Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes Monday in the Middle East after the U.S. military hit Iranian rocket launchers positioned on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend — the first escalation of tit-for-tat kinetic exchanges between the two sides since July.

Tehran said it fired missiles and drones at the King Hussein and Al Azraq air bases in Jordan, claiming to cause “heavy damage.” Al Azraq hosts the U.S. Air Force’s 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, while King Hussein hosts more specialized units.

The Jordanian military contradicted Iran’s claims, asserting that its forces intercepted eight ballistic missiles before they could threaten any infrastructure or troops. The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defense also reported intercepting a drone launched from Iran and attempting to enter Emirati airspace.

A Pentagon joint task force used the Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser last week to “engage and defeat” three cartel-linked drones, blasting them out of the sky and opening a new frontier in the fast-evolving shadow war along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Cartel networks are increasingly employing unmanned aircraft systems to facilitate illicit human smuggling and actively spy on our personnel and law enforcement partners,” U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, commander of Joint Task Force-Southern Border (JTF-SB), based at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, said in a statement.

U.S. officials did not identify the precise location of the drone shootdowns, nor did officials identify which cartel is believed to have been involved. About 8,000 U.S. service members are deployed under JTF-SB across difficult terrain spanning 1,954 miles. Inside Mexico, cartel drones have been used in assassination attempts and bomb attacks on police. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel has reportedly used drones to carpet-bomb a rival cartel’s territory.

Russia’s saber-rattling is echoing across Europe, with Kremlin-linked hybrid attacks “increasing in number and severity” in several countries, according to a Congressional Research Service report this month that cited a spike in Russian provocations aimed at interrupting or discouraging European support for Ukraine.

Poland, which borders Ukraine to the West, is one of the NATO countries on the front line of the provocations. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned Europe and the U.S. that Russia’s war in Ukraine is escalating and threatening to engulf Europe.

Concerns are also running high further to the West, in Germany, where Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his country is in “the crosshairs of hybrid attackers” after investigators determined that an explosive drone found near a Ukrainian cargo aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport this month was likely linked to a foiled Russian sabotage plot.

For days, Russian forces have been sending small groups of Shahed-type drones toward Kyiv at regular intervals, sometimes only 30 to 60 minutes apart, stretching air-raid alerts across much of the day and repeatedly disrupting transportation, businesses and logistics and forcing air-defense crews to scramble back into action. 

Threat Status Special Correspondent Guillaume Ptak reports from Kyiv that on Thursday, the Ukrainian capital endured 13 separate alerts totaling 872 minutes — nearly 15 hours and a single-day record since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. A prolonged Russian strike series over the following two days lasted more than 28 hours and involved more than 550 drones and loitering munitions.

Ukrainian officials said Saturday that at least 37 people were killed following a massive fire sparked by a Russian strike on the outskirts of Kyiv. In a statement on the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a warehouse had been struck in the village of Myla, “followed by a detonation.”

Mr. Trump appears to be downplaying U.S. national security concerns over large-scale Chinese espionage and cyberattacks targeting the United States ahead of a highly anticipated summit with Mr. Xi that is expected to be held in Washington, either just before or just after the Chinese president attends next month’s U.N. General Assembly gathering in New York.

“Somebody was saying about China, ’What about China? We hear they’re spying.’ We spy on them, too. So it goes,” Mr. Trump said during remarks to reporters, a day after the Justice Department announced that the FBI had seized computer domains involving state-sponsored Chinese hacking platforms that were used to target critical U.S. infrastructure and other sensitive networks.

Aggressive Chinese technology theft and espionage remain a major target of several U.S. national security agencies despite efforts to warm bilateral relations following Mr. Trump’s visit to Beijing and meeting with Mr. Xi in May. The concern among some U.S. officials is that the president is downplaying the Chinese espionage threat to avoid derailing next month’s planned meeting with Mr. Xi.

• Sept. 1 — The Implications of the Hormuz Energy Crisis in China, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Sept. 2-3 — Artificial Intelligence for Defense Summit, Defense Strategies Institute

• Sept. 3 —The AI Open-Weight Debate: Balancing Innovation and Security, Center for a New American Security

• Sept. 8-10 — Billington Cybersecurity Summit 2026, Billington Cybersecurity

• Sept. 9 — Bend but Do Not Break: Shaping the Future of the All-Volunteer Force, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Sept. 9 — Global Affairs Expert Webinar: China’s Influence in the Americas, Council on Foreign Relations

• Sept. 11 — The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks at 25: Assessing the Legacy, Addressing the Future, Brookings Institution

• Sept. 12-13 — AFA National Convention, Air & Space Forces Association

• Sept. 22-23 — Nuclear Energy Policy Summit 2026, Atlantic Council