Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Latest Gaza peace plan runs up against reality Israel says it killed several Hezbollah members on key Lebanon hilltop WSJ Editorial: The Gaza road map vs. Trump peace plan As cease-fire teetered, Iran plotted a wider war with aid of its proxies Trump says Iran talks to take place on Monday, sets no deadline for deal Iran’s leaders show a united front over the war but are divided over what the goal is Iranian revolution can happen ‘any day now’ as protest leaders try to arm: sources The Kremlin is bullying more Russians into fighting in Ukraine Ukraine aims to extend the ‘kill zone’ and turn up heat on Putin North Korea says NATO fuel plan shows alliance preparing for war U.S., allies put frictions aside, showing China combined naval might George Washington University’s Lorenzo Vidino: The Islamist threat isn’t only terrorismIn The News
Israel
A day after President Trump announced a breakthrough that he predicted would see Hamas relinquish its weapons and power in war-torn Gaza, both Israel and the Palestinian militant group appeared at odds over what was actually agreed to—and who should make the first move. – Wall Street Journal
The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had killed several Hezbollah members overnight on a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, challenging a fragile cease-fire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group. – New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that a U.S. campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court was intended to defend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others from prosecution, not himself. – Reuters
In Jerusalem’s Old City, a group of Israeli teenagers recently banged on the door of the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church and asked if there were Christians inside it. They wanted to spit at them. – Wall Street Journal
Defense Minister Israel Katz set off an extraordinary public collision with the military Sunday night, sparking outrage in the opposition and jubilance on the far right, as he denounced IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth and announced a replacement for him on live television. – Times of Israel
Board of Peace Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov on Sunday lamented the past two days of Israeli strikes in Gaza that “have killed civilians and destroyed medical supplies that people depend on,” days after the body reached a disarmament deal with Hamas that would also see Israel withdraw from the Strip. – Times of Israel
Hussain Tantawi was woken by a frantic phone call from a neighbor at 3:25 a.m. on Sunday. Israeli settlers had set fire to the newly built mosque in his West Bank village. He rushed out of his house in shorts and slippers, calling his cousin on the way to come help. When he arrived, the building was engulfed in fire, the word “revenge” sprayed on its entrance. – Wall Street Journal
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett described Qatar as today “more dangerous” to Israel than Iran during an interview aired Saturday, while again vowing to declare the Gulf emirate an enemy state if elected into government later this year. – Times of Israel
Editorial: Israel is also skeptical of the terms, and the risk for Washington is to fall into “both sides” thinking, as if the U.S. should be an honest broker between Jerusalem and a jihadist group. Hamas received terms only because it held hostages, who are now free. The U.S. has no obligation to restrain Israel on terrorists’ behalf. “President Trump would be very, very disappointed” if Israel didn’t accept the deal, a senior U.S. official briefed reporters. But Mr. Trump may appreciate Israeli concerns. Troops still find more Hamas tunnels in Gaza, and civilians want to leave the territory but are kept trapped for anti-Israel purposes. The road map offers hope where it’s badly needed. Modified by skepticism, it can do good. Most important of all is for the U.S. and Israel to be united on Iran, not clashing over its Hamas proxy. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Gaza cannot move from Hamas rule to rule by competing armed groups. Any future system must apply the same principle to all of them: one civilian authority and no independent militias. […] Diplomacy and humanitarian relief should continue, and a Palestinian civilian administration should be built. But none of that can become a mechanism for allowing Hamas to survive the war with its weapons, its coercive power, and its ability to start the next one. The test is not whether Hamas signs a disarmament clause. It is whether Hamas is, in fact, disarmed. – Jerusalem Post
Jonathan S. Tobin writes: Some Americans and Israelis persist in pushing for such insane plans. Any such effort, no matter how well-intentioned (as all of them were), is bound to fail until a sea change occurs in the political culture of the Palestinians that will cause them to treat people like Tamimi and other terrorists as shameful villains, rather than as heroes and martyrs to be admired and emulated. That is something that doesn’t seem possible in the foreseeable future, as testified by the popularity of the Oct. 7 atrocities among Palestinians, and the enduring fame of Tamimi and other Second Intifada criminals. Until it does, optimistic statements like those of Trump—and even less savvy peace processors—will inevitably lead to more sorrow and bloodshed. – Jewish News Syndicate
Iran
After days of threats to launch a new offensive against Iran, President Trump is once again trying to achieve through diplomacy what he has yet to accomplish through war. – Wall Street Journal
The economic impact of U.S. attacks on Iran has increased, as widespread shortages and blackouts indicate, after President Donald Trump’s move to strikes on key infrastructure. – Washington Post
A drone attack sent smoke billowing from a giant Saudi oil facility, the largest such plant in the world. Two gas tankers burst into flames at an Egyptian port near the Suez Canal, a crucial choke point in global trade. Fireballs erupted over Jordan as missiles flew toward a base housing U.S. personnel. – New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump said talks with Iran will happen on Monday but declined to set a deadline for an agreement after earlier saying he had called off an imminent attack in hopes of quickly reaching a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resolve the impasse over Tehran’s nuclear capabilities. – Reuters
The crew of an Iranian commercial ship that was hit in a Ukrainian attack and the body of a sailor killed in the incident have returned to Iran, according to Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency in a report on Sunday. – Reuters
Iran executed two Iranian nationals on Monday after accusing them of sending sensitive military and security location coordinates to Israel during the Iran-war, the Fars news agency reported. – Reuters
With escalating attacks against U.S. bases and its allies over the past week, Iran’s leaders are showing considerable unity over their war strategy: hanging tough, determined to show Iran can endure more than America and its allies can. – Associated Press
An Iranian lawmaker said on Sunday that mediators were seeking to revive a deal that briefly halted the war between Iran and the United States in June. – Agence France-Presse
Iran’s Mehr news agency on Sunday denied President Donald Trump’s claim that the Islamic republic asked the United States to refrain from conducting new strikes. – Agence France-Presse
The streets of Iran are near a breaking point over public executions, economic collapse and a war that’s been raging on for more than five months, anti-regime figures in Tehran told The Post. “A revolution can happen any day now — people want revenge,” a protest leader said, referring to the regime’s brutal January crackdown that President Trump said killed 52,000 people. – New York Post
Iran executed a 20-year-old protester on Saturday morning for waging war “against God,” when he took part in nationwide street demonstrations against the regime in January. – New York Post
Editorial: Iran also knows Mr. Trump is surrounded by advisers who didn’t want the President to attack Iran at all and now want the conflict over on nearly any available terms. His aides think the cost of further fighting is higher than the damage to U.S. (and Mr. Trump’s) credibility from a cease-fire that cedes the initiative in the Gulf to Iran. The death of Sen. Lindsey Graham removed a rare hawkish counselor. Has Iran now finally agreed to terms that can plausibly be called a U.S. victory, as Mr. Trump’s Truth Social post suggested? Recall that when the MOU was signed, Mr. Trump’s negotiators hailed the result, and claimed the regime had turned a “new leaf,” as Vice President JD Vance put it, and wanted to become a “normal country,” despite 47 years of promoting terror and regional revolution. As ever, it pays to watch what Iran does, not what the regime and Mr. Trump say it will do. – Wall Street Journal
Mehrzad Boroujerdi writes: The accumulation of economic, social and environmental failures has left the country increasingly vulnerable and made governance ever more costly. Yet the regime endures. The formidable architecture of Iran’s “deep state,” the relative cohesion of its ruling elite and decades of institutional experience in managing crises continue to provide it with remarkable resilience. The result is an uneasy equilibrium: Internal discontent and external pressure steadily intensify, but the state’s capacity for survival remains largely intact. That is the paradox of Iran today — a system under relentless strain yet still far from collapse. – New York Times
Erfan Fard writes: The path forward is clear: only by dismantling the infrastructure that sustains the Islamic Republic can the United States and its allies force a strategic recalibration in Tehran – or precipitate the regime’s eventual collapse. Anything less will allow the mullahs to continue their decades-long campaign of terrorism, instability, and ideological expansion. The time for half-measures has passed. The next phase of this war will determine whether the Middle East remains hostage to a dying dictatorship – or finally breaks free. – Jerusalem Post
Russia and Ukraine
Russia is strong-arming more fighting-age men into military service to boost the flagging ranks of its army as voluntary recruitment stalls and Moscow’s initiative on the front line in Ukraine falters. – Wall Street Journal
When a series of Ukrainian drone strikes targeted a major retail warehouse in southern Russia last week, police released a video aimed at sending a message to anyone thinking of sharing clips of such attacks online. – Wall Street Journal
Three people were killed and 21 injured after an improvised bomb was detonated at a restaurant in central Moscow, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee Information Center told the state news agency TASS. – New York Times
Ukraine rolled out the red carpet for Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who frequently speaks to President Trump. She sat down for about 40 minutes last week with President Volodymyr Zelensky, conducted the first interview with Ukraine’s new acting defense minister, dined with the country’s chief rabbi and got a tour of an animal shelter, given her affection for dogs. – New York Times
Residents of Ukraine’s capital stepped out into smoke-filled streets on Saturday morning after a barrage of Russian ballistic missiles killed at least nine people — only to learn that President Trump had backed away overnight from a promise to let Ukraine produce Patriot air-defense systems designed to stop such missiles. – New York Times
By the time his U.S. deportation flight touched down last summer in Moscow, Artyom Vovchenko had been drained of his fighting spirit. He had deserted the Russian military and fled his homeland in opposition to the war in Ukraine. He had spent 13 months in three U.S. detention centers before being denied asylum in America. And he had been deported in chains by the Trump administration back to Russia, where he faced up to 10 years in prison. – New York Times
Ukrainian drone strikes killed at least eight people in Russian regions overnight and on Sunday, hitting targets including a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, regional officials said. – Reuters
Several thousand Ukrainians rallied through central Kyiv on Friday, signalling to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that opposition to his decision to oust Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, widely credited with driving military innovation during Ukraine’s war with Russia, remains strong. – Reuters
A court in the Russian capital has ordered the arrest in absentia of the daughter of murdered Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, over her role in an “undesirable organization,” Moscow’s court service said on Friday. – Reuters
Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian online retailer Wildberries amount to “acts of terrorism” against civilians, affecting millions of people in Russia and other countries, the company’s founder and CEO, Tatyana Kim, said on Friday. – Reuters
Ukrainian artillery crews are on track to have access to extended-range shells by the end of the summer — a high-tech tool Kyiv hopes will drastically expand the frontline “kill zone.” – Bloomberg
Gulf States
President Trump held off on a new attack on Iran as mediators made fresh progress on a plan to open the strategic Strait of Hormuz and some Gulf states pressed the president to pursue dialogue with Tehran, people familiar with the matter said. – Wall Street Journal
Two tankers laden with Saudi oil crossed the Bab el-Mandeb strait over the weekend, while traffic in the Strait of Hormuz slowed following reports of vessel attacks, shipping data showed on Monday. – Reuters
One of the world’s largest illegal gambling networks sends millions of dollars worth of crypto through an office in Dubai, part of a $4 billion Iranian sanctions evasion operation. – Reuters
The Minister of Interior and Commander of the Internal Security Force ‘Lekhwiya’ HE Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, received a phone call on Sunday, August 2, 2026, from HE Eskandar Momeni, Minister of Interior of the Islamic Republic of Iran. – The Peninsula
Yoel Guzansky writes: It would align American nonproliferation interests with Israeli security concerns and give Saudi Arabia a clear strategic choice: nuclear legitimacy and international status in exchange for transparency, restraint, and regional integration. If Saudi Arabia were to accept a regional fuel bank in lieu of a sovereign enrichment capability, that arrangement need not be conditioned on immediate normalization with Israel. Instead, it could become part of a broader, phased regional process in which progress on civilian nuclear cooperation, regional security, and normalization reinforce one another over time. In the larger strategic picture, nonproliferation is more important than normalization. – Foreign Affairs
Middle East & North Africa
For much of the past month, Iran fired missiles and drones day after day at Jordan. But for many Jordanians, the blame for putting their small country on the front lines falls on President Trump. – Wall Street Journal
For nearly five months, Yemen’s Houthi rebels sat on the sidelines as their main backer, Iran, weathered devastating U.S. and Israeli attacks. That changed in recent weeks with a resumption of fighting between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia — a close ally to the United States in the Iran war. – Washington Post
Turkey and Iraq signed a one-year agreement on maintaining use of the crude oil pipeline between the two countries, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Saturday. The agreement extended a decades-long bilateral arrangement that expired on Monday which allows the operation of Baghdad’s only functioning export pipeline, the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP). – Reuters
Yemen’s Houthi-run maritime coordination body denied on Saturday that it planned to impose fees on commercial ships transiting the Bab el-Mandeb strait, saying no such decision had been taken and that passage through the strategic waterway remained free. – Reuters
A Moroccan rights group on Saturday called for an independent inquiry to be launched into the causes of the influx of tens of thousands of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta this week. – Agence France-Presse
Turkish national Mohammad Yousef Hasna was charged with conspiring to provide material support for Hamas under the guise of humanitarian fundraising and other terrorism financing offenses by the US Department of Justice on Friday. – Jerusalem Post
Korean Peninsula
China’s Chery Automobile agreed to invest $75 million in South Korean automaker KG Mobility Corp through convertible bonds, KG Mobility said. If converted into shares, the bonds would give Chery a stake of about 10% in the company. – Reuters
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto said on Friday that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked him whether he could visit North Korea to open dialogue, adding that he would go. – Reuters
South Korea’s exports grew more strongly than expected in July on global chip and computer demand for AI investments. – Reuters
North Korea accused NATO on Saturday of preparing for war by expanding military fuel infrastructure across Europe, saying the alliance’s plans show it is becoming a more aggressive military bloc. – Reuters
China
Most days, Marc Hofer, a cybersecurity researcher and journalist based in Amsterdam, trawls the internet for clues about how China surveils its citizens, a subject that has fascinated him since he worked there as a foreign correspondent. – New York Times
China is energetically defending its economic policy mix that favours advanced industries over consumption, adopting a posture analysts see as demonstrating increasing confidence ahead of looming trade talks with Europe and the United States. – Reuters
China’s military and China Coast Guard conducted joint air and naval combat drills around the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, according to Chinese state media reports. – Reuters
Juliana Liu writes: Such a move would not eliminate China’s industrial surplus or satisfy every complaint. But it would demonstrate that Beijing is starting to recognize the damage it has been causing. It could also give Brussels a reason to delay more sweeping restrictions. China has more to lose from a relationship breakdown than its rhetoric suggests. Europe remains the largest and wealthiest customer for its high-tech goods, now that the US has erected barriers to entry. Beijing can make modest concessions now, or continue insisting there is no problem until Europe closes the door. – Bloomberg
South Asia
Renowned climber Nirmal Purja and nine other mountaineers died in an avalanche while scaling a mountain in Pakistan on Thursday, Purja’s expedition company said Saturday. – Wall Street Journal
At least 14 people were killed in a suicide bombing outside a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday evening, officials said, the worst attack in a surge of militant violence that has reignited fears in a region once dominated by the Pakistani Taliban. – New York Times
Pakistani rescue teams were searching on Friday for missing workers trapped underground after an explosion at a coal mine in southwestern Pakistan that killed at least 34 people, according to government rescue officials. – New York Times
For the past five years, Tayzar San, one of Myanmar’s most prominent political dissidents, has been on the run from the junta, relying on equal parts luck and vigilance to evade capture. But at dawn on Dec. 3, he visited a popular market to protest the vote the military had planned for later that month. – New York Times
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he wanted to forgive students who hurled expletives at him during protests last month, saying that punishing them and forcing them to appear repeatedly in court would not help resolve the situation. – Reuters
Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday, a spokeswoman for the Myanmar government said. – Reuters
Sri Lanka tightened security across its prisons on Sunday after a riot left one person dead and six injured, an official said, as the nation struggles to manage its overcrowded jails. – Reuters
Sri Lanka’s former police chief Pujith Jayasundara and former senior defence official Hemasiri Fernando were sentenced to death on Friday over the 2019 Easter bombings that killed 279 people, local media reported. – Reuters
Several towns in southeastern Nepal remained under curfew on Friday as the region grappled with lingering tensions after days of sectarian violence that erupted on Sunday and left at least three people dead, authorities said. – Reuters
Nearly four months after taking office, Myanmar’s junta chief turned president Min Aung Hlaing on Friday criticised the regional ASEAN bloc’s peace plan and outlined his government’s plans for the war-torn Southeast Asian country. – Reuters
Myanmar’s coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing signaled his isolated country is in no rush to accept the terms laid out by neighboring nations for normalizing political relations. – Bloomberg
The Cockroach Janta Party, which led India’s biggest student protests in years, wants to build a nationwide movement to hold the government accountable for its promises to young people, one of its senior members said. – Bloomberg
Kapil Komireddi writes: Mr. Modi slipped out of Parliament that day under heavy guard, his aura of indomitability trampled in the melee. Digitally connected youth-led movements across South Asia deposed increasingly autocratic regimes in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal in recent years. Mr. Modi, despite the worsening prospects for India’s young, had largely dodged those currents. Now his record is catching up with him. The extraordinary events in India this summer have revealed how deeply the democratic habits promoted by the nation’s founders have percolated. Young Indians have handed the world’s largest democracy another chance at survival. – New York Times
Asia
In the aftermath of the major earthquake in southwestern Japan, emergency workers and thousands of displaced residents are mounting a grueling recovery amid sweltering heat. – New York Times
Two members of Massive Attack were issued with stern warnings and barred from re-entering Singapore after the British band ended their performance on Wednesday with a display of the Palestinian flag, police said on Friday. – Reuters
Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama will announce on Monday that Tokyo and Washington took joint action in the currency market to arrest the yen’s slide to 40-year lows, two Japanese government officials told Reuters. – Reuters
Taiwan’s cooperation with the United States may be closer than many imagine, the island’s Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Friday, as it strives to deepen military exchanges with the U.S. Pacific Command to boost defence capabilities. – Reuters
The Philippine Department of National Defense said on Friday that foreign state-backed academic and cultural exchange programmes needed to be put under greater scrutiny, amid concerns about the influence of Chinese state-linked institutions on local education. – Reuters
China’s coast guard conducted patrols it described as routine law enforcement in waters east of Taiwan on Friday, angering Taipei, which condemned the move as a political operation aimed at expanding Beijing’s control. – Reuters
The 7.1-magnitude quake that struck southern Japan this week has brought many car and semiconductor factories in the area to a halt, but hopes are high that disruptions will be less severe than a similar-sized temblor that rocked the region a decade ago. – Reuters
More than 20,000 Cambodian civilians remain displaced along the country’s border with Thailand following two rounds of fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbours last year, a UN expert said on Friday, following a visit to the disputed frontier. – Reuters
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s coalition lost a key state election to the once-dominant Barisan Nasional, raising fresh doubts about his political standing ahead of the next general polls. – Bloomberg
Derek Grossman writes: Trump has already claimed credit for helping preserve peace along the Thai-Cambodian border. The more consequential challenge now is ensuring that America remains an indispensable economic partner to one of Southeast Asia’s most important countries. If senior US officials arrive in Bangkok this September prepared to advance concrete energy cooperation rather than simply attend another international conference, they will have an opportunity to build on the administration’s critical minerals initiative and leave behind something far more enduring than a diplomatic headline. – The National Interest
Europe
By Sunday morning, nearly all of the tens of thousands of migrants who flooded into this tiny Spanish city were gone. But the trauma of the sudden influx lingered. – Wall Street Journal
Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally party, walked into a private dining room in late April and took his seat among a dozen of France’s most powerful business lobbyists. – Wall Street Journal
Hundreds of people rallied outside government offices in Ceuta on Sunday evening to protest what they described as official inaction over a surge of migrants into the Spanish territory. Although the demonstration’s organizers criticized both the migrants and the state’s response, the bulk of the chants were directed at Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. – New York Times
The authorities in Cyprus have arrested a man accused of spying on behalf of Iran after he was caught surveilling an air base that serves as an important hub for British operations in the Middle East. – New York Times
Italy’s defense minister on Friday rejected opposition criticism over the deployment of troops and military assets to the Gulf region, saying the mission’s framework had been fully disclosed to parliament. – Reuters
Hungarian firms and business magnates who leveraged ties to Viktor Orban to build sprawling empires are pivoting to smaller projects as a new ruling party moves to stamp out alleged cronyism. – Reuters
An EU naval mission led by Italy boarded a tanker from Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” on Sunday, the second such operation in less than two weeks as Europe intensifies scrutiny of vessels suspected of helping Moscow circumvent oil sanctions. – Reuters
Hungary faces a critical five days, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Sunday, as the drying out of the Danube forces the country’s sole nuclear power plant to shut for the first time in over four decades, with a new heatwave looming. – Reuters
Spain said migrant crossings into its North African enclave of Ceuta stopped overnight, as police began installing a 500-metre (1,640-foot) floating barrier on Saturday off its border with Morocco following a mass rush that killed at least 67 people. – Reuters
Britain’s approval for China to build a vast embassy in London was lawful, the High Court ruled on Friday, rejecting a legal challenge brought by a group of local residents. – Reuters
Spain’s prime minister denounced what he called a “selfish, polarizing and unlawful” reaction from some European Union member states to this week’s mass influx of immigrants to the Northern African enclave of Ceuta that’s governed by Madrid. – Bloomberg
Diplomatic tensions flared between Spain and Israel on Friday after Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon slammed the Spanish government for its handling of the country’s migrant crisis, prompting backlash in Madrid and a public rebuke from Israel’s top diplomat in Spain. – Times of Israel
Editorial: Spain’s Interior Ministry said that as of Friday evening more than 48,000 of the illegal crossers had returned to Morocco, so greater harm has been avoided. But the episode, with its scenes of disorder in the streets, is likely to further poison the immigration debate in Europe and the U.S. […] This episode is also free advertising for Europe’s anti-immigration parties of the right, such as France’s National Rally, Alternative for Germany (AfD), Reform UK in Britain, and Vox in Spain. Western nations have been generous in allowing migrants from around the world to find a new home. But that requires an orderly process and assimilation to Western norms, not a willy-nilly invasion. – Wall Street Journal
Máté Hajba writes: Putin is also striving to compromise Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia. His propaganda machine wants to build up a useful opposition to the EU. Putin has failed in Hungary, but he still has friends in Slovakia and Austria. This shows how important the region is and how crucial closer cooperation is. Hungary can spearhead a European-minded regional alliance, helping Austria and Slovakia disentangle from Putin’s influence. This Central European cooperation could also form a defense alliance, building on Poland’s success. This could, in turn, be the catalyst for stronger European defense efforts to help guarantee peace in the region, to cooperate with the United States while maintaining independence, and to show enough force to deter Putin from expanding his war into other European nations. – The National Interest
Africa
Armed men killed at least 12 people and abducted women and children during a night attack on a village in Nigeria’s northwestern Sokoto state, witnesses said. Six members of one family burned to death after the attackers set fire to their house, one resident told Reuters. – Reuters
The Orange Basin petroleum province shared by Namibia and South Africa has become a test case for how African states balance the demands of oil companies and local groups, with billions of dollars in investment, jobs and tax revenues at stake. – Reuters
A drone strike on a customary court in Sudan’s North Darfur state killed 35 people and wounded others on Sunday, a rights group said, accusing the army of carrying out the attack. – Agence France-Presse
The Sudanese flashpoint of El-Obeid and surrounding areas are experiencing a spike in malnutrition, gender-based violence and other issues, the United Nations’ children’s agency said on Friday. – Agence France-Presse
Khalid Omer Yousif writes: The Sudanese are not asking for American troops. They are asking America to mean what it said. Seven years ago, unarmed young people stood before a machine chanting one word — “peaceful” — and won. They believed courage would be answered with partnership. If that promise dies in Sudan, every autocrat will take note, and so will every young person weighing whether freedom is worth the risk. End the war. Enforce the road map. Prove that when a people chooses liberty over fear, America still shows up — not with statements of concern, but with resolve. – Washington Examiner
The Americas
Nearly seven months after the U.S. toppled Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, the first formal negotiations intended to steer the country toward democracy are kicking off Saturday—without the opposition’s most influential leader. – Wall Street Journal
Canada’s government has approved the development of what promises to be the largest nickel mine in the Western world, part of Ottawa’s efforts to fast-track major projects it hopes will bolster the economy and counter pressures from U.S. tariffs. – Wall Street Journal
There was a billboard on the seaside road along Venezuela’s northern coast with a gigantic photo of a smiling Nicolás Maduro, the country’s former leader, and the words “a land flowing with milk and honey,” a biblical phrase that describes a blessed land. – New York Times
Thirteen people died on Saturday in the crash of a tourist plane visiting the Nazca region in southern Peru, according to the country’s tourism ministry. – New York Times
Peru will deepen its relations with the U.S., which it sees as a “strategic partner,” newly appointed Foreign Minister Carlos Espá said on Friday. He added that he expects Washington to review President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs, and said Peru will also work to restore diplomatic ties with Mexico and Colombia, as well as take initial steps to rebuild relations with Venezuela. – Reuters
When Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva takes the stage at the country’s Workers Party convention on Sunday to accept his seventh, and likely final, nomination as a presidential candidate, at the age of 80, he will do so with the Brazilian left more united behind him than at any other point in his decades-long political career. – Reuters
Brazil’s Progressives Party, one of the country’s largest right-wing parties, said on Friday it would stay neutral in October’s presidential election, a significant setback for Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the strongest conservative contender in the polls, after he tried tapping one of its members as his running mate. – Reuters
Peruvian ex-President Ollanta Humala was released from prison on Friday evening after Peru’s Constitutional Court overturned his 15-year money-laundering conviction. – Reuters
Cuba’s electricity grid collapsed late on Sunday, the state-owned grid operator said, plunging the island of about 10 million people into darkness as blackouts become more frequent. The outage follows three nationwide blackouts in July and comes as a U.S.-imposed oil blockade further strains the island’s ageing energy infrastructure. – Reuters
Colombia’s government on Saturday blamed the nation’s largest remaining rebel group for an explosion outside a police base that injured 11 officers and killed a police dog. – Associated Press
United States
In 2023, the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham led an effort to protect Ukrainian civilians from Russian attacks by supporting the transfer of Iron Dome air defense batteries from the United States to Ukraine. But he encountered an obstacle: Benjamin Netanyahu. – Washington Post
The United States on Friday banned imports from 43 more Chinese companies over alleged rights abuses of Uyghur and other minority groups, targeting firms in supply chains from electronics to food and metals, a government notice showed. – Reuters
An unofficial adviser to the Trump administration who has played a leading role in shaping U.S. Venezuela policy and multimillion-dollar deals to exploit the OPEC state’s vast oil resources has told Reuters he is no longer overseeing the portfolio. – Reuters
Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte posted on Saturday that the transition for Jay Clayton to take over the job will take place on Monday. U.S. Senate Republicans confirmed Clayton’s nomination this week to be the nation’s top spy despite opposition from Democrats following an angry confirmation hearing. – Reuters
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised concerns about Cuba’s ability to infiltrate and influence top-level U.S. institutions, detailing what he described as a dangerous Cuban spy network that is undermining American interests. – Fox News
U.S. President Donald Trump and his top officials are slamming Spain over the migrant crisis unfolding in Ceuta, after about 50,000 migrants crossed into the northern African exclave from Morocco since Wednesday. – Politico
A New York City district attorney on Friday arraigned a suspect on hate crimes charges for antisemitic vandalism, weeks after the man was indicted on manslaughter charges for the death of a Jewish journalist. – Times of Israel
Editorial: Months ago, Israel and America went to war together. That bond was forged long before the mayor came on the scene.On the 15th anniversary of 9/11, Mr. Netanyahu declared that “We stand with our greatest ally, the United States of America and with other partners in the battle against militant Islamic terrorism.” He averred that “Our memories are long, our determination is boundless. Civilized societies must band together to defeat these forces of darkness.” Is Mayor Mamdani not prepared to stand behind this vision of America and New York City, to both of which he is sworn? – New York Sun
Editorial: This is untenable. Lines must be drawn. The world should see who supports Russia’s war and who truly opposes it. In the final weeks before his death on July 11, Graham worked across the aisle to secure support for the sanctions bill. It passed the Senate but still faces hurdles before heading to the House. Its passage would be a fitting tribute to the eponymous senator and would also be a landmark achievement in combating sanctions evasion. The legislation would give the U.S. tools to compel allies and perhaps some enemies to stop fueling Putin’s war machine. It would also mark a tremendous setback for the Axis of Aggressors in its war against the West. – Washington Examiner
Dov S. Zakheim writes: Asian allies, notably Japan and South Korea, that sent troops to Iraq to support American efforts to stabilize that country in the aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom, likewise have stayed aloof from the current American military operation. Finally, although Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have struck Iranian targets, Gulf Arabs are increasingly uneasy about the future of America’s commitment to their security. It is time Washington lowered the temperature in its relations with allies and partners. America’s alliances constitute its great advantage over actual and potential adversaries. It would be exceedingly ironic if America, with its worldwide network of allies, would be unable to call upon them in time of need, while its adversaries, lacking a similar network, will continue to do so. – The Hill
Cybersecurity
The European Commission said on Friday it had charged Chinese online retailer Temu with not cooperating with investigators during a December raid on its European headquarters in Dublin as part of a subsidy investigation. – Reuters
Chinese military researchers have used outputs from leading U.S. artificial intelligence models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic to train domestic AI systems to advance China’s defence capabilities, according to a Reuters review of more than 80 Chinese academic papers and patents. – Reuters
Australia’s government mounted a defence on Saturday of its world-first ban on social media for children under 16, even as fresh data revealed the scale of the challenge confronting the landmark policy. – Reuters
President Donald Trump blamed Minnesota state officials with whom he has feuded for cyberattacks on multiple water systems there, despite reports that officials suspected Iranian involvement in the disruptions. – Bloomberg
Urgent questions are being raised about the vulnerability of America’s critical infrastructure as federal investigators probe whether Iranian-linked hackers are behind a wave of cyberattacks that struck water systems across at least seven states last week. – New York Sun
Google briefly unveiled a feature for Google Earth’s satellite maps, allowing users to generate realistic-looking fake images on top of real ones, before removing it after widespread condemnation of its ability to easily spread misinformation. – Jerusalem Post
While AI is supposed to help defenders, it’s now creating more than twice as much noise as human-triggered incidents CrowdStrike detects as potentially malicious. The company’s threat hunting team and systems triaged an average of 14 million detection leads daily, resulting in about 36,000 customer alerts during the one-year period ending in June. – Cyberscoop
Finland’s national electricity transmission operator has confirmed it will disconnect a fiber-optic telecommunications link to Russia, removing another piece of cross-border infrastructure that remained in place after electricity trade between the two countries ended following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. – The Record
Editorial: Therein also lies the risk. Some AI company valuations may be stretched in the current boom and could be in for a correction. Government policies that seek to slow AI—e.g., robot taxes and data-center moratoriums—could truncate the boom. In that case, taxpayers would be stuck paying much bigger pension bills, which could force worker layoffs as happened after the 2008-09 meltdown. It would be better for governments to move workers to 401(k)-style plans that reduce the risk for taxpayers and give public workers a direct stake in the success of AI and other companies. Maybe then government unions wouldn’t be as hostile to private business. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Concerns about cyber back doors prompted the Federal Communications Commission in March to ban the import of foreign-made Wi-Fi routers. The FCC said “malicious actors” had exploited “security gaps” in these devices “to attack households, disrupt networks, enable espionage, and facilitate intellectual property theft.” The Trump team recently also barred the sale of future electric cars by Polestar (partly owned by a Chinese company), including those made in the U.S., over concerns its Chinese-linked software poses a potential cyber risk. TikTok presents a larger risk, and Mr. Trump is mistaken if he thinks it doesn’t. – Wall Street Journal
Defense
Dozens of warships sat docked next to one another at Pearl Harbor. The hulking military vessels loomed so large that they were visible from planes flying overhead. The largest of them all was the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the American aircraft carrier used in filming for 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick.” – Wall Street Journal
The top U.S. general in Europe privately warned the Pentagon this week that he lacks sufficient naval forces to continue protecting Israel from incoming ballistic missiles, officials said, illustrating how the ongoing Iran war has imposed constraints on the military. – Washington Post
A $21 billion Air Force effort managed by Boeing Co. to upgrade the engines, radar and communications of the iconic B-52 bomber is seeing cost growth and delays during early development, according to a congressionally mandated audit. – Bloomberg
After decades of relying on the U.S.-made Patriot interceptor system and its hit-to-kill PAC-3 munition as the most proven air defense against ballistic missiles, three new tracks are now leveraging international cooperation and a dire global need to develop and manufacture cheaper interceptor platforms. – Defense News
The U.S. Air Force’s F-47 program has begun its engineering and manufacturing development phase and will fly in the coming years, a service official said. – Defense News
Long War
The signs of a committed jihadist were there. Violence. Propaganda. Attempts to travel abroad to join a terrorist group. And finally, deception. German officials had for months documented them all in Abdul Rahman Toufiq Ballout, a Berlin-born German citizen of Lebanese descent. – New York Times
He had done it for money – hired by the Foxtrot Network, an organised crime group with links to the Iranian regime which has become notorious for its violence-as-a-service (VaaS) tactics. – BBC
Lorenzo Vidino writes: Filling the knowledge gap in these areas is crucial if the Trump administration wants to combat Islamism. That means engaging diverse audiences at the national and local levels. The engagement should include FBI field offices, which need to be reoriented to include Islamism as one of their targets; local educational authorities that have given school vouchers to K-12 Islamist schools that preach hatred of America and Jews; immigration officials who give visas to Islamist imams promoting hate and exclusion and universities that accept foreign donations to host Islamist-leaning scholars and events. – Wall Street Journal