that Israel’s self-proclaimed “most moral army in the world” uses torture and rape against Palestinians? It would be truly surprising if this was not happening. After all, this is the same military that for 10 months has used starvation as a weapon of war against the 2.3 million people of Gaza, half of them children.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says the European Union stands in "complete solidarity" with Norway. | EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Thursday condemned "Israel's" decision to revoke the diplomatic status of Norway's envoys to the Palestinian Authority, calling it "unwarranted". ● Yesterday, Israeli occupation Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that he had ordered the "termination of any representation on behalf of the Norwegian Embassy in Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority."

💬 "I strongly condemn this unwarranted decision, which contradicts the spirit of Oslo Accords and disproportionately disrupts the normal relations and cooperation with the Palestinian Authority," Borrell stated. He emphasized that "Norway has played a major role on the Middle East Peace Process and in support of the Palestinian population."

It is noteworthy that Norway was the key facilitator of the negotiations that culminated in the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. Borrell further confirmed that he had a telephone conversation with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide following "Israel's" decision and assured that the European Union stands in "complete solidarity" with Norway.

■ Israel Cancels Accreditation of Norwegian Diplomats to Palestinian Areas (Asharq Al-Awsat)
■ Israel’s Western Allies Slam Israeli Minister’s Remark That Gaza Starvation May Be Justified (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The former USMC intelligence officer's home was raided Wednesday over allegations he had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires anyone who acts on behalf of a foreign nation to register as such to the US government. However, individuals accused of such a violation are typically notified by letter, not a raid. | The recent raid carried out on the New York home of former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter was another chapter in the US government's harassment campaign against him and his family, he told Sputnik. ● "It's a fishing expedition. It's harassment," Ritter told Radio Sputnik's Critical Hour on Thursday, noting that the US government's end goal is to discredit him in the eyes of the public as he continually works to shed light on US policy. ● Within the more than two dozen boxes that were carried out of Ritter's home were documents that substantiated his findings that Iraq never had weapons of mass destruction, a key claim that encouraged the US to undertake its invasion of the Middle Eastern nation in 2003.

■ TXT (08/08/24)