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North Korea has denounced major United States-South Korea military drills set to start next week as a provocation that heightens tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The US-Japan-South Korea military cooperation is turning into a nuclear alliance, and North Korea will respond to a new level of threat with a new level of deterrent, a spokesperson for North Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Friday, according to Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The drills - named "Ulchi Freedom Shield" - are due to start on August 17 and will last until August 27. They will incorporate exercises to counter drones, GPS disruption, and cyberattacks as the US and its allies adapt to North Korea's evolving capabilities. "The US announced that the forthcoming exercises are quite different from the ones of the past five years and intended to master the ability of fighting a war on the basis of the new aspects of modern warfare," the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in the statement.

Ukraine and Russia have continued striking each other overnight, with Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Moscow of using North Korean missiles. The Ukrainian president said strikes in Zaporizhzhia - which killed at least six and injured at least 19 - involved ballistic missiles from Russia's ally. In Voronezh, in southern Russia, warehouses belonging to the online retailer, Wildberries, were hit by Ukraine. The company, known as Russia's Amazon, has been repeatedly targeted in recent weeks. The attacks come a day after at least 13 people were killed, including one child, in Ukrainian drone strikes on the Russian republic of Tatarstan, more than 1,100 km (680 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

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What is Iran's Pickaxe Mountain? The United States military says it has launched another wave of strikes on Iran, while Tehran says it retaliated with missile and drone attacks against US military assets in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, said it concluded an evening wave of strikes against Iran at 9pm ET on Wednesday (01:00 GMT on Thursday), targeting "Iranian command centres, air defence sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities" in an effort to reduce Iran's ability to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian air defences were activated over the capital, Tehran, as state media reported attacks across much of the country. Explosions were reported in Bandar Abbas and on nearby Qeshm island in the south, as well as in the southeastern coastal towns of Sirik, Chabahar and Konarak. Iranian media also reported attacks further inland in Rask, Khondab, Khorramabad and Semnan.

Is the war entering a new phase? Ukrainian officials say the capital city of Kyiv has endured a major Russian assault as ballistic missiles rained down on multiple districts, setting off explosions. Writing on Telegram early on Thursday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that emergency services were battling blazes across the capital after a warehouse in the Sviatoshynskyi district and a non-residential building in the Darnytskyi district were hit. He added that falling missile debris had also struck a non-residential development area in Darnytsia, triggering additional fires. Ukraine's Air Force Command later confirmed that the immediate threat was lifted after approximately one hour.

Is the war entering a new phase? Footage shows firefighters extinguishing a massive fire after Russia launched a flurry of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa early Wednesday morning. The strikes killed at least six people and wounded 20 others across the country, officials said. Pezeshkian vows Iran will defend'every inch' of its territory The history of the US and Iraq's complicated relationship

Long-range drone and missile strikes on Russian soil have shifted the balance of the conflict--will they be enough to end it? In recent weeks, Donald Trump--whose attitude toward Ukraine and its President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been notoriously fickle, when not outright hostile --has appeared to warm to Ukraine's chances in the war with Russia. On the sidelines of the summit in Ankara, he met with Zelensky and later spoke of him in flattering terms, declaring "We've actually developed a good relationship. Trump has a history of favoring those he perceives as winners, and his change in attitude regarding Ukraine seems driven by the country's newfound ability to strike targets deep inside Russia--"an escalation that can help lead to an end," Trump said. In Ankara, Zelensky, the inveterate entertainer, riffed on a question from Trump, who asked if Zelensky would consider travelling to Moscow for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That would be dangerous, Zelensky ...

Is the war entering a new phase? Russian drones and missiles killed four people in Ukraine overnight, while Ukrainian attacks on Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine killed five. Three people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, including two at an "industrial enterprise" in the city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said on Sunday. Russia has escalated attacks in recent weeks, taking advantage of Ukraine's critical shortage of munitions for its Patriot air defence system, which has rendered it largely unable to intercept ballistic missiles flying at several times the speed of sound. NATO countries pledged at their summit in Ankara last week to provide more Patriot munitions to Ukraine, and President Donald Trump said he was willing to give Kyiv a license to manufacture the US missiles domestically.