Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
After Hezbollah’s retaliation, all eyes fix on Iran IDF: 90% of Hezbollah's rockets fired from civilian areas WSJ’s Walter Russell Mead: Netanyahu’s place in history Israel still faces threat of attack by Iran, proxies, Pentagon says Iran publicly hangs a man convicted of murder After barrage from Russia, Ukraine calls on West to lift restrictions on missiles Ukraine doubles down on Russian reactors in nuclear power push AEI’s Michael Rubin: Time to end UN peacekeeping in Cyprus, Lebanon, and Congo In a first, a Chinese military plane breaches Japan’s territorial airspace China to hold live-fire drills near war-torn Myanmar Canada Will Impose 100% Tariffs on Chinese Electric Vehicles WSJ Editorial: Kamala Harris on the Afghanistan withdrawalIn The News
Israel
For 26 days after an Israeli missile slammed into a seventh-floor apartment in south Beirut and killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Israel and the region had braced for the group to strike back. – Washington Post
A day after Israel and Hezbollah traded major cross-border attacks but swiftly moved to contain a bigger war, the focus in the Middle East returned on Monday to the effort to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israel’s 10-month-long war with Hamas is at the heart of rising regional tensions. – New York Times
Israeli settlers shot dead one Palestinian and wounded three others in the occupied West Bank’s Bethlehem, while five others were killed in an Israeli strike on the Nur Shams refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said. – Reuters
United Nations aid operations in Gaza ground to a halt on Monday after Israel issued new evacuation orders on Sunday for Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip where the U.N. operations center was located, said a senior U.N. official. – Reuters
Israeli officials and media reacted with satisfaction on Monday after a long-expected missile attack by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement appeared to have been largely thwarted by pre-emptive Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. – Reuters
Israel’s hardline Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir repeated a call for Jews to be allowed to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, drawing sharp criticism for inflaming tensions as ceasefire negotiators seek a deal to halt fighting in Gaza. – Reuters
Israel and Hezbollah’s back-and-forth attacks against one another over the weekend did not fundamentally disrupt the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, according to a White House official. – Washington Examiner
The IDF announced on Monday night that 90% of the rockets and drones that Hezbollah launched against Israel on Sunday were fired from civilian areas in Lebanon. – Jerusalem Post
Justice Minister Yariv Levin proposed on Monday a compromise to end a stalemate over the appointment of Israel’s next High Court Chief Justice and of three judicial appointments to fill vacancies on the bench. – Jerusalem Post
Five hundred transport planes and 107 ships have delivered more than 50,000 tons of armaments and military equipment from the United States to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza last October, the Defense Ministry said on Monday. – Times of Israel
Miriam Yered, a resident of Yitzhar in Samaria who was on her way home Monday night, encountered a planned ambush of terrorists on the main road in Huwara, and only narrowly escaped after her vehicle was severely damaged and shards of glass flew into her face. – Arutz Sheva
A senior Hamas official has accused U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration of deliberately misrepresenting the level of progress achieved in ongoing negotiations toward a ceasefire in Gaza in order to put pressure on the Palestinian group. – Newsweek
Walter Russell Mead writes: Yet one thing seems clear. Win, lose or draw, Bibi Netanyahu is leaving deep footprints in the sands of time. Unlike most of the mediocrities who hold office in countries around the world, he won’t be quickly forgotten. He will occupy an outsize place not only in the history of Israel and the modern Middle East, but in the history of the Jewish people. [….] Only a handful of leaders can credibly claim to glow. As the Gaza war nears its first anniversary, Bibi Netanyahu has found a place among them. – Wall Street Journal
Daniel Pomerantz writes: As I mentioned earlier, it’s important to note that even though Israelis are using the words, “preemptive strike,” Israel did not start nor escalate these hostilities. To the contrary, Israel has demonstrated astounding restraint, as it has been under relentless attack for 11 months, and has acted only responsively. If it were not for Israel’s Sunday operation in Lebanon, it is likely that hundreds or even thousands of Israelis could have died. – Algemeiner
Erfan Fard writes: Israel has no choice but to surgically remove this malignant growth for its survival, but it must remember that the snake’s head is in Tehran, and until its head is cut off, this futile spectacle continues. It is time for the global community to wake up and take decisive action. The stakes are too high, and the cost of inaction is too great. We must confront this menace head-on, with all the tenacity and resources at our disposal, before it further engulfs the world in its dark shadow. Will we? – Arutz Sheva
Iran
Now, all eyes are on Iran, which had said it too would inflict a “painful response” on Israel after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas, in Tehran hours after the Hezbollah commander’s death. – Wall Street Journal
The United States continues to assess that the threat of attack against Israel by Iran and its proxy groups still exists, the Pentagon said on Monday, after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander. – Reuters
Iran said on Monday that Israel had lost its power to deter and that the strategic balance in the region had shifted against it, following attacks by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. – Reuters
Iran does not seek to increase Middle East tensions, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani, adding that its response to the killing of the Hamas chief in Tehran would be “definite and calculated”. – Reuters
Authorities in central Iran on Monday publicly hanged a man who was convicted in the shooting death of a lawyer, the country’s official judicial news agency said. – Associated Press
Russia & Ukraine
Russia struck sites across Ukraine with what Kyiv called the biggest aerial bombardment of the war, inflicting damage to the country’s already-strained energy infrastructure and prompting calls from Ukraine for Western allies to help it strike back. – Wall Street Journal
Russia launched several waves of missile and drone attacks targeting scores of Ukrainian regions and killing at least four people, Ukraine’s military said early on Tuesday, a day after Moscow’s biggest air attack of the war on its neighbour. – Reuters
The Kremlin said on Monday that there would have to be a Russian response to Ukraine’s incursion into the western Kursk region and that the idea of ceasefire talks with Kyiv was no longer relevant. – Reuters
At least one person died and five could still be under the rubble after a Russian missile struck a civilian infrastructure building in the central Ukraine city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey, a journalist for Reuters, is in critical condition following a missile strike on Saturday on a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the news agency said on Monday. – Reuters
Russia said on Monday it had struck Ukrainian forces at more than a dozen places along the front in the Kursk region of western Russia where Ukraine has carved out a slice of territory after smashing through the Russian border 20 days ago. – Reuters
The trial of a French citizen arrested in Russia on charges of unlawfully collecting information on military issues has been scheduled to begin next week, court officials said Monday. – Associated Press
Monitors from the United Nations atomic watchdog are preparing to assess the safety situation at a nuclear power plant on Russian soil that’s near territory seized by Ukraine this month in a cross-border incursion. – Bloomberg
Ukraine will push forward with controversial plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on aging Russian-made nuclear reactors despite growing opposition from lawmakers, the country’s energy minister said, amid warnings of a major power crisis this winter. – Politico
Russia believes the U.S. is preparing to delegitimize the upcoming election in the former Soviet republic of Georgia in a “color revolution.” – Newsweek
James Holmes writes: That should not mask the fact that Ukraine is—and will remain—the lesser antagonist confronting a bulkier, better-resourced neighbor that sees vital interests at stake. It is weaker by most indices and must conduct itself accordingly. Strategic prudence—from nineteenth-century Europe and ancient China alike—urges Kiev to wind down the Kursk operation, and consolidate scarce manpower and resources to defend what matters most. Enough with the adventurism. – The National Interest
Lebanon
Fireworks crackled over this mountain resort about 50 miles north of the border with Israel, their reflections glittering in a swimming pool as young people ordered bottle service and puffed on cigars. – Wall Street Journal
Residents of Lebanese cities felt only partial relief on Monday that one of the biggest exchanges of fire between armed group Hezbollah and the Israeli military the previous day was over, worn down by the relentless tension of 10 months of conflict. – Reuters
The risks for Lebanon are far greater than in 2006, when a monthlong war with Israel ended in a draw. Lebanon has struggled with years of political and economic crises that left it indebted, without a stable electricity supply, a proper banking system and with rampant poverty. – Associated Press
Michael Rubin writes: It really is simple. To do its job, MONUSCO should disarm militants, relocate camps away from borders, and arrest those guilty of war crimes. If MONUSCO does not, it should end. Guterres must understand: Critics do not threaten the UN or cause war; his own tolerance of corrupted agencies does. It is time to trim the fat, starting with Cyprus, Lebanon, and Congo. – Washington Examiner
Middle East & North Africa
Concerns over a wider conflict in the Middle East have prompted international airlines to suspend flights to the region or to avoid affected air space. – Reuters
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) issued a statement late on Monday expressing deep concern “over the deteriorating situation in Libya resulting from unilateral decisions.” – Reuters
Oil prices slipped slightly on Tuesday after rebounding more than 7% over the previous three sessions on supply concerns prompted by fears of widening Middle East conflict and potential shutdown of Libyan oil fields. – Reuters
Thousands of migrants have attempted to cross the border from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in the last few days, including hundreds of youth who tried to swim their way around controls, Spanish authorities said Monday. – Associated Press
Korean Peninsula
The flames and smoke from a burning Mercedes-Benz electric sedan spread rapidly through the underground parking lot of an apartment complex in South Korea this month. The fire damaged almost 900 cars, and 23 people suffered smoke inhalation. – New York Times
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday called for digital sex crimes to be thoroughly investigated after media reported that sexually explicit deepfake images and videos of South Korean women were often found in Telegram chatrooms. – Reuters
The South Korean capital is within range of missile launchers North Korea has said it is preparing to send to the neighbors’ heavily militarized border. – Newsweek
Minseon Ku writes: Until either approach seems feasible, diplomacy with North Korea will remain a singular effort by each country rather than a concerted one. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris underscored during her acceptance speech that she will not “cozy up” to Kim Jong-un. However, as long as Russia-North Korea persists and deepens, she would have to think out of the box and consider “what can be, unburdened by what has been” when it comes to U.S.-North Korea relations and diplomacy. – The National Interest
China
A Chinese military surveillance plane breached Japanese airspace off the country’s southwestern coast on Monday, marking what Japan’s defense ministry described as the first known incursion by China’s military into its territorial airspace. – New York Times
China will hold live-fire military drills near its border with Myanmar starting on Tuesday, fortifying its boundaries with a southern neighbor that has been engulfed in a civil war for more than three years. – New York Times
China called U.S. sanctions on its entities over the Ukraine war “illegal and unilateral” and “not based on facts”, in comments on Tuesday ahead of White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s arrival in Beijing for days of high-level talks. – Reuters
China spent about $15 billion, or 7% of its defence budget, on exercises in the Western Pacific in 2023, according to a previously unpublished Taiwanese estimate, showing Beijing’s investment in military activity around Taiwan and its neighbours. – Reuters
China called on Tuesday for more countries to endorse its peace plan for Ukraine, after a round of diplomacy with Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa to support its plan. – Associated Press
Raphael J. Piliero and Elliot S. Ji write: The alternative is continuing down a dangerous path, where future crises begin where the prior ones left off and Chinese leaders feeling pressure to not just repeat but one-up their previous response. Once a line has been crossed, uncrossing it appears weak and unthinkable. But as both sides climb the escalation ladder, fewer rungs will remain. As noted in these pages, this creates a new normal that leaves both parties living on the “edge of chaos”—permanently. – Foreign Policy
South Asia
The violence began with blasts that ripped through a military camp in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province late Sunday night, killing at least one soldier. Around the same time, armed men stormed into at least four police stations in the province, spraying bullets at officers and setting police vehicles on fire, local officials said. – New York Times
U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday discussed the Russia-Ukraine war following Modi’s visit to Ukraine, along with the situation in Bangladesh where protests led to the ousting of former leader Sheikh Hasina earlier this month. – Reuters
A Pakistani court on Monday acquitted a local man of cybercrime offences involving the spread of fake online information which fuelled riots in Britain, his lawyer said. – Reuters
Mihir Sharma writes: If Modi, for the past decade, has not lived up to the hopes that he raised among Indians when he first sought office in 2014, the reason is that the first and most important of reforms — transformation of the Indian state into a body of detail-oriented experts — was never even on the agenda. If, after 10 years in power, small steps in that direction are cancelled at the first sign of opposition, he can hardly expect his other priorities to become reality. – Bloomberg
Asia
Typhoon Shanshan was barreling toward southwestern Japan on Tuesday, bringing torrential rain and strong winds, forcing some flight cancellations and disrupting the country’s high-speed rail network. – New York Times
When U.S. Steel put itself up for sale in 2023, executives at Nippon Steel in Tokyo saw an opportunity: Buying the American steel maker could help it offset anemic demand in its home country and strengthen its hand in a global business dominated by China. – New York Times
The Philippines’ defence treaty with the United States must be interpreted more broadly to tackle a “dynamic and cunning adversary”, its defence chief said on Tuesday, after recent encounters between Manila and Beijing in the South China Sea. – Reuters
Indonesia and the United States on Monday began two weeks of annual military exercises involving more than 4,500 personnel, aimed at boosting operational skills as Washington seeks to shore-up ties in a region where China is vying for influence. – Reuters
The violation of Japan’s airspace by a Chinese military aircraft is “utterly unacceptable”, the top Japanese government spokesperson said on Tuesday, a day after Japan scrambled jets and summoned a Chinese embassy official in Tokyo in protest. – Reuters
Malaysia has charged opposition leader and former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin with sedition for allegedly insulting the country’s former king, his lawyer said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The Philippine government slammed China on Monday for “repeated aggressive, unprofessional and illegal” actions in the South China Sea after a string of clashes and incidents on air and at sea over the past week. – Reuters
As leaders of Pacific nations were welcomed to their annual meeting in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, on Monday, they were greeted first by torrential rain and then by an earthquake. – Associated Press
Taiwan drilled Monday with anti-amphibious landing missiles as part of strategy to remain mobile and deadly in an attempt to deter an attack from China, which claims the democratically ruled island as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary. – Associated Press
Europe
French authorities detained Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of the Telegram messaging app, as part of a broad investigation into online criminality opened last month, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday, raising the stakes in the struggle between governments and digital companies over their responsibility for illegal activity on their platforms. – Wall Street Journal
In a narrow valley with steep sides near the ancient city of Cartagena, Spain, a team of 150 engineers has just finished building a plant that could be a game changer for Repsol, the Spanish energy company, and a bellwether for the transportation industry. – New York Times
French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out naming a prime minister from the leftist New Popular Front alliance and will instead start a new round of consultations on Tuesday with parties to try to form a new government, Macron’s office said. – Reuters
Poland said that a drone had likely entered its airspace early on Monday morning during a Russian bombardment of Ukraine, adding that the object may have landed on Polish territory and that searches were underway. – Reuters
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to toughen knife laws and step up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers Monday as he visited the scene of the knife attack in which a suspected Islamic extremist from Syria is accused of killing three people. – Associated Press
Some 60 media and rights organizations on Monday urged the European Union to suspend a cooperation accord with Israel and impose sanctions, accusing the country of “massacring journalists” as it battles the Hamas terror group in Gaza. – Agence France-Presse
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday urged European nations to help down drones and missiles over Ukraine in the wake of deadly Russian aerial bombardments across his country. – Agence France-Presse
Africa
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu named new homeland security and foreign intelligence chiefs on Monday, a week after their predecessors resigned abruptly, as Africa’s most populous nation fights a northeastern insurgency and rampant kidnappings. – Reuters
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez starts his second visit this year to West Africa on Tuesday, aiming to curb migration to the Canary Islands and to counter the Russian presence in the Sahel region. – Reuters
The two main contenders in Ghana’s presidential election have launched duelling manifestos promising fiscal stability, jobs and a path out of the country’s worst economic downturn in a generation. – Reuters
At least 100 villagers and soldiers were killed in central Burkina Faso during a weekend attack on a village by al-Qaida-linked jihadis, according to videos of the violence analyzed by a regional specialist, who described the assault as one of the deadliest this year in the conflict-battered West African nation. – Associated Press
Nine men died when a large pile of gravel collapsed on them while they were working in a quarry in Zambia, police said Monday. – Associated Press
The Americas
Canada plans to tighten rules on bringing in temporary foreign workers as it rolls back pandemic measures that were aimed at tackling a labor shortage in the country. – Wall Street Journal
In a significant escalation of trade tensions between Western countries and China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that Canada would impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, joining the United States and the European Union in protecting domestic car production. – New York Times
One of Venezuela’s top election officials, in a declaration sure to jolt the crisis-weary nation, said in an interview that he had no proof that Venezuela’s authoritarian president won last month’s election. – New York Times
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his elected successor defended their proposed judicial overhaul on Monday, as a major U.S. business lobby added its voice to concerns over the reform’s impact on investment. – Reuters
A well-known Venezuelan entertainment journalist arrested in Caracas over the weekend has been released, a media union said on Monday, but she faces terrorism charges as the fallout from the country’s disputed July 28 presidential election widens. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund on Monday named Jamaican Finance Minister Nigel Clarke to a top post at the agency, after the official spearheaded fiscal reforms in the Caribbean nation. – Reuters
A former head of investigations for Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office told officials investigating the 2014 disappearance of 43 students that the so-called “historic truth” presented to the public weeks later was cooked up by the highest ranking authorities in the government during meetings presided over by then-President Enrique Peña Nieto, a Mexican news outlet reported Monday. – Associated Press
United States
President Joe Biden spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, days after the most prominent leader from a nation that maintains a neutral position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine visited Kyiv. – Associated Press
A top White House official is traveling to China for talks on a relationship that has been severely tested during U.S. President Joe Biden’s term in office. – Associated Press
The US did not assist Israel in intercepting incoming rockets or drones fired by the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah from southern Lebanon over the weekend, according to the Pentagon. – Algemeiner
Editorial: Mr. Biden was indeed warned about all of this—and so was Ms. Harris if she was in the White House Situation Room as she likes to say she has been for all of this Administration’s major security decisions. The needless deaths of those 13 Americans were the worst result, but the withdrawal also marked the end of Mr. Biden’s ability to deter adversaries around the world. That Ms. Harris now embraces this failure suggests more of the same ahead if she wins in November. – Wall Street Journal
Michael Mazza writes: New START, participation in which Russia has already “suspended,” expires in 2026. The next American president should let it die an unceremonious death. It is time to arms-race again. A nuclear buildup and revamped strategy will put the U.S. in position to bargain with China, Russia and other nuclear rivals — and put those rivals in the position of needing to bargain. – The Hill
Seth Mandel writes: A school like Columbia, where a pro-Hamas student group holds events explicitly designed to extinguish basic civil rights on campus, is in more trouble than schools like Vanderbilt (and University of Chicago, Purdue, and others), because its students have no need to even hide the ball anymore. The institution has already been converted from a university into a theater of political warfare. – Commentary Magazine
Cybersecurity
CrowdStrike’s next earnings report will answer a lot of questions. But some big ones may go unanswered. The cybersecurity provider’s fiscal second-quarter report coming Wednesday afternoon comes a little over a month after a minor software update from the company caused a crippling global outage that disrupted everything from air travel to banking to hospitals. – Wall Street Journal
Network security company SonicWall has identified a critical vulnerability in its SonicOS platform that can be exploited to gain unauthorized access, and in certain conditions, cause the company’s firewalls to crash. – CyberScoop
More than 700,000 people had sensitive personal information stolen during a ransomware attack on a popular credit union in California. – The Record
Cybercriminals have expanded the scope of so-called highway toll text scams in recent months, targeting people across multiple states with malicious SMS messages demanding payment for fictitious charges. – The Record
Travelers in Seattle are being asked to complete as much of the preflight process as possible at home after a cyberattack left the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport without internet and web systems. – The Record
Defense
The Pentagon has revised the projected cost of refurbishing hundreds of nuclear missile silos to $141 billion, a $30 billion increase from an estimate provided in January. The U.S. Air Force project, known as Sentinel, includes replacing the Cold War-era intercontinental ballistic missiles inside the silos with newer models. – Wall Street Journal
U.S. Army Private Travis King, who last year ran into North Korea and was taken into custody there, will plead guilty to five charges, including desertion, while taking responsibility for his conduct, his lawyer said in a statement on Monday. – Reuters
The U.S. Army is taking a deep dive into a new institutional training model for aviators as its helicopter fleet evolves into a complex network of manned and unmanned platforms, the service’s former Aviation Center of Excellence commander told Defense News in a recent interview. – Defense News
Former President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to create a Space National Guard if he is elected commander-in-chief again in November, calling it a critical step in ensuring that America continues to strengthen its military defenses in space. – Defense News
The Pentagon has extended the deployment of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group after a largely failed attack by the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah on Israel over the weekend. – Defense News