Fdd's overnight brief

Israel

Fighting between Israel and Hamas intensified in northern Gaza, the first battleground in the war, where 200 days into the conflict territory is still heavily contested and Israel says thousands of militants remain. – Wall Street Journal 

The spokesperson for Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, called on Tuesday for an escalation across all fronts in a televised speech marking 200 days since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7. – Reuters

Newly installed Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa announced a package of reforms on Tuesday aimed at strengthening the Palestinian Authority (PA) amid increased global pressure for a revival of political dialogue with Israel. – Reuters

Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of standing “shoulder to shoulder with the rapists and murderers of Hamas” for declining to include the terror group in a report published Tuesday on organizations suspected by the UN of committing acts of sexual violence during conflict. – Times of Israel

One of the most passionate voices in support of a large-scale Israel Defense Force operation to clear Hamas from its last major stronghold in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city of Rafah comes from a man raised by the terrorist organization. – Times of Israel

Editorial: Leaks from American sources must be carefully managed to ensure they do not further inflame an already volatile situation. The security and stability of nations, particularly in such sensitive contexts, depend on the prudent handling of sensitive information and a commitment to preventing unnecessary chaos and anxiety. – Jerusalem Post

Amb. Gilad Erdan writes: A meeting where a terror entity could be given full membership status. This is how far the UN has fallen. And this is why the UN – in its current format – has no future. I truly pray for brighter days. For a time when the U.N. can successfully combat the forces of darkness, not welcome them and be influenced by them. – Fox News

Russia & Ukraine

A Moscow court rejected an appeal by Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich against his detention, meaning the U.S. citizen, who has been awaiting trial for over a year, will remain behind bars until at least June 30. – Wall Street Journal 

The explosion lit up the night sky, sending flames hundreds of feet into the air. Another huge blast followed a few seconds later, then a third. The booms carried for miles across the fields east of Chasiv Yar, and a few moments later, a jet ripped through the sky. – Wall Street Journal

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it has suspended consular services for Ukrainian men of military fighting age who have left the country, potentially cutting off their ability to renew passports or access other essential citizen services. – Washington Post

A deputy minister of defense in Russia has been detained on charges of taking a “large scale” bribe, the country’s top law enforcement investigators announced on Tuesday. – New York Times

Fire broke out at energy facilities in Russia’s Smolensk region after a Ukraine-launched drone attack and people were evacuated from parts of Lipetsk in Russia’s southwest after a drone there fell on an industrial park, regional officials said. – Reuters

Russia will intensify strikes on Ukrainian storage bases that house Western-supplied weapons, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday, as the United States prepares to approve and deliver a long-delayed batch of new military aid. – Reuters

The United States is preparing a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine, the first to be sourced from the yet to be signed Ukraine-Israel bill, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday. – Reuters

Russian troops will strike in unexpected parts of the front when they conduct their summer offensive in Ukraine and could try to advance on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the commander of Ukraine’s National Guard said on Tuesday. – Reuters

The U.K. will supply Ukraine with additional long-range Storm Shadow missiles as Western countries pledge fresh military aid to Kyiv ahead of an anticipated Russian summer offensive. – Newsweek

The new $61 billion U.S. aid package provides Ukraine with a much-needed boost against Russia’s invasion. The package includes air defense, artillery, and long-range rocket-launched missiles. The first Ukrainian pilots are also close to completing their conversion training on F-16 fighter jets. These additive capabilities will bolster Ukraine’s defenses and enable its more effective targeting of and imposition of friction upon high-value Russian targets. – Washington Examiner

Russia has deployed a “shadow fleet” of oil tankers in the Baltic Sea to circumvent economic sanctions and also engage in espionage, according to a top Swedish military official. – Washington Examiner

David Ignatius writes: Thanks to President Biden and a strong bipartisan majority in Congress — and most of all to what might be hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded Ukrainians who fought through the darkest moments — the survival of an independent Ukraine looks more certain today than it did a week ago. – Washington Post

Paul Krugman writes: Will this change? Europe is moving toward increased military capacity, but more slowly than it should, and American aid remains essential. So as I said, I’m relieved that America has finally released essential aid, but still very worried about the future. For now, at least, U.S. support remains crucial to Ukraine’s survival. – New York Times

Jack Detsch writes: “Ukraine is developing fortifications. They are building a defense depth,” said Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia program who last traveled to Ukraine in November. “But the problem is when you have this manpower problem and ammunition problem at same time, it creates issues.” And as production ramps up, Ukraine may be losing more troops that it can’t replace. “It took people two years to actually realize you need to invest in the defense industry,” Ustinova said. – Foreign Policy

Turkey

European Union auditors said on Wednesday that they are unable to establish whether some of the billions of euros the bloc has given to Turkey to help it cope with Syrian refugees is actually having any impact. – Associated Press

A United Nations judge was unlawfully jailed when he was arrested in Turkey in the wake of a 2016 coup attempt despite holding diplomatic immunity, the European Court of Human Rights said Tuesday. – Associated Press

Turkey’s poor human rights record and economic factors are undermining the effectiveness of the European Union’s migration deal with Ankara, EU auditors said on Wednesday. – Reuters

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he does not believe the Palestinian militant group Hamas will leave Qatar, where it is based, adding he had seen no such signs that Doha wished the group to leave, either. – Reuters

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks published on Tuesday he believed Iraq saw the need to eliminate the Kurdish PKK militia and had the will to do so, adding Ankara wanted Baghdad’s support in that battle. – Reuters

During the first two months of the Gaza war, Turkey offered several Arab countries to devise a plan for a security arrangement, which would include the deployment of joint forces in Gaza on the day after the war, Reshet Bet radio reported. – Arutz Sheva

Korean Peninsula

A high-level North Korean economic delegation was on its way to Iran, the North’s state media said Wednesday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. – Associated Press

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the country will continue to build overwhelming and the strongest military power to protect its sovereignty and regional peace, the North’s KCNA news agency reported on Wednesday. – Reuters

North Korean hackers have stolen technical data from South Korean defense companies, Seoul says. The Hacking groups, which are believed to have North Korea’s state backing, mounted the “all-out” cyberattacks for over a year, Korean National Police Agency said Tuesday, warning others in the industry to beef up security. – Newsweek

South Asia

An Australian journalist with the country’s public broadcaster was pressured to leave India after Indian authorities expressed anger over her reporting on Sikh separatism and informed her that her journalist visa would not be renewed, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the journalist, ABC South Asia bureau chief Avani Dias, said Tuesday. – Washington Post

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his power at home secured and his Hindu-first vision deeply entrenched, has set his sights in recent years on a role as a global statesman, riding India’s economic and diplomatic rise. – New York Times

The emir of Qatar landed in Nepal Tuesday on his first-ever visit to the South Asian country, after visiting Bangladesh and the Philippines, where improving migrant workers’ conditions in the Gulf state and a Nepali student still held hostage by Hamas are expected to be on the agenda. – Associated Press

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Sri Lanka on Wednesday for a brief state visit aimed at strengthening ties, during which he will also open a $514-million hydropower project. – Reuters

Europe

At least five people died at sea off the coast of northern France on Tuesday during an attempt to cross the English Channel, as governments on both sides of the waterway struggle to deter migrants from making the dangerous voyage to Britain. – New York Times

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday, a long-awaited trip to Berlin the British leader hopes will deepen security cooperation after he announced London’s move to increase defence spending. – Reuters

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday he would lift defence spending to 2.5% of GDP a year by 2030, saying the British arms industry must be on a “war footing” when the world is at its most dangerous since the Cold War. – Reuters

The Dutch national intelligence agency said Tuesday that threats targeting the Netherlands are increasingly connected to worldwide turmoil, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. – Associated Press

Law enforcement officers in Bosnia arrested 23 people suspected of belonging to a “global drug kingpin’s inner circle,” including police and security officials, in a clampdown on criminal networks controlling much of Europe’s cocaine trade, authorities said Tuesday. – Associated Press

With its capital closer to St. Petersburg than Berlin, the Nordic nation of 10 million people has been on edge since Russia’s annexation of Crimea a decade ago. But faced with an increasingly emboldened Vladimir Putin, NATO’s newest member says it has to be ready if the conflict spreads through the Baltics. – Bloomberg

The EU needs to get serious about competing with China for influence around the world with a megaplan for international investments that’s relentlessly focused on what works. – Politico

Dalibor Rohac writes: There are more than a few wrinkles to the idea of Hungary as a bulwark against antisemitism, however. If Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, was assuring his Israeli counterpart of Hungarian solidarity after Iran’s attack, less than two months earlier (and just days after Hungary’s putative defense of Israel at the Council of the EU) he had been signing a memorandum of understanding in Tehran to promote deeper economic cooperation with Iran in areas such as the pharmaceutical industry, health care, agriculture, and water management.” – American Enterprise Institute

The Americas

Federal prosecutors unsealed a years-old indictment charging 10 people with operating a scheme to evade U.S. restrictions on Venezuela’s state-controlled oil company Petróleos de Venezuela through the illegal supply of aircraft parts. – Wall Street Journal 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday he is willing to receive an envoy from the United Nations’ human rights office, after his government asked staff to leave the South American country earlier this year. – Reuters

The head of Mexico’s detective service acknowledged Tuesday that the country is “the champion” of fentanyl production, something that appears to run counter to past statements by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. – Associated Press

North America

Canada’s broad support for immigration, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said is necessary to counter an aging labor force and low fertility rates, has set the country apart.[…] But now, amid a housing affordability crisis and strain on social services, Trudeau’s government is rolling up the welcome mat for some immigrants. – Washington Post

Canada and its Five Eyes Alliance partners are working on put forward a response to tackle the price manipulation of critical metals, Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday. – Reuters

In a frequently tense relationship often defined by a shared border, the United States sent two officials with a different perspective to Mexico this week for a bit of space diplomacy. – Associated Press

The number of Chinese citizens coming across the southern border from Mexico has skyrocketed to the fastest-growing demographic of illegal immigrants in recent months, triggering serious concerns among lawmakers in Washington. – Washington Examiner

Cybersecurity

The hackers who attacked UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare unit were in the company’s networks for more than a week before they launched a ransomware strike that has crippled vital parts of the U.S. healthcare system since February. – Wall Street Journal 

A Spanish judge has reopened a probe into the suspected spying on the cellphone of Spain’s prime minister after receiving a request to collaborate with a similar investigation in France. – Associated Press

The US Department of Justice recommended a 36-month prison sentence for Changpeng Zhao, the former chief executive officer of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. – Bloomberg

Australia’s domestic intelligence chief warned that artificial intelligence is likely to dramatically improve the capabilities of the nation’s enemies — resulting in increased espionage, disinformation and radicalization. – Bloomberg

Digital regulators in Europe are clamping down on a new feature by TikTok that rewards users for consuming videos and interacting with creators, citing addiction concerns among children. – Business Insider

The Democratic operative behind an AI-generated robocall impersonating President Joe Biden that reached thousands of New Hampshire voters earlier this year said he is cooperating with state and federal authorities and that a lawsuit filed against him is without merit — even as he claimed not to have seen it. – CyberScoop

Chinese and Russian hackers have turned their focus to edge devices — like VPN appliances, firewalls, routers and Internet of Things (IoT) tools — amid a startling increase in espionage attacks, according to Google security firm Mandiant. – The Record

Poisoned data sets, trojan horses, and ever-changing cyber threats could derail the Army’s plan to broadly adopt AI. But a new 100-day plan aims to root out obstacles and prepare the service to scale third-party models and algorithms. – Defense One

Long War

Western intelligence prevented at least 10 jihadist attacks across Europe last year and the current war between Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas has increased the threat of further attacks, Dutch intelligence agency AIVD said on Tuesday. – Reuters

The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on leaders of militant groups over the taking of hostages, including Americans, in West Africa, the Treasury and State departments said. – Reuters

Australian police arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids across Sydney on Wednesday to protect the community from a potential attack, officials said. – Associated Press

African leaders discussed anti-terrorism solutions on the continent during a high-level security summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja Monday amid a rise in terror attacks. – CNN