On Monday, President Trump demanded that Iran must pay compensation for U.S. military casualties and war losses across multiple countries, and said this would be included as a condition in future U.S.-Iran negotiations.
During its annual Han Kuang military exercise, Taiwan conducted large-scale internet throttling and cutoff drills for the first time to simulate responses to cyberattacks from the People's Liberation Army.
The US military opened fire on the Villanova, a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship attempting to violate an Iranian maritime blockade, with an MH-60 Seahawk helicopter firing two Hellfire missiles to disable its steering gear.
The Fourth Criminal Court of Damascus in Syria has sentenced the ousted former president Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad to death in absentia on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
CME Group announced that it will list the world's first computing power futures on October 5, tracking the rental indices of H100 and B200 chip generations to enable cash settlement of computing power.
The Wuhan Culture and Tourism Bureau officially announced that it has opened an investigation into Guo Degang of Deyun Society, after he changed the lyrics of the song from "Railway Guerrillas" to "All is quiet in the Forbidden City" during a commercial performance in Wuhan on July 24.
A young man who plays the violin posted videos on Douyin recording his life after switching careers to food delivery. After the videos went viral, the account was banned from publishing content.
New U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche was officially sworn in on Monday, following the Senate's narrow confirmation of his nomination.
The Iran-aligned Yemeni Houthi movement attacked the Tanzania-flagged cargo ship Tihama in the Red Sea, resulting in at least three deaths.
Robert Gilman, a former U.S. Marine who had been detained in Russia for over four years, has been released and returned to the United States on humanitarian grounds, with no prisoner exchange involved.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a bill on August 11 aimed at strengthening engagement between the United States and the Central Tibetan Administration, and countering China's malign influence at the United Nations.
29-year-old Chinese citizen Chen Dingwei pleaded guilty in Salt Lake City federal court on August 11 to attempting to acquire U.S. military-grade satellite modems and radio equipment for China.
The United States and 40 other countries issued a joint statement at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, criticizing China without naming it for failing to give adequate advance notification before test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean in July, thereby increasing the risk of miscalculation.
The Golden Dome project director publicly disclosed on August 11 that Golden Dome has its first operational site and has completed two comprehensive tests involving command, control, and sensors.
The Long March 7A carrier rocket exploded 90 seconds after liftoff, resulting in the loss of the satellite and sparking widespread concern and review.
The U.S. State Department announced that 41 countries issued a joint statement saying that China's missile test did not follow the standard notification and coordination practices adopted by most countries, and called for the establishment of a transparent and routine advance notification mechanism.
When Guo Degang of Deyun Society performed a Peking opera in Wuhan with adapted lyrics from red songs, he was reported by netizens. The Wuhan Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau has formally opened an investigation in accordance with the law on the grounds that the performance content had not been filed in advance.
The second flight of Zhuque-3, originally scheduled to launch on August 11, has been announced as postponed to August 31, with no specific technical failure cause disclosed by officials.
Netizen Dachang Baijie posted on the X platform an exclusive disclosure of Zhu Rongji's death, ahead of the official announcement and even ahead of the actual time of death.
Shanghai was hit by a passing typhoon, and Mayor Chen Jining did not hold a video conference from his office but instead went to the front line in person to inspect, drawing outside attention to a possible shift in his political alignment.
The Wuhan Culture and Tourism Bureau issued a response regarding the incident of Guo Degang's performance lyrics not being reported, avoiding the controversy over disrespect and adapted content, and initiating filing procedures on the grounds of failure to report as required.
According to the latest estimates, since the Taliban took power in 2021, 2.4 million Afghan girls have been banned from secondary education, an increase of 200,000 from the previous academic year.
On August 11, 2026, the New Taipei District Court in Taiwan issued a first-instance verdict, finding that Xu Chunying, a former mainland Chinese national who had served as a Taiwan People's Party cadre, colluded with Chinese Communist Party officials to interfere in Taiwan's elections and was involved in underground currency exchange, and sentenced her to 7 years in prison under the Anti-Infiltration Act and other laws.
On August 11, 2026, South Korean police announced the arrest of two Chinese nationals with military service experience in China — one suspected of setting up equipment in a hotel to eavesdrop on US and South Korean fighter jet communications, and the other suspected of bribing personnel at a US military base to obtain secrets about military exercises.
On August 11, 2026, the United States publicly criticized China's earlier submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile test in the Pacific for lacking transparency, saying Beijing gave only two hours' advance notice to some affected countries.
On August 11, 2026, several depositors of village banks in Henan went to the Beijing Financial Court, the National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration, the Supreme People's Court and other departments to report the problem of their deposits being frozen for five years and unable to be withdrawn. They wept bitterly at the scene, filed appeals, and called for the initiation of case filing and litigation.
On August 11, 2026, during the Beidaihe Meeting, local netizens in Qinhuangdao, Hebei tested and found that cellular mobile networks imposed a strict blockade on overseas VPN services, making connection completely impossible; the local authorities escalate stability maintenance controls at the same time every year.
On August 11, 2026, China Media Group announced that the documentary film Jiang Zemin would be broadcast from August 11 to 16, staging a high-level official commemoration for the 100th anniversary of Jiang Zemin's birth on August 17.
On August 11, 2026, due to river backflow caused by Typhoon "White Dolphin," the Sheshan Silver Lake Villa community in Sijing Town, Songjiang, Shanghai, was severely flooded. Water, electricity, and food supplies were cut off for more than 20 hours, and residents fell into paralysis after repeated failed attempts to seek help.
On August 11, 2026, the largest lighting specialty market in Jiangbei, Linyi, Shandong, was hit by a "3C certification" enforcement inspection. Fearing fines from the inspection, a large number of merchants along the entire commercial street closed their shops one after another to avoid it, leaving the market deserted and desolate.
On August 11, 2026, foreign media reported that against the backdrop of China's gender imbalance of tens of millions, matchmaking agencies in Guiyang and elsewhere lure older single men into paying hundreds of thousands of yuan in high bride prices under the guise of flash marriages before absconding, and that judicial authorities have already held over 1,500 people accountable.
On August 11, 2026, authorities responded to a netizen's report, stating that crosstalk comedian Guo Degang adapted the red song "Railway Guerrillas" in a recent performance, allegedly violating the Regulations on the Administration of Commercial Performances, and that the culture and tourism authorities have launched a case investigation.
On August 11, 2026, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed that China's overseas auto shipments reached 918,000 units in July, up 88% year-on-year and accounting for more than 40% of production; however, domestic passenger vehicle retail sales plunged 21% year-on-year, with fuel-powered vehicles down 41%.
On August 11, 2026, Bloomberg reported that Manus, an AI startup founded by a Chinese team, announced it has officially separated from Meta and resumed independent operations, after Chinese regulators stepped in to halt Meta's acquisition of the company.
In August 2026, the CCP Central Committee arranged the broadcast of a biographical documentary to mark the 100th anniversary of Jiang Zemin's birth, and is preparing a high-level commemorative meeting at the Great Hall of the People.
On August 11, 2026, Wu Lina, the whistleblower in the case of the enforcement bureau chief of Congtai District Court in Handan, Hebei soliciting bribes, appeared publicly for an exclusive interview, questioning why no conclusion had been announced more than half a year after the municipal party committee demanded an investigation.
On August 13, 2026, China's provinces released their fiscal data for the first half of the year. National local land transfer revenue plummeted 31.5% year-on-year, and grassroots finances face severe pressure to guarantee the "three essentials."
On August 11, 2026, a monk at the Serta Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Academy in Garze, Sichuan held up a portrait of the 10th Panchen Lama to protest forced demolition, and was subsequently taken away, his whereabouts unknown.
On August 18, 2026, a former Samsung engineer testified at the Seoul District Court that China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), in the early period after its founding in 2016, obtained Samsung's 18-nanometer DRAM process data by recruiting South Korean engineers, and South Korean prosecutors alleged that it thereby saved on R&D trial and error.
On August 11, 2026, Yunque, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tencent responsible for content moderation of products such as QQ, Tencent Video, and Tencent News, published a large number of job postings for moderation positions, drawing outside attention to an intensification of platform content regulation.
On August 11, 2026, a student rights platform revealed that Maxiangbo Senior High School in Danyang, Jiangsu Province, was covertly violating regulations during the summer vacation by requiring enrolled students to participate uniformly in a so-called “summer camp” for centralized make-up classes.
On August 11, 2026, a student rights platform revealed that teachers at Hechang Middle School in Lüliang, Shanxi, forcibly searched the WeChat and Douyin private messages and personal photo albums of several female students on the pretext of investigating a conflict; the school subsequently acknowledged that this was indeed inappropriate.
On August 11, 2026, Shanxi Medical University First Hospital issued a statement regarding a nursing intern who publicly posted photos of an obstetrics operating room scene and unblurred privacy photos of a female patient on WeChat Moments; the hospital has set up an investigation team to handle the matter seriously in accordance with regulations.
On August 11, 2026, well-known game streamer Chen Zihao casually asked viewers during a live stream interaction whether they "had a job." Touching on the sensitive topic of employment, his live room was immediately cut off by the platform, interrupting the broadcast.
On August 11, 2026, a player in an online game saw the other party using a Winnie the Pooh avatar and mentioning the national leader's name in the public chat, and the account was immediately flagged by the game's sensitive-word detection system and punished with a mute.
Video footage from a disaster site in Taizhou, Zhejiang, on August 11, 2026, shows some relief workers directly throwing disaster-relief food and supplies into filthy floodwaters for victims to fish out themselves, drawing criticism from netizens for a lack of dignity and basic empathy.
On August 11, 2026, a counselor at Sichuan Southwest Medical University pushed the academic affairs office's mini-program in a class group chat to purchase brand-new textbooks, explicitly forbidding the purchase of second-hand textbooks or e-books, and even said that if students were unwilling to spend money on textbooks, they might as well take a leave of absence or drop out.
On August 11, 2026, Langfang in Hebei Province was hit by heavy rainfall that triggered severe urban flooding. Roads in commercial districts were submerged over large areas, with water covering more than half of car bodies; several cars floated and were immobilized, and shops along the streets were flooded and suffered extensive damage.
On August 11, 2026, the principal of a martial arts school in Jiyuan, Henan, posted a night patrol video on social media. Late at night, he entered the dormitory with a flashlight, forcibly lifted the bedding of students in bed, checked their undergarments, and filmed and published the footage. After drawing criticism for violating privacy, he took it down.
On August 11, 2026, Fengming Senior High School in Tongxiang City, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, was exposed by students for illegally organizing the Grade 11 Excellence Class to start the new term early and hold centralized remedial classes during the summer vacation.