Axios

Iran's partnership with the Houthi rebels in Yemen — heralded this week by a hardline Iranian newspaper as "the battle of destiny in the south" — has become one of its most successful campaigns across the Middle East.

Why it matters: At surprisingly little cost to Tehran, the Houthis have waged a drawn-out war straining the coffers and reputation of Saudi Arabia, Iran's main regional rival. The conflict has also afforded Tehran a foothold on the Arabian Peninsula, allowing it to threaten maritime traffic on the Red Sea.

In the past week, Google, Twitter and Facebook each deactivated networks of accounts found to be waging Beijing-backed global influence campaigns — a sign that China is taking pages out of Russia's propaganda playbook.

Why it matters: These campaigns, which aim to discredit the massive protests underway in Hong Kong, show China not only censoring information domestically but increasingly promoting disinformation abroad.

Iranian cryptocurrency developers have created a blockchain platform, IranRescueBit, to facilitate aid donations in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin — a move that threatens to undermine sanctions at the center of the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign.

Why it matters: The platform's purported aim is to circumvent U.S. sanctions that prevented international donations from reaching the Iranian Red Crescent Society following damaging spring floods in Iran, but its scope appears likely to expand.