Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Iran talks sputter as Trump spurns a return to his June deal Iran weighs harsh penalties for contact with outside media in ‘foreign influence’ bill Iran sets conditions for reopening Strait of Hormuz, top security official Rezaei says Top White House aides were in the dark on Ratcliffe Russia Trip WSJ Editorial: Would Putin really tangle with NATO? Saudi response to Houthis' attacks on ships may be a new war South Korea backs Trump bid to revive North Korea talks, seeks nuclear progress Chinese state oil giant CNOOC sees potential for US-China energy cooperation Taiwan lines up $7 billion boost for drone builders to counter China WaPo Editorial: How the U.S. can beat China in Africa’s AI race US Patriot missile stocks in Europe are ‘beyond critical’ due to Iran war, officials say US defense review presses NATO allies to prove they are taking the lead in EuropeIn The News
Israel
Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, health officials said. Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed one person near Qarara town in the southern Gaza Strip, and another killed a man at a house in the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City. – Reuters
Israel’s October 27 election could move the shekel by as much as 3% in either direction as investors weigh the prospects of political change after years under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a JPMorgan report published on Thursday said. – Reuters
The Foreign Ministry on Thursday sharply criticized a joint statement by 15 countries and the European Union condemning Israel’s entry into a UNRWA training center in Kalandia and the seizure of the agency’s facilities in eastern Jerusalem two days earlier. – Jerusalem Post
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday denied that Israel would reopen the Erez Crossing into the Gaza Strip for the passage of goods, after officials cited by Hebrew media said that, amid pressure from the US, the border crossing would open for goods next week. – Times of Israel
Iran
The Trump administration has repeatedly told mediators it has no interest in going back to the terms of the memorandum of understanding it reached with Iran in June, complicating this week’s flurry of efforts to restart the diplomatic process, people familiar with the matter said. – Wall Street Journal
Iranian lawmakers are debating the details of a bill meant to curb “foreign influence,” including provisions that would criminalize contact with reporters for international outlets deemed hostile to the Islamic Republic — imposing penalties of up to two years in prison. – Washington Post
Six months after the airstrikes that began the war and propelled a badly wounded Mojtaba Khamenei into the role of Iran’s supreme leader, he remains entirely unseen and unheard by Iranians — a vacuum at the heart of his country’s leadership. – Reuters
Iran is preparing a list of conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz after mediators asked Tehran to set them out, said Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, adding that ending the regional war was among them. – Reuters
Qatar’s prime minister visited Tehran on Thursday in an effort to revive stalled diplomacy six months into the war, as U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington was not currently talking to Iran. – Reuters
Iran’s Security Chief Mohsen Rezaei said a report about a potential plot to assassinate U.S. President Donald Trump’s youngest son is a lie, in an interview broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Manar TV on Thursday. – Reuters
US President Donald Trump has lost interest in renewing June’s interim agreement with Iran and prefers to exert economic pressure to secure more favorable terms for ending the war, according to sources who spoke Thursday with The Times of Israel. – Times of Israel
Marc A. Thiessen writes: Trump’s attack on Iran was not a blunder; it was the bravest foreign policy decision any president has done in my lifetime. Trump acted despite the personal political costs, despite all the doves around him urging him not to do so, despite the unrelenting opposition of Democrats in Congress. He is the first American president to take the words of our enemy seriously — and act before they were able to kill millions. Even if it hurts him politically in November, he will be rewarded by history. – Washington Post
Russia and Ukraine
Together, Russia and Ukraine account for around a quarter of global wheat production. But exports in the region have faltered since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war over two-and-a-half years ago, with levels falling off dramatically in July as hostilities in the waterway deepened. – Wall Street Journal
John Ratcliffe’s diplomatic mission to Russia this week was so sensitive that even some senior White House officials didn’t know about it ahead of time. President Trump personally dispatched the Central Intelligence Agency chief and kept trusted aides and military leaders who normally would have been briefed on the trip in the dark about the message he would deliver to senior Kremlin figures, U.S. officials said. – Wall Street Journal
On the day he took command of the Bosnian Serb army with a mission to divide the Bosnian republic along rigid ethnic lines, Gen. Ratko Mladic warned the Bosnian Serb political leadership that they were embarking on a vast criminal enterprise. – Washington Post
Russian attacks have destroyed Nova Poshta sorting centres near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and in the northern city of Sumy, the Ukrainian private postal and courier company said on Friday. – Reuters
Four people were injured after drones hit a five-storey apartment building in Sevastopol in the Russian-held Crimean peninsula, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor, said on the Telegram messaging app on Friday. – Reuters
Editorial: The question of the moment is whether Mr. Trump’s ability to deter adversaries is as formidable as he suggests. If Mr. Putin is toying with provoking NATO, Mr. Trump could show resolve by loudly canceling troop withdrawals from Europe and signaling more support for Ukraine and NATO’s front lines. If U.S. deterrence fails again against Russia, Mr. Trump won’t have Joe Biden to blame, and his Presidency will be at risk. – Wall Street Journal
Spencer Faragasso and the Good ISIS Team write: This likely passive defensive measure adds additional layers of security to the Alabuga SEZ. Surrounding Alabuga are several air-defense positions, each consisting of a position for a self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle and manned lattice towers where weapons and electronic warfare systems can be stationed (see Figure 5). The construction of the new passive defensive structures comes at a time when Ukraine is increasingly targeting facilities across Russia using large swarms of long-range strike drones and domestically produced FP-5 cruise missiles.[1] This effort further highlights the importance of the Shahed drone production facilities at Alabuga to Russia’s war effort. – Institute for Science and International Security
Syria
Visa and Mastercard carried out their first international card transactions in Syria on Wednesday, a major step in reconnecting the country with global payment networks days after Washington removed it from its state sponsors of terrorism list. – Reuters
For the first time, the Kurdish language will formally enter Syria’s education system beginning with the 2026-2027 academic year, after being approved as an elective subject taught for two periods per week, marking a significant shift after decades of restrictions on Kurdish language and cultural identity in Syria. – Jerusalem Post
A Syrian national attempting to smuggle multiple rocket shells into Lebanon was detained on the Lebanese-Syrian border in Aaiha, a small village in the Rashaya District of the Beqaa Governorate in Lebanon, the Lebanese Army announced. – Jerusalem Post
Turkey
Turkey increased its imports of diesel from the United States and India in August to record levels, shipping data showed, as a Russian ban on diesel exports and wider disruption caused by the Iran war prompted its importers to diversify their sources of supply. – Reuters
A new Turkish law allowing children aged 15 and above to be sentenced to life in prison, and those aged 12 and above to receive a maximum sentence of 27 years, has been widely condemned by human rights groups since it came into effect earlier this month. – Jerusalem Post
Turkey’s Competition Authority has opened an investigation against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. on suspicion that the Israeli company violated local laws and prevented activities by rivals in the local pharmaceutical market. – Jerusalem Post
Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday it carried out a series of strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon, following a drone attack the night before by the terror group on troops, as violence continues despite a US-brokered ceasefire. – Agence France-Presse
United States Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa received the green light to meet with Hezbollah, according to a Lebanese report published Thursday evening, but a US official denied the report. – Jerusalem Post
Israel has conveyed a message to the United States through security channels that a pilot program in southern Lebanon, which began being implemented following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Beirut and Jerusalem, has failed, Walla reported Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Gulf States
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear as he announced “Economic D-Day” that the U.S. would no longer turn a blind eye when countries support Iranian economic activity. A spin around Dubai shows it is all happening in plain sight. – Wall Street Journal
After weeks of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia on Saudi ships, airports and oil facilities, Saudi Arabia appears to be preparing for a renewed war against the group, analysts say, potentially deepening the turmoil in the Middle East. – New York Times
Ronald Neumann writes: The Gulf states will remain vulnerable to Iran no matter what we do. Staying provides an enhanced opportunity for cooperation, not only on the technical aspects of defense but on improvements in unified regional defense. Coordinated and unified air and missile defense among the GCC states has been a decades-long American effort in the region. Advances have depended on the US playing a central role in coordination but have been limited by mutual frictions and distrust among GCC states. The current fighting, with Iranian strikes on every GCC state from Kuwait to Oman, has dramatically illustrated the need for the GCC states to work together and with us. This is a situation we should use to work cooperatively with our GCC friends, not one in which we should bolt for the door. – The National Interest
Middle East & North Africa
Qatar and other regional powers sought an off-ramp from the war with Iran on Thursday as another tanker attack was reported in the Strait of Hormuz, and the Iranian government dismissed the Trump administration’s latest sanctions. – Associated Press
It’s been six months since the United States and Israel attacked Iran with the perennial goal of transforming the Middle East through military force. The region has changed, but not in the way they had hoped. – Associated Press
Dina Esfandiary, Becca Wasser, and Ziad Daoud write: Qatar overcame the restrictions of pipeline geopolitics in the same decade by making a debt-funded bet on a new technology: turning natural gas into a liquid to export it on ships. When that gamble paid off, Qatar became one of the richest states in the world. The Middle East today has some thinking to do. It will need to draw up new ways to preserve its wealth, to pursue greater self-sufficiency, and to diversify—and even own—its security. It needs a new mechanism that can help local countries manage their differences and unify against common threats. Doing so is the only way the region can survive this conflict and withstand the next one. – Foreign Affairs
Korean Peninsula
South Korea supports U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to resume dialogue with North Korea, but aims to ensure its security posture is not weakened and that Seoul is not sidelined, South Korea’s national security adviser said on Friday. – Reuters
South Korea, Japan and the United States will conduct joint military drills from September 9 to 11 to test readiness against North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons threats, South Korea said on Friday. – Reuters
Hanbyeol Sohn and Kyung Suk Lee write: South Korea has the standing to ask how far its own share extends in the alliance’s nuclear division of labor. In the alliance’s reorientation, Washington is placing on Seoul the primary responsibility for conventional deterrence against North Korea, and the boundary of that responsibility is the nuclear threshold. Beyond that threshold lies a gap the two allies can only cover together. Who takes on what to cover that gap is a question the alliance should answer jointly. A default is not simply given but set by someone. There is no reason South Korea should be left out of that “someone.” – War on the Rocks
China
Chinese state-owned oil and gas major CNOOC sees potential for energy cooperation between China and the United States, a senior executive said on Thursday, adding that the company would consider investments alongside U.S. partners in the future. – Reuters
A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck China’s Tibet region late on Thursday, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said. – Reuters
In the pre-dawn darkness on an island in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese troops earlier this month pulled long, gleaming 105mm shells from their green plastic canisters. After all the ammunition had been checked and safely loaded through hatches on four tanks, troops waited silently for the order to fire. – Reuters
A lake formed by debris from a glacier collapse that triggered catastrophic flooding on the China-Nepal border has begun to overflow, Chinese authorities said on Friday, forcing rescue operations to be halted. – Reuters
South Asia
More than 1,500 people are missing and at least 470 people confirmed dead in Nepal and China following Wednesday’s flood, as rescue efforts continued. – Wall Street Journal
Nepal does not need foreign assistance for search-and-rescue operations following the devastating flash flood that swept through several towns, its foreign ministry said on Friday, despite offers of help from several countries with nationals missing in the disaster. – Reuters
The death toll from a flash flood that occurred earlier this week in Nepal has reached 469, Nepal police said on Friday. – Reuters
Officials in Nepal’s Rasuwa district have received a notice saying a lake has broken its banks, two days after a flash flood hit the region, Narendra Pariyar, the most senior bureaucrat of the district, said on Friday. – Reuters
Global ratings agency S&P on Thursday affirmed India’s sovereign ratings at “BBB/A-2” with a “stable” outlook, citing continued policy stability and high infrastructure investment that supports the country’s long-term growth prospects. – Reuters
Raja Mohan writes: India has not yet reached that point. Critics of Modi’s prudent management of Washington have not come up with a convincing alternative strategy for how India should handle the growing power imbalance with China. It is easy to call for more productive ties with Beijing, but China’s terms for lasting peace with India—which include a territorial settlement that favors Beijing and reducing security ties with the United States—would be too costly to bear. Nor has China helped any other country rise economically or technologically. Put simply, India’s path to economic growth and technological modernization would be much harder without the United States. Strengthening ties with U.S. allies and working with Trump, for now, remains India’s best bet. – Foreign Affairs
Hussain Nadim writes: Trump may believe he has found the Pakistani general who can help him solve Iran, or become the fall guy if it fails. History suggests another possibility: Munir has found another American president who needs him and is ready to trust his promises. For Pakistan’s military rulers, the promise keeps Trump engaged; delivering on it too soon could end the honeymoon period. They hope that by the time Trump finally figures it out, and the institutional memory kicks in, it’s already 2028. – The National Interest
Asia
Taiwan’s legislature approved a plan on Thursday to spend over $7 billion on drones over the next six years, investing in a strategy to deter an attack by China and supporting an emerging domestic industry that aims to be a world leader. – Wall Street Journal
Transport authorities in Indonesia’s capital suspended or diverted some rail and bus routes on Friday following street protests that local media said had turned into late night rioting. – Reuters
Malaysia said on Thursday that it has finalised the first phase of a voluntary repatriation programme that will see some 1,500 Myanmar refugees return home. – Reuters
Kristina Kironska and Jan-Sha write: Together, Myanmar and eastern Congo illustrate a broader pattern: Conflict does not always interrupt strategic supply chains. In some cases, they adapt to conflict, move through it, and even depend on the forms of fragmented authority that war produces. Western governments increasingly demand “clean” supply chains while remaining structurally dependent on extraction systems that they have little ability, or willingness, to regulate. Myanmar shows why conflict itself must be treated as part of supply chain governance rather than merely as an external disruption to it. Otherwise, the world risks building a cleaner future on poisoned rivers, militarized borderlands, and communities that are left to absorb the costs of someone else’s sustainability. – Foreign Policy
Charles Edel and Kathryn Paik write: Fortunately, the cost of securing Washington’s posture in the Pacific is remarkably modest relative to its yield; small, targeted investments in diplomatic footprint, maritime security, and economic resilience offer an outsized return, delivering maximum strategic impact for minimal financial outlay. By moving beyond symbolic visits and institutionalizing low-cost, high-gain partnerships that address the concrete needs of Pacific island states, Washington can reinforce a vital arena of its Indo-Pacific strategy. Failing to execute this high-leverage approach will leave the United States perpetually on the defensive, slowly losing ground in a region that is essential to its long-term national security. – Foreign Policy
Europe
Two employees at Frankfurt Airport died from a rare malaria outbreak this summer, most likely after a mosquito traveled to Germany on an airplane, the airport’s operator said this week. – New York Times
Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general whose actions during the Balkan wars of the 1990s led to him being called the “Butcher of Bosnia” and who was held responsible for Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II, the killing of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, has died in custody in The Hague. He was 83. – New York Times
Norway’s King Harald, a reformer who emerged from the shadow of his well-loved, extrovert father over more than three decades on the throne, died on Friday at the age of 89, the royal palace said, at a time of multiple crises for the Norwegian royal family. – Reuters
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen sought to woo France’s business leaders on Thursday, pledging during a first presidential debate with key rivals to put public finances back on track if she wins power next year. – Reuters
Iceland is set for a close result in Saturday’s referendum on resuming accession talks with the European Union, with the latest poll showing opponents slightly ahead of proponents for the first time. – Bloomberg
Matthew Boyse writes: It is now clearer where Prime Minister Radev is going. Bulgaria remains an important treaty ally, partner, and friend, but he will be complicated on foreign policy, defense, and other priorities, as he was during his presidency. How far he will go on other US and alliance priorities, like clean and effective government, remains to be seen. His penchant for triangulating, tacking, balancing, and hedging remains a challenge. This will make it more difficult to put wins on scoreboards, as with other treaty allies. But NATO, the EU, and the United States have other complicated allies, and it can be done. – Hudson Institute
Africa
The Pentagon is preparing to withdraw about 200 troops from Nigeria who were deployed this year to help fight Islamist militants, wrapping up a mission that American officials say could serve as a model for future operations in Africa. – New York Times
Eswatini said on Thursday it had received two more third-country nationals deported from the United States under a bilateral agreement between the two countries. – Reuters
Zambian opposition leader Brian Mundubile and his running mate, Makebi Zulu, are in police custody after being questioned “in connection with an alleged offence of treason,” the Zambia Police Service said on Thursday. – Reuters
Chad has accused neighbouring Sudan of carrying out an air strike that hit a military convoy in its territory last week, and has raised its alert level in the area to its highest point, a security source said. – Reuters
Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi has unveiled plans for a national dialogue aimed at easing political tensions, which have risen over a bill that critics say could pave the way for him to seek a third term. – Reuters
Congo on Thursday began vaccinating people against Ebola as health authorities work to slow the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease in history. – Associated Press
Kidnappers in Nigeria collected more than $5 million in ransom payments over the last year, a Lagos-based intelligence group said Thursday, as the country faces a multifaceted security crisis. – Associated Press
Mauritania said Thursday it intercepted a boat off its coast carrying 161 migrants trying to make their way to Europe. The country’s coast guard said in a statement it “rescued” the migrants off the coast near the fishing village of Amhijrat, north of the capital, Nouakchott. – Associated Press
Justice Malala writes: All of this is imperiled by an impetuous, unnecessary grab for more power than he needs. A fragmented opposition and a generally satisfied civil society now have a reason to organize against Hichilema — and they will. What was a clear path towards transforming Zambia into a democratic and peaceful economic powerhouse today faces real challenges. Hichilema has no one to blame but himself. He frittered away his advantage unnecessarily. There is still enough goodwill for the president to correct course, but suspicions about his administration and his character will linger. – Bloomberg
The Americas
The Trump administration is in advanced talks with Venezuela for the U.S. to take a direct stake in more than a dozen oil fields that house nearly one-third of the country’s massive energy reserves. If the two countries reach a deal, it could pave the way for independent U.S. energy producers to become involved in oil production in the Latin American country, according to people familiar with the matter. – Wall Street Journal
Senior U.S. officials intervened in an international criminal investigation into a Venezuelan businessman who was enlisted by the Trump administration to help assert control over Venezuela’s government and oil industries, according to two people familiar with the matter. – Washington Post
A former Venezuelan military commander who is accused of ordering torture and had adopted a new life as a television actor in South Florida has been deported, according to the U.S. immigration authorities, interrupting his accusers’ case in federal court. – New York Times
Left-wing politicians from across the Western Hemisphere gathered in Uruguay this past weekend to lick their wounds from a string of election losses and strategize on how to counter growing aggression from the Trump administration. – New York Times
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that the trajectory of the country’s public debt is not a concern for him in a potential new term, arguing the government’s fiscal scenario has improved since he took office in 2023 and the country is on track to a primary surplus this year. – Reuters
Venezuela is considering whether it should quit OPEC, according to people familiar with the matter, potentially delivering a fresh blow to the oil cartel it helped create more than six decades ago. – Bloomberg
North America
Canada’s minister responsible for trade with the United States said on Thursday that a pledge from a Trump administration official to not challenge Canadian laws around French language and Canadian culture could provide an opening to renew negotiations. – New York Times
The Trump administration plans to step up deportation flights to Haiti, according to documents obtained by The New York Times, a move intended to more quickly expel thousands of Haitians whose legal status expired this summer with the end of a humanitarian program. – New York Times
The Mexican authorities said on Thursday that they had arrested a suspect in connection with the shooting of César Gastélum, an influencer who was killed as he streamed video to his followers in the Sinaloa region this month. – New York Times
The premier of British Columbia has an additional suggestion for Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, in dealing with U.S. tariffs: stop plans to buy as many as 88 American-made F-35 fighter jets. – New York Times
Quebec will hold an election on October 5, with polls showing that the next government is likely to be formed by separatists who want independence for the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province — but not while U.S. President Donald Trump is in office. – Reuters
The U.S. military used a laser in southern Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to shoot down three Mexican drug cartel drones this week near the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. officials said on Thursday. – Reuters
Canada cannot accept a trade deal with the U.S. unless it ensures the survival of a robust Canadian auto assembly and parts industry, Canada’s ambassador to Washington said on Thursday, giving no indication when talks may resume. – Reuters
United States
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” a further escalation of the U.S. trade dispute with Canada. – Wall Street Journal
As voters in both parties grow anxious about the rapid build-out of data centers, President Donald Trump remains one of the tech industry’s most prominent champions — putting him increasingly at odds with members of his own party. – Washington Post
Scottish prosecutors will attempt to prove that pro-Palestinian activists accused of vandalizing one of President Trump’s Scottish golf resorts last year committed acts connected to terrorism. The move is the latest in a broadening effort in Britain to target protest groups with terrorism laws. – New York Times
The U.N. human rights office said on Thursday the Trump administration’s designation of the Palestine Action group as a terrorist organization was “a disproportionate and unnecessary restriction” on free speech rights that amounted to an expansive use of the term terrorism and will have a chilling effect. – Reuters
Democratic leaders in the US House of Representatives appointed one of the party’s most ardent supporters of Israel to a key foreign policy post, in a move that angered progressives who argue he is out of step with where the party is trending on the issue. – Times of Israel
Cybersecurity
A federal judge ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration violated Anthropic’s First Amendment rights by blacklisting the artificial-intelligence company as a supply-chain risk. – Wall Street Journal
Russian-speaking hackers used SpaceX’s AI coding assistant, Cursor, to help break in to a Belgian chemical company and at least six other firms earlier this year, according to data reviewed by Reuters and reports issued on Thursday by cybersecurity companies Gambit Security and CloudSek. – Times of Israel
Unit 42’s top brass has seen enough from internal frontier AI model testing and malicious in-the-wild use of commercially available AI tools to be genuinely concerned. – Cyberscoop
More than 100 companies and organizations, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, have signed an open letter calling for a global effort to improve cybersecurity defenses as artificial intelligence capabilities advance. – Cyberscoop
A class action lawsuit filed by victims of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) accuses xAI of training Grok’s synthetic deepfake “nudify” capabilities on real images and videos of child abuse. – Cyberscoop
Two men from Western Australia were arrested and charged Wednesday for their alleged roles in TeamPCP, a notorious cybercrime group responsible for inserting malicious code into widely used open-source software in a campaign that compromised more than 1,000 organizations worldwide. – Cyberscoop
Foreign intelligence services, particularly those from China and Russia, are increasingly behind cyberattacks on German companies, according to a new survey of the country’s private sector. – The Record
Manchester Airports Group (MAG) — a public-private partnership which operates three of England’s busiest airports — said Thursday it was hit by a cyberattack affecting data belonging to about 8.7 million customers. – The Record
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) confirmed that it recently experienced a cyberattack, calling the breach a “major incident.” The agency, housed within the Department of Justice, appeared on the leak site of the Qilin ransomware gang on Wednesday. – The Record
Editorial: Washington once had a serious answer to this challenge. The Obama administration’s Power Africa program, created in 2013, saw the U.S. Agency for International Development partnering with African governments and the private sector to increase electric power across the continent. But that program came to a halt because of President Donald Trump’s dismantling of USAID and his cuts to foreign aid in general. AI is not just advanced models solving difficult problems. It’s an infrastructure play. If the U.S. engages more aggressively in electricity generation and computational build-out, American companies will get deeper footholds into emerging African markets. – Washington Post
Gary Corn writes: The policy simply tasks the nascent National Coordination Center (NCC) with creating, managing and maintaining a program to authorize vetted and bonded companies to conduct surveillance and disruptive operations against a limited category of cyberthreat actors — Cyber-Enabled Transnational Criminal Organizations, or CE-TCOs — under, importantly, federal government control and oversight. The devilish details, however, lie in implementing this tasking. – Washington Post
Robert A. Manning and Giulia Neaher write: However self-serving the strategy may be, China’s recent global AI conference demonstrated its commitment to multilateral controls and standards, and AI discussion is on the agenda for the Sept. 24 summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. This can be a key opportunity to work toward global institutions and agreements—perhaps the International Atomic Energy Agency, which governs nuclear cooperation, can be a model—that monitor, evaluate, and enforce safe AI that is trustworthy and human-aligned, whether open or closed. – Foreign Policy
Defense
The U.S. military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a U.S. defense official in Europe and a NATO official told The Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in NATO countries to a potential Russian attack. – Associated Press
The Pentagon on Thursday pressed U.S. allies at NATO to prove they are stepping up their defense of Europe as Washington shifts its attention to security challenges closer to home and in the Indo-Pacific region. – Associated Press
The Department of Defense has awarded a contract worth almost $11 million to X-Bow Systems, a New Mexico-based rocket manufacturer, under a program aimed at developing a new anti-ballistic weapon for less than $750,000 a shot — roughly a fifth the cost of its top-tier equivalent, the Patriot missile. – Defense News
The Navy finished the first of its modernization projects meant to move sailors into shore housing as part of the Pentagon’s overall Barracks Task Force, the installations command announced Thursday. – USNI News
The U.S. Navy received its final Lewis B. Puller-class Expeditionary Sea Base this week as Military Sealift Command prepares for the return of three sidelined ships. – USNI News
Sam Skove writes: But no matter what the Pentagon plans, it will still have to face the greatest wild card of all: Trump’s mercurial tendencies. Trump’s reversal of the Pentagon’s decision to withdraw troops from Poland came after outreach from Poland’s president, Karol Nawrocki, with whom Trump is close. Other European leaders—notably NATO chief Mark Rutte—have proved to be similarly adept at wooing Trump. “These reviews are always a lot of hype, and then the changes are always less than what we expect,” Kavanagh said. – Foreign Policy