USA - This thing is honestly pretty wild. MIT engineers built a robot inspired by the Atlantic puffin. The same wings let it fly through the air… then paddle and move through the water. Most drones are built for one environment. This one switches between both. The part that caught my attention is what happened during testing. The robot took off directly from Lake Geneva without catapults, boosters, or any outside help. It lifted itself out of the water using the same flapping wings. That has been one of the biggest challenges for hybrid drones. Water is dense. Air isn’t. Designing one set of wings that works well in both has been a huge engineering problem. Now imagine where this goes next. Ocean research is the obvious answer. Military surveillance is another. A drone that can disappear beneath the surface, then pop into the air and keep flying creates a very different kind of reconnaissance platform. That’s probably why defense companies are already paying attention. It may look like a robotic bird. But it feels more like the first step toward a whole new class of drones.

MIDDLE EAST - The US has launched its third round of strikes in a week on Iran after the regime said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz “⁠until further notice and until the end of US interference” in the region. US Central Command (Centcom) said it had begun a new wave of strikes hours after Iran’s navy “blatantly attacked” M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship travelling through the waterway. The attack caused a fire and “significant damage” to the vessel’s engine room, forcing the ship to halt in the waterway, Centcom said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) said the crew had abandoned ship and was currently in a lifeboat. Centcom had earlier claimed a civilian crew member was missing. Centcom wrote on X: “Iran was provided yet another opportunity to demonstrate adherence to the Memorandum of Understanding after being held accountable for earlier attacks on commercial vessels but has again failed. In response, the United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait.”

IRAN - A mafia system without a godfather doesn’t immediately collapse: it fractures into infighting as rival oligarchic clans, once kept in line by a single strongman, turn on one another in a struggle for power and resources. That is Iran today, in the aftermath of the war. Much of the media in the West wants you to believe the Islamic Republic has emerged “stronger” from the Iran War – but that conclusion is not correct.

UKRAINE - Analysts warn of Russian retaliation on Ukraine-linked ships after wave of drone attacks on tankers and bulkers targets bridges and accommodation blocks. Ukraine’s drone forces have struck 21 Russian-flagged vessels in the Sea of Azov in the space of 72 hours, according to Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi. The ships were all operating in the Sea of Azov and were struck as part of Ukraine’s attempts to choke off fuel supplies in Russian-occupied Crimea. One ferry was hit, along with one bulker and 19 tankers, the commander said. Even before the latest nine attacks were reported, Ambrey said the dozen attacks to 7July represented the highest number of vessels targeted within a 48-hour period since the war in Ukraine began. “Ambrey assesses a realistic possibility of reciprocal Russian action against Ukraine-linked shipping in the coming days," it added.

GERMANY - It seems that barely a week goes by in Europe without a demonstration of Russian aggression, be it a provocation in Poland or a land-grab in the Baltic. But for Jan Nolte, the defence policy chief for Alternative for Germany (AfD), prophecies of a looming war between Moscow and NATO are plain silly. “Russia has us on its radar when it comes to hybrid warfare, but I don’t see Russia attacking us, I consider that completely unrealistic,” Mr Nolte said in an interview with The Telegraph at the hard-Right party’s conference in Erfurt. “As to what the [German] government is saying about Russia attacking NATO in 2029 and basically starting a Third World War, I also consider that to be a clear exaggeration,” he added, batting aside similar warnings from British and Polish officials. Sympathy towards Russia is a major vote-winner for the AfD, which draws much of its support from the former communist East, where there is deep nostalgia for Russian rule.

GERMANY - The weapons will close an important strategic gap in European defence, but may take a while to materialise. Germany’s chancellor has announced a long-awaited deal to buy long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States. The weapons will plug an important hole in the European wall of deterrence against the Kremlin, providing a ground-launched system that can implicitly “punish” any invasion by hitting bases and other strategic targets deep inside Russian territory. It may be some time before the Tomahawks are delivered because the US is estimated to have used up more than 1,000 of the missiles in its strikes on Iran, depleting a pre-war inventory of about 3,100.

IRAN - Iran’s leaders have learnt a fundamental lesson from the war with the United States: the West runs on oil, and Iran sits astride the routes that carry it. That calculation now drives Tehran’s preparations as the ceasefire unravels into open conflict. The US struck 90 targets overnight, killing more than a dozen people. Iran launched retaliatory missiles and drones at American bases in Kuwait and Bahrain “in the first phase of punitive response against the American covenant-breakers”. “Any renewed aggression on the part of the enemy must be met with a response that directly targets the vital interests of the United States and its allies,” it said.

UK - The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is “not fit for purpose”, according to a report from an internal government review. This overused phrase begs an obvious question: what is its purpose? PIPs, introduced in 2013, are non-means tested payments to help those with disabilities with living costs. Total PIP claims in England and Wales now stand at four million, up from 3.6 million when Labour took power. Around £3 billion a year is paid to people with mental health problems such as ADHD, something that until relatively recently would not have qualified. More than 100,000 people with ADHD as their main condition now receive PIPs, an increase of 40 percent in such cases since 2024.

UK - While Britain considers a potential confrontation with Russia, it reportedly operates the smallest fleet in its history. The Royal Navy has been reduced to the worst state in British history, retired chief of the Naval Staff, Lord Alan West, has told the Sun. London now operates the smallest fleet ever, according to the outlet. A total of nine ships have been scrapped over the past two years under Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the UK is now operating a fleet that includes five operational frigates and no amphibious assault ships, the Sun reported on Friday. The government dropped plans for new Type 83 destroyers and Type 32 frigates, calling them “unaffordable,” it added. Last month, The Telegraph and Daily Mail also reported that the UK’s entire available fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines is stuck in port awaiting maintenance.

CHINA - China has abruptly banned helium exports, a key component in semiconductors, which adds yet another serious constraint to a global market already reeling from the loss of production in Qatar. In a two-sentence Friday announcement, China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs said helium covered by customs code 2804290010 was subject to a temporary prohibition on exports, effective immediately. The decision is more restrictive than an export-licensing requirement. It appears to prevent covered shipments to all foreign destinations, regardless of buyer or intended use. Nor does it carve out exceptions for hospitals, scientific laboratories, semiconductor manufacturers or humanitarian users. Helium is generally recovered as a byproduct of natural-gas processing. When a large gas complex stops operating, helium production cannot simply continue independently.