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August 14, 2026 Iraq Struggles To Find Oil Export Options, but the UAE May Be Able To Help Iraq relies on oil revenue for over 90 percent of its budget. With exports hovering at around half of the usual 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) that were exported before Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz,... August 13, 2026 Israel Seeks To Preserve Military Depth in Gaza “Israel is currently at the yellow line,” the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, told Israeli television on August 9. “That is where its troops are. What we are asking... August 12, 2026 In Iran, the New Lineup Is the Same Hardline Regime The latest reshuffle of Iran’s government looks less like renewal than a game of musical chairs among regime veterans. Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, whose status and capacity to... August 12, 2026 U.S. Sanctions Georgia-Based Cryptocurrency Company for Supporting IRGC Even as Tbilisi says it seeks a reset in relations with Washington, it is turning a blind eye to financial schemes that benefit Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). On August 7, the U.S.... August 12, 2026 Syria Agrees To Turn Over Assad-Era Nuclear Material Syria has reportedly agreed to turn over nuclear material — remnants of the Assad regime’s clandestine nuclear program — to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under a U.S.-brokered deal. According... August 12, 2026 In Syria, Selective Prosecution of War Crimes Fosters Disunity For nearly a quarter-century, former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad presided over a repressive system that tortured and killed Syrians with little expectation that he would ever answer for its crimes. That... August 12, 2026 Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union Creates New Pathways for Potential Sanctions Evasion As Western sanctions work to isolate Russia’s economy, Moscow is investing in trade backdoors. The intergovernmental council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) concluded its 47th meeting with the... August 11, 2026 Yemen on the Brink of a Return to Civil War When the Houthis in Yemen entered the conflict between the United States and Iran on July 20 by announcing a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, it spelled danger in the Red Sea. Now, it appears Yemenis... August 7, 2026 China-Linked Social Media Network Seeks To Shift COVID Responsibility From China to U.S. Long after COVID-19 ended, China is still trying to shape the world’s perception of the pandemic. On August 6, FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) identified at least 50 coordinated... August 7, 2026 Treasury Penalizes Anti-Money Laundering Failure After Weak Enforcement The U.S. Treasury Department is raising the cost of turning a blind eye to suspicious financial activity. On August 3, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed a $125 million... August 6, 2026 Pragmatism Could Draw Syria and Hezbollah Into an Accommodation During the Syrian civil war, Hezbollah spent years fighting the factions now ruling Damascus. Now, even as Damascus intercepts the group’s weapons and disrupts its supply routes, Hezbollah’s Secretary... August 6, 2026 Israel Holds Firm as Hamas Attempts To Delay Disarmament Nine months have elapsed since President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip was enshrined by UN Security Council Resolution 2803. Trump’s plan lays out an explicit vision for a Gaza freed... August 6, 2026 New Congressional Investigation Alleges Banned Chinese Firms Never Left Domestic Networks In confronting Chinese cyber threats, the call is coming from inside the house. On August 4, the House Select Committee on China revealed that three Chinese telecommunications firms — China Mobile,... August 5, 2026 Syria’s Break With Russia Must Go Beyond Oil Syria’s current leaders and Russia once stood on opposite sides of the battlefield. Yet since the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow’s longtime ally during the Syrian civil... August 4, 2026 Turkey-Based Global Director of Sham Charity Arrested for Conspiring To Help Hamas The jig is up for a Turkish resident who allegedly funneled millions of dollars to Hamas while posing as a philanthropist. On July 31, U.S. authorities announced the arrest of Mohammad Hasna, the global... August 4, 2026 U.S. Should Quickly Heed Ukraine’s Request on Starlink As it braces for what may be its most difficult winter of the war, Ukraine is reportedly seeking permission to use the Starlink satellite communications system to target ballistic missile launchers on... August 4, 2026 Russia Is Expanding Its Arctic Submarine Fleet, Highlighting NATO’s Need for Enhanced Maritime Surveillance in the High North Arctic waters have always been frigid, but Russia’s expansion of its Northern Fleet is making the security environment more chilling. On July 28, Moscow launched the Ulyanovsk, its newest Yasen-M-class... August 3, 2026 China Rejects Overproduction Allegations Amidst Greater Trade Scrutiny Beijing is laying the groundwork for Paramount Leader Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Washington. On July 30, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with... July 31, 2026 Drone Strike on Egypt Spotlights Iran’s Expanding Pressure Campaign For months, Cairo watched Iran’s regional campaign from the sidelines. Now, the war appears to have reached Egypt. On July 29, a drone struck the Egyptian port city of Damietta, damaging a U.S. gas... July 31, 2026 Border Crisis Exposes Spain’s Self-Inflicted Migration Mess Tens of thousands crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, Spain’s enclave on the North African coast, on July 30, most swimming around a breakwater as Moroccan border controls lapsed. Dozens drowned. Within... July 31, 2026 U.S. Targets Iran’s Hormuz Extortion but Leaves Foreign Financial Enablers Untouched Tehran faced two rounds of new U.S. sanctions in as many days. On July 29 and July 30, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued back-to-back sanctions targeting the... July 31, 2026 Space Force Is Deepening Allied Cooperation. Congress Should Track the Results. The United States and its allies are still fine-tuning how to operate together in space. During the last week of June, U.S. and other Five Eyes personnel convened at Vandenberg Space Force Base for... July 30, 2026 Saudi Participation in U.S. Airstrikes on Iraq Signals Impatience With Baghdad’s Inability To Control Armed Factions Baghdad’s failure to address drone attacks from Iran-backed Iraqi militias is forcing other countries to act. American and Saudi forces, in a first for the ongoing war with Iran, launched joint... July 30, 2026 Iran Strikes Jordan To Probe Washington’s Escalation Limits Despite a lull in fighting between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran broke with its established pattern of portraying direct missile attacks against U.S. forces as retaliation. On... July 30, 2026 Zelensky Warns of Another North Korean Troop Deployment to Russia Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow wants around 30,000 more North Korean troops, and they could soon arrive in Russia. These troops will almost certainly support Putin’s war effort... July 29, 2026 The State Department’s $500 Million Bet To Beat China on African Minerals Trade over aid is Washington’s newest old idea for Africa. On July 24, the State Department launched the U.S.-Africa Strategic Investment Program — a $500 million effort and... July 29, 2026 FCC Confronts Chinese-Produced Power Inverters and Robots The United States is pushing China out of its domestic critical infrastructure, one bolt at a time. On July 28, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the addition of all foreign-produced... July 28, 2026 Treasury Moves Against Tehran’s Recycled Sanctions Evader As U.S. bombs struck Iran’s military, Treasury targeted the financier who helped keep it funded. The U.S. Treasury Department on July 24 sanctioned four individuals and nine entities sustaining... July 28, 2026 New Taiwanese Drills Seek To Enhance Maritime Resilience Against Chinese Coercion Taiwan is stepping up its preparations to counter a possible Chinese sea-based blockade. On July 28, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense announced that it would integrate counter-blockade... July 28, 2026 ICC at Crossroads Following Prosecutor Khan’s Removal Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, was removed from his position on July 24 following allegations that he repeatedly raped a female subordinate. Khan’s... July 28, 2026 Countering Hezbollah Could Bring Syria and Israel Closer “Syria is seeking a security agreement with Israel,” Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said in an interview with the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera on July 26. A successful agreement, he added, could... July 28, 2026 EU’s New Russia Sanctions Target Evasion Mechanisms, But Enforcement Challenges Remain The European Union continues to tailor its sanctions net around Russia’s war effort. On July 23, Brussels rolled out its 21st package of economic sanctions targeting Russia. This package, the... July 27, 2026 The Middle East Moves Toward a Multifront Maritime War Yemen’s Houthis have brought the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait into the conflict between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran — blocking millions more barrels of oil from easily... July 24, 2026 Trump Throws Cold Water on U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Deal Following the announcement of a U.S.-Saudi nuclear cooperation agreement, President Donald Trump is now raising doubts over it. In a Truth Social post on July 23, one day after news of the agreement,... July 24, 2026 Treasury Extends Its Muslim Brotherhood Campaign to Europe Pressure is ratcheting up on the Muslim Brotherhood. Months after targeting several of the Islamist organization’s chapters, Washington is now taking the fight to the group’s support infrastructure... July 24, 2026 U.S. Must Oppose Outgoing UN Secretary General’s Efforts To Renew Human Rights Commissioner Interviewed by the left-leaning Guardian newspaper shortly after his appointment as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2022, Volker Turk effusively praised the UN’s Universal Declaration... July 23, 2026 China’s Support for Russia’s Arctic Energy Buildout Complicated by Sanctions — But Not Prevented China and Russia purport to have a “no limits” partnership, but recent developments in the Arctic suggest otherwise. Citing a Russian government presentation originally reported by Russia’s Vedomosti... July 23, 2026 China’s Expanding Presence in Kyrgyzstan Undermines Human Rights, U.S. Strategic Interests In Kyrgyzstan, criticism of Chinese influence can end in public shaming or an arrest warrant. On July 20, a Kyrgyz presidential administration official published photographs, names, birth dates, and social... July 21, 2026 New Law Would Help Taiwan’s Communications Sector Work Around Chinese Cable Slicing Taiwan is increasingly looking abroad to strengthen its domestic communications resilience. On July 21, Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan unanimously passed a bill that eases restrictions on foreign firms... July 21, 2026 ‘Pilot Zones’ Pitting Beirut Government Against Hezbollah Launched in South Lebanon Israel ceded security control over three southern Lebanese towns on July 21 in a test of the Beirut government’s ability to keep out the Hezbollah terrorists who were operating in the area. The institution... July 21, 2026 Election of Pro-Iran Hardliner as Hamas Leader Along With Refusal To Disarm Raises Specter of New Gaza War The election of Khalil al-Hayya as the head of Hamas’s political bureau is the clearest signal yet that the Iran-backed terror group will persist with its refusal to disarm — a stance that may well... July 21, 2026 The AI Cyber Fix Washington Can’t Afford To Botch From the export controls on Anthropic’s latest models to President Trump’s executive order on AI security, the White House has now shifted its focus to AI-enabled cyber security risks. On July 14,... July 21, 2026 Jordan Should Stop Hedging and Stand Firm Against Iran Iranian attacks on neighboring countries, relaunched after the collapse of the Memorandum of Understanding between Tehran and Washington, have now claimed the lives of two U.S. troops in Jordan and possibly... July 17, 2026 Washington Should Prepare for a Summer of Unrest in Iran The United States has reimposed its naval blockade against Iranian ports while striking the Islamic Republic’s military assets for a full consecutive week, all in response to Tehran’s repeated violations... July 16, 2026 Iran’s Renewed Aggression Should Spur U.S. To Revive Maximum Pressure Campaign Iran’s repeated attacks on commercial shipping may ultimately force the United States to take a more aggressive posture by reviving its maximum pressure campaign against the Tehran regime. Following... July 16, 2026 Even Limited Sales of High-End Chips to Chinese Buyers Pose a Serious Risk China has a new opportunity to use American chips to achieve its artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions. On July 14, Jeffrey Kessler, the head of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security... July 16, 2026 Lebanon Seeks Turkey’s Help To Avoid Acting Against Hezbollah Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted a strong interest in his neighbors’ affairs last month, declaring that, “Turkey’s security does not begin in Hatay [in southern Turkey], but rather... July 15, 2026 Riyadh Strikes Houthi-Controlled Airport To Block Flight From Iran The Houthis and Saudi Arabia broke a four-year truce after Iran and its Yemeni proxy attempted to establish a direct flight path between Tehran and the Houthi-controlled capital of Sanaa. The flight openly... July 14, 2026 Ceasefire Collapse Restores U.S. Leverage as Sanctions, Strikes Weaken Iran’s Hand The memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the United States and Iran was meant to secure a 60-day ceasefire. Instead, the Islamic Republic has repeatedly attacked commercial vessels operating in... July 14, 2026 Kazakhstan Bets on Iranian Port Investment Landlocked Kazakhstan is seeking port access, and Astana is banking on Iran to provide it. On July 8, Kazakhstan signed an agreement to build a logistics and transport terminal at Iran’s largest seaport...

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