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April 17, 2026 CATL’s Mining Push Escalates China’s Critical Minerals Offensive China’s battery giant is going vertical. CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, announced a $4.4 billion investment to launch a dedicated mining subsidiary focused on securing critical mineral... April 17, 2026 Hamas Reiterates Refusal To Disarm, Placing Gaza Ceasefire in Jeopardy The ceasefire plan in Gaza has hit a roadblock in the shape of Hamas’s continuing refusal to disarm. The Iran-backed terrorist group conveyed that exact message to representatives of President Donald... April 17, 2026 Japan Is Poised To Become Part of America’s Arsenal of Democracy Japan’s rearmament policy is slowly going global. According to an April 15 report from Reuters, Japan is expected to finalize reforms to its arms export regulations imminently, significantly easing... April 17, 2026 Tehran’s Looking for a Few Good Spies in Israel Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is running an espionage recruitment operation targeting Israeli military and government personnel, according to new research from FDD’s Center on Cyber... April 16, 2026 China Restricts Access and Expands Reach in the South China Sea Amid tensions in the Middle East, China is tightening its control over the South China Sea. Satellite imagery shows Chinese vessels have erected a floating barrier at the entrance to Scarborough Shoal,... April 15, 2026 Emirati Crown Prince’s Trip to China Underscores Importance of Petrodollar Dominance Gulf energy exports have largely ground to a standstill, but the United Arab Emirates (UAE) remains open for business. Emirati Crown Prince Khaled Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan concluded a three-day visit... April 15, 2026 China Criticizes Iran War as Beijing Supports Tehran Under the Table China is trying to have it both ways in the U.S.-Iran conflict. On April 14, Chinese leader Xi Jinping criticized Washington’s blockade of Iranian ports and called for a diplomatic resolution during... April 15, 2026 China Uses Political Leverage To Influence Foreign Courts The Chinese government’s power to prosecute — or persecute — critics does not stop at its borders. On April 13, a court in Kazakhstan sentenced 19 activists to prison after they protested Beijing’s... April 15, 2026 Trump Rebukes U.S. Proposal for 20-Year Moratorium on Iran’s Uranium Enrichment “I’ve been saying they can’t have nuclear weapons … so I don’t like the 20 years,” President Donald Trump told the New York Post on April 14. The president was responding to reports that... April 15, 2026 The Persian Gulf is the First Test for ‘Operation Economic Fury’ With a ceasefire in place and a military blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, the Trump administration is now pivoting to economic warfare against the Islamic Republic of Iran. On April 14, the Treasury... April 14, 2026 Plot to Kill Damascus Rabbi Highlights Hezbollah’s Goal To Destabilize Syria During former dictator Bashar al-Assad’s rule, Hezbollah used Syria as a launchpad for weapons smuggling into Lebanon. Today, even after the fall of Assad’s regime, the group is still working to destabilize... April 14, 2026 Center-Right Party’s Overwhelming Victory in Hungarian Election Could Boost EU Support for Ukraine After 16 years in power, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was resoundingly defeated in the country’s general election on April 12. The victory of the center-right Tisza Party led by Peter Magyar... April 10, 2026 Costa Rica Designates IRGC and Iranian Proxies as Terrorist Groups Costa Rica has announced the designation as terror groups of three of Iran’s key regional proxies as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the bedrock of the Tehran regime. President... April 10, 2026 U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Negotiations With Iran Do Not Extend to Hezbollah in Lebanon “The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” So declared President Donald Trump with regard to the representatives Iran dispatched to Pakistan to negotiate with a U.S. team led... April 10, 2026 Audit Finds Federal Aviation Administration Delinquent in Cybersecurity Practices For years, America’s air traffic has run on systems the federal government knows are not secure. The Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has published an... April 9, 2026 Ceasefire with Tehran Doesn’t Guarantee Peace Less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran’s ruling regime, the portents that it will last the course are hardly positive. The White House has already... April 9, 2026 Israel Partners With U.S. To Accelerate Arrow Interceptor Production Following a lethal Iranian ballistic missile strike in Haifa, Israel announced on April 6 a plan to partner with a U.S.-based manufacturer to accelerate production of Arrow missile defense interceptors.... April 8, 2026 The American AI Sector Bands Together To Stop Chinese Theft China’s effort to steal American artificial intelligence (AI) has begun to turn foes into friends. Three American AI firms locked in an intense competition for market share — OpenAI, Anthropic,... April 7, 2026 Israeli Strikes Target Iran’s Chemical Weapons Program Israel has been systematically striking key Iranian facilities that support or could support the development of chemical weapons. In its latest sorties, on April 7, Israel struck the... April 7, 2026 Tehran Is Repositioning Its Terror Proxies for a Domestic Crackdown After spending years exporting its influence, the ruling regime in Iran is now importing its regional proxies to assist with any crackdown against a revival of the mass protests that resulted in the deaths of... April 7, 2026 Rubio Instructs State Department To Actively Combat Adversarial Information Warfare America is prepared to “take an assertive stance” against information warfare conducted by its adversaries, according to a leaked cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The New... April 7, 2026 Hamas Given Ultimatum on Disarmament After Group Signals Unwillingness To Cooperate President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace (BOP) initiative, whose first task is overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire in Gaza, has reportedly given Hamas until the week’s end... April 6, 2026 Egypt Welcomes ‘Grain and Energy Hub’ Initiative from Russia Amid intensifying great-power competition, Egypt is no longer hedging quietly between the United States and its rivals. On April 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Egyptian Foreign Minister... April 6, 2026 New Standards Aim to Protect Medical Patients from the ‘Internet of Things’ Cybersecurity in healthcare may finally be getting its overdue visit to the doctor’s office. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing new cybersecurity guidance for... April 6, 2026 Time to Lift the Veil on Foreign Funding in K-12 Schools State lawmakers in Georgia just won a major battle in the long war to reveal foreign influence in America’s K-12 public schools. A new bill, which recently passed both chambers of the state legislature,... April 3, 2026 Congress Targets Advanced Chip-Making Equipment To Stifle Chinese Progress in AI Race Congress is seeking to lock China out of the global advanced chip-making market. Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Andy Kim (D-NJ), along with Representative Michael Baumgartner (R-WA), introduced a... April 2, 2026 Hezbollah Likely Employing FPV Drones Against IDF Video footage emerged Tuesday that appears to show Hezbollah attacking two Israeli Namer armored personnel carriers and a military truck with first-person view (FPV) drones. These attacks follow Hezbollah... April 1, 2026 Ukraine Agrees to Mutually Beneficial Defense Deals With Gulf Arab States “In terms of expertise, no one today can help the way Ukraine can,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after his visit to the Middle East, referring to defenses against the Shahed drones... April 1, 2026 Ashab al Yamin: Terrorism With (Semi) Plausible Deniability Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, a shadowy front group with suspected links to Iran, has been spreading terror in Europe. It has claimed seven attacks against Jewish and Western institutions across... April 1, 2026 Putin Reportedly Vows To ‘Keep Fighting,’ Asks Oligarchs To Pitch In Russia “will keep fighting” until it captures the rest of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin reportedly told Russian business elites. During a meeting last week, the... March 31, 2026 Spain Cuts Further Adrift From Western Alliance With Airspace Closure to U.S. Military Nobody expects the Spanish imposition. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to close Spanish airspace to U.S. military flights targeting Iran will hamper U.S. war planning. Sanchez’s defiance might... March 31, 2026 Renewed Threat From Houthis in Yemen As Iran War Reaches Decisive Stage After a month on the sidelines, the Houthis have entered the war between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States and Israel on the side of their sponsors in Tehran. On March 28, the Yemeni... March 27, 2026 Israel Aims To Bolster Domestic Munitions Production As the military campaign against Iran continues, Israeli leaders are moving to build greater domestic munition production capacity. Israel’s Ministry of Defense (IMOD) declared “munitions independence”... March 27, 2026 Iranian Cyber Operations Take Advantage of Weakened U.S. Defenses The agency responsible for defending against Iranian cyberattacks is running at less than half strength, so perhaps cyber strikes against two U.S. healthcare companies in two weeks should not be surprising.... March 27, 2026 Houston, Americans Are Headed Back to the Moon “America will never again give up the moon,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated on March 24 as he announced a $20 billion investment to build a lunar base over the next seven years. The moon... March 27, 2026 As Chinese Robotics Industry Surges, Senate Considers Limited Federal Procurement Ban Androids may dream of electric sheep, but Washington isn’t staying quiet on foreign robots. On March 26, Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced a bill intended to exclude certain... March 26, 2026 Iran’s New Security Chief Marches to the Same Tune as His Predecessors Regime officials in Tehran are playing musical chairs with vacant positions. Israel’s elimination of Ali Larijani on March 16 has left Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) in the hands of... March 26, 2026 U.S. Redirects Tehran Regime’s Illicit Wealth to Its Victims Tehran is getting evicted. For about three decades, the clerical regime has owned prime real estate in Midtown Manhattan. On March 23, the Southern District of New York announced its entry into a settlement... March 25, 2026 FCC Ban on Foreign-Produced Routers Targets Chinese Firms Tied to Cybersecurity Risks The United States is pushing Chinese-produced routers off the shelf and onto a watchlist. On March 23, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned all foreign-produced routers from entering the... March 25, 2026 Iraqi Security Institutions: The Latest Victims of Tehran’s Iraqi Proxies The Iraqi government may not care about protecting Americans from Tehran’s militias, but it should certainly care about protecting its own citizens. Amidst bombardments against American assets in... March 25, 2026 Tehran Regime Marks Persian New Year With Public Hangings Iranians’ greatest fear is not the bombs exploding around them, but the hangman’s noose wielded by their own rulers. Not content with the mass slaughter of some 40,000 unarmed Iranians during the... March 24, 2026 Russian Abduction of Ukrainian Children is Part of Effort To Erase Ukrainian Identity The “largest child abduction case since World War 2” is set to be discussed by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. Congress. The March 25 hearing will focus on the Ukrainian... March 24, 2026 In Major Reversal, Taiwan Seeks To Rewire Its Energy Strategy by Restarting its Nuclear Plants The Taiwanese government is reversing course on permanently closing its nuclear reactors. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has presented a plan to restart two of the island’s shuttered nuclear reactors... March 23, 2026 U.S. Intelligence Community Omits Key Russian Threat in Annual Assessment Moscow’s favorite color in the Arctic is gray. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) Annual Threat Assessment correctly identifies Russia as the dominant Arctic threat and... March 20, 2026 Exposure of Major Chinese-Linked Chip Smuggling Operations Shows Limits of Industry Self-Policing China is still behind the United States in the AI race, but it is willing to pay a lot to catch up fast. The Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment on March 19 against Yih-Shyan Liaw, Ruei-Tsang... March 20, 2026 South African Government Continues Antagonizing U.S. South Africa is defiant, refusing to distance itself from the Islamic Republic despite U.S. Ambassador Brent Bozell stating that “an association with Iran is an impediment to good relations with the... March 20, 2026 Treasury Lifts Sanctions on Turkish National Who Aided Russia’s Illegal War on Ukraine A Turkish entrepreneur conducting extensive trade with Russia is the subject of an unusual decision by the U.S. Treasury Department to lift sanctions against him and three of his companies. Berk... March 19, 2026 Japanese Prime Minister Looks To Balance Regional Issues With Iran War During Meeting With Trump Tokyo is looking to support the United States during its ongoing war with Iran. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met with President Donald Trump on March 19 to discuss the possibility of... March 19, 2026 Operation Roaring Lion Is Rewriting the Rules of War Against Iran Operation Roaring Lion, Israel’s ongoing military campaign against the clerical regime in Iran, should not be understood as a short-duration punitive campaign. It is rather a sustained military operation... March 19, 2026 Georgia’s Turn Toward China’s Financial System Georgia, once Washington’s closest partner in the Caucasus region, is strengthening its economic ties with Beijing. Four Georgian banks have applied to join China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System...

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