A Cool Million.

An unmanned hellscape.

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1. New flashpoints are emerging in the volatile South China Sea—bringing confrontations involving Beijing closer to the shores of a key U.S. ally in the region. In the dead of the night Monday, between the hours of 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. local time, at least three collisions occurred between coast guard ships belonging to China and the Philippines. The first tore a hole 3.6 feet in diameter on the starboard side of a Philippine coast guard vessel, the Philippines said. About 16 minutes later, a Chinese coast guard vessel rammed another Philippine coast guard ship twice, ripping a gap 2.5 feet long and 3 feet wide on the port side, according to the Philippines. Monday’s incidents marked an escalation in tensions that have run high over the past 18 months, at times threatening to spiral into conflict that could draw in the U.S., Manila’s treaty ally. They are especially noteworthy because they unfolded near Sabina Shoal, a location close to the Philippines that is fast becoming a new source of friction. (Source: wsj.com)

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2. It has become conventional wisdom among (sic) the halls of the United States government that China will launch a full-scale invasion of Taiwan within the next few years. And when that happens, the US military has a relatively straightforward response in mind: Unleash hell. Speaking to The Washington Post on the sidelines of the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ annual Shangri-La Dialogue in June, US Indo-Pacific Command chief Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo colorfully described the US military’s contingency plan for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan as flooding the narrow Taiwan Strait between the two countries with swarms of thousands upon thousands of drones, by land, sea, and air, to delay a Chinese attack enough for the US and its allies to muster additional military assets in the region. “I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities,” Paparo said, “so that I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.” (Sources: defensenews.com, wired.com, washingtonpost.com)

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3. The successes Kyiv has announced in its two-week-old incursion into Russia have not stopped the steady drive of Moscow’s forces into the eastern part of Ukraine, threatening a key logistical hub. Officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk say they are evacuating the population in case it falls to the Russian advance, which is now less than six miles from the city limits. If the city falls, it will be largest population center taken by the Russians since Bakhmut in May 2023. Russian forces “are moving toward the outskirts of Pokrovsk. We see — it is no secret,” Katerina Yanzhula, head of information policy in the Pokrovsk military administration, said by telephone, adding that the city’s fate was unclear. “Maybe the situation there will somehow change — we hope that the enemy will stop somewhere on the approaches to Pokrovsk, that our troops will repel them.” (Source: washingtonpost.com)

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4. The German government has come under attack from politicians across the political spectrum after it emerged that finance minister Christian Lindner has written to colleagues to veto new military aid for Ukraine. In a letter sent to the ministry of defense and foreign office on August 5, Lindner said that new applications for military support would be rejected by his ministry unless additional funds could be found — pointing to frozen Russian assets in Europe as one potential source. Existing aid programmes, which have already been funded, would remain in place, he said. The contents of the letter were first reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper on Sunday, which said Chancellor Olaf Scholz had asked his finance minister to issue the instruction. (Source: ft.com)