🏹 🇺🇸 💵 Cost rising for US as it fights off Houthi drones

⬛️ U.S. forces have launched roughly 800 missiles and seven rounds of air strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels that have controlled Yemen since November.

Strategery:

🔶️ “And day after day the drones keep coming, forcing the American military to burn through hundreds of multi-million dollar missiles on a mission with no end in sight.”

🔶️ “It’s a battle that has emerged as the United States’ most expansive and enduring military operation currently underway, a campaign that risks chewing through munitions the Pentagon would rather stockpile for a potential confrontation with China.”

🔶️ “It also in some ways contradicts Biden’s declaration last month, as he announced that he was ending his reelection campaign, that he is the first president of this century to “report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.”

🔶️ “the U.S. has parked aircraft carriers and missile defense destroyers in the Red Sea for months on end, spending time and money on a fight that costs Tehran little and pulls ships and assets from other missions in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere.”

🔶️ “The precision anti-ship and air-to-ground missiles that are being used in Yemen are the very type of weapons that would be front and center in any fight with China, “so China’s ultimately the big winner across the board,” Waltz said.”

🔶️ “Our fleet is getting worn out. We’re shooting off the missiles we need to defend against the Taiwan scenario.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/07/houthi-yemen-defense-iran-airstrikes-00173096

📎 Elbridge Colby

🧐 🇵🇸 🇮🇱 Sean Padraig McCarthy on X:

🔶️ "Hm the news that a leaked video shows Israeli soldiers gang raping Palestinian detainees isn’t on drudge. Maybe it’s in the New York post. Hm. Maybe it’s in the Washington post. Hm. Maybe it’s in the New York times. Hm. Maybe it’s in the economist. Hm. Maybe it’s in the LA time"

📎 SeanMcCarthyCom

🇵🇸 🇮🇱 🇮🇱 This Israeli soldier, who, alongside his unit, raped a Palestinian prisoner, was invited on Israeli Channel 14 to defend the assault live on TV.

⬛️ "Our army in the healthiest army, I'm here to protect our good name"

🔶️ The heinous assault was captured on CCTV at the Sde Teiman detention center and leaked, revealing the brutal conditions and systematic torture inflicted on Palestinian prisoners. Reports from the center have documented severe abuse, including rape, electric shocks, and starvation.

🔶️ The case has caused controversy in Israel, primarily because the focus has been on initiating an investigation and questioning the soldiers rather than addressing the rape itself.

🔶️ Hundreds of Israelis, including politicians and reserve soldiers, have even stormed a military base to protest the investigation and demand the release of the soldiers, effectively defending their actions. According to an Israeli TV poll, 47% of Israelis supported the rape of Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers.

📎 Quds News Network

🚀 🇨🇳 🛰 China's Effort to Launch Starlink Rival Accidentally Creates Orbital Debris Field

🔶️ A mishap from the Chinese rocket creates over 300 pieces of trackable debris, according to US Space Command. And the fragments might one day pose a danger to Starlink.

🔶️ A rocket carrying satellites for China’s version of Starlink accidentally broke apart in space, creating a debris field in Earth’s orbit.

🔶️ The rocket, Long March 6A, took off on Tuesday, carrying the first 18 satellites for China’s Qianfan “Thousand Sails” satellite constellation, which was previously known as G60. Although the satellites were successfully deployed, the rocket's upper stage appears to have split into numerous fragments, according to satellite tracking firms.

🔶️ On Thursday, US Space Command confirmed the “break-up” of the rocket, saying the incident has resulted in over “300 pieces of trackable debris in low-Earth orbit.”

https://www.pcmag.com/news/chinas-effort-to-launch-starlink-rival-accidentally-creates-orbital-debris

👮‍♂️ 🏴 🇦🇹 3rd person in custody over foiled plot targeting now-canceled Taylor Swift shows in Vienna

🔶️ Austrian authorities on Friday announced a third arrest in connection with the foiled conspiracy to attack three now-canceled Taylor Swift concerts, even as disappointed fans charmed Vienna by trading friendship bracelets and singing the pop star’s songs in the streets.

🔶️ The main suspect, a 19-year-old, planned to target onlookers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium — up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue — with knives or homemade explosives during the concert on Thursday or Friday. The suspect hoped to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said.

🔶️ He was taken into custody on Tuesday, along with a 17-year-old, officials said. Both are Austrian citizens.

🔶️ The third suspect, an 18-year-old Iraqi citizen, was arrested Thursday evening, the interior minister said at an unrelated news conference Friday.

🔶️ Swift is still set to travel to London’s Wembley stadium for five concerts between Aug. 15 and 20 to close the European leg of her record-setting Eras Tour.

https://apnews.com/article/austria-taylor-swift-concerts-canceled-extremism-arrests-feff9108d0a14d9941c4bc416c0eb05f

🇵🇰 🏴 🇦🇹 Authorities say the plot appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State group and al Qaeda.

🔶️ Authorities say the plot appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State group and al Qaeda. Investigators found bomb-making materials at one of the suspects’ homes. Officials say a suspect has confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue.”

🔶️ Concert organizers in Austria said they had expected up to 65,000 fans inside the stadium at each concert and as many as 30,000 onlookers outside, where authorities said the suspects planned to strike. The foiled attack was planned for Thursday or Friday, according to Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner.

🔶️ London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that while he understood Vienna’s reasons for canceling, “We’re going to carry on.” Khan said the capital’s authorities were prepared for shows there following lessons learned from a 2017 attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people.

🔶️ A suicide bomber had set up a knapsack with explosives in Manchester Arena. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving.

🔶️ Last month, an attacker in England killed three girls and wounded 10 people in a knife attack during a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class. Swift at the time said she was ‘’completely in shock” over the violence.

🔶️ Terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp, based at the Swedish Defense University in Stockholm, told The Associated Press by phone that any mass public event constitutes a potential threat now.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taylor-swift-eras-tour-vienna-concert-attack-isis-al-qaeda-arrests-rcna165916

🚷 🇸🇪 📉 According to the Migration Agency's forecast, Sweden looks set to receive the lowest number of asylum seekers since 1997, and for the first time in over 50 years, Sweden has net emigration.

https://www.regeringen.se/pressmeddelanden/2024/08/fler-utvandrar-an-invandrar-till-sverige-for-forsta-gangen-pa-over-50-ar/