The Defense Post

The UN’s nuclear watchdog called for restraint on Sunday after Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the US had attacked an under-construction nuclear power plant in the country’s southwest. The US and Iran have been trading escalating attacks for days, and Washington carried out fresh airstrikes on Sunday to “punish” Iran for the deaths of two US service members in Jordan on Friday — its first reported losses since the return to open hostilities in the Middle East war.

The US Air Force has begun shaping the future of its uncrewed aerial fleet, establishing requirements for a next-generation aircraft that could eventually succeed the MQ-9 Reaper. At the heart of the effort is an open-systems architecture, with modularity built into the aircraft from the outset rather than added later.

It doesn’t announce its arrival. It doesn’t rely on speed to survive. Instead, it slips through defended airspace with minimal signature, designed to strike the most protected targets on Earth. With the B-2 Spirit, stealth became the foundation of strategic reach, allowing missions once requiring entire strike packages to be carried out by a single penetrating aircraft. Here’s how the B-2 came to define strategic bombing in the stealth era, and why it still matters today.

Kuwait said on Saturday that Iran struck a power and water plant as well as an oil facility, accusing it of targeting civilian infrastructure as the Middle East war escalates. It followed a seventh night of strikes by the United States on Iranian targets, which prompted attacks by Tehran on US-allied countries in the Gulf.

North Korea’s top diplomat has flown to Moscow for talks with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, state media reported Sunday. Choe Son Hui and her party departed Pyongyang for Russia aboard “her personal plane” on July 18, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. Russia’s foreign ministry had earlier announced the visit by the envoy for its ally and staunch supporter of the war on Ukraine.

Hezbollah held a mass funeral for dozens of people, most of them fighters killed in the most recent fighting with Israel, in southern Lebanon’s Majdal Selm on Saturday. The Iran-backed Shia group, which drew Lebanon into the Middle East war by attacking Israel on March 2, does not reveal the number of fighters it has lost. But it has organized several funerals during the current lull in fighting, which followed the June 17 signing of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding.

The United States announced Saturday it was launching new airstrikes to punish Iran for attacks against US forces in Jordan after its first military deaths since renewing its hostilities with Tehran.

Jordan’s army said on Saturday it had shot down 10 Iranian missiles with no casualties or damage, as Tehran retaliated against American strikes by pressing attacks on US allies. “Air defense systems… intercepted 10 Iranian missiles that had entered Jordanian airspace and were targeting the Kingdom’s territory, which were intercepted and shot down,” the army said in a statement, adding that there were no casualties or material damage. Tags ballistic missile Iran Jordan

The Leclerc was built to be one of the most advanced main battle tanks of its generation, combining digital systems, mobility, and firepower in a package that set it apart from many of its contemporaries. Yet despite its technological sophistication, the tank has spent much of its service life facing questions about its high cost, limited fleet size, and relatively modest operational record.

Gaza’s civil defense agency and a hospital said an Israeli airstrike on Friday killed eight people near a market, while the military reported it had struck a “terrorist cell.” A ceasefire remains in place between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, but it has not halted violence in Gaza, and efforts to secure a lasting agreement to end the war have stalled.