Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Trump plans to appoint US general to lead Gaza security force, Axios reports Netanyahu planning Cairo trip to sign multibillion-dollar gas deal with Egypt Iran's Araqchi to visit Beirut after Lebanese foreign minister declines trip to Tehran Iran appeals to UN over 'tightening restrictions' on its diplomats in New York Tanker seized by US off Venezuela was part of Iranian shadow fleet Trump says Ukraine is losing the war. Officers on the front line disagree. Yemen’s head of UN-backed government urges separatists to pull back from recently-seized areas WINEP’s Souhire Medini: The U.S.-French mechanism 2.0: Preventing escalation between Lebanon and Israel North Korea's Kim Jong Un lauds sending troops overseas in 2025, KCNA says China expresses outrage over senior Taiwanese official’s reported trip to Israel Ivory Coast pushes for US spy planes to tackle al Qaeda-linked jihadists in Sahel WSJ Editorial: Trump puts the oil squeeze on MaduroIn The News
Israel
The Trump administration is planning to appoint an American two-star general to command the International Stabilization Force in Gaza, Axios reported on Thursday, citing two U.S. officials and two Israeli officials. – Reuters
A group of eleven Israeli ministers, including eight from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, urged Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday to authorize a flag-raising ceremony at the site of a former settlement in the Gaza Strip during the upcoming Hanukkah holiday. – Agence-France Presse
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Thursday vowed to remove the grave of notorious Muslim extremist Ezzedine al-Qassam, whose tomb lies in Israel and whose name was given to the armed wing of Hamas. – Agence-France Presse
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to travel to Cairo to sign a multibillion-dollar agreement to supply natural gas to Egypt, The Times of Israel has learned. – Times of Israel
Tom Barrack, the Trump administration’s ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, is expected to arrive in Israel in the coming days, a source told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Three Israelis were deported from Ghana on Thursday in retaliation for the deportation of Ghanaian citizens from Israel on Sunday. – Jerusalem Post
The Israel Navy and the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet completed a five-day joint exercise named Intrinsic Defender across multiple maritime arenas, the IDF announced on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Palo Alto Networks has uncovered new details about an extensive espionage campaign run by Ashen Lepus, a Hamas‑linked cyber group that has maintained persistent operations against governmental and diplomatic bodies across the Middle East. – Arutz Sheva
Joel M. Margolis writes: It’s likely that many UN member states would reject this plan, because it’s not what they believed they signed onto. But so far, none of them has put forth a better or more realistic alternative. Moderate states don’t want to send troops, and extremist states like Turkey (which supports Hamas) cannot be allowed to. No amount of UN resolutions will help Gaza recover from the Hamas-initiated war until Hamas is defanged and its terrorist stronghold is demolished. That dirty work may not be popular, but it must be done. Otherwise, Hamas will continue to exploit Gaza as a launching pad for its ruinous attacks. – Algemeiner
Stephen M. Flatow writes: Israel has seen the Brotherhood’s worldview in action through Hamas’s suicide bombings, rocket fire and massacres. The real question is whether Western democracies will continue pretending there is a bright line between that worldview and the institutions that promote it in their own backyard […] the Muslim Brotherhood is not a misunderstood “social movement.” It is the ideological mothership of some of the most dangerous anti-Jewish and anti-Western groups on earth. Israelis learned that the hard way. Maybe the rest of the West is beginning to notice. – Arutz Sheva
Liat Collins writes: Notably, Guinness World Records began its ban on Israel in November 2023, not after the October 7 Hamas invasion and mega-atrocity in which 1,200 were murdered and 251 abducted; it blocked Israel when the Jewish state began to fight back. One thing is clear from the UN plenum, the Eurovision stage, and Guinness World Records: Israel is constantly being judged by a different standard. It’s a win for antisemitism and hatred, and a massive loss for the world. – Jerusalem Post
Seth Mandel writes: “Never allow yourself to be a useful idiot in Hamas’s propaganda,” Alkhatib added. “You can have compassion for the real suffering of the Palestinian civilians of Gaza, and demand Israeli action to facilitate aid entry into the coastal enclave, while still holding Hamas accountable for its part in causing a hunger and starvation crisis in the first place.” Forget “compassion.” There’s no avoiding the grim reality that “the real suffering of the Palestinian civilians of Gaza” was the goal of Hamas and its Western loyalists all along. – Commentary Magazine
Iran
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said on Thursday he would travel to Beirut for talks after receiving a formal invitation from his Lebanese counterpart, who a day earlier had declined to visit Tehran for direct talks. – Reuters
Tehran called on the United Nations to intervene in what it called the “tightening of restrictions on Iran’s diplomatic mission to the United Nations in New York”, according to a foreign ministry statement published on Thursday. – Reuters
An oil tanker seized by US forces in the Caribbean has been under US Treasury sanctions since 2022 for allegedly being part of a global fleet of vessels engaged in illegally smuggling Iranian oil. – Radio Free Europe
According to an extensive investigation published in The Atlantic magazine, a senior officer in Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security led a double life, allegedly as an informant for the United States’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), providing details that likely led to strikes against key global terror figures before he was murdered while attempting to flee to Turkey. – Jerusalem Post
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has unveiled a new jet-powered, stealth-oriented suicide drone, designed to evade modern air defenses with high speed and low radar visibility. Named the Hadid-110, it emphasizes speed, stealth, and rapid deployment. – Jerusalem Post
The Iranian military’s reports claiming that it had downed two Israeli F-35s during Operation Rising Lion were false and “damaged [IRIB’s] credibility,” Peyman Jabali, head of the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation (IRIB), admitted during a session with students at Shahid Beheshti University on Tuesday, according to Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency. – Jerusalem Post
There are so many protests that opponents of the government are now divided over their goals. Some want reforms, some are demonstrating to change the regime, and others are demanding more basic things, such as water and personal and economic security. We, from the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, believe that in order to bring about reforms and change personal security, the regime must first be replaced. – Ynet
Russia and Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies sent President Trump a response to his team’s earlier peace plan in an effort to accelerate cease-fire talks with Russia, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump says Ukraine is losing the war against Russia. That’s not what it looks like to Ukrainian Army Maj. Oleh Hlushko, a battalion commander whose men repelled another assault on their part of the southeastern front this week. – Wall Street Journal
The Kremlin has threatened Poland over the arrest of a Russian archaeologist on a Ukrainian warrant, saying the act “will not go unpunished.” – New York Times
Russia attacked energy facilities in the southern Ukrainian Odesa region overnight, causing fires and blackouts, the local governor and emergency service said on Friday. – Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by phone on Thursday and reassured him of Moscow’s support for his government’s course in the face of growing external pressure, the Kremlin said. – Reuters
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Friday that air defence systems had destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones over the country and the Black Sea overnight. – Reuters
President Vladimir Putin thanked the Russian army on Thursday after commanders told him that their forces had taken full control of the town of Siversk in eastern Ukraine, but Ukraine’s military said it remained in control there. – Reuters
Ukrainian aerial drones struck a Russian oil platform in the Caspian Sea for the first time on Thursday, halting production at the facility owned by Lukoil, according to an official from Ukraine’s Security Service. – Reuters
The European Union is set to approve a deal on Friday that would let the bloc lengthen its freeze on Russian assets using emergency powers — a key step toward tapping the funds to help Ukraine. – Bloomberg
Ukraine’s latest peace plan proposes a demilitarized “free economic zone” in the Donbas region where American business interests could operate — an attempt to bring President Donald Trump on board, according to two people familiar with the matter. – Politico
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he held a “substantive discussion” with members of Ukraine’s parliament on the possibility of holding elections amid pressure from the United States to hold a vote despite wartime legal restrictions. – Radio Free Europe
Chris Miller writes: The Trump administration’s offer of economic inducements misses the point. Russia doesn’t want a business deal, it wants Ukraine: a building block of Mr. Putin’s new sphere of control and a victory that could humiliate the West and demonstrate his great-power status. Mr. Putin will agree to a cease-fire only when he is convinced that he can’t win on the battlefield. If Mr. Trump wants a deal, he should focus less on deal-making and more on countering and undermining Russia’s offensive capabilities. Paying Mr. Putin for peace is precisely the wrong strategy. – Wall Street Journal
Marc Champion writes: The goal should be a ceasefire that recognizes Ukraine is too weak to seize that land back, but doesn’t further reward Putin for his aggression, or tee up his forces for a more successful invasion later. If Trump’s team can do that, they may just be able to broker a peace that lasts. If they don’t, they’ll be abetting the Kremlin in a war of conquest that it’s all but certain to resume. – Bloomberg
Alexander J. Motyl writes: The best hope for a less implacably hostile Russia may therefore lie in the power struggle that is sure to erupt after Putin’s demise. We can’t predict whether the hard-liners or the soft-liners will win, but we can predict that their attention will be focused on the Kremlin rather than on the war. We can also predict that many of the Russian Federation’s constituent nations will take advantage of the ongoing instability and attempt to place as much distance as possible between themselves and Moscow. Although Graham may be right that the West can’t change Russia, Putin’s refusal to dance the competitive-coexistence tango could ultimately prove that containment’s assumptions were correct. – National Interest
Michael Hirsh writes: According to Rebecca Lissner, a former senior aide to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the document should be seen “as the first MAGA National Security Strategy, and a preview of what America as an illiberal superpower could mean for Europe and the world.” And all these changes, Kremlin spokesperson Peskov said on Sunday, “are largely consistent with our vision.” Taken together, the convergence of these factors may well mean that Vladimir Putin has already won. – Foreign Policy
Gabriel Collins and Igor Khrestin write: Ukrainians do not want to be ruled again by the Russian Empire. As 19th century Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko said: “Fight—and you will win!” Helping Ukraine win the war for electricity is a critical battle—lasting peace requires victory on the grid front. Allied countries can provide this help at manageable cost and in ways that also directly facilitate enhancing their electricity resilience and security in a renewed era of great-power conflict. – Foreign Policy
Middle East & North Africa
During 13 years of revolution and war, the Syrian dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad set a high water mark for cruelty in the 21st century, disappearing tens of thousands of perceived political opponents and flattening entire neighborhoods. Now that the regime has fallen, the hunt is on for one of Assad’s most brutal enforcers. – Wall Street Journal
When rebels in Syria came to power a year ago, one of their first acts was to dismiss all of the country’s military forces, which had been used as tools of repression and brutality for five decades under the rule of Bashar al-Assad and his family. – New York Times
The head of Yemen’s internationally recognized government called on separatists on Thursday to withdraw from territories they they have recently captured in the southeastern parts of the country, according to the government-run news agency. – Associated Press
US President Donald Trump was asked on Thursday about the situation in Gaza, stating that there is peace in the Middle East and linking the current situation with the successful attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. – Arutz Sheva
Souhire Medini writes: Similarly, the long-discussed international conference to support the LAF—now expected to be organized in early 2026—will likely require efforts to address Saudi Arabia’s stated requirements for tangible progress on disarming Hezbollah. In preparation for the conference, a meeting is expected to take place next week in Paris, bringing together Saudi, U.S., and French representatives. More robust monitoring of the disarmament plan would undoubtedly help convince Riyadh that the time is right to help boost the Lebanese army. – Washington Institute
Jim Fein writes: Another way to update the CFIUS process is to create a mechanism for members of Congress to raise concerns and offer feedback. While foreign direct investment can improve the U.S. military industrial base (e.g., the Hanwha acquisition of Philadelphia Shipyard), foreign direct investment must not be allowed to compromise supply chain security. To safeguard national security and limit the vulnerability of defense production output, the United States must ensure the CFIUS review process is fulfilling its purpose. – Heritage Foundation
Mohammed Ayoob writes: It will be more difficult for MBS to remain in power as dynastic challengers converge with waning popular and religious legitimacy. The fact that Washington has put all its eggs in MBS’s basket may boomerang eventually. Just as Iran reverberated in 1979 with the slogan “Down with the American Shah,” one cannot rule out the possibility that Saudi Arabia may one day resonate with the slogan “Down with the American Malik (King).” If this happens, the United States may have to face the prospect of dealing with two hostile regimes on both sides of the Persian Gulf. – National Interest
Korean Peninsula
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un praised his country’s achievements in 2025, which included sending troops to overseas military operations, state media KCNA said on Friday. – Reuters
South Korea’s global defense ambitions gained fresh momentum after Australia cleared Hanwha to double its stake in the nation’s largest shipbuilder, strengthening the conglomerate’s bid to capture rising global security spending. – Bloomberg
The three-day meeting of the regime’s central committee discussed key policy issues as well as plans for a congress of its ruling party, expected in early 2026 — North Korea’s first in five years. – Agence France-Presse
China
China’s top leaders pledged to prioritize supporting domestic demand in their policy road map for 2026, vowing to continue to support consumers as heightened external uncertainties seem set to persist. – Wall Street Journal
In its rivalry with the United States, China has racked up a series of wins in recent weeks. The Trump administration has softened its criticism of China’s Communist Party in a strategy document. It has reopened a channel for high-end chip sales that Washington once treated as untouchable. – New York Times
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Saudi Arabia in the coming days on a trip to the Middle East, visiting a region vital to the energy needs of the world’s second-biggest economy. – Bloomberg
China has strongly condemned a senior Taiwanese official’s reported secret trip to Israel, describing the issue of Taiwan as a “red line” for the Chinese government and warning the Jewish state not to send “wrong signals” to those pushing for the island’s independence. – Algemeiner
Mike Conaway writes: That pivot will probably enrich the average Chinese citizen in the long run. But it will also leave other countries less dependent on cheap Chinese goods and therefore less vulnerable to Chinese geopolitical pressure. A China that is the top trading partner for two-thirds of the world’s nations is in a strong position to invade Taiwan and then bully the international community into acquiescence. A China facing unified opposition from countries that have weaned themselves off of its exports might just think twice. – National Interest
Yu Jie writes: If the United States wants to understand China’s trajectory, then it must first acknowledge its own reflection in Beijing’s actions. China is not an aberration and adversary to the system that the United States built, it is a consequence of it. The habits of great-power management are contagious. For China, the United States’ greatest export was never democracy or consumer culture; it was the template for global power itself. And China, more than any other country, has studied it well—even as it now begins to write a version of the playbook that is uniquely its own. – Foreign Policy
South Asia
Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin said on Thursday he plans to step down midway through his term after February’s parliamentary election, telling Reuters he has felt humiliated by the interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. – Reuters
The anti-graft protests in September that forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign caused more than $586 million in losses to Nepal’s $42 billion economy, a government statement said on Friday. – Reuters
India has cut red tape to speed business visas for Chinese professionals, two officials said, a major step to boost ties between the Asian giants and end chronic delays that cost output worth billions of dollars because of scarce technicians. – Reuters
Anurag Minus Verma writes: What makes this reality even harder to accept is that we know something could be done. Beijing once lived with epic pollution. China’s one-party system was able to tackle it with a speed and force that is out of reach for a democracy that moves through committees, courts and coalitions. Winter will pass, the air purifiers will fall silent, and life will get back to normal. But it will be only a temporary parole from a sentence that never ends. – New York Times
Brahma Chellaney writes: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif warned in 2020 that the army was evolving from a “state within a state” into a “state above the state.” That prophecy has now come true. And as Sharif observed, this dominance is the “root cause” of Pakistan’s dysfunction — sustaining a violence-prone state that nurtures terrorist groups while suppressing democratic forces. What has changed is not Pakistan’s military but Washington’s willingness to look away. By offering tacit approval, the U.S. risks being complicit in cementing a constitutional dictatorship in an unstable, nuclear-armed nation. The cost of that complicity will not be borne by Pakistan alone. – The Hill
Asia
Malaysian prosecutors have dropped their appeal against the acquittal of Rosmah Mansor, the wife of jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak, in a case involving money laundering and tax evasion, saying they saw no prospect of success. – Reuters
Papua New Guinea said on Friday that Alphabet’s Google will build three subsea cables, funded by Australia under a mutual defence treaty, in a key upgrade to the digital backbone of the biggest Pacific Island nation. – Reuters
Thailand was set for an earlier than expected election after its king endorsed Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s bid to dissolve parliament on Friday, as a border conflict with Cambodia raged and the government moved to head off a no-confidence vote. – Reuters
Indonesia expects to complete tariff talks with the United States by the end of the year, its chief negotiator said on Friday, with a delegation set to visit Washington next week to resume them. – Reuters
More than 12 million people in Myanmar will face acute hunger next year as mounting violence forces more people to flee their homes, the United Nations World Food Programme said on Thursday. – Reuters
U.S. strategic bombers joined a fleet of Japanese fighter jets in a joint military exercise meant to demonstrate their military cooperation around Japan’s airspace, defense officials said Thursday, as tensions with China escalate. – Associated Press
A group of civilians including two former government officials filed a graft complaint against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, in a fresh political challenge for the estranged deputy of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – Bloomberg
China isn’t contributing to the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concurred on Friday following accusations from Tokyo that at least one Chinese fighter jet used its weapons-targeting radar on Japanese fighters. – Bloomberg
Patrick Panjeti writes: Indonesia’s leaders are not bluffing. They are building a legal, political, and military framework to enforce a version of sovereignty that is fundamentally incompatible with the U.S. Navy’s operational requirements. The United States cannot wait for a crisis to discover maritime commons through the Java Sea and Sunda Strait are closed. The United States must use FONOPs—the tool designed for this exact problem. By reasserting rights now, in peacetime, the United States is not picking a fight; it is preventing a future one. Good partners are transparent partners. It is time to be transparent. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Europe
The European Union opened an in-depth foreign subsidies investigation into China’s Nuctech, saying the company might have been granted funding that distorts the bloc’s market. – Wall Street Journal
Disgruntled Gen-Z protesters, who have toppled governments and rattled rulers across the world this year, have claimed their first European victory. Bulgaria’s government collapsed Thursday following a wave of youth-driven street protests over entrenched corruption and self-dealing elites widely seen as disconnected from the struggles of ordinary citizens. – Wall Street Journal
Ireland’s planned curbs on trade with Israeli settlements will be limited strictly to goods, a minister told Reuters, offering the first clear signal on the scope of the contested legislation and rejecting accusations that the country is antisemitic. – Reuters
Train services ground to a halt across Portugal on Thursday, hundreds of flights were cancelled, and schools closed as unions launched a first general strike in over a decade and thousands of workers marched in protest against proposed labour reforms. – Reuters
Austria’s lower house of parliament on Thursday passed a ban on Muslim headscarves in schools for girls under 14 despite uncertainty over whether the legislation will be ruled unconstitutional as a previous ban was five years ago. – Reuters
The new National Security Strategy of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration shows that America understands Europe’s “civilisational-scale decline”, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote on X on Thursday. – Reuters
NATO chief Mark Rutte on Thursday urged allies to step up defence efforts to prevent a war waged by Russia, that could be “on the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured”. – Reuters
France is pushing to delay the conclusion of a free-trade agreement between the European Union and some of the largest South American economies in a move that could derail the deal. – Bloomberg
A Ukrainian Antonov 124, the heaviest cargo plane in Ukraine’s service, recently transported three Spyder air defense system batteries, made by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, from Israel to Georgia, Ukraine’s “Militarnyi” website reports. – Jerusalem Post
The Croatian Ministry of Defense has placed an order for 44 Leopard 2A8 tanks, a deal valued at almost €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion). – Defense News
Lithuania’s government is investing heavily in defense technology and surveillance systems via a strategic security plan to thwart what it views as escalating hybrid attacks involving balloons and drones from Russia-allied Belarus, which rejects allegations of wrongdoing. – Defensescoop
Editorial: But an irony of the Trump-Vance rhetoric is that it could make most of Europe’s problems worse. The domestic political allies they want to cultivate in Europe, such as Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) or France’s National Rally, are big-state, anti-economic-reform parties, and often are instinctively anti-American to boot. This isn’t the way to make friends or spur a European revival. – Wall Street Journal
Christopher Cadwell writes: But none of those episodes vitiated its culture and enfeebled its sinews and threatened its historic continuity quite so thoroughly as three and a half decades of American-style liberal international order, under the banner of “C’mon, people now, smile on your brother.” The main source of Europeans’ anger at seeing their vanishing civilization mourned by the United States may be this: that it was at America’s urging that they undertook this work of self-destruction in the first place. – New York Times
Matthias Matthijs and Nathalie Tocci write: Appeasement has been Europe’s default posture for too long. It has been understandable, even rational in some cases, but ultimately it has been self-defeating and fanned the flames of a nationalist backlash. The alternative is not grandstanding or isolation but steady, deliberate agency. If Europe can muster that, it may yet emerge from this period of transatlantic turbulence a more self-reliant, more united, and more respected actor in the world than it was before. – Foreign Affairs
Sara von Bonsdorff writes: During the meantime Europe needs to further its’ investments in launch capabilities, industrial reform, public-private collaboration as well as strategic regulation. Taken together, these measures align closely with the recommendations of the Draghi report, which emphasizes structural reform, strategic investment, and independent launch capability as pillars of European competitiveness in the space sector. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Africa
Nigeria’s state oil company NNPC Ltd said an explosion at its key Escravos-Lagos gas pipeline on December 10 disrupted operations and prompted an emergency response. – Reuters
Ivory Coast wants the Trump administration to station U.S. spy planes in the country’s north to carry out cross-border operations targeting Al Qaeda-allied jihadists wreaking havoc across the Sahel, according to two senior Ivorian security officials who told Reuters they expected a decision from Washington next year. – Reuters
The Democratic Republic of Congo has pledged to uphold cobalt export quotas allocated to miners for 2025 despite months of delays under new rules, its mining regulator has said, as a pilot shipment is being prepared to move “within days.” – Reuters
The United States threatened on Thursday to reduce its foreign assistance to South Sudan unless Juba lifts what it said were illicit fees on humanitarian shipments. – Reuters
Somalia’s defence minister said Somalis would not accept being demeaned after U.S. President Donald Trump again insulted people from the East African country. – Reuters
Senegal’s energy ministry on Thursday rowed back on previous comments from its minister that it planned to nationalise the Yakaar-Teranga gas field, of which U.S. firm Kosmos (KOS.N), owns 90%, with both parties indicating the licence would be returned to the state by next July. – Reuters
South Sudan has sent its troops to neighbouring Sudan to guard the strategic Heglig oil field near the border, its military head said on Thursday, days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of it. – Reuters
A Kenyan court has suspended part of a health funding agreement the government signed with the United States on December 4, worth more than $1.6 billion, until it hears a data privacy case filed by a consumer protection group. – Reuters
The Americas
Venezuela’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate praised the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off her country’s coast, saying it was necessary to choke the finances of the Maduro regime to aid the fight for democracy. – Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration’s seizure of a tanker full of Venezuelan crude hits Nicolás Maduro much harder than airstrikes on alleged drug boats. It raises an existential crisis for a regime that runs on oil revenue. – Wall Street Journal
The United States on Thursday issued new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector and on members of President Nicolás Maduro’s family, while taking steps to keep tens of millions of dollars’ worth of oil from a large tanker that U.S. forces seized off the country’s coast. – New York Times
Venezuela’s national assembly on Thursday unanimously voted to repeal a law which ratified the Rome Statute, paving the way for the country to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating human rights abuses in the country. – Reuters
Honduras is expected to start a special recount in coming days to resolve tally sheet irregularities, election officials said on Thursday, amid the chaotic aftermath of the still-undecided November 30 presidential election that has thrown the Central American nation into political uncertainty. – Reuters
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke last week with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro about the situation in the Caribbean and South America, the Brazilian government said on Thursday. – Reuters
Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad could leave his role to work on Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s 2026 presidential campaign, he told the newspaper O Globo in an interview published on Thursday. – Reuters
Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) committed serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity over more than a decade in targeting political opponents, often with impunity, a U.N. Fact-Finding Mission found on Thursday. – Reuters
Editorial: Her escape suggests the CIA may have sources in the country that can help with a democratic restoration. Mr. Maduro’s thugs may have wanted to grab her on the way out, but they will be more intent on making sure she doesn’t return. She acknowledged that “the risk of going back is perhaps higher.” She quickly added: “I’ll be back in Venezuela. I have no doubt.” Having committed the U.S. to oust Mr. Maduro, Mr. Trump is obliged to follow through. – Wall Street Journal
United States
The U.S. Antarctic Program has had at least one dedicated research vessel in the Southern Ocean for almost six decades — mapping currents, tracking melt under ice shelves, studying marine food webs and more. – Washington Post
Kilmar Abrego García was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Thursday after a federal judge ruled his continued detention was unlawful. – Washington Post
The U.S. is preparing to intercept more ships transporting Venezuelan oil following the seizure of a tanker this week, as it increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, six sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. – Reuters
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed several congressional measures designed to undo Biden administration land conservation policies restricting energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and federal lands in three Western states. – Bloomberg
The Trump administration is forming a coalition to counter China’s dominant control of critical minerals and emerging power as a center of AI and other tech sectors. The administration plans to launch the coalition of partners with the signing Friday of the Pax Silica Declaration, uniting Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Israel in a collaboration intended to address deficits in critical mineral access edging out China’s massive investment in its critical minerals and tech sector. – Politico
Jennifer Lind writes: In coming years, the extent to which Beijing attempts to eject the United States from its region politically and militarily will likely define the principal arena of U.S.–Chinese strategic rivalry. “Don’t make us choose” has been the mantra of many East Asian countries, including some U.S. treaty allies. But under bipolarity, the luxury of choice is not one afforded to small countries in a superpower’s backyard. Countries will be forced to choose, and choose correctly according to their neighbor, or risk the consequences. The return of bipolarity means it’s time to remember—with regret and trepidation—the nature, intensity, and global reach of superpower competition. – Foreign Affairs
Henry Sokolski writes: In 2003, the belief that Saddam Hussein was building a nuclear program sucked American military forces into the region for almost a decade. In a smaller repeat performance, this June, the Pentagon bombed Iran’s nuclear fuel-making plants after Israel failed to get the job done. To avoid a future that rhymes even more explosively with this history, the world needs fewer, not more, nuclear-armed states. Towards this end, Washington must extend, rather than truncate, effective security guarantees. Any security strategy worthy of the name would detail how best to achieve both. – National Interest
Cybersecurity
Russian children have flooded President Vladimir Putin with pleas to restore access to Roblox, a gaming platform that is hugely popular with kids and teenagers and was abruptly blocked across the country this month. – Washington Post
Reddit, the internet message board site, said Friday that it had filed a lawsuit in Australia’s highest court seeking to block the country’s new law banning social media accounts for children under 16, contending it infringes on children’s rights to political communication. – New York Times
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at blocking states from crafting their own regulations for artificial intelligence, saying the burgeoning industry is at risk of being stifled by a patchwork of onerous rules while in a battle with Chinese competitors for supremacy. – Associated Press
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Thursday that his administration is partnering with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI to bring artificial intelligence into more than 5,000 public schools. – Associated Press
The White House issued an executive order Thursday meant to override state regulations on artificial intelligence. – Politico
Israeli cyber industry funding hit new records in 2025, reaching $4.4 billion across 130 funding rounds, according to YL Ventures’ annual State of the Cyber Nation report. – Jerusalem Post
Large language model (LLM) programs marketed as “artificial intelligence” have become common tools in the kits of online extremists advocating a genocide of the Jewish people, according to new research from longtime watchdogs of antisemitic hate groups and terrorist movements. – Algemeiner
Federal agencies would be blocked from distributing AI-generated content without disclosures or review under a new bipartisan bill introduced Wednesday by Reps. Bill Foster, D-Ill., and Pete Sessions, R-Texas. – Fedscoop
An anonymous hacker group has reportedly breached the servers of a little-known Russian tech firm alleged to be involved in building the country’s unified military registration database. – The Record
Defense
The $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday in bipartisan fashion. The final version includes and also left out key provisions after months of negotiations by lawmakers on Capitol Hill. – Military.com
The Marine Corps is continuing to build its small unmanned aircraft system operator roster as it ramps up drone implementation across the force, according to a service message and official. – Defensescoop
The Trump administration has changed its mind about who will be the new No. 2 at the National Security Agency, amid internal White House opposition to the pick and attacks from far-right conservatives. – The Record
Editorial: The benefits of these changes will extend far beyond national defense. Military production has a long history of producing spillover economic advantages. Many major American industries today — aviation, satellites, robotics, radar, microwave technology and Silicon Valley — owe their existence at least partly to military research and production. A bigger, stronger and more efficient defense industry can make America both safer and more prosperous. – New York Times
Mihir Sharma writes: Written into the silences in this document is an unpalatable truth: An establishment in Washington that intimidates large companies, that conscripts tech into politics, that guards its domestic markets and weaponizes its trade will hardly see the Chinese system as an ideological threat. This is what unnerves Asian capitals. One day soon, MAGA’s ideologues and populists may decide that granting Beijing overlordship of Asia will not affect jobs or profits in the US. From that day on, they will not lift a finger in defense of the Indo-Pacific. – Bloomberg