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May 8, 2026 Taiwan Authorizes New Defense Spending To Counter Chinese Coercion Taiwan will ramp up arms purchases following the approval of new defense spending. On May 8, Taiwan’s legislature passed a $25 billion supplement to the island’s annual defense budget, ending months... May 8, 2026 New U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy Spotlights Muslim Brotherhood Amid the war with Iran, the Trump administration has not forgotten about the Muslim Brotherhood. On May 6, the White House released its 2026 counterterrorism strategy, identifying the Muslim Brotherhood... May 7, 2026 Syria’s Accommodation of Foreign Jihadists Backfires The Syrian government’s effort to integrate foreign fighters into its armed forces may be unraveling. On May 5, Syrian authorities arrested 16 Uzbek fighters following a standoff with armed members... May 6, 2026 China Looks To Ease Iran Into Resolution of War With U.S. China is looking to engineer an off-ramp to end the current U.S.-Iran conflict without forcing Tehran to fold. On May 6, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met in Beijing with China’s Foreign... May 6, 2026 Oversights Mar Low-End Estimate of Tehran’s Nuclear Weapons Timeline U.S. intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran is now 9 to12 months away from being able to build a nuclear weapon, according to a Reuters report. Taken at face value, the report would indicate... May 5, 2026 Jordanian Warplanes Strike Drug Traffickers in Southern Syria, Where Damascus Exerts Little Control In an operation codenamed “Jordanian Deterrence,” Amman’s fighter jets carried out strikes on at least five separate locations in the Syrian governorate of Suwayda on May 2, targeting “sites belonging... May 1, 2026 Blockade Pressure Mounts as Washington Rejects Tehran’s Proposal The Islamic Republic can absorb air and missile strikes but cannot withstand economic collapse. Yet it risks such a collapse if it does not budge. President Donald Trump rejected Tehran’s proposal... May 1, 2026 Palestinian Authority Double-Speak on Payments to Terrorists Places French and EU Aid Under the Spotlight French President Emmanuel Macron could not have been clearer. Standing alongside Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas at a press conference following their meeting in Paris last... May 1, 2026 Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood Wing Opts for a Cosmetic Rebrand The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front, is trying out a new name. Jordan’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) ordered the party to change its name under the... April 30, 2026 U.S. Signals Approval of New Iraqi Prime Minister-Designate Selected by Pro-Tehran Bloc More than five months after its national elections, Iraq may finally have a new leader. On April 27, Iraqi President Nizar Amedi named Ali al-Zaidi,... April 29, 2026 Commerce Department Seeks To Undercut Chinese AI Sector by Targeting Chipmakers Washington is looking to choke off China’s advanced chip sector. As reported by Reuters on April 28, the Commerce Department sent letters to several major American chipmaking firms immediately banning... April 29, 2026 Time To Bury OPEC OPEC is dying. The announcement by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that it will leave the cartel effective May 1 may be the fatal blow. As OPEC’s third-largest producer, the UAE’s exit follows Qatar’s... April 28, 2026 Hamas Refusal to Disarm Sets Stage for Gaza Escalation While the U.S.-Iran standoff and Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon make headlines, Israel has been stepping up preparations for a resumption of warfare in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is refusing U.S. overtures... April 28, 2026 Trump Strikes at China’s Iranian Oil Trade, but It’s Not Enough The bombs may have stopped falling on Iran — for now — but that doesn’t mean the regime isn’t still under attack, including its illicit oil trade with China. The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday... April 28, 2026 Iranian-Linked Militias in Iraq Threaten U.S. Dollar Flows to the Baghdad Government The United States has been flying cash — around $400-$500 million at a time — to Baghdad for decades. However, The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the U.S. Treasury had partially suspended... April 28, 2026 U.S. Conducts Rare Extradition of Alleged Chinese Cyber Spy After a long search, the law finally caught up to the laptop. On April 27, the Department of Justice released an indictment of Xu Zewei, a Chinese national accused of participating in state-sponsored... April 28, 2026 Syria’s First Trial of Assad-Era Figure Signals Progress, but Accountability Still Falls Short The first public trial of officials associated with former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime opened in Damascus on April 26. The defendant is Atef Najib, Assad’s cousin and former head of the intelligence... April 28, 2026 The U.S. Should Take a Page From Europe’s New Russia Sanctions Playbook The European Union is stepping up enforcement against Russian sanctions evasion. Brussels has now implemented its largest set of designations against Moscow in two years, targeting the Kremlin’s enablers... April 24, 2026 Sharaa’s Gulf Tour Is All About the Economy Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa visited three Gulf states — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — over two days beginning on April 21. The Syrian presidency described the trip in broad... April 23, 2026 Trump Administration Requests Extraordinary $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget After years of bipartisan failures to devote sufficient resources to defense, the Trump administration requested an extraordinary 44 percent increase in defense spending in its roughly $1.5... April 23, 2026 Taiwan Looks To Lock In New Arms Deal With America Amid Defense Spending Debate For both Taipei and Washington, spring is the season for defense budgets. On April 22, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense announced that it had signed six arms deals with the United States totaling more... April 22, 2026 U.S. and Filipino Forces Launch Expanded Military Drills To counter Chinese aggression, the Philippines isn’t just hoping to stand shoulder to shoulder with its allies. It’s looking for a crowd. On April 20, Filipino and U.S. forces began an expanded... April 21, 2026 Operation Economic Fury Turns Its Attention to Iraq After weathering weeks of attacks from Iran-backed militias in Iraq, the United States designated seven leaders of these terror groups on April 17, asserting, “These militias operate with near impunity,... April 21, 2026 Syria’s Crackdown on Hezbollah Opens a Door to Cooperation With Israel Syria has long functioned as Hezbollah’s strategic depth — a corridor for the group’s weapons and a launchpad for attacks against Israel, with Hezbollah embedding networks there during the rule of... 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...

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