Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Hamas working to reclaim weaponry, reestablish military control over Gaza, IDF says - report With close calls on U.S. warships, Iran shows new appetite for escalation Trump’s top advisers confront possibility that Iran war lasts through end of term How a billion-dollar sanctions dodge kept Chinese goods flowing to Iran IAEA board passes resolution reporting Iran to UN Security Council CSIS’s Joseph Rodgers, Douglas Comstock, and Joseph S. Bermudez Jr.: New satellite imagery analysis reveals an uptick in 2026 construction activity at Pickaxe Mountain Plane carrying Zelensky threatened by drone in Moldova, Norway’s premier says Israel ramps up strikes in southern Lebanon WINEP’s Hanin Ghaddar: Countering Hezbollah’s reconstruction politics and the council for South Lebanon Yemen tilts toward full-scale war as Saudi-Houthi clashes escalate Pakistan warns Iran to rein in Houthis as Riyadh strikes back NATO allies foil Russian subsea cable sabotage plotIn The News
Israel
President Trump declined to say on Wednesday whether the United States opposed new European and Canadian sanctions against Israeli settlements, the latest in a notably muted U.S. response about penalties against America’s most important ally in the Middle East. – New York Times
The Israeli military said early on Thursday that warnings of a hostile aircraft infiltration in several areas of northern Israel had been triggered by a false identification. – Reuters
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Wednesday that the government does not plan to deport Palestinians from Gaza, after two Israeli ministers this month floated proposals for the mass removal of Palestinians from the coastal territory. – Reuters
On the last day of August, a group of Greek military officials arrived in Tel Aviv, led by Major General Ioannis Bouras, to sign what would become one of the largest defense export deals in both countries’ histories. – Politico
Hamas has been operating to reclaim its weaponry and reestablish military control over the Gaza Strip, despite the ongoing ceasefire and disarmament agreement, N12 News reported on Wednesday, citing IDF sources. – Jerusalem Post
Six lawmakers, three Republicans and three Democrats, urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to work with Israel and the Palestinian Authority on mechanisms that would keep clearance revenues flowing while preventing funds from reaching terrorist organizations – Jerusalem Post
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making a whirlwind 24-hour trip to speak at the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders this month because “there is no option” after New York City’s mayor urged his arrest over the war in Gaza, Israel’s UN envoy said Tuesday. – Times of Israel
The Hamas terror group on Wednesday announced a top member was killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza City. Farah Hamed was described by Hamas as a “commander and fighter” in the terror group’s military wing, and a member of the “Military Council of the al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank.” – Times of Israel
Iran
Iran is increasingly trying to escalate its conflict with the U.S. as it seeks to break a stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz that is strangling its economy. – Wall Street Journal
Top White House advisers have raised privately with President Trump the prospect that the Iran war could drag on through the remainder of his term, U.S. officials said, a message at odds with Trump’s public assurances of a swift victory. – Wall Street Journal
President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused Iran of trying to influence the midterm elections as the country’s leaders signaled increasing aggression and the latest violence pushed oil prices above $100 a barrel. – Washington Post
Iran has used a barter-like arrangement to bypass sanctions on its oil sales and buy billions of dollars’ worth of goods from China, including military gear, two senior Iranian sources and three other people familiar with the matter told Reuters. – Reuters
The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation board of governors has passed a resolution reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years for breaching its non-proliferation obligations, diplomats said on Wednesday. – Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States may hit Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, urging Tehran to be cautious. “We notice there’s a little activity at Pickaxe. I would advise Iran not to get cute because we will have to hit them very hard,” Trump said in a speech at the midterm Republican convention. – Reuters
Sunni Kurdish cleric Mamosta Mohammad Nezhati was killed in northwestern Iran, the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement reported on Wednesday by the semi-official Mehr news agency. – Reuters
Iran accused the US and Israel of cloaking military strikes against its nuclear facilities beneath the legal authority wielded by inspectors at the United Nations nuclear watchdog. – Bloomberg
Several areas in Sirik, southern Iran, were hit by projectiles on Wednesday, Iranian state media reported. Further details regarding the strikes, including the extent of the damage or potential casualties, were not immediately available. – Jerusalem Post
Joseph Rodgers, Douglas Comstock, and Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. write: Iran operates numerous other underground facilities across the country. Even if the United States can destroy or disable Pickaxe Mountain, Tehran’s nuclear aspirations are unlikely to change any time soon. Military operations in Iran must ultimately serve U.S. political and security objectives. If the United States’ goal is to prevent Iran from ever developing a nuclear weapon, repeatedly bombing Iran every few months is insufficient and unsustainable. Ultimately, a verifiable diplomatic solution is likely the only lasting resolution to restrict Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Russia and Ukraine
A drone company backed by Erik Prince—the Blackwater founder and an ally to President Trump—is buying one of Ukraine’s leading makers of battlefield robots, an early sign of consolidation across the country’s sprawling drone industry. – Wall Street Journal
A plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was nearly hit this week by a drone in Moldova, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told Norway’s public broadcaster Wednesday. – Washington Post
The European Union, a key backer, had earlier this year finalized a loan of more than $100 billion for the country. But Ukraine now faced an unexpectedly large defense budget shortfall, President Volodymyr Zelensky told allies. To get through the year, he would need $27 billion more. – New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he had a “great” conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the week and that the Russian leader wanted to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine. – Reuters
U.S. CIA Director John Ratcliffe is preparing to take a bigger role in Washington’s negotiations with Russia and Ukraine, U.S. officials told their European counterparts, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
Russia hopes that U.S.-mediated peace talks on ending the war in Ukraine will resume soon, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Sea drones injured eight people in Russia’s popular Black Sea resort of Sochi late on Wednesday, authorities of the surrounding Krasnodar region said on the Telegram messaging app. – Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chided the international community Wednesday for not taking a tougher stance against Russia over its escalating bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine. – Associated Press
Russian President Vladimir Putin assured U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call Tuesday that Moscow doesn’t harbor aggressive intentions toward Europe, a senior Kremlin official said, after European officials blamed Moscow for sabotage campaigns on their soil. – Associated Press
A top EU court on Wednesday rejected Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s third attempt to overturn sanctions against him over the war in Ukraine. – Agence France-Presse
Russia’s Federal Security Service said it detained a guard working for the British embassy in Moscow and accused him of spying for Ukraine. – Bloomberg
As Russia’s military is increasingly relying on jet-powered drones in its war against Ukraine, Ukrainian defense companies are intensifying their efforts to counter the threat while striving to make the interceptors cheaper than the targets they strike. – Defense News
John R. Bolton writes: Beyond Germany, Britain just experienced its own Kanzlertausch, getting a new prime minister untested in international affairs. Russia-leaning Marine Le Pen could win France’s 2027 presidential race. There are also claims that Russia is trying to influence Sweden’s national elections next Sunday. The general absence of strong European leaders means Putin has little to fear from that quarter as key governments risk sliding in a pro-Moscow direction. NATO’s imperative must therefore be accelerating assistance to Ukraine now in order to render Russia’s winter offensive as futile as its prior efforts. Beyond that, Ukrainian resolve is all that will restrain Moscow, until some new leader from Washington or Europe emerges to galvanize the West. Putin knows that, too. – Washington Post
Eric Schmidt writes: When the immediate threat passed that night in Ukraine, we left our underground shelter. Russia fired dozens of cruise missiles, as well as ballistic and hypersonic missiles at Kyiv that night; 17 people were killed and more than 40 injured, with victims dug out of the rubble of a school and a children’s hospital. For more than four years, Ukraine has absorbed blows that would have broken many countries. It refuses to give up. But lauding Ukrainian resilience is not a strategy, and courage alone cannot defend its cities or win its war. Ukraine has bought the West four years with the blood of its soldiers and the ingenuity of its engineers. We cannot let it face another winter alone under Russian bombardment. – Washington Post
David Hewitson and Ilya Timtchenko write: Many of the approaches, procedures, and technologies that have been used in the past have become either unsuitable or excessively inefficient and dangerous. The underpinnings of ordnance disposal equipment, procedures, and training need to be rewritten. The scale and implications are not yet well understood, and estimates of the cost and effort needed to deal with these new threats are unreliable and unrealistic. But the complexity of the issue has fundamentally changed the space, and technology must adapt to help rebuild a nation that has seen too much pain and suffering. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Syria
At least 14 people were killed and more than 10 others wounded in northwestern Syria on Wednesday when an explosion erupted at a temporary weapons storage facility, the Syrian Defense Ministry said. – New York Times
The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Wednesday drawing a line under Syria’s secret nuclear activities during the Assad family’s rule, saying the new authorities had helped resolve all outstanding questions. – Reuters
Ghassan Ibrahim writes: Protecting the Druze does not require dividing Syria, and preserving Syria’s unity must not mean ignoring Druze rights. If Israel genuinely wants to protect the Druze and contribute to the stability of its southern frontier, it should encourage this path rather than bet on continued division. Stability in Sweida will not come from creating new borders, but from building a new relationship between Sweida and the Damascus government. – Jerusalem Post
Turkey
One person died after suffering a heart attack during a wildfire in Turkey’s southern Antalya province, a local official and broadcasters said on Wednesday, as authorities sought to contain several fires that broke out in the region this week. – Reuters
Turkey has taken note of the recent announcements by the U.S. Treasury on doing business with Iran, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said, speaking to reporters on Wednesday. – Reuters
Mem Husedin writes: Kurds have been misled and abandoned by Western partners often enough to be careful about who we thank. This is not one of those cases. Israel is doing the one thing we cannot do for ourselves: treating us as a nation in public, at cost, without asking permission. More is possible, and Somaliland is the proof that it is possible. Israel has been bold before, and recently. Kurds will answer boldness. – Jerusalem Post
Lebanon
Israel has in recent days ramped up strikes in southern Lebanon, killing more than two dozen people and prompting fears of an even larger-scale military escalation ahead of Israel’s elections. – Washington Post
The Arab League Council adopted a resolution on Monday affirming solidarity with Lebanon and rejecting Iranian foreign influence and Hezbollah’s continued military activities, according to an exclusive report published by L’Orient-Le Jour on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Hanin Ghaddar writes: This is not a corruption problem per se—the main concern is not whether houses are actually built or contractors are paid fairly, since Hezbollah and Amal likely have an interest in performing such tasks capably. Rather, authorities should be most concerned about who benefits politically from this activity. If CSL continues to receive and administer government funds, Hezbollah will be the beneficiary. In that scenario, the international community would be rebuilding southern Lebanon while inadvertently helping Hezbollah rebuild itself—and setting the stage for future rounds of war and reconstruction in the process. – Washington Institute
David Schenker writes: This bill conditions US support for the LAF on the military’s execution of government directives regarding Hezbollah and its weapons. It also demonstrates a keen awareness of Beirut’s long track record of unfulfilled commitments. The Trump administration has invested significant diplomatic capital in the Lebanese-Israel talks. Barring a change in the Lebanese approach to the pilot zones, however, the Trilateral Framework will lose all momentum and wither. It’s not clear that conditioning US military assistance will compel Lebanon to reverse course; the approach hasn’t worked on economic reforms. But Washington can’t—and shouldn’t—bankroll Beirut’s indecision. Whether on the economy or on disarming Hezbollah, the United States cannot help the Lebanese government if it doesn’t help itself. – The National Interest
Yemen
The Iranian-backed Houthi militia said on Wednesday that Saudi forces had launched dozens of airstrikes in Yemen, as the country tips toward another full-blown war after weeks of mounting hostilities. – New York Times
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis edged closer on Thursday to gaining leverage over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s most important routes for commodity vessels, four Yemeni government military sources said, as fighting with Saudi-backed forces tilts towards a resumption of full-scale war. – Reuters
Rescuers in Yemen pulled more bodies from the rubble Wednesday of a prison run by Iran-backed Houthi rebels that was hit in a deadly airstrike earlier this week, as an escalation between the rebels and a Saudi-led coalition threatened Yemen’s fragile ceasefire. – Associated Press
Gulf States
Now Saudi Arabia, long the world’s biggest oil exporter, is facing yet another test of its ability to deliver its oil. Edging toward a full-blown war with the Houthis, Saudi officials said the kingdom would retaliate after the Houthis injured 73 civilians and hit energy facilities in the southern part of the kingdom. – New York Times
Germany and the United Arab Emirates will sign investment, AI and energy deals worth several billion dollars on Thursday as part of a push to step up relations between the two countries, one of the UAE’s top diplomats said on Wednesday. – Reuters
A group of eight Muslim-majority countries, including Israel’s ally the United Arab Emirates, praised the United Kingdom on Wednesday for announcing that it will impose sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and called on other countries to do the same. – Times of Israel
Middle East & North Africa
Brent crude topped $100 a barrel for the first time since July amid fears of prolonged supply disruptions as fresh U.S.-Iran attacks and Iranian missile fire into Jordan added to an escalating conflict that has also spread to Saudi energy infrastructure through renewed Houthi strikes. – Wall Street Journal
A tanker carrying about 2 million barrels of Iraqi fuel oil was struck by a drone in Iraqi territorial waters on Wednesday, port officials said, and British navy-affiliated UKMTO reported that several merchant vessels in the Gulf had been hit by disabling fire overnight. – Reuters
Egypt is planning to build its first large-scale artificial intelligence data center, aiming for a 200-megawatt facility worth $1 billion, using Nvidia technology. – Agence France-Presse
Korean Peninsula
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used celebrations marking the 78th anniversary of the country’s founding to praise troops engaged in “overseas military operations”, state media KCNA said. – Reuters
North Korea is completing work on its section of the long-stalled New Yalu River bridge with China, suggesting an imminent opening after more than a decade of delays, a South Korean analytics firm said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Eye-popping shareholder-return plans from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have become an early test of South Korea’s corporate reform drive, with investors welcoming the windfall but saying more is needed to narrow the country’s decades-old valuation gap. – Reuters
China
China has bought around 1 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans this week, four traders told Reuters, as the world’s top oilseed buyer steps up purchases ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington later this month. – Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s much-anticipated visit to New Delhi this week, his first to India in seven years, should further the diplomatic thaw between the giant neighbours, but there are few signs as yet that their business ties will improve. – Reuters
A Hong Kong court convicted Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, on Thursday of attempting to block a former reporter from becoming the head of a press union, but cleared it of unlawfully firing her. – Reuters
China on Wednesday accused the Philippines of “stirring up trouble” after harsh words from Philippines Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro Jr. over Beijing’s increasingly aggressive pursuit of maritime claims in the South China Sea. – Associated Press
China hit back Wednesday against U.S. claims that Chinese artificial intelligence developers are engaged in “aggressive, malicious” industrial-scale efforts to extract capabilities from frontier American AI systems. – Associated Press
South Asia
Flood-hit Nepal will ask wealthier countries and global agencies for financial help this week, arguing they should contribute to the $5 billion needed for initial rebuilding as the disaster shows how climate change has hit poor countries that did little to cause it, officials said. – Reuters
Pakistan has delivered a Saudi warning to Iran to rein in its Yemeni Houthi allies after they stepped up attacks on the kingdom, in a coordinated effort to prevent the crisis from spiralling, Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said. – Reuters
Saima Wazed, the World Health Organization’s Southeast Asia head and daughter of ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, resigned on Wednesday, according to her resignation letter seen by Reuters, following fraud investigations by the U.N. agency and Bangladeshi authorities. – Reuters
BRICS leaders will meet in New Delhi for their annual summit on Sept. 12 and 13 at a defining moment for the group. Its growing economic and political clout has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump, who last year threatened additional tariffs on countries aligning themselves with what he called the bloc’s “anti-American policies.” – Bloomberg
Asia
A large-scale search and rescue operation was underway off the western Philippine island of Palawan on Thursday after a passenger ferry caught fire, killing five people and leaving dozens of passengers missing. – Reuters
Japan aims to firmly address the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents decades ago at a summit meeting planned to be organised with North Korea, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said on Thursday. – Reuters
Malaysia’s ruling coalition on Wednesday said people convicted in high-profile graft cases should serve their sentences in full, amid media reports that jailed former premier Najib Razak has made another bid for a royal pardon. – Reuters
Indonesia is facing a surge in emissions from wildfires burning through parched stretches of forest and peatland on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, with carbon dioxide readings currently the highest in the world, data showed on Wednesday. – Reuters
A Japanese military transport ship docked on the island of Borneo on Thursday as part of a disaster relief mission to help fight wildfires in Indonesia that are causing a toxic haze impacting people’s health in other countries. – Associated Press
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed deepening economic relations at talks with Vietnam President and Communist Party General Secretary To Lam on Wednesday. – Bloomberg
Europe
This city on the eastern edge of NATO territory could be ground zero for fears of a Russian invasion. Two medieval castles face each other—one on each side of the river that separates Estonia from Russia. On the Estonian side, antitank obstacles called dragon’s teeth are splayed along a small section of the riverbank, fenced in by barbed wire. – Wall Street Journal
European law enforcement agencies chasing leads from the U.S. investigative files on deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein say that one year after the first batch of files was released, the Justice Department has yet to respond to their requests for help. – Washington Post
The Spanish government on Wednesday declassified a document showing that the country’s intelligence service had notified its Moroccan counterpart of calls on social media for migrants to enter the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, a day before 70,000 people surged across the Moroccan border. – New York Times
The Metropolitan Police in London on Wednesday said they had opened a criminal investigation into claims that Reform U.K., the right-wing populist party led by Nigel Farage, had broken laws that restrict foreign funding in British politics. – New York Times
Support for Sweden’s Liberals party has risen further above parliament’s 4% threshold ahead of a general election on Sunday, a Novus survey indicated on Wednesday, pointing to a close race between the ruling right-wing bloc and the centre-left opposition. – Reuters
Britain had to “stand for something”, Prime Minister Andy Burnham told parliament on Wednesday in a defence of his government’s decision to block imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. – Reuters
Norway’s King Harald V was laid to rest on Wednesday after a state funeral rich in pomp and ceremony and attended by dozens of European royals and heads of state following his death at the age of 89. – Reuters
Deep in Arctic waters near the remote Svalbard archipelago this spring, NATO allies caught Russian subs training to unleash a secret weapon designed to disable critical undersea cables without leaving any fingerprints. – Reuters
A U.S. grant program for organisations pursuing Trump administration priorities in Europe will exclude French groups because of sensitivities over allegations of foreign interference ahead of next year’s presidential election, according to two sources. – Reuters
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused the Alternative for Germany on Wednesday of supporting Russia against Germany’s interests and advocating anti-migration policies that were tantamount to “ethnic cleansing”. – Reuters
For Ireland, Donald Trump’s visit to his golf course in the west of the country is a chance to impress the capricious president. It’s also fraught with risk. – Bloomberg
Ireland’s cabinet approved the drafting of legislation to overhaul citizenship rules in order to bring its immigration requirements more in line with other European countries. – Bloomberg
Switzerland is refocusing its military on defense of the neutral nation, as it adapts to deteriorating global security. The Swiss government backed a new command structure that aims to transform the armed forces from training army involved in peacekeeping missions into an operational force focused on domestic defense. – Bloomberg
The European Union is pushing governments to direct more of their €2.6 trillion ($3 trillion) in public contracts toward local suppliers — and away from China. – Bloomberg
Spain must overhaul its relationship with Morocco following a surge of migrants into Ceuta, the country’s north African exclave, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said — even as he stopped short of blaming Rabat for the incident. – Bloomberg
British firms that trade with America are appealing to their own government to reverse course on sanctions for Israel, saying they fear becoming “collateral damage” as U.S. states threaten to ban them. – New York Sun
Britain could suffer American retaliation for sanctioning Israel, including possibly by cutting it out of the F-35 fighter jet program, a former White House official in President Trump’s first term is warning. – New York Sun
Detlef Seif writes: As we strengthen our defenses, Germany and Europe should make clear that we are ready to implement tough measures against aggressors, as Germany did after the Leipzig incident by publicly accusing Russia and calling on the EU to impose sanctions. This is crucial, as the German public isn’t yet aware of the danger of drones and hybrid threats. Strategic communication is key to raising awareness—and to letting our enemies know they will pay a high price for their criminal activities. – Wall Street Journal
Marc Champion writes: This kind of stance and the AfD’s weekend victory explain Putin’s continued unwillingness to compromise in peace talks, despite the growing economic and political costs of the war at home. They will encourage his belief that he’s winning the information war in Europe and that, if he only waits a little longer, a new political configuration will hand him Ukraine, together with a divided West and a broken NATO alliance. It brings a whole new meaning to the Soviet-era name given to Moscow’s fans in the West: useful idiots. – Bloomberg
Sam Skove and John Haltiwanger write: “There’s power in accumulating them and assembling them into a package so that you can see the breadth and depth and the persistence of the attacks,” Lute said, adding that there could also be more steps taken at NATO headquarters, ranging from table-top exercises to consultations with key allies, to send a signal to the Kremlin that the alliance is not sitting on its hands. “We’ve progressed far enough along this spectrum towards armed conflict, towards armed attack, that NATO has got to be seen as more active and not passive,” Lute said. “People say these kinds of political responses are not important because Putin is continuing,” Tsahkna said, but the Russian president “is very carefully watching what we do, how united we are.” – Foreign Policy
Africa
A traditional Ugandan kingdom selected a television news anchor on Wednesday to succeed King Oyo Nyimba, who died last month aged 34 after becoming the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he took the throne at age 3. – Reuters
Senegal plans to offer 109 oil and gas blocks at a roadshow to local and foreign investors, the West African country’s energy minister, El Hadji Abdourahmane Diouf, said. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday that Angola should pursue fiscal consolidation, prudent monetary policy and exchange-rate flexibility to preserve macroeconomic stability, warning that favorable external conditions had weakened the pace of economic reforms needed to reduce the country’s dependence on oil. – Reuters
Nigeria has appointed a new commander to lead military operations against Boko Haram and its Islamic State-backed splinter faction in the northeast, replacing the head of the operation less than two years after his appointment, an army spokesperson said on Wednesday. – Reuters
The United States will help Kenya develop a critical minerals processing industry, a senior American official said on Wednesday, against the backdrop of rivalry between China and the U.S. over access to critical minerals. – Reuters
Africa’s imports of electric motorcycles and three-wheelers from China rose sharply in the first half of 2026, an increase that highlights a divide in the continent’s transition to electric vehicles. – Associated Press
The Americas
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the United States was adding an Ecuadorean gang, Los Tiguerones, to its terrorism list, seeking to deny the group access to financial resources and U.S. banking networks. – New York Times
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a visit to Ecuador on Wednesday that he would seek $45 million in additional security funding for the Latin American country, as well as additional equipment, to help tackle drug trafficking. – Reuters
Brazil’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Edson Fachin moved to contain a growing judicial crisis on Wednesday, ruling to remove the effects of rival decisions issued by fellow court members and calling an extraordinary session for next week. – Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decree and a provisional measure Wednesday aimed at lowering fuel prices, weeks ahead of the presidential election and as the U.S.-Iran war drives up the cost of filling the tank. – Associated Press
Facing what it calls the biggest fiscal crisis since Colombian independence two centuries ago, the government of President Abelardo de la Espriella is doing everything it can to avoid raising taxes. – Bloomberg
Juan Pablo Spinetto writes: The next president could nominate up to four Supreme Court justices during their four-year term, giving the winner of the election broad authority to reshape the STF for years to come. But Brazil has simply run out of options: If the court cannot rein in its own eccentricities and abuses, politicians will do it for them. Instead of serving as the election’s last impartial referee, the STF is now on the campaign menu. Moraes & Co. won’t appear on the ballots on Oct. 4, but that is almost beside the point now: They will loom in voters’ minds as Brazilians choose their next leaders. – Bloomberg
Arturo McFields writes: In Venezuela, the repressive apparatus and its key figures continue to usurp power and enjoy its benefits. More than 300 political prisoners remain behind bars, while many others live in a state of only partial freedom. A strong oil deal requires a strong democracy. The Venezuelan regime knows that, despite the oil agreement, the handover of enriched uranium, the release of a few prisoners and cooperation on certain security issues, the sustainability of Chavismo is temporary and its end is imminent. – The Hill
North America
Canada is aggressively courting new trading partners as relations with the United States grow increasingly tense, in a move that could deliver economic consequences for U.S. businesses and consumers. – Washington Post
On Tuesday, Trump signed several proclamations relating to Canadian products, including alcohol, dairy and motorcycles. The new orders modify the scope of existing tariffs and introduce new bans on certain Canadian products. – Washington Post
The Trump administration said tens of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador will for now keep their temporary protected status that had been scheduled to expire on Wednesday. – Reuters
The psychological toll of daily life in Cuba is pushing many to their breaking point on this island of nearly 10 million people, with no relief in sight as a U.S. energy embargo persists and longtime economic and financial troubles deepen. – Associated Press
Lionel Laurent writes: Nonetheless, at a time when inflation is spiraling, the Iran war is heating up again and MAGA-adjacent extremists are making gains in France and Germany, Europe could do with a renewed push to bind friends closer — and anything that might add to its meager economic growth. Trump’s renewed assault on Canada also carries its own warning. When Ottawa gets a taste of his ire, Brussels is usually not far behind. – Bloomberg
J.D. Waverley writes: The vulnerability is not Canada’s Sept. 8 tariff package, which does not target nickel anyway. Nor is it Ford’s threat, which remains political rhetoric rather than Canadian trade policy. The vulnerability is Washington’s assumption that Canadian mineral supply can always be replaced by buying the same commodity somewhere else. For some commodities, that assumption is reasonable. For others, it misses the point. Until it can process minerals at home, the U.S. has not replaced Canada — it has merely replaced one dependency with another. – The Hill
United States
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee was soundly defeated in his state’s Democratic primary, making him the first sitting U.S. governor to lose a primary contest in nearly a decade in a race that focused heavily on his handling of a crucial infrastructure project. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump plunged the United States even deeper into a series of costly global conflicts this week, creating new economic hazards that have rattled financial markets, risked another rise in prices and unnerved some Republicans ahead of the 2026 election. – New York Times
A nonpartisan entity charged with reviewing misconduct allegations has cleared Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) of wrongdoing in connection with documents she submitted to Congress that dramatically overstated her wealth. – Wall Street Journal
When Donald Trump campaigned for a second term in the White House, he promised to be a “president of peace” who would stop foreign wars, not start them. – Reuters
Editorial: Mr. Mamdani’s team flogged a 2001 city memo that estimated the city could face 35,000 potential plaintiffs from “toxic tort cases that might arise in the next few decades.” The memo says “a major concern is that if these cases make it to court, the judges and juries will be biased in favor of plaintiffs (even though the City seems to have a strong defense) and therefore, award substantial damages to compensate individuals for their loss.” […] The goal of the mayor’s document dump seems to be to goad Congress to make it easier for trial lawyers to sue the city so his legal friends cash in. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: The Republican National Committee promised that the convention in Dallas will highlight the party’s “common-sense agenda focused on affordability, security, safety and American strength.” Will that agenda offer answers for the 73 percent of Americans who tell pollsters the president hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s biggest problems? Or the 65 percent who think economic conditions have deteriorated since he took office? Or the 56 percent who say they are “very concerned” about gas prices? Affordability comes in many forms. On Wednesday, Trump said the war “will end immediately after our election.” He sounded like a man who thinks he can afford to stall for time. – Washington Post
Gregg Costa writes: Three weeks after 9/11, the court opened the term with oral arguments. There would be more disruptions—the largely forgotten anthrax scare of October 2001 hit the court and required it to hold arguments for a few days outside its building for the first time since it opened in 1935. The landmark decisions would come. But when I think back on my time at the court and William Rehnquist’s leadership, Bagley remains at the forefront. The two pages it occupies in the U.S. Reports quietly announce that the Supreme Court, like the rest of the country, wouldn’t be deterred from its work. – Wall Street Journal
Cybersecurity
Chinese AI chipmakers including Huawei Technologies and Cambricon have sharply raised prices for current and next-generation AI processors, three people familiar with the matter said, as soaring costs for high-bandwidth memory squeeze efforts to build domestic alternatives to Nvidia. – Reuters
Anthropic on Wednesday disclosed another instance of an AI model hacking external systems during testing, the latest in a growing list of such incidents that have raised concerns about the risk posed by autonomous AI agents. – Reuters
AI agents unleashed by OpenAI used more than 10 previously undisclosed websites for unsanctioned communications earlier this year, according to six sets of independent investigators and data reviewed by Reuters, showing that the agents’ rogue activity was wider ranging than previously disclosed. – Reuters
The U.S. government took action against a Telegram-based illicit marketplace facilitating billions of dollars in transactions connected to cyber scams, money laundering, human trafficking and other crime. The Treasury Department announced sanctions on the Chinese-language platform, Xinbi Guarantee, and two businesses it accused of supporting the marketplace’s operations. – The Record
A bipartisan trio of lawmakers is asking the Treasury Department to sanction three India-based mercenary hack-for-hire groups that have reportedly stolen data from thousands of American citizens and companies. – Cyberscoop
The Federal Trade Commission has rescinded a Biden administration-era policy statement that covered health and fitness apps under federal data breach notification regulations. – Cyberscoop
The private sector still isn’t sharing enough cyber information with the FBI in part because organizations are operating on false assumptions about what the bureau will do with what it collects, the FBI’s top cyber official said Wednesday. – Cyberscoop
Artificial intelligence is souping up the speed and capabilities of malicious hackers, a top FBI official said Tuesday. And the speed of vulnerability discoveries is forcing organizations to patch more frequently, said another top FBI official. – Cyberscoop
The FBI on Wednesday released its first-ever public cybersecurity strategy that details how the agency will combat malicious hackers and digital criminal gangs. – The Record
Editorial: The prospect of discovery, injunctions and damages ought to make AI companies more diligent about preventing their next experiments from going awry. Liability offers better discipline than overbearing legislation, and it’s much more likely to yield results than negotiating unenforceable treaties with the Chinese Communist Party. Silicon Valley’s prophets of doom want government to fear AI enough to prohibit an unknowable future. The better answer is to make AI companies fear the consequences of behaving recklessly in the present. – Washington Post
Paul Tudor Jones writes: A new superpower is about to enter the fray, one that is unknowable and unending and potentially dwarfs the U.S. and China individually or collectively. I hope Messrs. Trump and Xi are aware of this when they meet. They need to make AI safety the top priority for the rest of their tenures. I urge the U.S. and China to cooperate on a joint briefing by experts from both sides to assess honestly where we are in AI development. That shared understanding may save us all from the third superpower. – Wall Street Journal
Steven Adler writes: Those gestures need to be backed up with more aggressive action. On Tuesday, OpenAI just so happened to reveal the existence of yet another secret model that the company claimed was “significantly more capable” than Astra. The current pace of A.I. development is blistering; and yet there is so much more the A.I. companies could do to relieve imminent danger, and to lay bare the gambles they are taking with all our futures. The window to ensure we are heading to a bright future, and away from catastrophe, is closing fast. – New York Times
Defense
On an expanse of desert here between a Netflix studio and self-storage facility, construction is under way on a fusion plant meant to help America win an escalating nuclear-arms race. – Wall Street Journal
A defense technology start-up backed by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel announced Wednesday that it is making long-range cruise missiles that can be produced at a low cost, amid a U.S. weapons stockpile shortage that has been caused by the U.S. conflict in Iran. – Washington Post
A year into its military boat strike campaign, the United States appears to be targeting a new type of vessel — large fishing boats off the coast of Ecuador that the Trump administration says provide fuel to smaller vessels carrying drugs. – New York Times
The US Army says that its special battalion focused on drone warfare and lessons from Ukraine was always meant to be a temporary experiment, not a lasting element of the force. – Business Insider
The Air Force is embarking on an aggressive push to use artificial intelligence across its training pipelines to shorten technical training timelines, accelerate pilot training, and teach basic AI skills to airmen across the force. – Business Insider
The US Army is testing whether it could use reserve drill sergeants and other personnel to quickly expand basic training in the event that a major conflict suddenly needed training pipelines to produce far more soldiers. – Business Insider
U.S. defense-technology company Anduril Industries has teamed up with Poland’s state-run defense giant PGZ for local assembly and production of the surface-launched Barracuda-500M cruise missile. – Defense News
The U.S. arm of Israeli-based Elbit Systems has rebranded to Twenty-Six Defense, a new name that emphasizes the subsidiary’s American-made brand. – Defense News
The Pentagon has decided which company will make the U.S. Navy’s next-generation stealth fighter and could announce the winner in the coming weeks or sooner, two people briefed on the matter said. – Defense News
The U.S. Air Force is looking to turn its cargo planes into launch platforms for drone swarms. Or more specifically, the service would like transport aircraft and their retinue of drones to deploy to Air Force bases. – Defense News
A Navy destroyer made a port call to Africa last week as the U.S. military considers new destinations for its warships amid longer deployments to support the war with Iran. – USNI News
Matt Reisener writes: If the White House can overcome the regulatory and political obstacles to foreign construction, greater allied shipbuilding cooperation could help deliver ships faster while creating a more resilient and integrated allied maritime industrial base. Similarly, should European shipbuilders seize the opportunity to deepen their connections to American shipbuilding, they could help strengthen transatlantic military relations and create a rising tide that raises ships on both sides of the Atlantic. – Center for European Policy Analysis