August 8 PM: Houthis hit Saudi Arabia in deadliest attack in years; Typhoon Dolphin tracks toward China
Houthis kill 58 Yemeni troops and wound 11 civilians in Saudi Arabia on the day Riyadh signed a new defence pact
Yemen's Houthi movement killed at least 58 Yemeni government troops in missile and drone attacks on August 6 and wounded 11 civilians in Saudi Arabia, in what SCMP called one of the deadliest Houthi escalations since a truce with the Saudi-backed government. The dual-track attack struck both Saudi territory and Yemeni government positions at Marib simultaneously. Al Jazeera said Saudi Arabia had been bracing for attacks and that tensions had risen sharply since the US-Israel war on Iran began. Tehran Times published video of burning Saudi-aligned armored vehicles and framed the assault as Yemen "flipping the battlefield" on Riyadh, the clearest Iranian-state read of the escalation. The attacks landed on the same day Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed the Makkah joint defence pact with a mutual-defence clause. Whether Riyadh invokes the pact to pressure Iran on Houthi conduct, or keeps the Houthi and Iranian tracks separate, is the immediate question.
Typhoon Dolphin re-intensifies toward China's east coast; Assam flooding kills 98
Typhoon Dolphin injured five people and cut power to nearly 17,000 households in Okinawa on August 7 before re-intensifying over the East China Sea; China has shut coastal ports, Beijing issued heavy rainfall warnings across six districts, and a 50mm/hour flood-and-mudslide threshold was triggered. China's east coast is the confirmed landfall target for Sunday-Monday. The storm hits a region already under extreme weather stress: India's Assam monsoon flooding has killed 98 people and displaced 1.68 lakh across 15 districts by August 8, up from 87 dead in 7 districts four days earlier; Chief Minister Sarma announced a relief package. South Korea separately recorded its highest-ever temperature on August 2, 42.5°C in Yangsan. Three concurrent extreme weather events are active across East and South Asia this week.
DRC bans copper and cobalt exports; Europe gas storage at a 15-year low
The DRC government reinstated a ban on copper concentrate and cobalt concentrate exports on August 6, sending copper to an all-time price record and compounding a separately reported sulfuric acid supply collapse at smelters. The DRC holds approximately 70% of global cobalt reserves; CMOC, the world's largest cobalt producer, operates primarily there. European underground gas storage was 57.87% full in early August 2026, the lowest since 2011, at a three-year-low injection rate; August and September are the last months before the heating season begins. The US Trump administration announced US$3 billion in government investment across domestic and allied critical minerals projects on August 7, explicitly linking the spending to rebuilding weapons stockpiles depleted during the US-Israel war on Iran and reducing dependence on Chinese processing. The DRC ban, China's active rare earth export restrictions, and the US$3B announcement converge on the same question: how much processing capacity outside Chinese and DRC control can come online before the next supply shock.
Zelensky visits Belgrade as Ukraine's July ballistic missile interception rate stands at 15%
Ukraine's Zelensky arrived in Belgrade on August 8 for his first official visit to Serbia since the 2022 invasion, meeting Vucic to discuss EU accession, energy, and the path to peace. TASS called the visit harmful to Belgrade-Moscow relations, confirming Moscow's reading of the symbolic stakes. The visit follows Russia's August 4-5 strike on Kyiv, which killed 17 and wounded 44; Ukraine intercepted none of the ballistic missiles. Across all of July, Ukraine intercepted 29 of 195 Russian ballistic missiles, a 15% rate; the August 5 zero-interception outcome extends that trajectory. The Patriot-compatible interceptor shortfall has gone unresolved across two consecutive barrages.
Trump signs birthright citizenship orders despite an earlier US Supreme Court ruling
US President Trump signed two executive orders on August 6, one restricting birthright citizenship and one targeting "birth tourism," despite a prior US Supreme Court ruling adjudicating a Trump challenge to the 14th Amendment's birthright clause. SCOTUSblog confirmed both orders and said they are likely to generate fresh federal litigation. The 14th Amendment's birthright clause has been settled constitutional law since United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898. Whether federal courts issue emergency injunctions and whether the administration is advancing a new constitutional theory are the immediate questions. The Rhine remains at record lows; Germany's transport minister is weighing a Sunday truck-ban waiver as chemical producers warn of production cutbacks.
