Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Venezuela and Israel resume consular services after 17-year diplomatic break WSJ Editorial: Who’s really holding up the Gaza deal? Iran is defying U.S. pressure by becoming a ‘survival economy’ Iranian factions squabble over war aims with Khamenei absent Top German General says Russia is probing NATO defenses with hybrid attacks Zelenskiy: Ukraine has given US negotiators proposals for ending the war with Russia Bloomberg’s James Stavridis: Putin can’t break down NATO’s door. He’s trying the window Syria sentences former dictator Bashar al-Assad to death Six killed in Houthi strikes on Red Sea ship, Yemeni government says North Korea fires missile ahead of major US-South Korea drills Taiwan condemns 'dangerous' planned Chinese navy drill with Indonesia to its east This Castro is a key envoy to Trump. Could he be Cuba's next leader?In The News
Israel
Venezuela and Israel have agreed to re-establish consular services in each country, both governments said on Tuesday, a dramatic shift in the South American nation’s geopolitical alignment after it broke ties with Israel in 2009. – Reuters
Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest defence firm, reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by double-digit sales growth, and forecast continued growth into 2027 helped by robust demand, partly as a result of Israel’s military conflicts. – Reuters
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, reaffirmed that West Bank settlements would remain and continue to grow, rejecting claims that they are obstacles to peace during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the West Bank on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband pressed Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar over humanitarian aid to Gaza and violence in the West Bank during their first phone call on Tuesday, while the two also discussed Hamas’s disarmament, Iran and antisemitism, according to a statement issued by Miliband. – Jerusalem Post
Ben-Gurion Airport officials identified an unauthorized civilian drone approaching the airport on Tuesday morning, according to the Israel Airports Authority. – Jerusalem Post
IDF troops opened fire on a suspected Hamas sniper who posed an immediate threat near the Yellow Line in northern Gaza, the military said on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen revealed on Tuesday that Israeli operatives have toured Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment facility several times in the past. – Times of Israel
Editorial: There’s reason for reservations about the road map, largely having to do with its departure from that 2025 Trump peace plan. “Demilitarization” has come to be replaced by “One Authority, One Law, One Weapon,” which sounds more like state-building. “Disarmament” by an international force has given way to handing weapons to other Palestinians for storage inside Gaza, with “personal weapons” allowed on the side. While Mr. Netanyahu insists on no Israeli withdrawal until Hamas is fully disarmed, the Board of Peace’s Mr. Mladenov speaks of a sector-at-a-time approach, which Hamas could game. Mr. Mladenov has offered assurances that none of these provisions will be perverted to keep Hamas in power, and he has a team including a two-star U.S. general working to prevent that. But can his small force ensure it on Hamas’s turf? The best way to overcome Israeli skepticism is to disarm Hamas. – Wall Street Journal
Walter E. Block and Hushang Manuchehri write: Israel’s enemies are the enemies of the civilized world. And the sooner the latter realizes their plight, the sooner they will be able to save themselves. Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia have recently signed a mutual defense pact with one another. It is not at all a declaration of war against the only Jewish state on the planet. But if it were, they will rue the day they took any such action. Five nations invaded Israel in 1948, and they failed. The Jewish state is a lot more powerful now than then. Did any other nation win an entire war in a mere six days? Israel is the mouse that roared. It is roaring on behalf of much of the remainder of the world. Not all of it, but much of it. Israel is Mighty Mouse, which overcame all the cats in the comic book series. – Washington Examiner
Pesach Wolicki writes: For example, the Oslo Accords required the PA to educate its population toward peaceful coexistence. That clause was abandoned without consequence, and two generations of Palestinians were raised on a curriculum that teaches murdering Israelis is the highest act of patriotism. This road map is repeating that pattern in real time, clause by clause. Netanyahu’s rejection is the first sign that, in a post-October 7 world, Israel may finally be prepared to insist that all agreements be implemented exactly as written. Netanyahu must hold his ground and declare that the decades of bait-and-switch games are over. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
President Trump is betting the pressure of sanctions and a naval blockade will force Iran to bend. But the country’s rulers are taking time-tested steps to keep their chronically battered economy functioning just enough to resist a drawn-out campaign. – Wall Street Journal
The price of oil was choppy on Tuesday, reaching $90 a barrel for the first time in two weeks before falling back, as the stalemate over the Iran war hardens and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz dwindles. – New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump accused Iran of being “devious negotiators” in an interview released late on Monday and described some of his current options in the war — “just bop along” and let Tehran fail economically or hit them “really, really hard.” – Reuters
The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the United States does not change its behaviour and accept Iran’s conditions, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said on Tuesday. – Reuters
When Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian told state TV last week that he found it “very difficult” to reach the country’s Supreme Leader, it sparked fresh speculation about the whereabouts of Mojtaba Khamenei who hasn’t been seen in public since taking over as the country’s ultimate authority in March. – Bloomberg
Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Asif said the US and Iran are close to “some sort of an arrangement,” adding that a lasting peace will be in the region’s interest. – Bloomberg
Iran lost approximately 95 million cubic metres of natural gas output due to infrastructure damage caused by its war with the US and Israel. Full restoration of lost gas production is expected by the end of September, with reconstruction of four damaged refineries proceeding simultaneously. – The National
Editorial: Iranian threats hounded Mr. Trump on the campaign trail in 2024. The regime knew that the man who ordered the strike on IRGC Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and who led the maximum-pressure sanctions campaign, was Enemy No. 1. It also knew that his successors, like his predecessors, were far less likely to take action against its nuclear program. For all the talk of how this war has “helped” Iran’s regime, it’s no accident that its state media and approved experts stress the need to use the Strait of Hormuz to hurt Mr. Trump in the November elections. The regime is desperate to run out the clock on the Trump Presidency—or speed up that clock with deadly violence. – Wall Street Journal
Eric Wargotz writes: The ultimate goal is to flatten complex, multi-lateral stalemates into a raw, one-on-one negotiation dictated entirely by American leverage, rendering the rigid geopolitical demands of the opposition entirely obsolete. As the situation with Iran continues to evolve, the international community must stop waiting for a return to traditional diplomatic decorum. It is time for our allies to stop hesitating on the sidelines, read the true strategy at play, and join the United States in these ongoing efforts. The unpredictability is not an accident or a glitch in the system; it is the strategy itself. Success or failure will not be measured by the metrics of conventional diplomacy but by whether this unified, asymmetric pressure can successfully force Tehran to blink first. – Washington Examiner
Russia and Ukraine
Russia has been systematically using drones to probe air defenses in Europe, looking for weaknesses to exploit, Germany’s top military officer said, amid what he called an intensifying gray-zone campaign aimed at destabilizing the continent’s governments and institutions. – Wall Street Journal
Russia released an American who had been held in prison for more than four years, and he was en route to the United States on Tuesday, President Trump said. – New York Times
For four and a half years, as President Vladimir V. Putin tried to isolate Russian society from his war against Ukraine, civilian deaths on the Russian side were largely confined to border regions of Russia or occupied areas of Ukraine. – New York Times
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine had handed proposals to U.S. negotiators for a plan to end the war with Moscow and suggested that Russia would use its parliamentary election next month as a pretext to declare a new mobilisation. – Reuters
A drone attack killed one person and injured two others in Russia’s Voronezh region overnight, while falling debris triggered fires at a Wildberries warehouse, Alexander Gusev, the regional governor, and the company said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The United Nations estimates that more than 16,000 civilians detained by Russia during its war in Ukraine are still being “deprived of their liberty,” many held incommunicado and on grounds that don’t comply with international law. – Associated Press
Zelenskyy said Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea in an overnight attack on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where a company said seven workers at its steel plant were killed and 21 injured. – Associated Press
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s weekend trip to Serbia triggered reverberations in the Balkans long after the Ukrainian president jetted back to Kyiv. – Politico
Ukraine has halted an intense campaign of drone strikes on oil tankers using a critical Black Sea port after a request at the end of last month from US vice-president JD Vance, according to Ukrainian officials. – Financial Times
Garry Kasparov writes: Putin has shown no sign that he will stop at Ukraine, and every sign that he will continue on into NATO territory. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on U.S. intelligence suggesting that Putin could mount a small-scale invasion into a NATO country within the next few years to test the alliance’s resolve. Putin will not stop, but, given America’s institutions, Trump can be stopped, whatever his motivations. And it is Congress’s responsibility to stop his undermining of Ukraine’s self-defense, and to prevent a further escalation of Putin’s war. – Washington Post
James Stavridis writes: The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad is a tempting location for direct retaliation given the confluence of vulnerable military power located there. It is also geographically proportional to any attacks on the Baltic states. Above all, Putin must be made to see that the alliance will respond with force if he continues down this dangerous path. Exercising NATO’s major operational plans for defending the Baltic states would send a direct signal. The bottom line: If the Russians probe with a bayonet and encounter mush, they will likely keep going. If they find steel, they will withdraw. NATO has plenty of military steel to resist an adventurous and risk-taking Kremlin. But it must find the resolve to use its muscle before Putin decides it’s mush. – Bloomberg
Tom Rogan writes: The Supreme Court also accepted that Yabloko had received foreign funding and was a source of illegal LGBT propaganda. And the court agreed that because combat continues in areas of southeastern Ukraine that Putin has (unjustly) claimed as Russian territory, Yabloko’s calls for a ceasefire were seditious. No matter that the Russian election commission had previously approved Yabloko’s right to stand in the elections, Putin gets what Putin wants. At least for the moment, then, the threat of anti-war voter embarrassment has been eliminated. But as this war drags on and Russians continue to suffer more for it, Putin’s political vulnerability will only grow. – Washington Examiner
Syria
A Damascus court sentenced former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and other officials from his fallen regime to death after convicting them of murder, torture and crimes against humanity, a symbolic step toward a reckoning with the country’s long and violent civil war. – Wall Street Journal
When Syria’s government forcibly took control this year of a northeastern region long dominated by the Kurdish minority, the Druse in Sweida watched with growing unease. – New York Times
Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule of Syria ended abruptly in December 2024 following a lightning advance by rebel forces who struck while the Russian and Iranian allies who had backed him through years of civil war were distracted by conflicts elsewhere. – Reuters
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that a deal reached with Syria on the future of Moscow’s military bases in the country would boost ties between the nations, and a Syrian source said some Russian forces would still be stationed there under the agreement. – Reuters
Turkey
Residents in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish-populated southeastern region reacted with a mix of relief, joy and uncertainty on Tuesday after parliament approved a conditional pardon for thousands of Kurdish militants, offering them a potential path toward integration into normal life in Turkey. – Associated Press
Meir Ben-Shabbat, a former National Security Council head, warned against complacency toward Syria and Turkey’s growing regional influence in an interview with Maariv published Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is heading to Tripoli and Benghazi for a two-day visit to push Türkiye’s “one Libya policy,” which advocates for a politically and militarily unified country, according to diplomatic sources. – Hurriyet Daily News
Lebanon
Lebanon’s parliament on Tuesday abolished the death penalty and replaced all existing death sentences with life imprisonment, the speaker’s office said in a statement. – Reuters
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said negotiations with Israel were progressing while reaffirming that Lebanon would not accept a continued Israeli presence on any part of its territory, according to a statement posted to X/Twitter on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Israeli officials say that even though roughly three weeks have passed since the pilot program to disarm Hezbollah began, the Lebanese Army is “not doing enough” on the ground, according to two Israeli officials who spoke to The Jerusalem Post. – Jerusalem Post
Yemen
A series of U.S. strikes on Yemen last year killed and wounded hundreds of civilians, according to an internal Pentagon assessment that was sent to Congress on Tuesday. – Wall Street Journal
At least six people were killed on Tuesday when a cargo ship was hit in the Red Sea by missiles fired by the Houthi militia, Yemen’s government said, an escalation in the chaos that has engulfed shipping in the Middle East. – New York Times
Neville Teller writes: Were the Houthis to become stakeholders in a recognized governing arrangement, their incentives could shift toward economic reconstruction, international legitimacy, and stable regional relations, reducing the strategic value of close alignment with Iran. For the moment, though, the liaison is firm, and the Houthis have become Iran’s only major proxy capable of exercising direct international pressure by threatening world oil supplies. – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
Fifteen people were killed and 32 others were injured when a pickup truck carrying workers rolled over in Egypt’s Ismailia Governorate, the health ministry said on Tuesday. The accident happened in front of the Al-Shabab power station in the Al-Dawawis area, according to the ministry. – Reuters
The General Electricity Company of Libya said on Wednesday that an attack on the South Zawiya substation caused a complete outage and loss of power supply to wide areas south of the city of Zawiya. – Reuters
Henry Sokolski writes: Since then, no state – including the United States – has offered nuclear fuel-making assistance to any non-nuclear weapons state. Pushing the current US-Saudi nuclear deal would reverse that standard and open the sluice gates to nuclear proliferation. This, in turn, would pose a threat not just to Israel, but the world. In 2009, Washington renegotiated its agreement with the UAE and set the right standard of no fuel-making. It should do the same with Riyadh. – Jerusalem Post
Eli Avidar writes: Taken together, this is less an agreement born of confidence than one driven by insecurity. At its core, it is an agreement rooted in fear. Saudi Arabia is not acting from a position of complete confidence. It is hedging against uncertainty. That is a rational policy, but it should not be mistaken for a demonstration of regional dominance. The headlines speak of power. The agreement itself suggests something different: a kingdom seeking reassurance in a volatile neighborhood. – Jerusalem Post
Korean Peninsula
North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Wednesday toward the sea off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast, South Korean and Japanese authorities said, days ahead of major joint military exercises by Seoul and Washington long denounced by Pyongyang. – Reuters
Two former Chinese military servicemembers were arrested in South Korea for alleged espionage, accused of acts including intercepting communications between fighter jets and ground control and collecting information on movements of U.S. armaments, police said Tuesday. – Associated Press
Park Joonhye writes: Missiles were once the sharpest symbol of North Korea’s military might. Yet the North Korea of the future cannot be explained by missiles alone. Drones, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare, cyber operations, and real-world battlefield experience are converging to forge a new form of military power. This does not mean the age of missiles is over. On the contrary — new technologies and tactics are simply being stacked on top of them. What we must prepare for is what comes next. It is not about guessing North Korea’s next weapon, but understanding how Pyongyang intends to fight its next war. If we fail to see North Korea beyond missiles, we will end up looking at its present while preparing for the past. And in national security, the most dangerous mistake, as always, is preparing only for the threats we already know. – Washington Examiner
China
The Chinese and Indonesian navies will hold a drill together in the sensitive waters to the east of Taiwan this month, China’s defence ministry said on Tuesday, where Beijing has been seeking to assert its sovereignty claims. – Reuters
China’s test of a nuclear-capable missile last month has exposed the limits of Pacific leaders’ ambition to make the region an “Ocean of Peace”, free from the crossfire of major-power rivalry. – Reuters
The US criticized China for not giving sufficient notice before testing an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Pacific Ocean last month, as the Trump administration pushes back against Beijing’s growing nuclear arsenal. – Bloomberg
China appears to be adding more capacity to store and fire missiles on its most advanced frigate model, satellite imagery shows, as the world’s largest navy continues to close the gap with the US in firepower. – Bloomberg
US maritime blockade could add about $18 billion annually to the Iran’s trade costs, the head of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce said on Tuesday, warning against trying to adapt to it as Tehran did with sanctions. – Iran International
David W. Wang writes: China’s Belt and Road Initiative would lose a key transit anchor, Russia would lose its primary southern flank partner, regional proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthis would face uncertain futures, and North Korea would lose a vital military-technology customer. Most importantly, China would find itself far more exposed. Beijing has long profited from a world where Russia and Iran absorb American attention in Europe and the Middle East. If those partners are crippled, Washington will finally be free to pivot the full weight of its military and strategic resources toward the Indo-Pacific. What began as a Washington effort to neutralize a Middle Eastern adversary may inadvertently sever a vital link in the Eurasian axis — fundamentally altering the global balance of power. – Washington Examiner
South Asia
The Taliban have barred an estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls from secondary education since they regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Myanmar’s military stepped up aerial attacks on civilians before an election held last December and January, and all sides in the country’s civil war committed war crimes and serious abuses including torture and sexual violence in the past year, U.N. investigators said on Tuesday. – Reuters
India’s government said any incident at its border with China was considered “serious,” in response to social media speculation of a possible standoff between the two militaries in India’s Arunachal Pradesh. – Bloomberg
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party accused the group that spearheaded massive student protests in New Delhi last month of hypocrisy for failing to play a more active role in the agitation now sweeping a state in India’s hinterland. – Bloomberg
Asia
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was expected to be discharged from hospital on Wednesday, his wife said, according to a report by state news agency Bernama. – Reuters
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon survived a confidence vote by National Party lawmakers on Wednesday, but the second challenge this year laid bare party divisions that commentators said could dent his authority less than three months before a November 7 election. – Reuters
Taiwan’s government has condemned “dangerous” planned Chinese navy drills with an Indonesian warship off the island’s east coast, saying Beijing was trying to create a false impression to the international community that it controls those waters. – Reuters
A Taiwanese court on Tuesday sentenced a woman who advocated for spouses born in mainland China to seven years in prison, after finding her guilty of conspiring with Chinese government officials and proxies to influence Taiwanese politics. – Associated Press
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s People’s Justice Party lost a reformist politician to a three-month-old political movement led by former cabinet members, underscoring divisions as it struggles to rebuild support after a string of lackluster election results. – Bloomberg
For years, the Pacific islands managed something remarkable — some of the smallest nations in the world persuaded their larger, more powerful allies that climate change was the region’s defining security challenge and pushed them to act. – Bloomberg
When Prabowo Subianto takes the stage to address the world’s fourth-most populous nation this week, outwardly he will look more powerful than ever. The reality is more complicated. – Bloomberg
Thailand suspended a controversial program that allowed police and local officials to buy discounted firearms and tightened gun controls after a student killed eight people in the country’s deadliest school attack in recent years. – Bloomberg
Thailand plans to warn the Trump administration that steep US tariffs could force it to scale back military cooperation, including the Cobra Gold exercises that anchor one of America’s oldest security alliances in Asia, according to an official familiar with the matter. – Bloomberg
Haroro J. Ingram writes: The lessons to be learned from the Philippines’ experience reach well beyond the territories of this critical U.S. ally. In only the last few weeks, China has fired a ballistic missile into the Pacific, intensified multi-lever pressures on Japan and New Zealand, and pushed its maritime gray zone operations east of Taiwan. The Philippines is a proving ground for methods that China is increasingly applying across the Indo-Pacific. The bipartisan Countering Gray-zone Aggression by the People’s Republic of China Act is an important signal that Washington recognizes China’s expanding campaign and its cascading strategic effects as a direct threat to U.S. security and interests. Whether the Philippines or China succeeds in this struggle could determine how the Indo-Pacific threat landscape evolves in coming years. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Europe
Count Binface is a character played by the writer and comedian Jon Harvey, 46, and he has run in several elections as part of Britain’s long tradition of novelty political candidates […] He is the main opposition to Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing populist party Reform U.K., in a special parliamentary election in Clacton, an area on England’s eastern coast. – New York Times
The Swiss government on Tuesday rejected a rigid interpretation of the country’s neutrality which campaigners want to enshrine in the constitution if they win a referendum next month. – Reuters
Latvia said on Tuesday a tunnel had been discovered under the border with Belarus and announced plans to combat networks that it says are helping a growing number of migrants cross the frontier illegally. – Reuters
Spain’s Defence Ministry will approve state-owned Chinese carmaker SAIC’s plans to build a car factory in the Galicia region, a ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday, despite reports of potential security risks associated with the project’s proximity to a naval base. – Reuters
Hungary’s parliament elected Andras Baka, a former head of the Supreme Court, as the country’s next president on Tuesday, a symbolic step in Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s effort to dismantle former premier Viktor Orban’s bastions of power. – Reuters
Hungary’s new government filed a criminal complaint alleging overspending on Viktor Orban’s social media content, in one of the most significant legal steps yet related to the former premier’s inner circle. – Bloomberg
Prime Minister Andy Burnham promised to speed up efforts to create more prison places as he attempted to quell an uproar over an inmate release plan that’s threatening to consume his crucial first weeks in office. – Bloomberg
Jose Lev Alvarez writes: Finally, the Pentagon should condition future dual-use licenses — and the modernization of Rota and Morón — on an audited cessation of Iranian trade and a public purge of Chinese infrastructure ventures. If Madrid refuses, Washington must relocate its vital naval assets from Rota to Gibraltar. Zapatero’s “Alliance of Civilizations” was delusional appeasement. Sanchez has metastasized that legacy into a sycophantic embrace of Tehran and Beijing. Washington must stop coddling this odious behavior and accept that Madrid has become a Fifth column in favor of America’s enemies. Spain must purge its complicity with terrorists immediately, or the State Department must designate it a State Sponsor of Terrorism. – Washington Examiner
Africa
Hospital admissions for severe malnutrition in Somalian displacement camps have surged 83 percent compared with last year, Doctors Without Borders reported Tuesday, as the African country weathers drought and aid cuts from the United States and other donors. – Washington Post
When Hakainde Hichilema rose to the presidency in Zambia five years ago, he was praised for defeating the incumbent, who had been accused of violent repression and electoral fraud. – New York Times
Ten Nigerian police officers were killed and two wounded in a clash with a gang of suspected bandits in northwestern Kebbi state, police said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund reached a staff-level agreement with Guinea on a 41-month Extended Credit Facility worth SDR 310.59 million (about $439 million), the Fund said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has increased to 4,449, including 2,061 deaths, government data showed late on Tuesday. – Reuters
Dry taps have become a daily frustration for residents of Johannesburg, a city haemorrhaging more than a third of its water supply, or an estimated 655 million litres (173 million gallons) a day, through burst pipes. – Reuters
South African prosecutors allege that Russia financed an attempted escape from the country by a social media influencer wanted by Benin in connection with an attempted coup in that country in December. – Bloomberg
Andrew Friedman and Brad Brooks-Rubin write: One need only ask whether the gold supply chain itself has been meaningfully disrupted in the last three years, which could be expected when a genocide is unfolding in a major producer and gold is consistently pointed to as a key economic driver. On the contrary, the sector is experiencing record prices and profits during the Sudan conflict. Eliminating this driver may not stop the war or alleviate the humanitarian disaster, but it would change the incentive calculation of key stakeholders while limiting the flow of resources for continued atrocities. Changing this dynamic boils down to two types of action: government policy and private sector collaboration. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Americas
Raúl Castro was on an official state visit in Paris a decade ago as Cuba’s president when a hulky bodyguard in his entourage stood out. The man kept so close to Mr. Castro while they walked the red carpet at the Élysée Palace that a member of the French honor guard tried pulling him back. – New York Times
Canada’s minister in charge of U.S. trade relations, Dominic LeBlanc, met with U.S. trade officials on Tuesday for the third time in as many weeks to try to avert looming tariffs on August 19. – Reuters
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign is preparing a new fiscal framework to replace Brazil’s current budget rules, imposing tighter spending caps as debt rises that could reduce real spending growth to zero, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. – Reuters
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s advantage over Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a potential runoff ahead of October’s general election narrowed, a CNT/MDA poll showed on Tuesday. – Reuters
Just nine months after taking office as Bolivia’s president amid a broader rightward shift in Latin America, Rodrigo Paz faces an uphill battle in winning backing for a package of market-oriented reforms even as his governing coalition fractures. – Reuters
Colombia’s government plans to declare an economic emergency to bolster its response to a massive earthquake, as the country’s new president faces a tough and early test of his abilities to handle a crisis. – Bloomberg
United States
A series of U.S. strikes on Yemen last year killed and wounded hundreds of civilians, according to an internal Pentagon assessment that was sent to Congress on Tuesday. – Wall Street Journal
A group of current and former Palestinian students and staff have sued Columbia University, alleging discriminatory treatment by the school against its Palestinian community since late 2023, according to a court filing in New York. – Reuters
Human Rights Watch and three other advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday to challenge its campaign against the International Criminal Court, arguing that sanctions against ICC judges and prosecutors are undermining the ability to prosecute people responsible for humanity’s worst crimes. – Associated Press
Joseph Bosco writes: To meet the hydra-headed challenge from a collective group of enemies in Europe and Asia, Trump must state clearly America’s commitment, with its allies and partners, to support the defense of Ukraine, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and other security partners. Only Iran, with its apocalyptic view of the world, will be undeterred by the threat of regime change. Trump must charge his foreign policy and national security team with finding or devising the most prudent and effective way to bring about regime change in Tehran. – The Hill
Cybersecurity
Two days before tens of thousands of migrants surged into Ceuta, one of Spain’s enclaves on Morocco’s northern coast, a newspaper there posted a video on TikTok and Instagram showing two young women walking in the city in wet suits, their hair still damp. – New York Times
AI startup Manus said on Tuesday it will resume operating as an independent company and some user data will be deleted as part of its separation from U.S. tech giant Meta. – Reuters
France has banned unsolicited telemarketing calls under a new law aimed at protecting consumers from intrusive sales pitches and shielding vulnerable people from fraudulent commercial practices. – Associated Press
The Trump administration has lifted restrictions on the use of TikTok on federal government devices, after finding that the popular social media app no longer poses a national security threat following the shift of its US operations to American investors. – Bloomberg
In less than a year, the world has witnessed a rapid-fire succession of political proposals to restrict youth access to social media: from the left-wing prime minister of Spain to the right-wing prime minister of Greece, the Australian Labor Party leader and a Texan Republican senator, and on to the national agendas of Brazil, Rwanda and, most recently, Vietnam. – Politico
With access to cloud and artificial intelligence tools for mere pennies, the General Services Administration’s OneGov strategy has saved over a billion dollars for the federal government so far, officials say. – Fedscoop
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom on Tuesday announced the launch of a statewide Teen Tech Council, to give young people a bigger role in shaping conversations around technology, social media and digital wellness across the Golden State. – Statescoop
The 911 system of a city in California was taken down by hackers during a cyberattack on Friday — one of several cyber incidents nationwide impacting government services. – The Record
Two weeks after a cyberattack knocked out its IT systems, the nonprofit medical system AnMed is still facing closures and the apparent hack of its Facebook page, which on Tuesday began showing ransom demands from the purported hackers. – The Record
Defense
U.S. forces fired on a Panama-flagged ship that attempted to run the American blockade of Iranian ports early Tuesday, the U.S. military said, stepping up enforcement as the Trump administration attempts to squeeze the regime economically. – Wall Street Journal
The Pentagon opened an online portal for industry competitors to submit ideas and requests for information for the $185 billion Golden Dome program, in the latest effort to shake up traditional defense procurement competition. – Bloomberg
Boeing revealed an ultra-low-cost radar seeker Tuesday as this year’s Space and Missile Defense Symposium kicked off in Huntsville, Alabama, pitching it as a way to get missile guidance on more weapons for less money. – Defense News
While the Air Force is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence for its sustainment and maintenance needs, service officials say most efforts remain in experimentation or market research as they determine where the technology can provide meaningful gains. – Defensescoop
Kerianne Tobitsch, who most recently served as a senior lawyer at the Homeland Security Department, was named the spy agency’s general counsel in June, according to two people with direct knowledge of the move. – The Record
A Chinese national is facing up to 20 years behind bars after pleading guilty to attempting to obtain U.S. military technology. – Military.com
Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall plans to sue the Trump administration. Kendall, who served as the head of the Air Force under former President Joe Biden, said Monday on CNN that he intends to file suit to restore his security clearance after it was revoked on Friday. – Military.com
William C. Greenwalt writes: It is beginning to become obvious that the US is not on the cusp of the largest defense budget ever but rather in a downward spiral to achieving the spending levels of our so-called “deadbeat” allies. This raises the question of who the real deadbeats are. Congress’ inability to make hard choices that support national security is becoming an international disgrace. There is enough bipartisan blame to be had for all, but continued inaction will have significant global ramifications. – American Enterprise Institute