The Russian and Mongolian militaries completed the main phase of a joint exercise Aug. 26—marking the first time Mongolia has hosted drills involving a foreign army within its territory. The maneuvers, dubbed Selenga 2024, were centered around the eastern city of Choibalsan, near the border with China. Armaments including drones, MiG-29 and Su-25 warplanes, Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters, and Grad rocket launchers were deployed in the main phase of the drill, which simulated a "joint Russian-Mongolian group of troops" retaking a settlement that had been seized by "illegal armed groups," according to the Russian military.

A Turkish drone strike in northern Iraq's Kurdish region evidently killed two female journalists, Hero Baha'uddin and Golestan Tara, on Aug. 23. Both journalists worked for local Kurdish media outlet Sterk TV and were traveling near the village of Teperash in Sulaimaniyah province when the strike hit, according to local reports. The strikes targeted a vehicle believed to be carrying members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK, a Kurdish separatist organization, has engaged in an armed conflict with Turkey since the 1980s. Northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) confirmed that the strike killed a PKK official, along with his guard and their driver. It remains unclear whether the journalists were in the same vehicle as the PKK members or if multiple vehicles were involved. In addition to the fatalities, the attack also injured six other journalists.

In Episode 240 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg discusses China's hubristic plans for massive expansion of its nuclear power sector—and notes that some of the new plants are slated for the southern province of Guangdong, which in recent years has seen repeated outbursts of protest over land-grabs and industrial pollution as well as wildcat labor actions (and was, in fact, the site of a nuclear accident in 2021). China's expropriated peasant class has been left behind by the breakneck industrialization of the past decades, and may prove a source of resistance to the new thrust of nuclear development that would further accelerate it—despite the current crackdown on dissent. 

Federal judges voted Aug. 19 to go on strike across Mexico, in protest of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's pending reform of the country's judicial system. The judges will join thousands of other court employees who similarly announced an indefinite strike earlier that day over the proposed constitutional changes. Under the judicial reform unveiled in February, the number of justices ("ministers") on the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) would be reduced from 11 to nine, and all SCJN ministers as well as all judges and magistrates nationwide would be elected by popular vote. Candidates would be appointed by the three "powers" of the state: executive, judicial, and legislative. The reform would also establish a Judicial Discipline Tribunal to investigate jurists for possible corruption. The monitoring group Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) criticized the proposed reform as representing a "setback for human rights" that could consolidate power in the executive and "lead to the continuation and deepening of patterns of impunity and abuse against the population."

President Biden approved in March a highly classified nuclear posture document for the first time reorienting US deterrent strategy to focus on China's rapid expansion in its nuclear arsenal. The shift comes as the Pentagon believes China's stockpiles will rival the size and diversity of those of the United States and Russia over the next decade. The new "Nuclear Employment Guidance" is so highly classified that there are no electronic copies, and only a small number of hard copies distributed to top national security officials and Pentagon brass. But a copy was just obtained by the New York Times.

US-sponsored talks to halt the 16-month conflict in Sudan kicked off in Geneva Aug. 13, but there was a no-show from the army despite all the fanfare. There had been hope that the new venue and buy-in from regional powers supporting the warring factions—including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates—would give the process a better chance of succeeding than prior, disjointed mediation attempts. But the army's command remains internally divided on the issue of dialogue—especially while it is on the back foot militarily—and is wary of the US, which it sees as a perennial critic. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the army's rival, is meanwhile being accused of attending talks only to launder its image and bolster its international legitimacy. Grassroots civilian groups also remain deeply wary of another potential power-sharing accord that strengthens the military generals at their expense.

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Aug. 16 upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of protest curfews in New York City. The curfews, imposed in response to demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, were declared for a one-week period in June 2020. Lamel Jeffrey, Thaddeus Blake and Chayse Pena were each arrested and charged with violating the curfew. In a subsequent lawsuit, they alleged that the city's protest restrictions violated their First Amendment right to free assembly and their Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful arrest. In 2022, a federal district court dismissed the case, stating that the curfews constituted a valid public safety regulation that "left open ample alternative channels for expressive activity."

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko charges that Kyiv has stationed more than 120,000 soldiers along Ukraine's border with Belarus, and says that he is deploying military formations along his own country's entire border with Ukraine in response. In an interview with Rossiya TV Aug. 18, Lukashenko accused Ukraine of attempting to provoke a nuclear strike from Russia, which has warheads deployed in Belarus. "The worry is that escalation on Ukraine's part is an attempt to force Russia to take asymmetric actions," Lukasheno said. "Let's consider the usage of nuclear weapons. I am confident that Ukraine would be pleased if Russia or we utilized tactical nuclear weapons there. That would bring them joy." (Ukrainska Pravda, Radio Australia, Al Jazeera)