https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-belarus-election/president-of-belarus-accuses-russia-of-lying-warns-of-revolution-plot-idUKKCN2501DC

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday accused Russia of lying over an alleged mercenary plot to destabilise his country and said unnamed forces were trying to carry out a revolution in Belarus but would fail.

Moscow has said Minsk wrongfully arrested a group of alleged Russian mercenaries last week, ahead of an election in Belarus on Aug. 9, seen as Lukashenko’s biggest challenge in years.

Russia has said the detained men were only transiting via Belarus en route to a third country and had no plans to try to influence Belarusian domestic politics.

Lukashenko called those assertions “a lie” and called on Moscow to stop lying, saying the detained men had confessed to everything and that they had been given the order to enter Belarus and wait for further orders.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/malaysian-police-raid-al-jazeera-office-seize-computers-200804093848514.html

Malaysian police have raided Al Jazeera's Kuala Lumpur office and seized two computers, the news network said, condemning the incident as a "troubling escalation" in the government's crackdown on press freedoms.

The raid on Tuesday came after authorities in Malaysia announced they were investigating Al Jazeera for sedition, defamation and violation of the country's Communications and Multimedia Act.

The probe relates to a 101 East programme examining the Malaysian government's treatment of undocumented migrant workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Giles Trendle, managing director of Al Jazeera English, said the network was "gravely concerned" by the raid and the new charges, which carry jail terms and hefty fines, and called on the Malaysian government to cease its criminal investigation against the network's journalists immediately.

The raid comes nearly a month after Malaysian police questioned seven of Al Jazeera's journalists over the documentary, Locked Up in Malaysia's Lockdown, which aired on July 3.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/more-fallout-from-trumps-flagrant-end-run-to-install-unpopular-nominee-in-top-pentagon-post

DEMOCRATS FURIOUS: President Trump’s decision to appoint retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata to a top job at the Pentagon, for which he could not win Senate confirmation, has unleashed a torrent of outrage among Democrats who see it as another case of Trump thumbing his nose at congressional oversight.

“This is a flagrant end run around the confirmation process,” said Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “This method of appointment is an insult to our troops, professionals at the Pentagon, the Senate, and the American people. Clearly, President Trump wants people who will swear allegiance to him over the Constitution,” Reed said in a statement. “This is an offensive, destabilizing move, and General Tata should not be appointed to a Senate-confirmed position.”

TATA MUST GO: Reed argues that Tata did not have the votes for confirmation due to past statements in which he called President Barack Obama “a terrorist leader” and disparaged the Muslim religion.

https://breakingdefense.com/2020/08/troops-in-theater-to-test-afrls-thor-drone-killer-this-fall/?

WASHINGTON: The Air Force will send its Tactical High Power Microwave Operational Responder (THOR) overseas this fall for operational field experiments, with Army warfighters in particular keen to get their hands on drone-killing systems. In fact, the Army has so much confidence in the Air Force’s microwave experiments that it’s decided to focus its own R&D dollars on lasers and let the Air Force take the lead developing microwave weapons that might be used by both services.

Despite some complications and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the service is “in the process of sending systems over” for the test, Kelly Hammett, head of directed energy at Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), told Breaking D in an interview last week. “THOR is at Kirtland still — it’s going through checkout testing — [but] in the fall, it’s supposed to go.”