Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
A prison confrontation gives the first glimpse in years of a popular Palestinian leader Iran says it will continue talks with IAEA after curbing access Zelensky heads back to Washington under pressure from Putin Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin. He got little in return. WSJ Editorial: What kind of peace in Ukraine? Hezbollah warns Lebanon 'will have no life' if state moves against it WSJ’s Eugene Kontorovich: Time to shut down the failed U.N. Lebanon mission South Korea's Lee orders partial phased implementation of existing North Korea pacts Trump says Xi told him China will not invade Taiwan while he is US president Myanmar to hold first phase of general election on December 28, state television reports Donald Trump Sets Out His Peace Terms for Zelensky Bolivians vote out socialists after two decades in powerIn The News
Israel
The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza led nationwide protests and a strike calling for their loved ones to be freed and for an end to the war in Gaza, a sign of growing domestic pressure to wrap up the fighting even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he plans to expand it. – Wall Street Journal
Israel and the U.S. are pushing forward efforts to relocate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, a move they have presented in humanitarian terms but which governments in Europe and the Arab world have criticized as unrealistic and a potential violation of international law. – Wall Street Journal
Marwan Barghouti, a long-imprisoned and popular Palestinian leader, hadn’t been seen publicly in years. Barghouti, who was convicted by Israel of murder and membership in a terrorist organization more than two decades ago, appeared in a video this week in an unusual interaction with a far-right cabinet minister. – Wall Street Journal
Israeli officials and experts say that the low-level recruiting of ordinary Israelis — which has escalated since the Hamas-led attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ignited the war in Gaza — is an attempt by Iran to foment internal strife and undermine Israeli society. – New York Times
Israel announced that it will renew the supply of tents and shelter equipment to Gaza beginning on Sunday, ahead of plans by the military to evacuate the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza City. – Agence France-Presse
For the past several weeks, critics have fumed at The New York Times over a misleading photo of an 18-month-old boy in Gaza on its front page. It turns out that Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, who was a symbol for a story about widespread hunger in Gaza, wasn’t simply suffering from malnutrition. – The Free Press
A 20-year-old Palestinian woman from the Gaza Strip who died shortly after being evacuated to Italy for medical treatment had cancer, Israel said on Sunday, after the woman was widely reported to have arrived at the hospital in a “state of severe physical deterioration.” – Times of Israel
Chairman of the Knesset Constitution Committee, MK Simcha Rothman (RZP), was denied entry into Australia on Monday ahead of an upcoming “solidarity tour,” according to the Australian government’s records, viewed by The Jerusalem Post. – Jerusalem Post
The Defense Ministry, the IDF Southern Command, and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) presented new humanitarian corridors on Sunday for the movement of civilians and the delivery of aid, including water, food, and tents. – Jerusalem Post
New internal data from the Israeli security establishment shows a sharp decline in the prices of basic goods in Gaza following the massive influx of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in recent weeks. – Jerusalem Post
A newly released video of Matan Zangauker, who has been held hostage by Hamas since October 7, showed the 25-year-old pleading with the Israeli public and leadership to bring him home, describing his severe physical and psychological deterioration. – Jerusalem Post
President Isaac Herzog met with the family of Gaza hostage Bipin Joshi at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Sunday. Joshi, a Nepalese agriculture student, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and still remains in terror captivity in the Gaza Strip. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: That conversation is not possible while a UN mandate-holder labors to recast a US-, UK- and Canada-designated terror organization as a “political force.” The Human Rights Council should replace Albanese with someone capable of basic impartiality […]Language shapes reality. Calling Hamas what it is – terrorists who seized power and turned civilians into shields – does not preclude compassion for Palestinians or criticism of Israel when warranted: It simply insists on moral clarity. The UN should do the same. – Jerusalem Post
Seth Mandel writes: But as we see from Barak-Corrin’s analysis, Hamas had a partner in that process: UNRWA. Especially considering the various Western boycotts of Hamas after it dislodged Fatah from Gaza by force, sustaining a totalitarian regime and its war machine wasn’t easy or cheap. The UN didn’t merely abet Hamas; it was designed to be part of Hamas’s key governing infrastructure. Rather than being an aid organization that Hamas took advantage of, the UN agency was constructed as a pipeline to assets and materials and influence on the outside for Hamas. And Hamas used those resources to take the Palestinians’ best chance at full self-government and turn it into an argument against Israeli disengagement from further territory. It became an engine of war and death, and then on Oct. 7, 2023, it became a symbol of world-historical evil. Gaza since disengagement is a profound condemnation of the UN and its entanglement with Hamas. Both must go before Gaza will ever get another chance. – Commentary
Iran
Iran will continue talks with the IAEA – the U.N. nuclear watchdog – and the two sides will probably have another round of negotiations in the coming days, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday. – Reuters
Gunmen in Iran’s volatile southeast killed a police officer in a shootout with security forces, news agencies reported Saturday, with a jihadist group claiming the attack. – Agence France-Presse
Seyed Yahya Rahim Safavi, an advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, alluded to the possibility of renewed conflict between Israel and Iran on Sunday, Persian media reported. – Jerusalem Post
An Iranian lawmaker on the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said on Sunday that Tehran can target US cities from offshore positions and that every European country is already within range of Iranian missiles, remarks made as Britain, France and Germany signal they are ready to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran. – Jerusalem Post
Israel tried to assassinate Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the 12-day war in June, according to Mohsen Haji-Mirzaei, Pezeshkian’s chief of staff. – Jerusalem Post
Felice Friedson writes: Israel could play a pivotal role in saving Iran from its own mismanagement. Modernized infrastructure, renewable-powered desalination, and large-scale recycling could foster environmental peacebuilding between enemies. Iran must reassess its priorities, put its people first, and leverage Israel’s water expertise for peace – or wake up to a waterless country, where nukes won’t matter. – Jerusalem Post
Russia and Ukraine
When Zelensky returns to the Oval Office on Monday the gap over security guarantees will have narrowed, but a chasm over Moscow’s territorial demands remains. That leaves Zelensky with a dilemma: how to sustain Trump’s support while responding to Russian territorial proposals he feels compelled to refuse. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump welcomed his Russian counterpart to Alaska with the former showman’s signature extravagance: a red carpet, a military flyover and a ride in the presidential limousine. But Trump headed back to Washington with little to show for all the pageantry. – Wall Street Journal
European leaders will travel to Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet with President Trump on Monday, aiming for unity in pushing back against Russian efforts to dictate peace terms in their war. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump told European leaders that he was open to offering U.S. security guarantees to Ukraine, according to several European officials, a significant shift in his stance toward America’s role in any end to the war. – Wall Street Journal
July was the deadliest month in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, with 286 people killed and 1,388 wounded, according to the United Nations. The number of civilians killed and wounded in Ukraine in the first seven months of the year increased by 48 percent compared with the same period the year before. – Washington Post
The proposal to end the war in Ukraine that emerged from the summit in Alaska between President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia centers on persuading Kyiv to give up the Donbas, the industrial region in the east. – New York Times
The meeting in Alaska between President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has spawned a miasma of propaganda and disinformation, online trolling and unhinged conspiracy theories. – New York Times
As President Trump touched down in Anchorage on Friday to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over the war in Ukraine, that country’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky, criticized continuing Russian strikes as a sign that Moscow was not prepared to end the conflict. – New York Times
The death toll from an unexplained blast last week at a production facility in Russia’s Ryazan region has jumped to at least 20 dead with another 134 people injured, local emergency services said on Monday. – Reuters
A Russian air attack overnight on a residential area in Kharkiv killed three people, including a toddler, and injured 17, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday, as the United States presses Kyiv to take a quick deal to end a war Moscow started. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump could offer NATO-like protection of Ukraine, and Russia is open to the idea, one of his top foreign policy officials said on Sunday ahead of a meeting with Ukraine and European leaders to hammer out details of possible security guarantees for Kyiv. – Reuters
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had prevented a Ukrainian drone attack on the Smolensk nuclear power plant in western Russia on Sunday. – Reuters
Russian forces shot down 300 Ukrainian drones and struck storage sites for Sapsan missiles while fierce battles raged in the Donetsk region where Ukrainian forces were trying to halt a Russian advance, the defence ministry and war bloggers said. – Reuters
Special envoy Steve Witkoff says the White House extracted critical wins from its Friday summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, even as President Donald Trump failed to walk away with the ceasefire he was loudly advocated for. – Politico
Editorial: Mr. Trump has made his role as a peacemaker a major theme of his second term, and it’s an admirable ambition. But the question is, as always, peace at what price? Cunning adversaries like Mr. Putin and China’s Xi Jinping can sense when the desire for a Nobel Peace Prize can be exploited for far more substantive strategic gains. With his military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Mr. Trump began to re-establish the American deterrence that Barack Obama and Joe Biden gave away in Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Middle East. What Mr. Trump does next in Ukraine will decide if he builds on that success, or gives it away for a dubious declaration of peace in our time. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: On Wednesday he had promised “very severe consequences” if Mr. Putin didn’t agree to end the war. Will he now move to impose sanctions on such buyers of Russian oil as China and Turkey as he has India? Or will he agree to a second summit, as Mr. Putin seems to want, in hope that next time will be different? Mr. Trump’s desire to be a peacemaker is laudable, but in Vladimir Putin he is dealing with a hard man who has his eyes fixed on conquering Ukraine sooner or later. Mr. Putin will only bend from that goal if he sees a unified West determined to deny him that victory and willing to impose severe costs if he continues his march of death in Ukraine. – Wall Street Journal
James Stavridis writes: As Trump and his team consider their options to put sufficient pressure on Putin, the items on this list could be initially threatened and deployed one-by-one as necessary. And certainly, Ukraine conceding some of its territory already in Russian hands would have to be part of a final agreement. There are carrots as well as sticks to be used on Moscow, including sanctions relief and the return of their funds. But more sticks appear to be needed to get Putin to make a deal. – Bloomberg
Daniel S. Hamilton and Angela Stent write: The Kremlin is likely to persist in these efforts until international actors understand that the fight for Ukraine is also a fight for the future of the Black Sea. Efforts to end the war must be paired with a robust strategy to prevent Moscow’s dominance in the greater Black Sea region. North American and European policymakers should prioritize initiatives designed to improve the region’s democratic governance and economic development and assure the secure production and transit of commodities. If such steps fail to stabilize the region, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine may well extend to Moldova and Georgia and could even balloon into a direct confrontation with NATO states that border the Black Sea—the consequences of which would ripple across markets worldwide and threaten an even wider variety of U.S. and European interests. – Foreign Affairs
Hezbollah
Hezbollah raised the spectre of civil war with a warning on Friday there would be “no life” in Lebanon if the government sought to confront or eliminate the Iran-backed group. – Reuters
Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck a Hezbollah facility and a tunnel belonging to the terror group near the Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon on Friday, the IDF said, with Defense Minister Israel Katz warning Beirut that it was responsible for reining in the terror group. – Agence France-Presse
Mohammed Ayyad, a Hezbollah terrorist who was sentenced to death in absentia for the killing of Irish UN peacekeeper Private Sean Rooney, is believed to be hiding out in Iran, Irish newspaper The Sunday World reported on Saturday, citing diplomatic sources. – Jerusalem Post
Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has expressed hope that his country would avoid military conflict with U.S.-backed Kurdish forces if efforts to integrate their autonomous administration in northeast Syria into the state structure collapse. – Reuters
A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, killing himself but causing no other casualties, state news agency SANA said. – Reuters
Foreign fighters and others who joined Syria’s civil war from abroad have petitioned the new Islamist-led government for citizenship, arguing they have earned it after sweeping to power with rebels who ousted former leader Bashar al-Assad. – Reuters
Hundreds of people demonstrated in Syria’s southern city of Sweida and elsewhere on Saturday to demand the right to self determination for the Druze minority, the largest protests to take place since deadly clashes in the area last month. – Associated Press
Ivar Jansen writes: As part of this process, the European Union should develop a comprehensive and carefully designed repatriation plan. Any development aid or sanctions relief linked to repatriation should be conditioned on demonstrable progress toward clearly defined benchmarks. In addition, the European Union should establish a civilian monitoring mission under UN auspices to oversee the return process, document human rights violations, and engage with Syrian civil society to ensure transparency and accountability. These measures are crucial to preventing premature returns that could result in renewed displacement or trigger political backlash within European Union member states. – National Interest
Lebanon
Top U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack said on Monday Israel should comply with a plan under which Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would be disarmed by the end of the year in exchange for a halt to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon. – Reuters
The future of U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon has split the United States and its European allies, raising implications for security in the Middle East and becoming the latest snag to vex relations between the U.S. and key partners like France, Britain and Italy. – Associated Press
Still, even after the fall of the 54-year Assad family rule, relations between Beirut and Damascus remain tense — as they have been for decades past, with Syria long failing to treat its smaller neighbor as a sovereign nation. – Associated Press
The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group on Friday vowed not to disarm, saying last week’s decision by the national government to remove the Iran-backed group’s weapons by the end of the year serves Israel’s interests. – Associated Press
Israel sees Lebanese President Joseph Aoun as directly responsible for upholding the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday. – Jerusalem Post
Eugene Kontorovich writes: The U.N. is organizationally designed to avoid oversight. U.N peacekeeping missions, with their requirement of periodic Security Council authorization, are one of the few places where the U.S. can directly impose accountability. Unifil isn’t the only peacekeeping mission that has outlived whatever usefulness it had. The missions in Western Sahara and Golan Heights likewise make no sense giving changing geopolitics in those places. Even the threat of ending those organizations would put the U.S. in a position to demand real change throughout the U.N.—or at least save some money. – Wall Street Journal
Yemen
The Israeli military said it had targeted an energy infrastructure site that was used by the Iran-aligned Houthis south of the Yemeni capital Sanaa early on Sunday, with Israeli media saying the Haziz power station had been hit. – Reuters
Defense Minister Israel Katz denounced the Houthis firing a missile towards central Israel on Sunday, stating that the Yemen-based terror group will “pay with compound interest for every attempt to fire at Israel,” in a post on his personal X/Twitter. – Jerusalem Post
A radical pro-Houthi cyber group affiliate who hacked Israeli, American, Canadian, and Yemeni websites was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment in the United Kingdom on Friday, according to the National Crime Agency. – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
Iraqi officials have begun the excavation of what is believed to be a mass grave left behind by the Islamic State extremist group during its rampage across the country a decade ago. – Associated Press
Qatar’s Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber al Thani, will arrive in Egypt to meet with mediators regarding a potential hostage deal on Monday, sources familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post. – Jerusalem Post
The US State Department approved the sale of four M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Bahrain, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Ibtissame Lachgar, an LGBT rights campaigner and a co-founder of the Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms, was arrested in Morocco over allegations of blasphemy after she posted photos of herself wearing a shirt with the slogan “Allah is a lesbian,” according to international media reports. – Jerusalem Post
Qatar sentenced the leader of the country’s Baha’i community on Wednesday to five years imprisonment after he allegedly made a social media post which was said to “cast doubt on the foundations of the Islamic religion,” according to UN officials, Baha’i organizations, and international media reports. – Jerusalem Post
David Ben-Basat writes: The Al-Tariq podcast offered a rare glimpse into strategic thinking in Cairo – that Gaza is not merely a local flashpoint but a deliberate tool in the regional balance of power. The unusual military buildup in the Sinai, alongside growing dependence on Israeli gas, illustrates the complexity of Israel-Egypt relations: a peace not free from threats, where the written word is only part of the story, and the reality on the ground tells an entirely different one. – Jerusalem Post
Korean Peninsula
When President Lee Jae Myung visited Sancheong, a county in southern South Korea where 14 people were killed in floods and landslides last month, he did something that his unpopular predecessor had refused to do: meet with victims after deadly disasters. – New York Times
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who has been seeking to improve strained relations with Pyongyang, ordered on Monday his cabinet to prepare a partial step-by-step implementation of existing agreements with North Korea. – Reuters
South Korea and the United States began their annual large-scale joint military exercise on Monday to better cope with threats by nuclear-armed North Korea, which has warned the drills would deepen regional tensions and vowed to respond to “any provocation” against its territory. – Associated Press
Now, a new report has found that the number of South Korean troops declined by 20% in the past six years, in large part because of the dwindling pool of young men – reflecting the shrinking workforce and swelling elderly population in one of the world’s most rapidly aging countries. – CNN
China
A Chinese diplomat, who Reuters reported had been taken for questioning by Chinese authorities, appeared at a diplomatic event in Beijing on Friday evening. Sun Haiyan, a senior Chinese diplomat and former ambassador to Singapore, appeared as a guest at an event organised by India’s embassy in Beijing. – Reuters
Germany’s foreign minister on Sunday criticised what he called the “aggressive behaviour” of China in the Taiwan Strait ahead of a trip to Japan and Indonesia, and stressed the need to strengthen internationally binding rules. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping told him China would not invade Taiwan while Trump is in office. Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox News, ahead of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. – Reuters
A Hong Kong court began hearing final arguments Monday in the landmark national security trial of former pro-democracy newspaper founder Jimmy Lai, who could be sentenced to up to life in prison if he is convicted. – Associated Press
A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and a former lawmaker who are wanted by the city’s authorities have been granted asylum in Great Britain and Australia, respectively. – Associated Press
In a surprising reversal of the United States’ years-long technology restrictions on China, President Donald Trump last month allowed Nvidia to resume sales of a key AI chip designed specifically for the Chinese market. – CNN
An annual joint patrol by the Russian Navy and People’s Liberation Army Navy is well underway, with the countries’ warships sailing together through the La Perouse Strait and to the Sea of Okhotsk in recent days. – USNI News
Jonathan A. Czin and John Culver write: For more than 40 years, the PLA has been a peacetime military unbloodied by actual conflict. Without challenges or tests of loyalty, Xi knows it is at risk of growing complacent. He wants a military that is inured to such trials and ready to take on the most difficult missions, whether that is punishing its purported compatriots in Taiwan and fending off a potential U.S. intervention, or even employing violence to protect the party from its fellow citizens. As Xi noted in his first speech to the PLA after becoming commander in chief, the Soviet Union fell because “nobody was man enough to stand up and resist.” Xi is obsessed with ensuring that the PLA’s men would resist if need be—but he is still not confident they would. – Foreign Affairs
South Asia
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said India’s purchases of Russian crude were funding Moscow’s war in Ukraine and had to stop, adding that New Delhi was “now cozying up to both Russia and China.” – Reuters
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s deepest tax cuts in eight years will strain government revenues but are winning praise from businesses and political pundits who say they will bolster his image in an ongoing trade fight with Washington. – Reuters
A planned visit by U.S. trade negotiators to New Delhi from August 25-29 has been called off, a source said, delaying talks on a proposed trade agreement and dashing hopes of relief from additional U.S. tariffs on Indian goods from August 27. – Reuters
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi will visit India from Monday to Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday, for talks about a disputed border in the Himalayas. – Reuters
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Pakistan that India will punish its neighbor if there are future attacks on India as he marked 78 years of independence from British colonial rule. – Associated Press
Alex Alfirraz Scheers and Theo Zenou write: Higher military spending would be a game changer for such economies. As has been the case with other countries, building a strong security sector would drive innovation and entrepreneurship. Before long, the benefits would spill over into the wider economy. As Palantir CEO Alex Karp argues in “The Technological Republic” (2025), Silicon Valley’s early growth was largely fueled by investments from the U.S. military. A bigger defense sector in Southeast Asia would also be a boon for the U.S. American firms could benefit from lucrative arms contracts. The U.S. government could strengthen alliances in a critical region, meaning more leverage over China. And American tourists could continue to visit this paradise for decades. – Wall Street Journal
Mihir Sharma writes: The military reuses these methods because they always survive the fallout. Pakistan, however, rarely benefits. If anything, the entire region gets less stable when its generals get overconfident. In Tampa, Munir was relaxed and expansive when talking to the Pakistani diaspora: He warned that a nuclear exchange between the two would impact “half the world.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking on the nation’s Independence Day, shot back that “nuclear blackmail” was unacceptable. Munir also hailed a “new chapter” in bilateral relations with the US. Neither he nor the Trump administration should be too sure the new chapters won’t end as badly as the old. – Bloomberg
Asia
Myanmar will hold the first phase of its general election on December 28, state television said in a bulletin on Monday. The election, the first since a 2021 coup, will be held in December and January over several phases for security reasons, authorities have said. The announcement on MRTV provided no further details beyond the date of the first phase. – Reuters
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Friday proposed a $234 billion budget for 2026, forecasting a deficit of 2.48% of GDP, while pledging to eliminate the shortfall and achieve a balanced budget within three years. – Reuters
President Vladimir Putin spoke to the leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan on Sunday to update them on the summit with U.S. President Donald Trump which the Kremlin has cast as a potentially significant stepping stone towards peace in Ukraine. – Reuters
An airstrike by Myanmar’s military on the town of Mogok, the center of the Southeast Asian country’s lucrative gem-mining industry, has killed at least 21 people including a pregnant woman, an armed opposition group, local residents and Myanmar’s online media said Saturday. – Associated Press
President Prabowo Subianto marked the 80th anniversary of Indonesia’s independence by vowing to root out corruption and crackdown on food cartels that caused billions of dollars of annual state losses. – Associated Press
Europe
Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar has sought assurances from Russia that it will refrain from interference in his country’s politics, saying there would be no scope for meaningful cooperation without respecting its sovereignty. – Reuters
Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson will virtually attend Sunday’s meeting with the “Coalition of the Willing”, ahead of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Washington on Monday, a spokesperson from the prime minister’s office told Reuters. – Reuters
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X that she will be meeting U.S. President Donald Trump along with other European leaders in the White House on Monday at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. – Reuters
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic on Sunday announced tough measures against anti-government protesters following days of riots in the streets throughout Serbia that have challenged his increasingly autocratic rule in the Balkan country. – Associated Press
Firefighters in Spain, Portugal and Greece battled ongoing wildfires Friday, an important religious holiday in all three countries, as persistent hot, dry conditions challenged efforts to contain the blazes. – Associated Press
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Saturday that her Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem,” adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war as her country currently holds the European Union presidency. – Agence France-Presse
Friedrich Merz wants to turn Germany into Europe’s leading military power. But China still holds the reins thanks to its control of critical minerals needed by Europe’s defense industry. – Politico
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has suspended official military assistance to Ukraine, criticized EU sanctions against Russia, rejected NATO membership for Kyiv, and met Vladimir Putin. – Politico
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Sunday that the European Union’s 19th package of sanctions against Russia is set to be unveiled in early September. – Politico
Russia has no intention of backing down from its brutal war in Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat said on Saturday, just hours after American President Donald Trump insisted he could be close to brokering a truce. – Politico
The home secretary has again defended the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group, saying it is more than “a regular protest group known for occasional stunts”. – BBC
Protesters from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign protested outside the Royal Air Force (RAF) base in High Wycombe on Saturday, two months after Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization for the break-in and vandalism of RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire. – Jerusalem Post
Yoav Lerman writes: As European governments invest billions in closing their protection gaps, Israel is uniquely positioned to offer tested solutions, professional training, and advanced technologies. By fostering partnerships now, Israel can ensure that when Europe decides to act, the know-how and systems they need will already be within reach. – Jerusalem Post
Africa
Omnipresent on murals, T-shirts and billboards across Burkina Faso and in videos gone viral around the world is the face of the strongman who claims he is saving the nation, earning him a global reputation as the next great Pan-African leader: President Ibrahim Traoré. – Washington Post
The junta that governs Mali said Thursday that it had foiled an attempted coup and arrested several individuals, including Malian military personnel and a French national it accused of organizing the plot. – New York Times
A French man arrested in Mali is a member of the French embassy in the capital Bamako and accusations against him are “unfounded”, the French foreign office said in a statement to Reuters on Saturday. – Reuters
Heavy clashes erupted this week between Congo’s army and a militia founded by a war criminal convicted at the International Criminal Court but later released, both sides said, and one civil society activist put the civilian death toll at 19. – Reuters
Portugal’s government on Friday condemned the expulsion of reporting teams of state news agency Lusa and two African units of broadcaster RTP from Guinea-Bissau in the run-up to a postponed election scheduled to be held in November in the West African country. – Reuters
A paramilitary fighting against Sudan’s military shelled a famine-stricken displacement camp in the western region of Dafür Saturday, killing at least 31 people, including seven children and a pregnant woman, a medical group said, in a second attack on the camp in less than a week. – Associated Press
Suspected Islamist rebels have killed at least 30 people in a series of attacks in Congo’s North Kivu province in recent days, a Congolese military official said Saturday. – Associated Press
The Congolese government on Saturday rejected Kenya’s appointment of a consul general to its conflict-hit city of Goma, citing what it called a violation of international law and a lack of proper diplomatic process. – Associated Press
Thousands of Ivorians rallied against incumbent leader Alassane Ouattara’s bid for a fourth term on Saturday — the second such demonstration in a single week. – Bloomberg
The Americas
Bolivia’s once-dominant left was swept aside in Sunday’s presidential election, with voters handing the ruling party the worst electoral defeat in two decades and all but ensuring that the next government will be led by a pro-U.S., market-friendly candidate. – Wall Street Journal
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday that foreign companies that want to do business in Brazil are welcome, speaking at the opening ceremony for a factory for Chinese automaker GWM in the state of Sao Paulo. – Reuters
A five-judge panel of Brazil’s Supreme Court will kick off on September 2 the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro, accused of plotting a coup after his electoral defeat, a court document showed on Friday. – Reuters
Brazil’s Former President Jair Bolsonaro temporarily left house arrest Saturday to undergo medical exams in Brasilia, after a judge authorized him to spend six to eight hours at a hospital. – Associated Press
Bolivia’s charismatic, long-serving ex-President Evo Morales told The Associated Press on Saturday that he didn’t know what to do about threats by the right-wing presidential candidates to arrest him if they came to power. – Associated Press
El Salvador’s Congress voted Friday to give government prosecutors two more years to hold the more than 80,000 people swept up under the state of emergency while they investigate alleged ties to the country’s gangs. – Associated Press
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Friday traveled to an Amazon River island at the center of a territorial dispute with Colombia, where she affirmed Peru’s unquestionable sovereignty over the territory. – Associated Press
North America
The union representing Air Canada’s 10,000 flight attendants said on Sunday that it would defy the government’s back-to-work order and continue a strike that shut down Canada’s dominant carrier and severely disrupted travel throughout the country. – New York Times
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday welcomed what he said was U.S. openness to providing security guarantees to Ukraine under a peace deal to end Russia’s war against Kyiv. – Reuters
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is planning to visit Mexico on September 18 to meet with President Claudia Sheinbaum and discuss closer ties amid U.S. tariffs, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. – Reuters
United States
Hundreds of federal agents—from drug- and gun-enforcement teams to immigration officers—set up traffic checkpoints, arrested delivery drivers and restaurant workers over immigration violations, and carried out street patrols. But the most visible show of force has centered on the city’s downtown, upscale corridors and tourist hubs. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S. State Department on Saturday said it was halting all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza while it conducts “a full and thorough” review, a move that has been condemned by pro-Palestine groups. – Reuters
American lawmakers are using a trip to South Korea and Japan to explore how the United States can tap those allies’ shipbuilding expertise and capacity to help boost its own capabilities, which are dwarfed by those of China. – Associated Press
Cybersecurity
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley launched a probe into Facebook parent Meta Platforms artificial intelligence policies on Friday, demanding documents on rules that had allowed its artificial intelligence chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.” – Reuters
The European Union is trying to prevent the United States from targeting the bloc’s digital rules as both sides work through the final details of a delayed statement to formalise a trade deal reached last month, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. – Reuters
Google agreed on Monday to pay a A$55 million ($35.8 million) fine in Australia after the consumer watchdog found it had hurt competition by paying the country’s two largest telcos to pre-install its search application on Android phones, excluding rival search engines. – Reuters
Defense
More National Guard troops are heading soon to Washington, D.C., and they are preparing to start carrying weapons in the coming days, officials say, a major shift that comes days after President Trump said he was deploying them to “take back” the capital from what he described as violent criminals. – Wall Street Journal
Democrats took aim at the Trump administration after Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Navy and Air Force were poised to cancel nearly completed software projects worth over $800 million. – Reuters
The Navy is placing less weight on optionally manned surface vehicles as it refines requirements for a new type of vessel that will support the surface fleet, officials said this week. – USNI News