The American air war on Iran took on a heavier profile: a B-1B Lancer flying out of RAF Fairford in Britain bombed Revolutionary Guard targets Tuesday night, the first US bomber sortie against Iran since April, as CENTCOM strikes spread across Hormozgan, Bushehr and Khuzestan and reached Kangavar in western Kermanshah province. Iranian officials reported at least two dead at the Shalamcheh border crossing into Iraq and explosions at the port of Jask. Crude priced the widening campaign, WTI up 4.6 percent to 90.82 and Brent up 3.2 percent to 93.10. SENTINEL's logistics board matches the escalation: 20 Europe to MENA airlift movements behind 15 C-17s, a six-ship KC-135 shuttle from MENA into the Gulf, and Lincoln and Bush still paired in the Arabian Sea.
Ukraine reached 700 kilometers into Russia overnight, setting the NS-Oil refinery and a colocated fuel depot ablaze at Novospasskoye in Ulyanovsk region as explosions were also reported around Voronezh; Russian drones burned two gas stations in Sumy within an hour, and Moscow's forces logged 979 strikes on 54 settlements across Zaporizhzhia region in a day, killing three. The UN counted 1,396 Ukrainian civilian dead in the first half of 2026, up 37 percent on last year, a ledger that now lands on commander-in-chief Mykhailo Drapatyi's desk in his first days in the job. The thermal layer adds one echo of the deep-strike campaign: a 65 megawatt signature at the Nevinnomysskaya GRES power plant in Stavropol region, a day after Ukrainian drones set a Wildberries logistics hub ablaze in the same city.
The RSF's drone campaign against el-Obeid grinds on ahead of an expected ground assault, with roughly half a million people trapped and UN monitors attributing at least 45 civilian deaths to 15 strikes on the city and its surroundings. Tropical Storm Bertha came ashore in St. Bernard Parish east of New Orleans and is pushing toward the Texas coast with 45 mph winds and a broad flash-flood threat, Tropical Cyclone 11W carries a GDACS orange alert on approach to China, and flash floods in Afghanistan have killed at least 26 people as aid agencies race to reach survivors.