The bigger picture: links, hypotheses, evidence.
Germany's police will train in Ukraine against Russian hybrid warfare — tactics like sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation used without declaring war outright.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in New Delhi under heavy security for a summit of the BRICS group of major emerging economies, running Saturday to Sunday.
This week four countries made public claims about military deterrence without fully backing them up.
India leads the 11-country BRICS group this year and is hosting its summit, while Pakistan and Bangladesh are trying to join.
This week Finland finished a 200-kilometre border fence, Latvia's ban on Russian and Belarusian books and goods took effect, and Germany and Russia expelled diplomats after a drone was found near a plane at a German airport.
In one week, Germany announced anti-drone units for nine cities after drone incidents including one over Leipzig, Poland asked EU countries to expel up to 40 percent of Russian diplomats, and the German city of Bonn closed a Russian consulate accused of being a spy center.
A month-old, limited conflict between the US and Iran spread this week to Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, pushing oil above $90 a barrel and rattling bond markets worldwide.
Four defense stories broke this week: a U.S.
A new report says European countries are quietly starting to build their own intelligence-gathering instead of depending on the United States, warning Washington could end up shut out of the very spy-sharing networks it built.
In one week, Estonia's defence minister quit over a scandal in buying ammunition for Ukraine, Denmark's authorities said Russia is recruiting local people to sabotage its weapons industry, and Germany split politically over how to handle Russia after an attack at Leipzig airport.
In August 2026, Chinese and Russian navies ran joint military drills in the Pacific, showing how closely they cooperate without a formal defense pact obligating either to fight for the other.
Pro-Russian hackers launched Norway's largest-ever cyberattack on government websites, saying it was punishment for Oslo's $9.2 billion aid pledge to Ukraine.