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November 21, 2024 Despite Record of High-Profile Bribery, Qatar to Host Upcoming Anti-Corruption Conference Qatar, the Gulf emirate tangled up in several high-profile corruption cases, is hosting an international anti-corruption conference from November 26-27. Representatives from more than 50 governments and... November 21, 2024 Chinese Support for Russia Gives U.S. Opening to Seek EU Collaboration on Countering Beijing In the wake of a September report that Russia is producing long-range attack drones in China for use in its aggression against Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated on November 18 that he would... November 20, 2024 Will Lebanon’s Ceasefire Gambit Bring a More Sustainable Peace? Lebanon’s willingness to assent to a U.S.-proposed ceasefire offers a pathway to ending the current war, but significant challenges remain. Chief among these is Israel’s demand for operational freedom,... November 19, 2024 Ukraine Needs More Missiles to Take Full Advantage of New Biden Policy Explosions thundered in Russia’s Bryansk region last night after Ukraine struck an ammunition depot near the city of Karachev. According to U.S. and Ukrainian officials, this was Ukraine’s first strike... November 19, 2024 Chinese President Xi Jinping Lays Out “Red Lines” in Final Meeting with Biden Chinese President Xi Jinping presented four “red lines” that the U.S. should not breach during future negotiations between Beijing and Washington in his final meeting with outgoing US President Joe... November 19, 2024 Qatar’s Sportswashing Strategy: What the Latest Headlines on European Soccer Didn’t Tell You Paris’ Stade de France stadium appeared more like a fortress than a soccer arena ahead of the UEFA Nations League match between France and Israel on November 14. French authorities increased security... November 19, 2024 OPCW Investigation Confirms Russia’s Likely Use of Chemical Weapons Against Ukraine Russia’s consistent denials that its military forces have deployed illegal chemical weapons in Ukraine were dealt a serious blow on November 18, when the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical... November 18, 2024 Power Outages Highlights Iran’s Growing Vulnerability The Iranian government’s warning that Iranians should expect widespread blackouts this cold season suggests Iran may soon face a perfect storm. The scheduled electricity cuts come not only as Iranian... November 15, 2024 ‘Maximum Pressure 2.0’: Washington Seeks to Restore Deterrence Against Tehran The Tehran regime is already bristling at the prospect of a much tougher U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi warned on November 12 that if the Trump administration... November 15, 2024 Report Confirms Israel Struck Active Iranian Nuclear Weapon Site Iran was actively conducting research that would support construction of a nuclear device — a process known as weaponization — at a site the Israeli Air Force destroyed during its October 25 counterstrike... November 14, 2024 Lebanon Ceasefire Talks: Beware of Trusting Russia to Restrain Hezbollah Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, on Monday questioned the enforceability of a ceasefire with Hezbollah but suggested that Russia might help by blocking smuggled arms from Syria. Yet trusting Moscow... November 14, 2024 Beijing Displays New Stealth Fighter Jet at China’s Premier Air Show The state-sponsored biennial Airshow China, which marked the 75th anniversary of China’s air forces, began on Tuesday with the unveiling of several key aerial platforms, most notably the J-35A stealth... November 12, 2024 Information Sharing Is the Answer for Improving Cybersecurity in the Food and Agriculture Industry The Food and Agriculture Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Food and Ag-ISAC) last week released its first annual Cyber Threat Report. The report, the first of its kind in this sector, represents... November 9, 2024 Qatar Will Reportedly Oust Hamas After Months of Failed Gaza Hostage Talks November 8, 2024 Responding to Biden Administration, Israel Opens New Route for Aid Into Gaza A private letter to the Israeli government from the Biden administration became public last month, revealing that Washington was threatening to cut off military assistance within 30 days unless Israel... November 8, 2024 House Select Committee Seeks to Tamp Down Chinese Access to Advanced Semiconductors The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party issued letters to several large semiconductor manufacturers this morning seeking detailed information on their sales and top customers. The move... November 8, 2024 U.S. and Israel Expose Iran’s Tenacious Malign Influence The FBI, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Israel National Cyber Directorate published a joint cybersecurity advisory on October 30 detailing new tradecraft and operations by Emennet Pasargad,... November 7, 2024 China’s Careful Reaction to U.S. Election Masks Deepening Rift China’s restrained response to President-elect Donald Trump’s victory sharply contrasts with its months-long campaign to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral process and sow societal discord.... November 7, 2024 European Prosecutors Launch Probe into Allegations that Senior EU Official Accepted Bribes From Qatar European Commission advisor Henrik Hololei is the latest Western official facing legal consequences for allegedly accepting bribes from Qatar. On November 1, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO)... November 6, 2024 Israel Gears Up for Action: Iran’s Missile Moves from Iraq Push U.S. and Israeli Patience to the Brink Iran’s proxy terrorist organizations in Iraq have claimed more than 100 strikes against Israel in the past year alone, including one drone attack on October 4 that resulted in the deaths of two IDF soldiers... November 5, 2024 Chinese Money Launderers’ Guilty Pleas Highlight China’s Role in America’s Fentanyl Crisis Two Chinese-born individuals pleaded guilty last week to laundering tens of millions of dollars of drug proceeds in coordination with individuals in China and other countries. The case highlights the role... October 29, 2024 Captured Documents Show Al Jazeera Ties to Hamas, Islamic Jihad The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published captured documents on October 23 indicating that six Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza are members of either Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The IDF has... October 26, 2024 Israel Retaliates Against Iran Regime with Precision Strikes In the early hours of October 26, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced it had successfully targeted key Iranian military and defense industry assets, including air defense systems, missile production... October 25, 2024 MBS Bets on Egypt’s Fragile Economy For the first time since 2022, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) visited Cairo last week to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Their meeting, coupled with Saudi Arabia’s recently... October 25, 2024 Despite Pressure From Washington, Israel Considers Curtailing UNRWA Benny Gantz, a leading opposition member of the Israeli Knesset, advocated on October 22 for a vote on two pieces of legislation that would significantly curtail the activities of the United Nations Relief... October 23, 2024 U.S. Court Denies Sovereign Immunity for Halkbank The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on Tuesday that the federal government could proceed with the prosecution of Turkish public lender Halkbank on charges that it helped to evade U.S.... October 23, 2024 Iran’s Economy Braces for Impact of Clash With Israel Iranians remain on edge as they wait for Israel’s response to Iran’s latest ballistic missile barrage. The Iranian currency reflects local anxiety as the street value of the Iranian rial to the dollar... October 22, 2024 UN-Backed Monitors Say Access to Food Improves in Gaza A new quarterly report from a UN-backed monitoring group says that only 6 percent of Gazans face “catastrophic” food insecurity, the lowest figure reported since the start of the war. The assessment... October 21, 2024 Biden Administration Admits Iran’s Oil Exports Have Grown Exponentially in Value and Volume Earlier this month, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) published its first report about Iran’s petroleum exports as mandated by the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum(SHIP) Act enacted earlier this year.... October 18, 2024 Turkish University Celebrates Hamas, October 7 A university in Istanbul convened an international conference last week where terrorist leaders, government officials, and academics praised Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre and called for the destruction... October 18, 2024 Treasury Targets Hezbollah Financiers, Syrian Narcotraffickers with Fresh Sanctions The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday against a Hezbollah financing network and three individuals who generate revenue for Hezbollah by trafficking illicit narcotics. As hostilities escalate... October 18, 2024 OPCW Must Act Against Russia’s Chemical Weapons Program In The Hague last week, member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) failed to act against Moscow’s use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops. As a result,... October 18, 2024 China’s Military Drills Around Taiwan Elicit Only Token U.S. Response China launched large-scale military drills around Taiwan this week acting on the pretext that Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te made offensive remarks in a major speech. These latest drills reflect Beijing’s... October 16, 2024 U.S. Deploys THAAD Battery to Israel An advance team of U.S. military personnel and equipment arrived in Israel on Monday as part of the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery as Israel considers its response... October 16, 2024 Argentina Arrests Hezbollah Crypto Financing Suspects Argentine authorities arrested four individuals last month suspected of financing Hezbollah using a cryptocurrency wallet. As Hezbollah has increased its military action against Israel, these arrests signal... October 16, 2024 Public-Private Cyber Collaboration Needs Enhanced Real-Time Data Sharing A House committee last month passed a bill to codify in law the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC), a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) collaboration initiative. If signed into... October 16, 2024 U.S., Canada Designate Samidoun a Sham Charity Front for the PFLP Terrorist Group The U.S. Department of the Treasury, in a joint action with the Canadian government, designated the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and Khaled Barakat on October 15 for raising funds on... October 11, 2024 Hamas-Supporting Grandson of Mandela Unable to Enter UK Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela, the grandson of South African anti-Apartheid champion Nelson Mandela, reportedly did not receive a visa in time to fly to the United Kingdom for a speaking tour that started... October 9, 2024 U.S. Sanctions Additional Hamas Operatives With Ties to Turkey The United States sanctioned three Turkey-based individuals and one sham charity on Monday, designating them as prominent international financial supporters of Hamas. The sanctions, imposed on the first... October 8, 2024 Back in Business: Russian ‘Merchant of Death’ Selling Arms to Houthis The prolific Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, released from American custody in 2022 as part of a U.S.-Russia prisoner swap, is once again plying his old trade, this time selling arms to Yemen’s... October 8, 2024 The Impact of the October 7 Attack Still Reverberates in the U.S. Israel on Monday marked the first anniversary of Hamas’s massacre of 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, which launched the regional war that continues to rage in the Middle East. While Israel is bearing... October 7, 2024 Erdogan Accuses Israel of Intending to Invade Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin’s Netanyahu government harbored ambitions that include the capture of Anatolia as part of “Greater Israel,” warning of... October 3, 2024 U.S. Investigates Russian-Chinese Nuclear Cooperation The United States Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed to Reuters last month that it is investigating whether China is helping Russia circumvent a ban on U.S. imports of Russian enriched uranium. Beijing’s... September 30, 2024 Consumer Devices Made by U.S. Adversaries Introduce National Security Risks The Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security Act, or the ROUTERS Act, passed the House earlier this month, marking a step toward securing the U.S. information technology infrastructure.... September 26, 2024 U.S. Ceasefire Call Fails to Resolve Hezbollah Threat U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and other world leaders issued a joint statement on September 25 calling for a “21-day temporary ceasefire to allow diplomacy a chance to prevent... September 25, 2024 Washington Should Demand Turkey Donate its S-400 Missiles to Ukraine and the U.S. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the United States to lift a broad array of sanctions that impede the ability of the two NATO allies to hit long-term bilateral trade targets. The request... September 25, 2024 The Biden Administration Should Not Sell F-35s to Turkey The Greek daily Kathimerini on September 22 disclosed high-level negotiations between Washington and Ankara to sell U.S. F-35 joint strike fighters to Turkey. Equipping Turkey with a fifth-generation stealth... September 24, 2024 Senate Committee Postpones Consideration of Bill Sanctioning ICC Officials The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote tomorrow on a House-passed bill to impose sanctions on prosecutor Karim Khan and other International Criminal Court (ICC) officials for abusing their authorities... September 23, 2024 Meta Bans Russian State Media Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads — banned several Russian state media outlets last week, including RT and Rossiya Segodnya, as part of its ongoing efforts to... September 20, 2024 Senate Moves to Extend and Toughen Caesar Act Sanctions on Syrian Regime The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), proposed a late amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act on September 11 that includes a four-year extension of...

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