Wednesday, August 12, 2026 – Pakistani Interior Minister arrives in Tehran. Iranian National Security Head pares down Hormuz conditions. U.S. claims 9 million barrels of oil pass through Hormuz daily. Clashes reported in Iraqi Kurdistan. Former Mossad chief alleges spies repeatedly visited Fordow nuclear site. Ansarallah launches new attack on Al-Makha. Death toll from Ansarallah attack on vessel rises to six. U.S. strikes in Yemen killed 153 civilians, Pentagon says. Israel detains Palestinian journalist and Drop Site contributor Mohamed Awad. Conditions for Palestinian prisoners in Israel’s Ganot prison deteriorating rapidly. UN: Thousands in Gaza still await medical evacuation. Israel continues to ravage the occupied West Bank. Security Council holds West Bank meeting, official says area “at breaking point”. NCAG meets with UN. Israel continues attacks in Lebanon despite “ceasefire” framework. Lebanon becomes first Arab country to abolish death penalty. Lebanon passes first general amnesty law since 1991. Tuesday’s primary results. AP: ICE plans to give agents gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks. Paramount CEO threatens California exit. Hegseth’s Pentagon advisory board appointees have financial ties to Trump family-linked venture fund. Justice Samuel Alito made up to $2.9 million from fossil fuel holdings since 2005. Mayor Mamdani vs. Amazon. General Dynamics’s $533 million Texas artillery factory never produced a usable shell, investigation finds. Russia threatens to seize European vessels in retaliation for possible ship seizures. 15 killed and dozens missing after ferry capsizes in Zimbabwe. Ten Nigerian police officers killed in clash with bandits in Kebbi state. Colombia and Venezuela rebuild ties with Israel. North Korea launches ballistic missile ahead of U.S.–South Korean military drills. UNESCO says 2.4 million Afghan girls remain barred from secondary education.

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Iran

• Pakistani Interior Minister arrives in Tehran: Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, part of mediation efforts to halt the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to Al Jazeera.

  • A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said after the meeting that Pakistan was “working to bring” the U.S. and Iran “to the negotiating table.”

  • Pakistan, alongside Qatar, has been a principal mediator in the five-month conflict, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

• Iranian National Security Head pares down Hormuz conditions: Mohsen Rezaei, the newly appointed Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, laid out Tehran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, saying in a post on X that Iran would not reopen the Strait “until the U.S. ends the war and blockade, releases Iran’s frozen assets, and agrees to a region-wide ceasefire, including in Lebanon and Gaza.”

  • “Until all conditions are met, the strait will remain closed,” he reiterated.

  • The list is narrower than that presented by his predecessor, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, on August 8, which also included full compensation for war damages and sanctions relief, and which explicitly included Yemen and Iraq in its ceasefire call.

• U.S. claims 9 million barrels of oil pass through Hormuz daily: U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright claimed on Tuesday that military operations and cooperation with Gulf allies had pushed the seven-day average for oil leaving the Strait of Hormuz to nearly 9 million barrels per day.

  • In a post on X, he claimed more than 20 million barrels left the region on Sunday alone, exceeding prewar levels, without providing a source for his estimates.

  • Kpler estimated exports of 2.3 million barrels per day last week, and even with “dark transits,” experts still say that the true number falls far short of Wright’s Tuesday estimates.

  • Separately on Wednesday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projected that global oil supply would fall by 4.3 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 4%, this year, citing disruptions both in Hormuz and the Bab Al-Mandab Straits. The 4.3 million bpd supply drop is larger than the 3.7 million bpd reduction forecast in the IEA’s July report.

• Clashes reported in Iraqi Kurdistan: Iran fired several missiles and drones at locations in Iraq’s Erbil province on Wednesday, a Kurdish Peshmerga commander told Rudaw, targeting fighters from the Komala Party and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). No casualties were reported.

  • Al Jazeera reported that four drones hit Erbil, and cited a separate report from Reuters, which said that the attacks targeted Iranian Kurdish opposition camps in the region.

• IRGC adviser discusses war strategy with U.S. media: In a Tuesday interview with PBS, senior IRGC adviser Mohammad Reza Naqdi said Iran has thwarted Washington’s objectives, learned how to fight the U.S. military, and may prolong the war until the next American presidency to impose sustained costs and establish deterrence.

  • Naqdi told PBS that Washington failed to topple Iran’s leadership or break the country apart, leaving it to wage “a war without a strategy” and repeatedly announce new objectives.

  • “We have also seen how the American military is weaker than what we perceived,” he said.

  • The adviser said Iran has “no need” for a nuclear weapon, citing popular support for the country during the war.

  • When asked why Iran’s new supreme leader has not appeared publicly during the war, Naqdi claimed it was for security reasons.

• Iran to join BRICS’s New Development Bank: Iran will soon join the BRICS-backed New Development Bank (NDP), Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said Wednesday ahead of a BRICS finance meeting in India, according to Reuters. (BRICS is Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.) Hemmati said Tehran sees the bank as one of the most important outcomes of BRICS cooperation and is also seeking greater bilateral and trilateral monetary cooperation with member states, including conducting trade in national currencies.

  • Iran joined BRICS in 2024 and has since sought membership and a shareholding in the NDB, which was established in 2015 to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects.

• Former Mossad chief alleges spies repeatedly visited Fordow nuclear site: Yossi Cohen, who led Mossad from 2015 to 2021, claimed that Israeli spies “toured” Iran’s Fordow nuclear site “many times” to understand the facility, at a conference on Tuesday.

  • Cohen did not specify when the visits occurred or who carried them out, and offered no further evidence.

  • He added that the American bombing of Fordow was “the fulfillment of all my dreams,” a reference to U.S. strikes on Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan during the 12-day war Washington and Israel launched against Iran in June 2025.

Yemen

• Ansarallah launches new attack on Al-Makha: Ansarallah launched new ballistic missile attacks on the strategic port of Al-Makha (Mocha) near the Bab Al-Mandab Strait in southwestern Yemen, Saba TV reported on Wednesday.

  • The attack comes one day after the Saudi-backed Yemeni government said Ansarallah had launched 10 ballistic missiles and four drones at the city.

• Death toll from Ansarallah attack on vessel rises to six: The death toll from an attack by Ansarallah on a Yemeni commercial vessel in the Bab al-Mandab Strait on Tuesday has risen to six people, including three Pakistani nationals. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar condemned the attack in a post on X. “Pakistan strongly condemns the Houthi attack on a non-combatant commercial vessel. Such attacks endanger innocent lives, constitute a violation of international law, and pose a serious threat to freedom of navigation, maritime security, and the safety of commercial shipping in the Red Sea,” Dar wrote.

• U.S. strikes in Yemen killed 153 civilians, Pentagon says: The Pentagon admitted to Congress in a report on Wednesday that U.S. airstrikes killed 153 civilians and wounded 243 others in Yemen last year.

  • The deaths come from three April 2025 strikes: one that killed five, another that killed 80, and a third that killed 68. Human Rights Watch had said the second of these, a strike on the Ras Isa fuel port, should be investigated as a war crime.

  • The Yemen Data Project has recorded at least 238 civilians killed and 467 wounded in the campaign, which ran from March to May 2025 and was codenamed Operation Rough Rider, and the monitor Airwars put the toll around 258.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded in Gaza: Over the past 24 hours, two Palestinians were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. One body was also recovered from beneath the rubble.

  • The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,388 killed, with 174,259 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,259 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 4,148, while 808 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.

• Israel detains Palestinian journalist and Drop Site contributor Mohamed Awad: Israeli forces detained Palestinian journalist and Drop Site contributor Mohamed Awad, 38, from his home in Bitunia, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, early Wednesday morning. Two other Palestinians were arrested after raiding and searching their homes in the nearby city of Al-Bireh, according to Wafa.

  • Soldiers first raided an apartment in a different neighborhood that Awad’s family had moved out of months earlier, breaking down the door only to find it empty, Awda’s wife Eman Awad told Al-Araby.

  • They then went on foot to the family’s current home and pounded on the door until Awad opened it. He was blindfolded, handcuffed behind his back, and forced to walk down five flights of stairs before being taken away in a military jeep in a scene captured on video.

  • Awad’s reporting for Drop Site has covered escalating violence by Israeli settlers across the West Bank, including the burning of a mosque in Qusra, south of Nablus, and an attack in Masafer Yatta last week that wounded five Palestinians and burned four homes.

  • With his detention, the number of Palestinian journalists held in Israeli prisons has risen to 40, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

  • Israel has killed more than 260 journalists since it began its genocide in Gaza, two of whom died in Israeli prisons.

• Conditions for prisoners in Ganot deteriorating rapidly: Living and humanitarian conditions for Palestinians imprisoned in Ganot prison in southern Israel are deteriorating rapidly, the Palestinian government’s Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said in a Wednesday report.

  • Ministry officials who visited several prisons reported overcrowding, regular beatings, and insufficient supplies.

  • The report also noted a lack of access to basic hygiene routines and supplies. At Ganot, prisoners wear the same clothing for up to two weeks, go without access to washing machines for the same period, and are forced to share razors and nail clippers.

• UN: Thousands in Gaza still await medical evacuation: Thousands of patients in the Gaza Strip are still awaiting medical evacuation despite the ceasefire, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

  • The spokesperson noted the difficulties of evacuation in remarks to reporters and said they were conducted three or four times per week, as Israel continues to restrict movement through the Rafah crossing.

  • Around 15,000 Palestinians in Gaza require medical treatment abroad, according to the Strip’s Health Ministry.

• Israel continues to ravage the occupied West Bank:

  • Nablus: Israeli settlers continued to besiege the Qusra home of the Palestinian-American Abu Rida family for a fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, according to WAFA, circling the property and preventing entry or exit, blocking the road to the property with rocks, and attempting to enter the home. The settlers have attempted to seize the property for months, often with the backing of the Israeli military.

  • Hebron: Israeli authorities closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron on Wednesday, preventing worshippers from reaching it, while conducting raids in the area. Additionally on Wednesday, Israeli forces bulldozed a home in Hebron without notice or explanation. On Tuesday, settlers demolished a Palestinian house, leaving nine people homeless, and filled in a water well in the Bedouin community of Yatta.

  • Bethlehem: Israeli forces demolished a three-story residential building in the village of Ma’sara on Wednesday morning.

  • East Jerusalem: Israeli settlers continued to work on a settlement expansion project on pastoral land near the Ma’azi Jaba Bedouin community, north of East Jerusalem, on Wednesday, WAFA reported. Separately on Wednesday, Israeli forces demolished a home in Silwan, according to the Jerusalem governorate.

  • Tubas: Israeli settlers vandalized the main water supply line of the Ras al-Ahmar community in the Tubas governorate, cutting off water to 30 Palestinian families.

• Security Council holds West Bank meeting, official says area “at breaking point”: At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ramiz Alakbarov warned on Tuesday that the occupied West Bank was at a “breaking point,” with settler attacks across Areas A, B, and C increasing at a rapid clip.

  • Alakbarov told the Council that, as of August 10, Israel had killed 76 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 18 children. “The pattern is clear,” he said, “Palestinians are being forcibly displaced across the West Bank before settlers seize the vacated land.”

  • At the meeting, UNICEF also noted that Israel had killed 174 Palestinian children in the West Bank—or more than one per week—since January 2024. UNICEF also noted that at least 355 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank are currently being held in Israeli military detention, according to the Israeli Prison Service—the highest number in eight years.

• NCAG meets with UN: The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the sole Palestinian body operating under Trump’s “Board of Peace,” convened a joint meeting with UN agencies on Tuesday, hoping to align their strategies and to establish mechanisms for coordinating relief, recovery, and reconstruction.

Lebanon

• Israel continues attacks in Lebanon despite “ceasefire” framework:

  • Israeli forces bombed a four-story public school in the center of the village of Zawtar Al-Sharqiyah on Wednesday, according to the country’s National News Agency (NNA).

  • An Israeli drone struck a religious Ashura procession on the Kafra–al-Asi road in the Tyre (Sour) district, wounding several, the NNA reported.

  • Israeli forces conducted additional bombing operations in Haddatha and Beit Yahoun on Wednesday, the NNA reported, calling the second of these a “massive explosion.”

  • The Lebanese army said Israeli forces blew up the municipal building in Zawtar Al-Sharqiyah in Nabatieh, along with the town’s public school, health clinic, children’s nursery and several homes. It added that Israel is continuing its “destructive approach” in southern Lebanon, saying the attacks were hindering the army’s deployment and the return of residents.

• Lebanon becomes first Arab country to abolish death penalty: Lebanon’s parliament voted Tuesday to abolish the death penalty, making it the first Arab country to replace the sentence with life imprisonment with “aggravated” hard labor, AP reported. Lebanon had observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004, although courts continued to issue death sentences that were later suspended or commuted.

  • A majority of the 128-member parliament backed the measure, with Justice Minister Adel Nassar calling the vote a “historic step.”

• Lebanon passes first general amnesty law since 1991: Lebanon’s parliament passed a general amnesty law on Wednesday, alongside exceptional reductions to some sentences, in the country’s first such measure since the end of its civil war in 1990, Al Jazeera reported. The law is expected to benefit thousands of prisoners, detainees and wanted individuals and is aimed primarily at easing severe prison overcrowding, including cases of detainees held for years without trial.

  • Official figures put Lebanon’s prison population at 6,268 as of March 30, while the National Human Rights Commission reported prison overcrowding at 300% in 2025.

  • Critics, including victims’ families and civil society groups, have warned that the law risks granting impunity without addressing deeper failures in the justice system.

U.S. News

• Tuesday’s primary results:

  • Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly defeated chef and state legislator Francesca Hong in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary. Crowley re-entered the race in July, two weeks before the election, and received the backing of the state’s Democratic establishment, most notably outgoing Gov. Tony Evers. Crowley will face Trump-backed Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in the November general.

  • Progressive Peggy Flanagan defeated Rep. Angie Craig in the Minnesota Democratic Senate primary. With endorsements from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, Flanagan overcame Craig’s significant fundraising advantage. Flanagan noted Craig’s long ties to AIPAC and her support for the hardline “Laken Riley Act” ahead of Trump’s deadly crackdown in Minneapolis. She will face sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya, who won Tuesday’s Republican primary, in the general.

  • Progressive Matt Little defeated centrist Matthew Klein in the Democratic primacy race to replace Angie Craig in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District. Pro-Israel groups spent heavily in their unsuccessful attempt to defeat Little, boosting a third candidate, Kaela Berg (Drop Site’s full story on that effort is available here). Little is expected to win in the heavily blue Minneapolis-area district in November.

  • Sen. Darline Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman advanced to an August 25 Republican runoff in the special election to replace Graham’s late brother, Lindsey Graham, NBC News projected on Tuesday. The Trump-backed Graham led Norman by 8 points in the first round of voting, which saw 10 candidates competing for a maximum of two slots.

• Poll shows Democrat within striking distance for Kansas Senate: A new poll on the race for U.S. senate in Kansas paid for by the Democratic Senate super PAC has Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton—a megachurch pastor running against the Iran war and Trump’s tariffs—running only one point behind incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, 46% to 45%, with 9% of surveyed respondents undecided.

  • The poll also tested each candidate’s favorability ratings. Sen. Marshall found himself 9 points underwater, with 38% of those polled approving of his tenure and 47% disapproving, while Hamilton is running 6 points above water, with favorables of 29%, unfavorable of 23%, and 47% of respondents “unsure.”

  • Among Kansas voters polled, 57% said they voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, compared to just 41% who voted for Kamala Harris, demonstrating a sea change in public opinion leading to a Democratic Senate candidate positioned for potential victory just two years later.

• AP: ICE plans to give agents gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks: ICE officers and agents may soon be equipped with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks intended to “gain compliance from combative individuals,” according to the Associated Press.

  • Known as the the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, the devices are manufactured by the Lexington, Kentucky-based firm Compliant Technologies. ICE plans to spend up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” by March, according to a notice published Monday by Homeland Security.

  • “ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force. Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do,” Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the ACLU, told AP. “Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public.”

• Paramount CEO threatens California exit: Paramount CEO David Ellison told the company’s senior executive team on August 5 that the company will relocate out of California unless California Attorney General Rob Bonta agrees to settle the states’ antitrust lawsuit against the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Variety reported.

  • Bonta called the threat “an attempt to blackmail the state into letting an illegal deal through” in a post on X, adding that Paramount “has lost the plot as it continues to lose in court.”

  • Ellison cited cost pressures from a $7 million-per-day fee owed to WBD shareholders starting Oct. 1 as the reason for the potential move.

• Hegseth’s Pentagon advisory board appointees have financial ties to Trump family-linked venture fund: War Secretary Pete Hegseth appointed venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel protégé Blake Masters to the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board. Andreessen’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, invests in defense contractors including Anduril Industries, Hadrian, and SpaceX alongside 1789 Capital, a fund where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner. Masters serves on three boards related to 1789 Capital, as well. Read more from the Guardian.

  • Companies jointly backed by the two firms have drawn billions of dollars in federal contracts and loans since President Donald Trump’s second term began.

• Justice Samuel Alito made up to $2.9 million from fossil fuel holdings since 2005: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito gained between $390,000 and $2.9 million from oil and gas interests between 2005 and 2024, according to an analysis by judicial watchdog Court Accountability shared exclusively with the Guardian.

  • Most of the gains stemmed from a Grady County, Oklahoma property in which Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann, holds a mineral interest, along with an inherited ExxonMobil stock bequest.

  • The findings come as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments on October 5 in a case where Suncor Energy and Exxon are seeking to block subnational governments from suing fossil fuel producers over climate effects.

• NYC Council investigates marketing practices of prediction market platforms: The New York City Council is investigating marketing practices by prediction market platforms Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase, and Gemini Titan, the office of Council Speaker Julie Menin said Wednesday.

  • Menin’s letters to the four companies cited a Wall Street Journal investigation alleging Polymarket ran misleading campaigns making it appear content creators were winning with their own money—reporting that prompted a Commodity Futures Trading Commission probe.

  • New York state is separately litigating against Kalshi, Coinbase, and Gemini over allegations of running illegal gambling operations.

• Mayor Mamdani vs. Amazon: On Monday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed a bill to force Amazon to employ its delivery drivers, rather than use an army of subcontractors. Amazon’s lead lobbyist on the bill is Chuck Schumer‘s daughter, The American Prospect reported. She has worked at Amazon since 2020.

• General Dynamics’s $533 million Texas artillery factory never produced a usable shell, investigation finds: General Dynamics’ artillery shell factory in Mesquite, Texas cost American taxpayers $533 million and never produced a single usable 155 mm shell, according to a ProPublica investigation. The manufacturing process has featured blown deadlines, malfunctioning robots that repeatedly caught fire, and equipment failures.

  • The Pentagon has continued awarding the General Dynamics billions in new contracts, including $2.5 billion since the company stopped production on the artillery shell.

  • Read the full investigation from ProPublica here.

Other International News

• Russia threatens to seize European vessels in retaliation for possible ship seizures: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would respond “in kind” if European countries carry through their threat to seize Russian merchant ships suspected of circumventing sanctions, denouncing the proposed measures as “piracy and robbery.”

  • Putin warned that Russia could retaliate against European vessels wherever it considers necessary rather than limiting its response to the waters where Russian ships are detained.

• 15 killed and dozens missing after ferry capsizes in Zimbabwe: At least 15 people were killed and 27 remained missing after a ferry capsized in strong waves on Lake Kariba on Tuesday, according to Zimbabwe’s Civil Protection Unit.

  • At least 77 people were rescued, while police, military divers, speedboats and a helicopter continued searching the lake.

  • A survivor said the ferry departed in bad weather and appeared to lose engine power after being struck by a wave, while poor conditions delayed the rescue response.

• Ten Nigerian police officers killed in clash with bandits in Kebbi state: Ten Nigerian police officers were killed and two wounded on Monday in a clash with a gang of suspected bandits in northwestern Kebbi state, police said Tuesday.

  • A police spokesperson added that officers killed at least 17 of the attackers, and that reinforcements have since been deployed as security forces pursue fleeing suspects.

  • The clash is the latest in Nigeria’s northwest, where armed gangs frequently carry out killings, kidnappings for ransom, and cattle theft.

• Colombia and Venezuela rebuild ties with Israel: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar designated 2026 a “Year of Latin America,” a push to rebuild Israel’s influence in the region.

  • This week, Colombia became only the second country, after the U.S., to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981 in a move the UN Security Council declared void. The reversal came from Colombia’s new right-wing president Abelardo de la Espriella, backed by Trump, who is rapidly undoing the pro-Palestinian policies of leftist predecessor Gustavo Petro: restoring ties, planning a Jerusalem embassy, and quitting South Africa’s ICJ genocide case.

  • Venezuela, separately, agreed to a mechanism for consular services and technical cooperation with Israel, its first official link since Caracas cut ties in 2009, but stopped short of restoring full diplomatic relations. An Israeli aid team also staged a heavily photographed visit to Venezuela following the June earthquakes.

• North Korea launches ballistic missile ahead of U.S.–South Korean military drills: North Korea launched a ballistic missile from the Wonsan area toward the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, marking Pyongyang’s second weapons test in less than a week and its 11th suspected ballistic-missile launch of 2026.

  • South Korea’s military said the missile flew more than 700 kilometers before falling into the sea and that it had increased surveillance and was coordinating with Washington and Tokyo.

  • The launch came as the United States and South Korea prepare to begin their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises on August 17.

• UNESCO says 2.4 million Afghan girls remain barred from secondary education: UNESCO called on Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to restore education for women and girls “immediately and unconditionally,” saying approximately 2.4 million girls are being denied secondary schooling in 2026.

  • Afghanistan remains the only country where girls and women are formally prohibited from studying beyond primary school, reversing two decades of educational progress and placing them at greater risk of poverty, poor health and early marriage.

  • The Taliban government has not responded to the latest statement, but has previously said educational opportunities will be restored once unspecified “suitable conditions” are established.

• UN report finds that Myanmar military escalated attacks on civilians ahead of election: Myanmar’s military intensified aerial attacks before an election held between December 2025 and January 2026, deliberately striking homes, schools, medical facilities, religious buildings and displacement camps, according to the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.

  • Investigators also documented arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence and deaths inside military facilities while also examining alleged sexual violence by anti-junta forces.

  • The military-backed party won the election which was widely condemned for rigging, allowing former junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to become president.

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