Government forces have carried out dozens of attacks on Houthi positions across Yemen in the past 24 hours, the latest sign that a return to full-scale war in Yemen may be approaching. In the past day, government forces have carried out 81 attacks on Houthi positions that led to the "neutralisation" of a number of Houthi fighters and field commanders, government spokesperson Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili said Thursday. They "successfully" hit a target at Najran airport and an Aramco facility in the province, Saree said. There was no immediate confirmation of the attacks from Saudi Arabia. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which supports the Houthis, warned on Thursday that Saudi Arabia would be "unable to contain" the Houthis as the rebels ramp up attacks on the kingdom.

After the Houthi armed group in Yemen launched attacks on government military camps and gatherings last week using one-way attack drones, it killed and injured dozens of government soldiers. But the internationally recognised Yemeni government was quick to retaliate by employing remotely operated drones to attack Houthi fighters on the front lines. That development is significant in Yemen's decadelong conflict because it highlights the growing use of drones on the battlefield. Government military units have repeatedly broadcast video footage showing drones tracking their targets, dropping bombs, killing fighters, destroying armoured vehicles and damaging hideouts. "The government side is now acquiring a potentially important tactical capability of its own," said Marius Bales, a doctoral researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies.

Is the war entering a new phase? 'Like the movies': How Ukraine's ground robots are changing rules of war A ground robot carrying ammunition and resembling a real-life cousin of Wall-E, the 2008 Pixar cartoon's rusty protagonist, got stuck late one night in a trench in northeastern Ukraine. Named Murakha (ant in Ukrainian), the robot was a bit more than a metre high, but had a large clearance to trudge across rugged terrain, bombed-out streets, mud, sleet or snow on tank-like tracks at up to 12km (7.5 miles) per hour. Sending a human rescue team to the front-line area was deemed too dangerous, an officer in charge of planning robotic missions said. Instead, the pilots managed to get another Murakha to pull the first one out with a rope.

Is the war entering a new phase? Patriot missile interceptors are the most coveted Western-made weapon Ukraine needs - right now and every night when Russia attacks. Frequent Russian strikes depleted Ukraine's stock of the pricey United States-made interceptors - and US President Donald Trump has now offered hope, giving Kyiv a licence to make them. We'll show them how to do it, it's very complex actually. But it's - you'll figure out the complexity quickly," Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a NATO summit in Turkiye on Wednesday. "This way, you can't complain that we're not giving them enough." Trump has not specified when the production might start - and said that Washington would hold on to its own stash. Ukraine said it will attempt to master domestic production as soon as possible. In the short-term perspective, Ukraine "perhaps, gets nothing," according to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany's Bremen University.

Birds' nests of fiber-optic cables show war's impact on Ukraine Yana Hrynko, senior researcher of The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, shows a bird's nest made with fragments of optic fiber, which was found by a Ukrainian service member on the front line and then passed to the museum in Kyiv on June 23. Kyiv - Woven from fiber-optic cable and grass, a small bird's nest found near the front line of the war in Ukraine shows how the more than 4-year-old conflict is reshaping the natural environment, researchers say. Areas along the 1,200-kilometer front line are covered with ultrathin fiber-optic cables, which are used by Ukrainian and Russian troops to guide aerial attack drones to make them impervious to electronic jamming. The cables, which can stretch for 20 km, lie tangled in trees and scattered across fields and on the rooftops of towns in Ukraine's frontline regions, glistening in the sunlight like giant spider webs. Birds have begun repurposing the discarded cables to weave their nests, says Yana Hrynko, a senior researcher at Kyiv's War Museum, cautiously examining two delicate nests the armed forces sent to the museum from the front line. "Objects such as bird nests with fragments of optic fiber demonstrate the change in the nature of war," said Hrynko.

In Russia, the impact of Ukraine's missile and drone strikes on energy infrastructure from Moscow to the Black Sea and beyond has long been evident. Drivers in the Russia-annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea banned from filling their tanks so priority can be given to military vehicles. But such is the gravity of the situation it has now been explicitly acknowledged by President Vladimir Putin for the first time. Over the weekend, Russia's president discussed the crisis with senior officials and oil executives. And in public remarks, he was unusually frank. You're well aware that problems persist for both motorists and businesses, he told the meeting.

Ukrainian forces have carried out a missile attack deep inside Russia, hitting a major military plant overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. He said FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles struck the drone and missile plant in the city of Cheboksary, in the Chuvash Republic, more than 900km (560 miles) from the front line. Local officials said three people were injured in a missile attack on the city. Ukraine also said it had hit the Moscow-occupied port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, a Russian oil refinery in Samara and a shadow fleet oil tanker in the Black Sea. In recent months, Ukraine's military has intensified its drone strikes on key facilities across Russia.

Uncrewed ground vehicles have already been tested for defending the front line by the Ukrainian military. There's a received piece of wisdom among militaries around the world that whatever new technologies appear, in the end, foot soldiers are what matters. As British Army officer Field Marshal Archibald Wavell put it shortly after the second world war: "All battles and all wars are won in the end by the infantryman." This may now finally be changing. Robots in battle are about to reach a critical point for Ukraine. In May, it began the mass production of Legit, a low-cost robot capable of carrying a machine gun.

The Ukrainian military is stepping up its campaign to destroy vehicles supplying Russian forces along crucial roads in occupied Ukraine using new AI drone technology, experts say. BBC Verify has confirmed footage of at least 14 incidents published in the past week of vehicles carrying food, fuel and ammunition being targeted along critical routes connecting Russia to Crimea and other occupied territories in southern Ukraine. Ukraine is starting to regain more ground than it is losing for the first time since 2023, analysis from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) indicates. After more than four years of war and increased Russian occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine, neither side has gained any significant ground in recent months. Experts say recent drone technology advancements, including the AI-enabled Hornet system, have allowed Ukraine to attack Russian targets travelling to the front lines at greater distances and with increased accuracy.

This week, with air raid warnings wailing in the distance, Kyiv held a funeral for two sisters. They had already lost their father who had been fighting on the front line. Their grieving mother is now the family's sole survivor. This is the human cost of the largest sustained Russian aerial assault so far - with 1,500 drones and 56 missiles fired at Ukraine within 48 hours. But the loss of life could have been even higher.