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Global Summary

This week's five-region brief captures a security environment increasingly defined by disruption to critical infrastructure, strategic transport corridors, and essential services. In the Americas, Colombia's 7.4-magnitude earthquake has killed 281 people and left 379 missing, placing the country's new administration under immediate disaster-response pressure. In Europe, both Russia and Ukraine struck Black Sea grain infrastructure this week, and Kyiv has proposed a reciprocal halt to attacks on civilian targets, an offer Moscow says it has not formally received. The Middle East remains the most consequential global pressure point: traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to a fraction of pre-war levels amid a US-Iran dispute over control of the strait, while a Houthi attack in the Bab el-Mandeb killed six people. In Asia-Pacific, North Korea launched another ballistic missile ahead of major US-South Korea military exercises scheduled for August 17-27, renewing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

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