Fdd's overnight brief

Israel

Israel is considering expelling British, ​and possibly other ‌European officials, from the U.S.-led coordination ​centre for post-war ​Gaza, the Financial Times ⁠reported on ​Thursday. – Reuters

U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ‌rein in a “surge” of violence by West Bank settlers and mass arrests of Palestinians by Israeli security forces in the occupied territory. – Reuters

Over the last three years, the Independence, an Israeli Navy Saar 6 corvette, has spent thousands of hours standing guard over the country’s offshore gas fields and critical shipping routes, a task its commander called “Sisyphean.” Whenever projectiles were launched towards the rigs by Iran or Hezbollah, his crew sometimes only had seconds to activate their air defenses. – Bloomberg

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in footage broadcast Wednesday that he urged US President Donald Trump to consider tightening the “siege” on Iran during their July meeting in Washington, and cautioned that it would be impossible to make a deal with Tehran, calling the regime’s leaders “savages.” – Agence-France Presse

The Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy briefed the UN Security Council on the status of the US-run body’s efforts to rebuild Gaza on Wednesday, touting Hamas’s acceptance of a disarmament plan while effectively acknowledging that progress has since stalled amid Israel’s rejection of the proposal. – Times of Israel

The United Nations has several special rapporteurs who are “totally out of control” in regard to their perspective on Israel, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres admitted in an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post

Palestinian police officers set up a checkpoint in Area C of the West Bank, where they were not authorized to operate, and unlawfully arrested a reservist IDF soldier who was traveling in the area on Sunday, military sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post. – Jerusalem Post

The IDF struck and destroyed a structure in the Jabalya area of the Gaza Strip that was used as an ambush position for Hamas terrorists and as a storage facility for various types of weapons on Tuesday, the military said on Wednesday. – Jerusalem Post

Editorial: Israel need not answer every criticism, nor should every response be maximal. But when criticism hardens into policy intended to damage the relationship, Jerusalem should determine which elements of that relationship Britain can no longer take for granted. That may mean a diplomatic downgrade, exclusion from a particular forum, or a reassessment of specific forms of cooperation. The response should fit the offense and protect Israel’s interests – not merely vent anger. But this is not your grandmother’s Israel. It is stronger, richer, larger, and less dependent on the goodwill of governments that demand much from it while asking little of its enemies. Its diplomacy should reflect that reality. – Jerusalem Post

Russia and Ukraine

A Russian barrage of missiles and drones hit a children’s hospital, a school, apartments and warehouses around Kyiv last week, killing at least 16 people. Ukraine, lacking Patriot interceptors, didn’t shoot down any of Russia’s ballistic missiles. – Wall Street Journal

The surprise visit by the director of the Central Intelligence Agency to Moscow this week was to deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO countries, according to people briefed on the visit. – Wall Street Journal

The screens, showing live drone footage of the battlefield, flickered with color-coded frames: green for Russian equipment, blue for Ukrainian forces, orange when friend and foe were hard to tell apart. Then, a frame flashed red, indicating a Russian soldier sprinting along a tree line. – New York Times

EU countries, including Sweden, the ​Netherlands, Spain and ‌Poland, are urging Brussels to revive ​efforts to use ​immobilised Russian sovereign assets ⁠to fund ​Ukraine, the Financial Times ​reported on Thursday. – Reuters

Explosions were heard in ​the Ukrainian capital of ‌Kyiv, a Reuters witness said, as Russia was hitting Ukraine with ​drones and missiles in ​the early hours of Thursday. – Reuters

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appointed ​two of Ukraine’s most prominent commanders to oversee the defence of the country’s eastern strongholds, as Kyiv struggles ‌to beat back a Russian onslaught on a region at the centre of stalled peace talks. – Reuters

Nine people were ​killed when a ‌Ukrainian strike hit a bus in ​the Russian-controlled ​part of Luhansk region ⁠in eastern ​Ukraine, the region’s ​Russian-installed Governor Leonid Pasechnik said. – Reuters

U.S. CIA Director John Ratcliffe spoke with Russian intelligence officials during a visit to Moscow but did ​not meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Wednesday of a ‌trip that U.S. President Donald Trump described as “semi-routine.” – Reuters

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that remarks by ousted Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov ​about official corruption and alleged shortcomings in ‌military strategy showed that Kyiv was consumed by intensifying political infighting. – Reuters

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has bestowed one of Ukraine’s top state honours on SpaceX owner Elon Musk as ​Kyiv seeks to expand use of the company’s Starlink ‌terminals, which provide battlefield communications for Ukrainian forces. – Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at the U.S. Capitol hours after Lindsey Graham’s funeral to an unusually attentive audience. – Associated Press

Russia is preparing to escalate attacks on Ukraine after concluding that negotiations for a peace deal have reached a dead end, according to three people close to the Kremlin. – Bloomberg

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Elon Musk the Order of Freedom, a major state honor reserved for strategic partners, as Kyiv is lobbying the world’s richest man to use his Starlink mobile internet system for drone strikes in Russia. – Bloomberg

Ukrainian forces are changing how they train to deliver medical care to wounded soldiers as heavy drone saturation increasingly complicates battlefield casualty evacuation. – Business Insider

Bojan Pancevski writes: But as Washington debates what Ukraine can still achieve against a vastly larger enemy and contemplates its own travails in the Persian Gulf, one lesson matters above all. In the dangerous new world of shadow warfare and runaway technology, it is a mistake to treat power as a hand dealt by gross domestic product or the size of an army. Nord Stream is perhaps the most spectacular example of Ukraine adding new cards to its deck. It will not be the last country to learn how. – Washington Post

Kateryna Odarchenko writes: For a country fighting a war against a state whose leadership has repeatedly invoked Russian Orthodoxy and the “Russian world” to justify its imperialism, the institutional dimension of religion has become entwined with questions of national security and sovereignty. At the same time, Ukrainians continue to support religious freedom and report relatively low levels of distrust toward people belonging to other religious denominations. The war has not simply pushed Ukrainians toward religion; it has forced many to reconsider what religious institutions represent, which institutions they trust, and where the boundary lies between personal faith and institutional allegiance. – Center for European Policy Analysis

Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov write: This is a tactic the Kremlin is already using in dealing with the country’s telecom industry – under the presumption that half a dozen big national operators are more likely to comply with the increasing demand for more censorship and surveillance than thousands of town-level operators scattered across the country. But apparently, this time it would go further – the logic of escalation, of the war getting bigger, doesn’t leave Putin a lot of room for other options apart from turning Russia into a more militarized and more tightly controlled economy. – Center for European Policy Analysis

Korean Peninsula

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday denounced a U.S. decision to ​approve the sale of missiles and related equipment to South Korea, vowing to respond “strongly ​and immediately” to hostile acts in various areas, state media KCNA reported. – Reuters

The Bank of Korea raised ​its benchmark interest ‌rate by a quarter percentage point to ​3.00% on Thursday, ​as expected, delivering a ⁠second straight increase ​as inflation stays above ​target while financial stability risks persist. – Reuters

South Korea’s police said Thursday they were seeking indictments of seven transport ministry officials over the 2024 Jeju Air crash that killed all but two of the 181 people on board. – Associated Press

South Asia

As a ferocious roar grew louder, people at the imposing customs checkpoint that sits at 6,000 feet on the border between China and Nepal started running. In seconds, video shows, a monstrous wave surged over and around the Gyirong Port building, burying everything in mud. – Wall Street Journal

A new draft framework risks diluting India’s most substantial nuclear reform in decades by imposing additional approval requirements on foreign reactors, which threatens ​to steer companies toward domestic technology over imports and limit the flow of new capital and expertise, experts said. – Reuters

India’s trade minister pitched his country to Japanese businesses as a place where “entrepreneurship is celebrated,” as he led its largest-ever business delegation to Japan and urged Japanese companies to double their presence in India. – Bloomberg

Europe

After a drone packed with explosives was found near a Ukrainian cargo plane parked at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany this month, security camera footage appeared to show the drone had struck the plane’s wing. That the drone failed to detonate seemed only to be luck. – Washington Post

France’s political class has been roiled in recent years by its attempts to rein in the country’s increasingly ​heavy debt load. Far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has a simple but highly divisive idea: cancel it. – Reuters

A narrow majority of Icelanders support restarting negotiations on joining the European Union in a nationwide referendum set for Saturday, according to a ​new opinion poll, down slightly from the previous survey. – Reuters

Senior European diplomats will seek to reassure the Pentagon’s policy chief on Thursday that they are stepping up on defence amid uncertainty about a U.S. review of forces in Europe and concern about Russia, officials told Reuters. – Reuters

Poland wants to help shape global regulations as it joins the world’s twenty major economies for the first time later this year, according to Poland’s Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski. – Bloomberg

Ferry passengers between Ireland and Britain will need a valid passport from the end of next month, according to requirements of the UK Border Force. – Bloomberg

Italy has requested €8 billion euros ($9.3 billion) in cheap loans from the European Union’s SAFE defense funding program after delaying a decision for months amid opposition to the plan from within the Italian government. – Defense News

Isaac Stanley-Becker writes: This hasn’t happened, but it’s not merely hypothetical either. The AfD is projected to win an election next month in Saxony-Anhalt, a central German state of some 2 million people. An anti-racism NGO in Berlin, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, created this scenario based on the far-right party’s own election manifesto and the statements of its representatives. For decades, right-wing politics have carried particular weight in Germany, where atonement for the Holocaust includes mandatory education about the rise of National Socialism. The far right was long relegated to the fringes, its most ardent members easily identified as skinheads decked out in leather. But the AfD, founded in 2013 as a mild euroskeptic party led mostly by conservative economists opposed to eurozone bailouts, is now Germany’s most important right-wing force since the Nazis. – The Atlantic

Gloria Dickie writes: Some already see the long shadow of the Brexit fallout mirrored in the discussions happening throughout the country. “I still think we would have been better without this idea, because it really splits families apart,” Olafsson said. “It’s like a poison in society.” Yet if merely agreeing to reopen a conversation about EU membership can barely scrape through a referendum, this suggests that even if Iceland moves forward now, the success of a future vote to join the bloc outright is far from guaranteed. – Foreign Policy

Christian Caryl writes: Yet any attack on NATO territory would entail considerable risk. The alliance might respond by triggering Article 5, its collective security clause—and then Russia could find itself at war not just with Ukraine. The problem is that NATO so far has done little to suggest that it can marshal such resolve. Trump is distracted by his disastrous war of choice in Iran, and the Europeans themselves are still riven by differences over Ukraine and how best to help it. As Putin’s prospects of victory on the battlefield diminish, he may decide that he has even less to lose by intensifying his European plan C. – Foreign Policy

The Americas

Once a beacon of democratic stability in a region beset by lawlessness, Costa Rica is facing a surge in drug violence that threatens to upend the country’s political system. – Wall Street Journal

Mayor Jean Massillon had been pleading for help for months. His town, Kenscoff, had long been a rare peaceful oasis in the violent landscape of Haiti, but that began to change this year when ruthless gangs began attacking nearby villages. – Wall Street Journal

Prime Minister Mark Carney has traveled the world this year in search of new buyers for Canadian exports. Canada needs to diversify its trading partners, analysts say, but weaning the country off the U.S. market won’t be easy. – Washington Post

Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro would introduce a ceiling on public debt if elected president later this year, triggering spending restraints if a predetermined threshold is exceeded, a senior campaign ​adviser said on Wednesday. – Reuters

King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla ​will carry out a week-long ‌tour of Caribbean nations later this year, visiting Antigua and Barbuda, ​the Bahamas and Guyana, ​Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday. – Reuters

As Canadian military spending surges, others are developing remote sensors for the country’s vast Arctic region, making drones to resupply soldiers, and building autonomous robots. – Associated Press

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will address the European Parliament next month, a high-profile visit that underscores Canada’s push to deepen ties with Europe after a sharp break with U.S. President Donald Trump as their trade war escalates. – Associated Press

Arturo McFields writes: Russia is not winning the war, no matter how many churches, schools or civilian apartment buildings it bombs. In fact, it the day it invaded a sovereign country and decided to profit from poverty, recruiting soldiers through lies and false promises. Russia’s strategy is illegal and criminal, yet unsurprising. Nevertheless, Latin American governments, with the support of the U.S., should join efforts to counter these deceptive Russian maneuvers and ensure that the Americas remain a free, prosperous and secure region for all. – The Hill

Gordon G. Chang writes: And that brings us back to energy. China has been helping Cuba generate electricity with solar power from its panels, especially since 2024. There are already solar parks that supply about 10 percent of the country’s demand for electricity, up from 3 percent in 2025. As the Wall Street Journal put it, Chinese-provided solar power is “offering an unlikely bright spot for a power grid plagued by fuel shortages, crumbling infrastructure and near-daily blackouts.”  So, in addition to interdicting Chinese food, the U.S. needs to stop the Chinese from bringing in solar panels. – The Hill

Cybersecurity

U.S. officials say they have disrupted a China-linked hacking operation that broke into U.S. government networks and critical infrastructure, while hiding its tracks on a global network of hacked devices, cloud-computing infrastructure and even clandestine networks. – Wall Street Journal

A cyberattack at medical-device maker Boston Scientific has triggered a global outage of key operational technology, leaving the company unable to fill orders. The company, which reported $20 billion in revenue in 2025, said it doesn’t know when it will be able to restore systems. – Wall Street Journal

Meta’s landmark settlement of up to $17.1 billion with U.S. states and territories on Wednesday over claims it endangered children with addictive social media platforms ended one struggle with regulators. – New York Times

U.S. authorities are investigating a data breach at a small maker of water utility technology, highlighting infrastructure cybersecurity threats even ​though the Kansas firm was apparently not part of a suspected Iranian-affiliated campaign against water plants in Minnesota ‌and other states starting in July. – Reuters

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Wednesday suggested housing data centers in space amid mounting controversy surrounding the facilities’ growing presence in the U.S. – The Hill

OpenAI says the behavior that led its agents to breach Hugging Face emerged in its research environment more than two months before the incident, and concluded that it was a failure of alignment as much as it was a failure of security. – Cyberscoop

Researchers have uncovered new infrastructure linked to an Iranian-linked threat actor that suggests it may be expanding its operations into Britain and other parts of Europe. – The Record

Editorial: Might they be snubbing the settlement in hopes of obtaining bigger contingency fee awards for their plaintiff attorney friends assisting their litigation—Motley Rice for Mr. Torrez and Keller Postman for Mr. Uthmeier? Mr. Torrez may also be less willing to sign on since earlier this year he won $942 million against Meta in state court, though the company is appealing. The ironic result is that teens in Florida and New Mexico won’t benefit from Meta’s platform changes. Meta’s settlement won’t cure teens’ mental ailments, but it will do more good than years of further litigation. – Wall Street Journal

Editorial: The terms require Meta, as default settings, to block access to Instagram and Facebook for teens after midnight, silence notifications during school hours, impose two-hour daily time limits, interrupt the apps’ infinite feed, restrict the use of “extreme makeup filters” and turn off “like” counts for teen posts. Such default settings can still be turned off. Kids are canny about evading age detection technology. As ever, it’s up to parents to police them. –Washington Post

Anda Bologa writes: Companies will probably choose to adopt both the ISO and European standards. ISO certification provides a globally recognized commercial credential. Harmonized European standards can give companies a presumption of conformity with the relevant requirements of the bloc’s AI Act. Large companies can absorb the duplication. Small vendors may struggle with the cost and complexity of hiring consultants and auditors. Regulators will continue to write laws, and standards bodies will continue to publish technical standards. Their work will help determine which AI systems reach the market, and what companies must do to sell them. While regulators write the law, the market is already deciding what counts as safe. – Center for European Policy Analysis