Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Bessent launches ‘Operation Economic Outcast’ to isolate and squeeze Iran Iran pledges to defy Trump's escalating sanctions Washington Examiner Editorial: Trump, don’t legitimize Hamas U.K. to share classified missile technology with Ukraine Israel accuses Hamas of planning attacks with kites and balloons US removes Syria from terrorism sponsor list, lifting major investment obstacle Eurasia Review’s Neville Teller: Iran’s powerful militia network could expand war Yemen’s ambassador to the U.S Jamila Ali Raja: A strong Yemen can overcome the Houthi threat Turkey sentences 5 opposition mayors in cases critics slam as politically motivated U.S. cancels Marines drills with South Korea Seoul says South Korea and US vow close cooperation on North Korea Taiwan charges nine in connection with smuggling of AI servers to ChinaIn The News
Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran had tried to kill one of his sons, but gave no details about when the alleged plot took place, which son was targeted or how close it came to being carried out. – Reuters
Israeli officials accused Hamas of planning renewed attacks on its territory using kites and balloons, and gave the Iran-backed militant group until Wednesday to rein in their use or face reprisals. – Bloomberg
The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said Monday that drugs had been smuggled into the Gaza Strip inside food products intended as humanitarian aid for residents of the Strip. – Jerusalem Post
North Macedonia has made strengthening relations with Israel a priority of its foreign policy and is seeking to expand cooperation in areas ranging from defense and investment to tourism and water management, Foreign Minister Timčo Mucunski told The Jerusalem Post during his first official visit to Israel. – Jerusalem Post
Israel is set to develop offensive space capabilities as part of the Defense Ministry’s multiyear budget plan for the space sector, including systems designed to defend Israeli satellites from hostile spacecraft and weapons capable of striking targets on Earth from space. – Jerusalem Post
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a situational assessment in the West Bank on Monday, following recent outbreaks of violence in the area at several flashpoints, including Kusra and Gilad Farm near Nablus, as well as Yatta and Sa’ir near Hebron. – Jerusalem Post
Divers have located the Altalena, a cargo ship bringing arms to the Irgun militia during the 1948 War of Independence that was hit on the orders of then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion and sunk off Israel’s coast, two far-right ministers announced Monday. – Times of Israel
Editorial: Trump’s decision to hold negotiations with Hamas undercuts its own objectives and signals that the United States lacks resolve and seriousness. It guarantees more war. The Israelis have made clear that they will never allow Hamas to rule Gaza. The Palestinian people are watching as well. Fatah, which rules the Palestinian Authority and is viewed as more moderate than Hamas, is weak and unpopular. Hamas seeks to supplant its rival and regain lost ground in Gaza. By meeting with Hamas, the U.S. has inadvertently signaled that the terrorists will have a say in the future of the Palestinian people. That would be a disaster. Trump must not grant legitimacy to terrorists. – Washington Examiner
Editorial: October 7 exposed the disastrous consequences of allowing Hamas to determine the tempo along the border. Katz’s declaration that “a balloon is treated like a kite, and a kite is treated like a drone” therefore carries importance beyond the latest incidents. Hamas must understand that the old rules no longer exist. Israel has paid far too high a price to relearn this lesson. The kites crossing the border today may contain nothing, but the next ones may not. We should not wait and see. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. is launching a new campaign to isolate the Iranian regime, warning that countries and companies that do business with Tehran will face the wrath of the Trump administration. – Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration says large volumes of oil are slipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The trackers whose job it is to count the world’s oil shipments see much less. – Wall Street Journal
Iranian officials brushed off the U.S. announcement on Monday of more economic sanctions against their country and the threat of even stronger actions to come. – New York Times
Pakistan and Iran made “significant progress” in talks that focused on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and a path to peace, Pakistan’s interior minister said on Tuesday, at the end of a visit to Tehran. – Reuters
Iran said it had blacklisted 45 tankers that had broken its rules for crossing the Strait of Hormuz, and would take action against any vessels transferring loads with them, escalating its threats over the key waterway six months into the war. – Reuters
Iran’s currency weakened to an all-time low against the dollar amid a mounting US campaign to cripple the country’s economy after almost six months of war. – Bloomberg
Iranian state media broadcast a chilling three-minute video fantasizing about killing Barron Trump in a disturbing escalation against President Trump and his family — as Tehran braces for an onslaught of additional crushing economic penalties. – New York Post
Editorial: Now is its test. Asked Monday about breaking a trade truce with China, Mr. Bessent said, “If they facilitate transactions and are part of the ecosystem that turns Iranian oil into money into repression, they will be targeted.” Yet when asked why he hadn’t imposed major sanctions today, and merely warned of them, Mr. Bessent replied, “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” If that’s what he thinks pressing China on Iranian oil purchases would do, Beijing may call his bluff. Mr. Trump has belatedly found a pressure strategy with Iran that may give him the upper hand. But the IRGC is unlikely to give up its financing networks without a fight. Will Mr. Trump stick to this strategy when Iran next fires on Gulf energy and whispers a soothing word to mediators from Pakistan and Qatar? – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Even populations enduring profound misery rarely throw off cruel leadership. Just ask the Kim dynasty in North Korea. That’s why containment is not really about regime change. Its immediate goal is to make an already battered Iran weaker so that it’s less capable of threatening its neighbors and developing nuclear weapons. As the vise tightens, Tehran’s new leaders will probably lash out militarily. Trump will need to respond forcefully to such attacks without allowing every provocation to drag the United States back into an open-ended war. Containment is a process, rather than an end state — a marathon, not a sprint. – Washington Post
Tom Rogan writes: Iran knows it cannot win a full-on fight with the U.S. that would risk regime collapse, so it prefers a strategy of calibrated pressure (the U.S. also fears that, amid the absence of a credible opposition movement, a full-on fight would lead to a disaster scenario of Iranian state collapse). None of this is to say that Trump was right to launch this war. It was always a foolish gambit, one that has predictably weakened America’s ability to resist China’s far more important military threat. But Trump’s confidence that a resolution may be on the horizon isn’t the product solely of imagination. Rather, it reflects Iran’s loss of the strategic initiative. – Washington Examiner
Neville Teller writes: “They are the backbone of the resistance forces in the region,” he said, “and their nature of multiple groups and closeness to Iran are their biggest strengths.” He added that “some of them were in Iran during the war to help our armed forces control the streets” – that is, to subdue anti-government protesters – an indication of how deeply the militias are woven into Iran’s war machine. For the foreseeable future, Iran can continue to rely on this substantial external military power to bolster its own military capacity. – Jerusalem Post
Yossi Mansharof writes: From the regime’s perspective, Hezbollah’s pledge of allegiance is not merely a declaration of loyalty, but an attempt to present Mojtaba as the sole and legitimate successor to his father Ali Khamenei’s path and as the new leader of the entire regional resistance camp. This is intended to enhance his prestige and, at least partially, compensate for the questions surrounding his very appointment as supreme leader. – Jerusalem Post
Russia and Ukraine
The U.K. and France are sending classified technology to Kyiv to allow it to manufacture an Anglo-French cruise missile, part of a growing trend of Western countries helping Ukraine to build the weapons it needs to fight Russia’s invasion. – Wall Street Journal
The miniature Nvidia computer that Ukrainian officials say Russia has used in fully autonomous A.I.-guided drones is an inexpensive model designed for civilian robotics and machine vision applications, according to the company. – New York Times
The Kremlin said on Monday that measures were being taken to minimise the impact of Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s grain exports as global wheat importers brace for tighter supplies amid attacks on Black Sea grain infrastructure. – Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was “not ready” for a ceasefire on attacks on ships in the Black Sea carrying agricultural produce, as Moscow wants to extend any deal to cover attacks on Russian refineries and pipelines. – Reuters
The European Commission on Monday approved a further €6.1 billion ($7.12 billion) in financial aid for Ukraine to procure new defence systems, such as air defence, missiles, ammunition and radars. – Reuters
Ukraine has targeted four logistics hubs owned by Russia’s second-largest online retailer Ozon, widening a campaign of drone strikes on Russian e-commerce companies intended to inflict more damage on the war-battered economy. – Reuters
The Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region was on fire following a drone attack, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday. He added that two people were killed and two others were injured due to falling drone debris on the Afipsky railway station. – Reuters
European leaders joined President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence and boost its long-range missile program as Russia pressed on with its 4-year-old invasion of the country. – Associated Press
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he aims to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a regional forum next week, while calling for stepped-up trade cooperation between the two nations. – Bloomberg
Russian President Vladimir Putin is allowing the state to take over temporary control of critical facilities that are regarded as insufficiently protected from Ukrainian drone attacks. – Bloomberg
Prime Minister Andy Burnham compared Ukraine’s resistance against Russia with Britain’s fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War, as he vowed to help Kyiv bolster its air defenses ahead of the winter. – Bloomberg
Ukraine faces a €23 billion hole in its defense budget this year, leaving Kyiv scrambling for cash to fight Russia even as Western leaders gathered in the capital to mark the country’s independence day and pledge ongoing support. – Politico
Andrew C. Kuchins and Fenna de Vos write: Taken together, Russian analysts see a Western alliance that is less cohesive and less decisive than it appears, while also perceiving fewer constraints on the use of Western military power. The growing use of Western weapons for strikes on Russian territory is particularly important in this regard. Combined with the uncertainty created by what Moscow sees as an increasingly unpredictable Western foreign policy, this could affect how Russia calculates escalation risks. If Russian policymakers believe that the previous limits on Western involvement in the war have disappeared, they may also conclude that Russia has fewer reasons to observe similar limits itself. The implications are grave. – The National Interest
Syria
The United States removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism on Monday, lifting what Damascus says was the last major impediment to investing in the country as Washington deepens ties to the new Syrian government. – Reuters
A former Islamic religious leader was sentenced to life in prison Monday in the latest Syrian court trial of officials affiliated with the rule of ex-President Bashar Assad. – Associated Press
Controversy is growing about the extent to which Iran is smuggling weapons to Hezbollah through Syria, with defense sources, probably connected to Defense Minister Israel Katz, leaking that the issue is heating up, while the IDF has said that there is no major change taking place. – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked a vessel off Saudi Arabia’s port city of Yanbu in the Red Sea, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised speech on Monday. – Reuters
A Turkish court on Monday convicted five mayors of municipalities run by the country’s main opposition party on corruption charges in a trial that critics have denounced as politically motivated. – Associated Press
A senior Iraqi official pushed back a September 30 deadline for pro-Iran factions to hand over their weapons, without offering an explanation for the move or providing a new date. – Agence France-Presse
Jamila Ali Raja writes: My years as a politician and a diplomat have taught me to distrust tidy narratives about our region. Yet the reality is clear: Iran’s regional influence is weakening, and its proxy in Yemen can be contained or crushed. The Yemeni government is well positioned to fight the Houthis, but we can’t do it alone—so I am asking three things of the U.S. […] I am in Washington as the first woman to represent my country here, after years spent negotiating Yemen through fragile moments, always toward the goal of becoming a country whole enough to stand on its own. That is my message: A stable Yemen, free of the Houthi threat, can be a strong, reliable partner to the U.S. There is no stable Middle East without a stable Yemen. – Wall Street Journal
Malik AboRashid writes: The security backdrop isn’t abstract. On July 17, an Iranian ballistic missile struck Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, killing three American soldiers on Jordanian soil — the first time Iran killed Americans there directly, after months of missiles crossing Jordanian airspace. A kingdom absorbing that kind of risk, with tourism taking a direct hit from the war next door, has every reason to look for revenue anywhere it can find it. So, should Washington care that Abdullah is in China? Only if it still thinks aid dollars alone are enough to keep an exposed, aid-dependent ally satisfied. They aren’t, and they haven’t been for a while. The trip isn’t a loyalty test Jordan is failing. It’s a receipt for a bill Washington hasn’t been paying. – Washington Examiner
Korean Peninsula
The U.S. has scrapped a large-scale amphibious exercise with South Korea set for next month, the latest American pullback in Asia in the wake of the war in Iran. – Wall Street Journal
Donald Trump’s olive branch to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un at the expense of a long-standing ally comes at a pivotal moment for U.S. security ties in Asia, as partners from Japan to India reassess how much they can rely on Washington. – Reuters
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Monday, and Seoul said they agreed to maintain close communication and cooperation on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. – Reuters
Hyundai Motor’s South Korean union said on Tuesday it reached a tentative agreement with the company’s management, averting further production losses after its lengthiest walkout in a decade. – Reuters
South Korea’s government denied a report that the US had proposed Seoul acquire a stake in Westinghouse Electric Co., pushing back on suggestions that the American nuclear company could become part of the countries’ strategic investment program. – Bloomberg
China
A Chinese court on Tuesday sentenced a prominent New York-based artist, Gao Zhen, to three years in prison for making irreverent sculptures of Mao Zedong more than 15 years ago, according to his wife. – New York Times
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday the situation in the Middle East and Gulf region had again reached a critical juncture and urged parties involved to return to dialogue and negotiations as soon as possible. – Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to attend next month’s BRICS summit in New Delhi with a large delegation, three sources said, in what would be his first visit in seven years and a fresh sign of a thaw between the rivals. – Reuters
A cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers headed to Beijing on Monday seeking to mend strained ties following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment on Taiwan that angered China and led to tensions that have spilled over into the economy. – Associated Press
China’s top legislature is reviewing a new draft law that would officially grant the authorities power to pursue cross-border corruption cases overseas, the latest sign that President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-graft campaign could go global. – Bloomberg
China’s advanced J-16 fighter is set to train alongside Rafales, offering a rare opportunity to test its capabilities against a Western platform after China’s J-10 drew attention for its combat performance against the French maker’s planes in the India-Pakistan conflict last year. – Bloomberg
Michal Meidan writes: The Hormuz crisis has shown that China is becoming a new type of energy power: an oil importer so large that it is able to influence global oil prices and withstand external disruptions. China’s dependence on imported oil remains substantial, but the geopolitics of energy are shifting from control of oil flows to control of electrified industrial systems. China has a clear head start in that transition, one that strengthens its hand in the industrial and strategic competition with the United States. – New York Times
South Asia
U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir last week ahead of Munir’s trip to Tehran on Monday, according to three Pakistani sources, with one saying the main U.S. request was to use Pakistan’s influence to bring Iran back to negotiations. – Reuters
Planned new U.S. sanctions on Iran and the UAE’s halt on Tehran trade could severely disrupt Indian exports of rice, tea and pharmaceuticals to Iran, which have been largely routed through Dubai’s port in recent years, Indian exporters said on Monday. – Reuters
India has enough sugar stocks to meet festival-season demand, with a record price rally driven by speculative buying rather than any real supply shortfall, the head of the country’s top sugar industry body said on Monday. – Reuters
Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday that the economic cooperation between the two countries has grown very significantly. – Reuters
A special tribunal in Bangladesh’s capital on Monday asked authorities to keep three journalists jailed until their trial in a case involving a mass uprising that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from office in 2024, lawyers said. – Associated Press
The satirical group behind the student movement that forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s education minister to step down is calling supporters back onto the streets, saying the government has failed to honor commitments it made in July. – Bloomberg
Former greats from the global cricket community have appealed to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to provide medical care to the nation’s ex-captain-turned-politician Imran Khan, who is in jail for the past three years for corruption and misuse of power. – Bloomberg
Asia
The death toll from an earthquake that hit eastern Indonesia reached 100 on Monday, the disaster agency chief said, as relief operations continued for a 10th day. The 7.7-magnitude quake shook the province of East Nusa Tenggara on August 15, followed by thousands of aftershocks, damaging more than 73,000 homes and forcing the evacuation of about 180,000 people. – Reuters
Suspected insurgents set fire to government buildings, shops, cars and utility poles in more than 70 locations across four of Thailand’s southernmost provinces over the weekend, injuring at least three people in a coordinated series of arson attacks, authorities said. – Reuters
The Philippines plans to expand its unmanned capabilities, including through development and acquisition of drones as part of efforts to modernise its military, its defence chief said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung is scheduled to pay an official visit to Myanmar on Wednesday, Vietnam’s foreign ministry said, in what would be the first trip by a senior Vietnamese official to the country since a 2021 military coup triggered a civil war. – Reuters
Kazakhstan’s pro-government Adilet Party won a landslide victory in a parliamentary election, officials announced Monday, a result expected to further strengthen President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s grip on power in Central Asia’s largest nation. – Associated Press
An amnesty for political offenses committed in Thailand over the past two decades took effect Monday, but the law excludes some of the more serious cases, including those involving lese majeste, or defaming the monarchy. – Associated Press
Czech diplomats need to focus on building deeper ties beyond traditional allies as otherwise the nation risks missing a shift of economic gravity to Asia, Foreign Minister Petr Macinka said. – Bloomberg
Europe
The sound of thousands of engines filled the festival grounds of the medieval German village of Quedlinburg on Sunday as Ulrich Siegmund, the far-right AfD’s charismatic candidate in a key vote next month, led out a motorcade atop a blue moped. – Reuters
French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is seen as the most likely rival to far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in next year’s presidential run-off, a Monday poll showed, underlining a deeply polarised electorate as Emmanuel Macron’s presidency draws to a close. – Reuters
France and Saudi Arabia have agreed to build a €6 billion ($7 billion) manga-themed amusement park near Paris, the Elysee Palace said on Monday during a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the French capital. – Reuters
Norway will continue developing its oil and gas resources in the Barents Sea regardless of the European Union’s support for a moratorium on Arctic hydrocarbon supplies, and no longer sees itself as Europe’s “green battery”, Energy Minister Terje Aasland told Reuters. – Reuters
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told European Council President Antonio Costa that London should be bolder in pursuing closer ties with the European Union, with a UK-EU summit this year providing such opportunity, his office said on Monday. – Reuters
German investigators discovered a third drone and suspected explosives linked to this month’s attempted attack on the Leipzig/Halle airport, broadcasters NDR and WDR and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said on Tuesday. – Reuters
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he and other European leaders plan to travel to the US next month to lobby President Donald Trump to let Ukraine access some of its Patriot air defense missile stocks ahead of the winter. – Bloomberg
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will convene the country’s National Security Council on Tuesday over the migration crisis in Ceuta — 26 days after tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco and overwhelmed local authorities. – Politico
Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis issued a strong warning to Turkey, saying that “the Greece of passive diplomatic stagnation belongs definitively to the past.” – Jerusalem Post
Africa
Zambian authorities closed the country’s top courts on Monday, blocking access to the premises on the last day that the opposition could file a challenge to this month’s disputed election. – Reuters
Two U.N. peacekeepers from Ethiopia were killed and seven other people injured in an ambush on Monday in South Sudan’s Jonglei State, bringing to nine the number of peacekeepers killed in the line of duty worldwide this year, the United Nations said. – Reuters
A mission to observe implementation of a ceasefire between Congolese forces and Rwandan-backed rebels began on Monday in eastern Congo, the first field deployment under a monitoring mechanism established by a Qatari-mediated peace deal signed last year. – Reuters
An armed group has posted a video showing what residents said were about 600 women, children and older people abducted in an attack on a mosque in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State last week. – Reuters
More than 300 people died of Ebola in eastern Congo in the past week, one of the highest weekly tolls yet, government data showed Monday, as health workers struggle to catch up with an outbreak that is spreading at unprecedented speed. – Associated Press
The United States is urging beefed-up U.N. sanctions against the warring parties in Sudan to build pressure on them to negotiate an end to the fighting that has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million and pushed many parts of the African nation into famine. – Associated Press
Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region is investigating a recent increase in piracy activity off the East African country’s coast, its government said. – Bloomberg
The Americas
The Brazilian government is evaluating mechanisms to curb the use of workers hired as legal entities rather than employees in a potential reelection of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Finance Minister Dario Durigan said on Monday. – Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro are in a technical tie in a potential runoff ahead of October’s presidential election, a Nexus poll commissioned by lender BTG Pactual showed on Monday. – Reuters
Drug gangs and rebel groups in Colombia are increasingly recruiting children and using them to perform potentially lethal tasks that include piloting explosives-laden drones, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Monday. – Associated Press
Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has promised to deport thousands of migrants who are in the country without residence permits, mainly Venezuelans, as he attempts to make significant changes to the nation’s immigration policies that he says will reduce crime. – Associated Press
Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez said she will eliminate police checkpoints in cities, dismantling one of the key tools widely used for surveillance and repression under Chavismo over the past decade. – Bloomberg
As head of an association representing cities across Colombia, Andrés Santamaría Garrido has a front-row seat to observe China’s economic playbook at municipal level. Sitting in his downtown Bogota office containing a model of the city’s red metro train, a project being built by a Chinese-led consortium, Santamaría described Beijing’s commercial diplomacy as aggressive, practical — and hard to ignore. – Bloomberg
North America
President Trump said the U.S. would impose 50% tariffs on automobiles and parts from Canada starting in January, the latest escalation in a tit-for-tat trade conflict that erupted over the weekend. – Wall Street Journal
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday it was “reckless” and “not appropriate” for Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya to return to his post while facing a domestic investigation following U.S. drug trafficking allegations. – Reuters
At least 47 people were killed and 22 more injured in an overnight gang raid on a neighborhood overlooking Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.N. said on Monday, prompting anger over the lack of protection from repeated deadly attacks. – Reuters
Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government is still working on options for retaliating against US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on Canadian goods, but added that he’s willing to continue trade talks if the US adopts the “right attitude.” – Bloomberg
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed optimism she can reach a trade deal with Donald Trump as her chief negotiator leads talks in Washington, just after negotiations between the US and Canada collapsed. – Bloomberg
Editorial: The spat with Canada is another needless provocation. Carney says the old relationship is a relic and will never return. Let’s hope he’s wrong about that. Just over two months from the midterm elections, this trade war with Canada could cost the GOP in several House races and Senate battlegrounds, including Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Iowa. Would paying an electoral price for protectionism push Republicans back toward their free-market roots? As welcome as that would be, it’s more important — for the sake of consumers, workers and businesses on both sides of the border — to sort out a new trade arrangement before November. – Washington Post
Stephen Marche writes: But we will suffer. America remains Canada’s leading trading partner. Mr. Carney has chosen suffering, but he did what Canadians elected him to do: stand up for Canada. It’s funny to wake up relieved that you’re about to take a beating. We will not go along to get along. The American president clearly did not know whom he was dealing with. He is following in the grand tradition of American leaders starting wars with people they don’t understand, then wondering what went wrong. – New York Times
United States
Days before going to war with Iran in February, President Trump summoned his intelligence chief to the Oval Office to ask whether a full-on assault was a good idea. – Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration plans to revoke the visas of foreign citizens who came to the United States temporarily for tourism or business but have sought to stay in the country longer by applying for asylum. – New York Times
A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to restrict mail-in voting before the midterm elections. – New York Times
President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday released a proposed regulation to codify an unprecedented fee of more than $100,000 on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers that has been blocked by the courts. – Reuters
President Donald Trump is moving toward levying a new tariff on China that would penalize the world’s second-largest economy for flooding the global market with underpriced goods, according to three people familiar with the matter. – Associated Press
US-Canada trade talks collapsed after last-minute pressure from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to people familiar with the matter, leaving President Donald Trump to impose new tariffs and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vowing retaliation. – Bloomberg
Cybersecurity
Taiwan prosecutors charged nine people, including former employees of Nvidia and Super Micro Computer, with aiding the shipment of advanced artificial-intelligence servers to China, as Taiwan tries to limit technology reaching the mainland. – Wall Street Journal
Labour, New Zealand’s main opposition party, said on Tuesday it would support a ban on social media for under-16s, removing a major obstacle for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon after his coalition partners said they would block the legislation. – Reuters
Britain’s government Monday urged TikTok and other social media companies to take down viral videos “celebrating” dangerous driving, after two police officers and five young men were killed in a crash when a car was driven down the wrong side of the road. – Associated Press
The UK became the first foreign nation to gain access to Ukraine’s vast trove of battlefield data in a deal designed to train artificial intelligence models and develop fresh military capabilities. – Bloomberg
A new bipartisan Senate bill would require federal regulators to prepare the U.S. electric grid for cybersecurity threats from quantum computers and create a technical sandbox to study how the technology could impact both information and operational technology systems. – CyberScoop
The U.S. sanctioned several Iranian nationals on Monday for cyberattacks on critical infrastructure just days after reports emerged of a cyber intrusion on a small power plant in the United Kingdom. – The Record
A Jersey City resident is facing charges for his alleged role as a money mule for overseas cyberscammers who stole millions from elderly New Yorkers. The Justice Department said Indian national Jay Sunilbharthi Goswami, 21, was tasked with picking up money and gold from people who had been convinced by scammers to hand over their savings through a variety of scams. – The Record
Defense
After a pause of more than two months, the U.S. military announced Monday that it once again carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of trafficking drugs. – Associated Press
The Italian Air Force is mulling the purchase of U.S. technology that turns cheap unguided missiles into precision weapons, offering a low-cost option for taking out drones instead of using pricy air-to-air missiles. – Defense News
As drones from hostile, reckless or unknown operators continue to traverse jurisdictions and increasingly threaten military installations, civilian areas and mega-events across the U.S., senior officials are hustling to enable a first-of-its-kind national counter-drone surveillance network. – DefenseScoop
The Defense Department is planning to put industry-built robotic vehicles through their paces in North Dakota this fall amid a broader push by U.S. military components to add uncrewed systems to their fleets. – DefenseScoop
Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao announced Monday the launch of the department’s Office of the Defense Industrial Base, which will be tasked with leading efforts to bolster supply chains and accelerate the delivery of dual-use technologies. – DefenseScoop
Glen VanHerck writes: As General Mike Guetlein stated during his keynote address at the recent Space and Missile Defense Symposium, “If they don’t figure it out, there is no Golden Dome because there is no funding.” Golden Dome will not be impenetrable. No static defense system ever has been and likely ever will be. It will, however, erode adversary confidence in any conviction that it can achieve strategic goals by attacking the homeland. Creating doubt in the mind of the enemy will bolster strategic stability and deterrence for our country. Today, a robust homeland defense capability—Golden Dome—is not an option; it is an absolute necessity. – The National Interest