Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Israel to reopen Jordan border crossing for passage of aid and goods JPost Editorial: Israel has too much to lose to be afraid of condemning the Muslim Brotherhood Iran has attacked every Israeli citizen multiple times, new cyber chief Yossi Karadi says Inside Ukraine’s daring ‘Operation Spiderweb’ attack on Russia Trump Pushes Ukraine to Accept Peace Deal, Saying It Is Losing WINEP’s Aaron Y. Zelin: Christians in the new Syria: accepted, but at-risk North Korea’s ruling elite prepares for once-in-5-years party meeting US backs Japan in dispute with China over radar incident Suspected drones seen over French military intelligence base, armed forces say U.S. imposes sanctions on network it accuses of fueling war in Sudan Former Honduran President pardoned by Trump has arrest warrant at home Justice Department unveils new charges in alleged Russia-backed cyberattacksIn The News
Israel
Israel is set to reopen the Allenby Crossing with Jordan to the passage of goods and aid on Wednesday, an Israeli security official said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Hamas on Tuesday called for more international pressure on Israel before the militant group moves forward with the next phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, with a Hamas leader saying it wants Israel to open a key border crossing, cease deadly strikes and allow more aid into the strip devastated by the two-year war. – Associated Press
One year into a shaky ceasefire on this heavily fortified border, Israel’s government says most of those displaced have returned to their homes in the north, where they struggle to pick up the pieces of their lives. Others are reluctant to come back, as Israel has stepped up attacks in Lebanon. – Associated Press
Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar on Tuesday called for the government to establish a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7 attack, lobbing implicit criticism at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his first public address since leaving his post in June. – Times of Israel
While US President Donald Trump’s administration succeeded in rallying much of the Arab and Muslim world around its Gaza peace plan, convincing those countries to contribute troops to the force needed to operationalize that proposal has been a much taller task. – Times of Israel
The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday that it carried out a wave of overnight airstrikes in southern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah sites, including a training facility used by the terror group’s elite Radwan Force. – Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to sign a security agreement reached between Israel and Syria in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, according to an Arab news report. – Times of Israel
The International Stabilization Force (ISF) will be deployed in the Gaza Strip at the beginning of 2026, a US official told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday night. – Jerusalem Post
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the end of the month, Washington is working behind the scenes to arrange a separate three-way meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. – Ynet
Editorial: If US federal authorities, or additional states, follow Florida and Texas, and international pressure mounts, the chances of weakening the Brotherhood’s global reach will increase. Israel should not shy away from acting decisively. For a country that has paid too dearly for Islamist extremism, there is little to lose and much to gain from drawing that line now, before tomorrow’s threats exact another terrible price. – Jerusalem Post
Noa Lazimi writes: Furthermore, Jerusalem should firmly oppose any “soft” model – promoted by Doha and Ankara – of disabling or placing out of use (decommissioning) Hamas weaponry, such as transferring arms to the Palestinian Authority or storing them under supervision. Instead, Israel must insist on the complete and total dismantling of Hamas’s military capabilities (disarmament). In close coordination with the United States, Israel must make clear to Qatar and Turkey that it will not permit any arrangement – direct or indirect – that enables Hamas to remain standing. – Jerusalem Post
Uri Bar-Joseph writes: In order to deal with such a multidimensional failure, military personnel, as experienced and wise as they may be, are insufficient. Here we’re talking about a highly conformist intelligence system, in which, for cultural, sociological and psychological reasons, there is no tendency to think out of the box. In order to understand why so many officers consciously or unconsciously adapted their assessments to the prevailing opinions, there is need for experts of a different kind: anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists. Therefore, the Numa commission would do well to turn to such experts in order to understand what really happened and how to repair. – Haaretz
Iran
Rain fell for the first time in months in Iran’s capital Wednesday, providing a brief respite for the parched Islamic Republic as it suffers through the driest autumn in over a half century. – Associated Press
Iran’s soccer chief said Tuesday that Tehran objected to the “irrational” branding of its World Cup match against Egypt, which local organizers in the US have suggested will be held in support of the LGBTQ community. – Agence-France Presse
Iran used cyber weapons to try to target every citizen in Israel multiple times during the 12-day June war, the director-general of the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD), Yossi Karadi, said in his first public speech since taking office in March. – Jerusalem Post
Russia and Ukraine
One of the most audacious covert operations in modern warfare almost fell apart when a Russian truck driver placed a panicked call to the Ukrainian who had hired him. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump dialed up pressure on Ukraine to swiftly accept a U.S.-designed peace plan, hardening his position toward the embattled country and its European backers, who insist U.S. security guarantees are vital to a peace deal. – Wall Street Journal
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked members of his political party to prepare legislation to hold elections despite the country’s war with Russia, he said Tuesday, contingent on the United States and Europe providing security guarantees. – Washington Post
After weeks of peace talks and high-level meetings, Russia and Ukraine remain far apart on an issue central to bringing the war to an end: Territory. – New York Times
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that European claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to restore the Soviet Union were wrong and that claims Putin plans to invade a NATO member were complete stupidity. – Reuters
Russia’s Syzran oil refinery on the Volga River halted oil processing on December 5 after being damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack, two industry sources said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Ukraine will introduce more restrictions on power usage and will allow additional energy imports as it struggles to repair infrastructure shuttered in Russian strikes, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Russia on Wednesday said it was still awaiting a formal answer from Washington on President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to jointly stick to the last remaining Russian-U.S. arms control treaty, which expires in less than two months. – Reuters
Ukraine and its European partners will soon present the U.S. with “refined documents” on a peace plan to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday, following days of high-stakes diplomacy. – Reuters
Ukrainian troops have been holding parts of the beleaguered city of Pokrovsk since mid-November, but some units were ordered to withdraw from impractical positions outside the city in the past week, Ukraine’s top commander was quoted as saying on Tuesday. – Reuters
Russia’s prosecutor general said a U.S. fund, which owns major assets in agriculture in Russia, was extremist and filed a lawsuit to a Moscow court asking it to stop it operating, pending a seizure of its assets. – Reuters
David Ignatius writes: The biggest mistake Trump can make is to insist that it’s now or never. Diplomacy doesn’t work that way, and good business doesn’t, either. As Trump observed several decades ago, “The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead.” Trump should make a reasonable deal that will last. Otherwise, he might end up with nothing, and this miserable conflict could enter an even more destructive phase. – Washington Post
Eric Greene and Alexander Joel write: Together, Kyiv and Washington have established a framework for catalyzing investment in Ukraine and providing the U.S. a stake in the country’s continued development. The exigencies of war require creativity and flexibility. The U.S.-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund mandate allows it to invest outside of minerals and natural resources. Russia’s efforts to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter underscore the need for the fund to widen its scope to invest in Ukraine’s near-term needs as well as its long-term growth. – The Hill
Thomas Graham writes: Despite much speculation to the contrary, Trump has neither abandoned Ukraine to Russia’s will nor walked away from the problem as one that is too hard to solve. And the U.S. national security apparatus has the expertise and skill needed to manage a complex diplomatic undertaking, if only the administration could find a way to reliably control its own bureaucracy, which it does not trust. Success is not assured, of course, and it will not come as quickly as Trump desires. But with one last effort, he could once again defy his critics and end a conflict others thought intractable. – Foreign Affairs
Kateryna Odarchenko writes: Ukraine has built the institutions required for transparency and accountability while implementing reforms unthinkable a decade ago. But institutions alone cannot win the fight. Structural weaknesses continue to limit the effectiveness of formal reforms and, without sustained political will, judicial reform, and irreversible guarantees of independence for anti-corruption bodies, progress will remain fragile. The test now is not whether Kyiv can launch investigations, but whether it can complete them; not whether it can expose corruption, but whether it can ensure consequences for those responsible. The measure of success will be the number of powerful individuals in jail. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Syria
Israel’s aggressive posture toward the new government in Syria has emerged as a rare point of disagreement with Washington, where President Trump wants a quick resolution to the two countries’ decades-old tensions. – Wall Street Journal
Shells of unknown origin fell in the vicinity of Syria’s Mezzah military airport in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, the state-run Al Ekhbariya TV reported. – Reuters
The woman, a member of Syria ‘s Alawite religious minority, was walking home on a sunny July day in her town on the Mediterranean coast when three gunmen stopped her and pulled her into their van. It was the start of a week of torment. – Associated Press
IDF soldiers operating in the area of Khan Arnaba in southwestern Syria fired at armed individuals riding pickup trucks passing near troops, Israeli media reported on Tuesday afternoon. – Jerusalem Post
Aaron Y. Zelin writes: At the same time, the community has been targeted by vigilantes and the Islamic State in particular. This has created an atmosphere within the community of unrest and suspicions regarding whether the new authorities are truly willing to protect them, even while the Syrian government has provided better security at its churches. Therefore, the only way forward is to build more trust and for the new Syrian government to continue to show it takes the safety of the Christian community seriously. Otherwise, similar to Iraq, an ancient community might decide to become refugees in the West and leave a historic legacy behind. – Washington Institute
Yemen
Yemen’s southern separatists have claimed control over swathes of territory in an apparent major shift in power that risks rekindling a 10-year-old civil war after a long lull, raising new uncertainties in a country near important sea routes. – Reuters
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemns a referral by Yemen’s Houthis of some of the dozens of U.N. staff they have detained to a special criminal court, his spokesperson said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Abdullah Al Junaid writes: The alternative, continuing to pour humanitarian aid into a country while ignoring its fundamental political fracture, is to condemn Yemen to another generation of war. As the Southern Transitional Council’s military actions demonstrate, the desire for southern independence hasn’t faded; it has only grown stronger through years of misrule. Yemen’s tragedy isn’t that it unified two countries in 1990; it’s that it tried to be one when its people never truly embraced a shared national identity. – National Interest
Middle East & North Africa
A Turkish court has jailed 20 suspects, including Super Lig players, pending trial in a betting investigation that Turkey’s top football official said on Tuesday may widen as more data is collected. – Reuters
Turkey must no longer possess the Russian S-400 air defense system if it wants to return to the US-led program to manufacture and purchase F-35 jets, American envoy Tom Barrack said. – Bloomberg
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has called on Lebanon’s leadership to immediately disarm the Hezbollah terrorist organization, warning that failure to act could plunge the country into renewed conflict. – Arutz Sheva
Korean Peninsula
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has called for an investigation into the suspected illegal links between a religious group and politicians, Lee’s office said on Wednesday. – Reuters
South Korea has signed a deal to supply military equipment to the Peruvian army, South Korea’s presidential office said on Wednesday. – Reuters
South Korea’s unemployment rate rose in November to 2.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis, from 2.6% in October, official data showed on Wednesday. – Reuters
South Korea will require advertisers to label their ads made with artificial intelligence technologies from next year as it seeks to curb a surge of deceptive promotions featuring fabricated experts or deep-faked celebrities endorsing food or pharmaceutical products on social media. – Associated Press
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other top officials have gathered to discuss preparations for the ruling party’s first full congress in five years, state media reported Wednesday. The top-level meeting will set new priorities as the U.S. and South Korea seek a resumption of talks with North Korea. – Associated Press
During a speech to supporters in Pennsylvania on Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump praised North Korea’s frontier as “one of the strongest borders anywhere in the world,” describing a barrier of “seven walls of wire” electrified with “a million volts,” while claiming the United States has now achieved its “tightest border we’ve ever had.” – Newsweek
China
The artificial-intelligence chips that Nvidia is allowed to ship to China will undergo a special security review in the U.S. before they are exported, according to administration officials. – Wall Street Journal
The United States has for the first time criticised China for aiming radars at Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, incidents that the Asian neighbours have given differing accounts of amid escalating tensions. – Reuters
Twelve people have been killed in a residential fire in the southern Chinese city of Shantou, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
Chinese astronauts have installed protection against “space junk” aboard the permanently inhabited station Tiangong, according to China’s manned spaceflight authorities, a month after a docked vessel was damaged for the first time. – Reuters
Higher tariffs have dealt a “severe blow” to the world economy, China’s premier said Tuesday, even as China’s own trade surplus has surged past $1 trillion. – Associated Press
South Asia
At least half a dozen executives from top Indian arms makers, including Adani Defence and Bharat Forge, attended rare meetings in Russia this year to discuss potential joint ventures, three people familiar with the matter said. – Reuters
India and the European Union will work to seal a long-pending trade deal at the earliest opportunity, New Delhi said on Wednesday, after concluding another round of talks amid signs that a year-end deadline may slip. – Reuters
India’s main opposition leader reiterated allegations of widespread electoral fraud in a speech in parliament Tuesday, urging changes to make the voting system more transparent. – Bloomberg
Asia
Russian and Chinese bombers flew near Japan and South Korea in a joint patrol Tuesday that Tokyo described as a show of force, adding further strain to the worst diplomatic crisis in years between Tokyo and Beijing. – Wall Street Journal
They left home in a fearful scramble during the summer, seeking refuge on the grounds of a racetrack that had been transformed into a makeshift evacuation center after war erupted between Thailand and Cambodia. Now, five months later, they are back in the same tents, which had been left standing. – New York Times
The Japanese authorities said on Tuesday that Jeremy O. Harris, the Tony-nominated playwright and actor, had been released after spending three weeks in custody on suspicion of attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into the country. – New York Times
In July, the Taiwanese engineer Wei-Jen Lo left his job after 21 years at the world’s leading computer chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. He soon started work at one of TSMC’s rivals: Intel, the struggling Silicon Valley chip maker that the Trump administration has wagered $8.9 billion to transform into the U.S. national champion. – New York Times
Cambodia on Wednesday withdrew its team from the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand for safety reasons, as a border conflict between the two neighbours raged for a third day. – Reuters
Fighting between Thailand and Cambodia extended into a third day on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump said he would make a phone call to stop the conflict, after he had brokered a ceasefire in July to end a five-day battle between the Asian neighbours. – Reuters
Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia was “very self-critical” as it looked to address challenges, including skilling its workforce, for the AUKUS nuclear submarine programme, ahead of AUKUS defence ministers meeting in Washington. – Reuters
A U.S. trade agreement reached with Indonesia in July is at risk of collapsing because Jakarta has backtracked on several commitments it made as part of the deal, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The governor of Japan’s Hokkaido prefecture said on Wednesday he has approved the restart of Hokkaido Electric Power’s Tomari nuclear power plant in northern Japan. – Reuters
Japanese fighter jets did not aim radar at Chinese jets during Saturday’s close encounter incidents, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on Wednesday, in response to a Chinese media report disputing Japan’s account on the event. – Reuters
Cambodia is open to immediate bilateral talks with Thailand to halt their border conflict, a top adviser to its prime minister said on Tuesday, after the neighbours accused each other of violating a truce brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump. – Reuters
The threat of tariffs should not be used to pressure Thailand to start talks with Cambodia and halt renewed border fighting, the Thai foreign minister told Reuters on Tuesday, underlining that it was up to its neighbour to de-escalate the conflict. – Reuters
Vietnam’s parliament adopted reforms to the media and state secrets laws on Wednesday which press freedom advocates say will make it harder for journalists to protect the identities of their sources and increase legal risks for reporting. – Reuters
Chinese firms are expanding in Vietnam, leading investment inflows and sending record shipments to Hanoi in defiance of U.S. calls for decoupling, as the Communist neighbours beef up ties. – Reuters
Japan still lags behind the US and Europe in defending against cyber threats and improvements are needed across the corporate sector, the nation’s new cyber chief said. – Bloomberg
Europe
The new U.S. National Security Strategy, a foreign-policy declaration that shocked European leaders with its harsh language about the continent, echoed complaints from American executives about what they see as the European Union’s oppressive business regulations. – Wall Street Journal
Czech President Petr Pavel appointed the billionaire leader of the populist ANO party, Andrej Babis, as prime minister on Tuesday, a key step in the formation of a government after ANO won an October parliamentary election. – Reuters
Finland has acquired hundreds of drone jammers and detectors, its military said on Tuesday, as countries on NATO’s eastern flank strengthen their defences following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. – Reuters
A Spanish court has provisionally closed its probe into the killing of a Russian pilot who had defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in a garage on Spain’s Mediterranean coast last year, saying on Tuesday it could not identify any perpetrators. – Reuters
Foreign companies, including those from the United States, must obey German and EU rules when they operate there, Germany’s chancellor said on Tuesday, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of a fine imposed on social media platform X. – Reuters
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday that criticism of liberties in the bloc should be aimed elsewhere and at “Russia perhaps”, referring to a White House strategy document critical of EU policies. – Reuters
Greek farmers continued their nationwide blockades on Tuesday, disrupting traffic along major motorways and intermittently closing border crossings to protest delays in farm aid payments. – Reuters
Slovakia’s parliament approved on Tuesday the scrapping of the country’s whistleblower protection office, in another move by the leftist-nationalist government that raises doubts about the rule of law in the EU member country. – Reuters
Britain on Tuesday added 7 new designations under its Russian sanctions regime, as well as two others under its cyber sanctions. – Reuters
A member of the British armed forces died in Ukraine on Tuesday while observing Ukrainian forces test a new defensive capability, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said, adding that the accident had occurred away from the front lines. – Reuters
Pope Leo said Europe must play a central role in efforts to end the war in Ukraine, warning that any peace plan sidelining the continent is “not realistic.” – Reuters
Austria’s governing coalition said on Tuesday it plans to pass a ban on headscarves in schools for girls under 14 despite criticism from rights groups and the possibility that it will be overturned by the Constitutional Court. – Reuters
The Norwegian Nobel Institute cancelled a planned press conference on Tuesday with this year’s Peace Prize laureate, Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado, ahead of Wednesday’s award ceremony in Oslo. – Reuters
Lithuania’s governing Social Democrats will remain in coalition for now with a populist junior partner whose leader was found guilty last week of incitement to hatred against Jews and belittling the Holocaust. – Reuters
Kosovo prosecutors on Tuesday charged three suspects over an explosion last year at a water canal supplying the country’s two main power plants, the state prosecutor’s office said. – Reuters
Poland is in talks to transfer MiG-29 jets to Ukraine in exchange for access to Ukrainian drone technology, Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on public radio on Wednesday. – Reuters
Denmark faces more external threats than it has done in many years amid rising geopolitical conflicts and doubts over U.S. commitment to Europe’s security, the NATO country’s military intelligence agency (FE) said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Europe must accelerate its rearmament in response to a stark shift in U.S. military doctrine, a French government official said on Tuesday, calling Washington’s new security strategy “an extremely brutal clarification” of its ideological posture. – Reuters
Suspected drones were seen flying above a French military intelligence base on three separate nights last month, the French Air and Space Force said on Tuesday, in the latest possible incursions over sensitive sites in the country. – Reuters
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and U.S. President Donald Trump did not agree on a proposed $20 billion financial lifeline but committed to start talks on a new form of financial cooperation, Hungary’s foreign minister said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The European Union is very close to a solution to finance Ukraine in 2026 and 2027 that would have the support of at least a qualified majority of EU countries, the chairman of EU summits, Antonio Costa, said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Slovenia’s foreign minister commended the Trump administration for working to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine but said that the continent’s leaders and Ukraine should get a better seat at the ceasefire negotiations. – Bloomberg
Hungary’s opposition leader called on Prime Minister Viktor Orban to resign and call early elections after a video was published showing the physical abuse at a state-run juvenile detention center in Budapest. – Bloomberg
Peace is closer for Ukraine now than at any time since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said. – Bloomberg
Germany plans to tweak the system that controls the local assets of Rosneft PJSC to ensure it is complying with the tougher US sanctions imposed on the Russian oil company last month. – Bloomberg
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are in talks with a reluctant Belgium over what to do with billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets held in the country. – Fox News
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko shared an update on Tuesday about his plans to deploy nuclear weapons in coordination with Russia throughout his country. – Newsweek
Italy has juggled its definition of what constitutes defense spending to beef up its budget by €14 billion ($16.3 billion) this year, but has failed to explain how it did it, one of Italy’s leading economists has complained. – Defense News
Editorial: Pensions consume some 14% of the French economy. Total public spending is 57% of GDP, and the social-security system is running a deficit of $23 billion. Yet this bill raises spending on hospitals by nearly $1 billion, among other increases. It also raises the social-contribution tax on revenue from assets and realized capital gains, paid in addition to the income tax, to 10.6% from 9.2%. Mr. Macron’s choice as Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, is touting Tuesday’s vote as a victory, and it’s true he dodged a censure vote and will keep his job. But the French fiscal crackup gets closer each year. – Wall Street Journal
Africa
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday said he is open to treating South Africa differently than other African countries if Washington extends a trade initiative with sub-Saharan Africa that expired in September. – Reuters
France provided intelligence and logistical support to Benin to help thwart Sunday’s coup attempt in the former French colony, officials from the French presidency said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on actors it accused of fueling the war in Sudan, taking aim at what it said was a transnational network that recruits former Colombian military personnel and trains soldiers, including children, to fight for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. – Reuters
Nigeria’s Senate on Tuesday gave its approval for President Bola Tinubu’s deployment of troops to Benin Republic after Benin’s government asked its bigger neighbour for help to quell an attempted coup on Sunday. – Reuters
About 200,000 people have fled their homes in eastern Congo in recent days, the United Nations said, as Rwanda-backed rebels march on a strategic town just days after Donald Trump hosted the Rwandan and Congolese leaders to proclaim peace. – Reuters
A group of 100 Nigerian schoolchildren who were rescued from kidnappers were set to be reunited with their families on Tuesday after undergoing medical checks in central Niger state, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said. – Reuters
Advances by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan could trigger another exodus across the country’s borders, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, told Reuters. – Reuters
Police and soldiers deployed in force in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, on Tuesday to prevent protests that activists had called for to denounce the violent suppression of demonstrations around elections in October. – Reuters
These new rebel “executives” comprise the civilian frontline in a campaign by M23 rebels to entrench a parallel administration across the tracts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo they seized in a lightning advance in January. – Reuters
Judges at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a Janjaweed militia leader to 20 years in prison for atrocities committed in Sudan’s Darfur region, including beating detainees to death with an axe. – Reuters
Glencore has become the first miner to export cobalt under Democratic Republic of Congo’s new quotas, sending a small initial shipment to test the system, one government source and two trade sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. – Reuters
Nigerian Army soldiers opened fire and killed nine women protesting the army’s handling of communal clashes in the northeastern Adamawa state, witnesses and Amnesty International told The Associated Press on Tuesday. – Associated Press
Coups and attempted coups in West Africa, along with escalating security challenges, have left the region in a state of emergency, a leader of the regional bloc said Tuesday. – Associated Press
A Nigerian Air Force plane made an emergency landing in Burkina Faso late Monday due to an in-flight emergency, according to a regional alliance that called it a violation of Burkina Faso’s airspace. – Associated Press
Military juntas in three West African states warned they would shoot down any aircraft that violated their airspace, after a Nigerian military plane made an emergency landing in Burkina Faso. – Bloomberg
The Americas
Honduras’s attorney general urged international authorities to arrest a former president on corruption charges days after he walked out of a U.S. prison following a pardon by President Trump. – Wall Street Journal
Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Tuesday denounced what she called an “electoral coup” unfolding amid a chaotic vote count from the November 30 presidential election, as hundreds of protesters gathered in the streets of the capital Tegucigalpa to demand clarity over the vote count. – Reuters
Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro said on Tuesday his decision to run for president in 2026 is “irreversible,” reaffirming he would challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after suggesting over the weekend he might step aside. – Reuters
The head of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Workers Party, Edinho Silva, said on Tuesday it was hard to take seriously Senator Flavio Bolsonaro’s presidential bid after the lawmaker suggested he might step aside. – Reuters
Defense lawyers for Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro requested on Tuesday his removal from jail to a hospital for “surgical procedures”, according to a document seen by Reuters. – Reuters
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is due to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Wednesday, in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in her home country and after spending more than a year in hiding. – Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed into effect a law that reinforces protective measures for women who are victims of gender-based violence, a move welcomed by feminist activists although they also demand more funds for prevention. – Associated Press
Dozens of people in Haiti’s capital have been killed following violent clashes within a powerful gang coalition, with 10 children among the victims, a local human rights group said Tuesday. – Associated Press
Brazil’s parliament descended into chaos on Tuesday as conservative lawmakers continued to push a law which would reduce the prison sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro. – BBC
North America
MDA Space and Telesat have won a potentially lucrative multibillion-dollar contract from Canada to deliver military satellite communications capabilities as part of Ottawa’s renewed effort to ramp up defense spending and deter threats from Russia and China in the Arctic. – Wall Street Journal
Mexican officials are meeting with their U.S. counterparts on Tuesday to negotiate deliveries under a water treaty that has again heightened diplomatic tensions between the two trading partners with tariff threats if the Latin American country does not comply. – Reuters
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that her country intends to send more water to the United States, but not immediately, even as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to raise tariffs by 5% on Mexican imports if more water is not delivered as part of a water-sharing agreement. – Associated Press
Canada’s ambassador to Washington is preparing to leave office, and Prime Minister Mark Carney is considering a former BlackRock Inc. senior executive for the job ahead of crucial trade talks with the US and Mexico. – Bloomberg
United States
The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday that he planned to end an inquiry into a U.S. military strike that killed two survivors of an attack on their alleged drug smuggling vessel in early September. – Washington Post
The United States could begin requiring visitors from countries on the visa waiver program to provide up to five years of their social media history, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection proposal posted to the Federal Register to be officially published Wednesday. – Washington Post
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order designating one of the country’s most prominent Muslim civil rights groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” becoming the second high-profile Republican governor to do so in recent weeks. – Reuters
Democrat Eileen Higgins became the first member of her party in nearly three decades elected mayor of Miami on Tuesday, defeating a Republican backed by President Donald Trump in a Hispanic-majority city in the heart of his Florida stronghold. – Reuters
A shooting at Kentucky State University on Tuesday left one person dead and another in critical condition, according to police, who said the suspected assailant was taken into custody. – Reuters
U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday urged a federal judge to dissolve an order temporarily blocking the use of key evidence in a potential bid to re-indict former FBI Director James Comey, arguing the ruling had improperly stalled their criminal probe. – Reuters
Tom Rogan writes: The Founding Fathers and successive Supreme Courts have recognized that individual freedom and social dialogue are the best guarantors of personal and societal happiness. And the best guardrails against violent extremism. Put simply, anyone who says Europe has freer speech than the U.S. is either lying or delusional. Notwithstanding the authoritarian whims of some, the U.S. First Amendment and associated federal case law remain the gold standard of free speech. Be grateful. – Washington Examiner
Cybersecurity
Coupang Corp. Chief Executive Park Dae-jun has resigned over what is viewed as the worst data-breach case in South Korea. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday unveiled additional federal criminal charges against a Ukrainian national accused of participating in cyberattacks and other computer intrusions against key infrastructure in support of Russian interests. – Reuters
Australia on Wednesday became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access in a move welcomed by many parents and child advocates but criticised by major technology companies and free-speech advocates. – Reuters
Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled $23 billion in new artificial intelligence investments, with the bulk earmarked for India as the U.S. tech giant deepens its bet on one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets. – Reuters
The Defense Department said it has chosen Alphabet Inc.’s Gemini for Government system to deliver artificial intelligence capability for its roughly three million civilian and military employees. – Bloomberg
The EU has opened an investigation into Google over its artificial intelligence (AI) summaries which appear above search results. – BBC
Environmental groups across the country are urging Congress to enact a nationwide pause on the approval and construction of data centers, writing in a letter to lawmakers Monday that a moratorium is needed to address the “massive” harms linked to building and operating the facilities. – Fedscoop
The European Commission on Monday approved a Meta proposal to give Instagram and Facebook users an option to share less personal data and see fewer personalized ads, a move that comes in response to an EU fine issued against the social media company in April. – The Record
A 22-year-old California resident pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy charges this week after being accused by the DOJ of buying homes and laundering money on behalf of a criminal gang that stole cryptocurrency through social engineering schemes. – The Record
Defense
Two Chinese men are in custody for allegedly smuggling Nvidia H100 and H200 chips to China, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday, as President Donald Trump gave the green light for Nvidia to export its H200 chips to Beijing. – Reuters
The U.S. military said it plans to develop a fleet of small-scale refineries to produce critical minerals used to make bullets, armor and other types of weaponry, a move aimed at developing domestic sources for niche materials that Chinese miners have long controlled. – Reuters
The U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday in what appears to be the closest American warplanes have come to the South American country’s airspace since the start of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign. – Associated Press
The US Navy is turning to Palantir Technologies Inc. as part of its years-long effort to speed up submarine production, in a bet that the company’s analytics capabilities can better expose supply-chain problems. – Bloomberg
The U.S. Air Force is turning to artificial intelligence to boost its wargames. The Air Force wants a cloud-based, AI-powered “digital sandbox” as a hub to generate and run wargames at speeds of up 10,000 times faster than real time, according to a recent request for information. – Defense News
The Defense Department on Tuesday launched a major push to get military personnel, civilian employees and contractors to use generative artificial intelligence capabilities, located on its own website. – Defense News
Congress is committing to only a fraction of the funding necessary for the Navy’s F/A-XX program in the latest version of the defense policy bill, while fully backing the development of the Air Force’s F-47 fighter. – Defense One
This morning the Defense Department announced the launch a new website, GenAi.mil, meant to bring generative AI tools to all three million of its military, civil service, and contractor personnel. – Breaking Defense
The Defense Department is writing an updated version of its zero-trust strategy that will outline new cybersecurity frameworks for systems beyond information technology. – Defensescoop
Ramon Marks writes: Some commands are blatantly illegal, such as orders to kill or torture a prisoner of war. But when an order is given, there is simply no room for everyone at every level of rank down the line to feel a moral or legal responsibility to stop and second-guess the lawfulness of that directive. No military organization can effectively function under such a standard. Hopefully, lessons learned from the September 2 boat strikes will not, as well, lead to collateral damage to the good order, efficiency, and discipline of the entire US military. – National Interest
Lorin Selby writes: The Navy’s future depends on both disciplined execution and bold exploration but while the former wins audits, the latter wins wars. Because somewhere today, a young researcher — perhaps in an ONR lab, perhaps at a university, perhaps inside a fledgling startup — is working on a discovery that could define the next era of maritime power and global technology leadership. We owe that researcher, and the Sailors and Marines who will one day rely on their work, a clear message: America still believes in science. America still believes in the future. – Breaking Defense