Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
UN spends approximately $100 million in funding to target Israel yearly, new report shows The Jerusalem Report’s Eric R. Mandel: Dangerous bargain looms over Trump, Netanyahu Gaza talks US, Iran spar over nuclear talks at UN Iraq says gas supplies from Iran have been halted Ukraine withdraws from eastern town, complicating negotiating stance Ukraine, after victory in Black Sea, aims to expel Russian air power from Crimea Syria ministers meet Putin to discuss defence, economic cooperation, SANA says Israeli defence minister says no plan to resettle Gaza after hinting at one Senior Libyan military leaders die in plane crash Yemen’s warring sides agree to largest prisoner swap in a decade of fighting South Korea special prosecutor indicts ex-president Yoon over opinion polls Two men found guilty of UK plot to kill hundreds of Jews as IS fears growIn The News
Israel
Lebanon on Tuesday rejected Israeli accusations that a Lebanese soldier killed in an air strike near the southern city of Sidon had links to Hezbollah, after Israel said it had attacked three militants working to rebuild the group’s infrastructure. – Reuters
Two vessels from CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container shipping line, have travelled through the Suez Canal, the authority that runs the waterway said on Tuesday, in a sign the disruptions linked to the Gaza war could be easing. – Reuters
Israel’s defence minister denied any intention to resettle the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after earlier remarks that suggested Israel would one day want to do so, comments at odds with U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for the Palestinian enclave. – Reuters
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday he would introduce a law to tax commercial banks 15% on “excess” profits, accusing lenders of exploiting customers in the wake of a spike in interest rates over the past few years. – Reuters
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday he called Israeli President Isaac Herzog and invited him to visit Australia, expressing his shock and dismay over the attack at the Jewish community Chanukah event on Bondi Beach last week. – Reuters
Israel’s parliament has extended an order allowing the government to shut down foreign broadcasters operating in the country. The legislation, passed by 22 votes to 10, expands temporary powers introduced during the Gaza war to shutter outlets seen as a threat to national security. – BBC
Belgium on Tuesday joined South Africa in a case brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which accuses Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. – Agence France-Presse
The United Nations spends roughly $100 million per year on reports, debates, special mechanisms, and communication activities dedicated almost exclusively to singling out Israel, the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN said. – Jerusalem Post
Shin Bet deputy director ‘S’ will leave his role in the Israeli spy agency after over 30 years of service, the Shin Bet said in a statement on Tuesday evening. – Jerusalem Post
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the one behind the leak of classified intelligence aimed at swaying the Israeli public’s opinion regarding ongoing hostage negotiations last year, his beleaguered former spokesperson Eli Feldstein alleged on Tuesday. – Times of Israel
On one side stands the West Bank security barrier. On the other, high-rise apartment buildings. In between runs a narrow road used daily by schoolchildren returning home. This is a dense and volatile area in Jerusalem, a daily friction point where civilians, security forces and illegal Palestinian entrants intersect. – Ynet
Hilla Haddad Chmelnik writes: Many of the technological domains highlighted in this article, from AI and cybersecurity to water management, quantum research, and space, require robust national investment in infrastructure. This is a core responsibility of government, and the benefits extend far beyond diplomacy: They strengthen the economy, reinforce national power, and secure Israel’s place in the emerging global technological landscape. The future of Israeli diplomacy will be shaped not only by alliances or declarations, but by technologies so essential that they bind nations together in ways traditional diplomacy cannot. – Jerusalem Post
Eric R. Mandel writes: If intelligence assessments are correct, Iran’s missile buildup must rise to the top of Israel’s existential priorities. Netanyahu’s legacy has long been defined by Iran, and stopping this expansion may be his most urgent responsibility. The Trump–Netanyahu summit marks the end of the beginning of Phase One of Israel’s seven-front war and will shape decisions in 2026 that directly affect both Israeli and American national security. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
The United States and Iran traded barbs at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday over conditions for reviving nuclear talks, with the U.S. saying it remains ready for direct negotiations and Iran rejecting Washington’s terms. – Reuters
Iraq’s supply of gas from Iran has been halted, the electricity ministry said on Tuesday, adding that the stoppage was due to the shutdown of some generating units and load shedding at others. – Reuters
UN experts and 400 prominent women have urged Iran not to execute Zahra Tabari, a 67-year-old electrical engineer and women’s rights activist. – BBC
Pegah Banihashemi writes: Mashhad also revealed another unsettling reality: the fragmentation of Iran’s opposition landscape, particularly abroad. Competing ideological narratives, monarchist, republican, reformist, revolutionary, emerge quickly during crises, often overshadowing the immediate needs of those within Iran who face arrest, torture, or worse. These divisions have historically weakened collective action, yet they may also reflect a society in transition, struggling to envision a united future. – Jerusalem Post
Russia and Ukraine
For four straight days this month, Oleksandra Mazur had no light, no heat and no running water. Russian strikes had left her Odesa neighborhood completely without electricity, knocking out other basic services in her apartment building. – Wall Street Journal
It was a moment of intimacy in what was becoming one of the stranger diplomatic initiatives since Trump’s return to power. Lukashenko wanted Washington to ease the raft of sanctions on some of his country’s most profitable companies—and get his presidential jet fixed. – Wall Street Journal
Ukraine said on Tuesday that its forces had withdrawn from the eastern town of Siversk, in a move that could complicate Kyiv’s stance in ongoing peace talks with Russia, which have largely stumbled over a question of territory. – New York Times
Three people were killed by a bomb on Wednesday in Moscow after two police officers approached a man acting suspiciously near the site where a senior general was killed two days ago by a car bomb that Russia said was planted by Ukrainian intelligence. – Reuters
Ukrainian overnight drone attacks targeted Moscow and sparked an industrial fire in the Tula region, which lies directly south of the Russian capital, regional authorities said on Wednesday. At least three drones targeting Moscow were downed, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app. – Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday several draft documents, including on security guarantees, had been prepared after talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. – Reuters
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday that Russian and U.S. diplomats had held talks on removing “irritants” in relations between the two countries but the main issues remain unresolved, Russian news agency Interfax reported. – Reuters
Russia plans to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space programme and a joint Russian-Chinese research station as major powers rush to explore the earth’s only natural satellite. – Reuters
Russia launched one of its largest aerial attacks this month on Ukraine overnight, killing at least three people and injuring at least 17 others, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, as Ukraine’s leader received his first face-to-face briefing with his negotiating team on their arrival back from talks in the US. – CNN
After winning the war in the Black Sea, Ukraine now focuses on fighting the air war. In 2023 and 2024, a punishing blitz of Ukrainian-made “Sea Baby” drones forced Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to abandon its headquarters at Sevastopol, the Crimean port founded in 1783 by Prince Potemkin. – New York Sun
Keith Naughton writes: Worst of all, the European Union will not liquidate frozen Russian assets, blocked by tiny Belgium. The Belgians and other European elites are concerned about the “legal liability” — meanwhile, the Russians continue to indiscriminately attack Ukrainian civilians, conduct espionage against EU countries and flout European sanctions. […] While the new Trumpian National Security Strategy may have veered into inappropriate territory in its cultural meanderings, it is fully justified in walking away from Europe as long as the Europeans refuse to unite and commit to defend themselves. – The Hill
Syria
Under the cover of darkness, the helicopters from Israel began to arrive in southern Syria on Dec. 17, 2024, nine days after the ouster of former president Bashar al-Assad. – Washington Post
Syria’s foreign and defence ministers met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss expanding military, political and economic cooperation, with a focus on strategic collaboration in defence industries, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported. – Reuters
A prominent American Islamist journalist who has been critical of Syria’s new government and its nascent partnership with the United States has been detained by Syrian security forces, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Germany deported a convicted criminal to Syria on Tuesday for the first time since the start of a 14-year-long civil war there as the government in Berlin tries to show voters it is addressing their worries about migration. – Reuters
Turkey
A private jet carrying the chief of staff of Libya’s army reported an electrical failure and requested an emergency landing shortly before crashing near Ankara, Turkey’s head of communications said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Hundreds of sinkholes have emerged in Turkey’s central agricultural region due to dwindling rainfall and receding groundwaters, causing concern among farmers and environmental experts who see it as a worrying sign of climate change. – Reuters
Montenegro on Tuesday revoked its decision to insist on visas for Turkish citizens and reintroduced a visa-free regime but for a shortened duration, citing improved cooperation with Turkish authorities. – Reuters
Middle East & North Africa
Senior military leaders of Libya’s government in Tripoli were killed when their jet crashed Tuesday soon after taking off from an airport in Turkey’s capital, Libyan and Turkish officials said. – Wall Street Journal
Yemen’s warring factions agreed on Tuesday to release thousands of prisoners in what would be the largest swap since civil war erupted in the country more than a decade ago. – New York Times
Lebanese authorities are investigating the recent disappearance of a retired security officer whose brother was apparently involved in the 1986 capture of an Israeli Air Force navigator, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP on Tuesday, amid speculation that Israeli agents could have nabbed him. – Agence France-Presse
Korean Peninsula
South Korea’s special prosecutor has indicted ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol on allegations of violating the political fundraising act by illegally receiving public opinion polls, according to a statement from the special prosecution team on Wednesday. – Reuters
A South Korean court on Wednesday rejected a request by two major shareholders of Korea Zinc (010130.KS), MBK Partners and YoungPoong (000670.KS), to block the zinc refiner’s plan to issue new shares to help fund a $7.4 billion U.S. smelter. – Reuters
South Korea and the US have agreed to pursue a separate agreement to formalize Seoul’s right to build nuclear-powered submarines, and working-level talks will begin early next year, the Asian country’s national security adviser said Wednesday. – Bloomberg
China
Last Christmas, Zion — one of China’s biggest and most influential unregistered house churches — held a concert featuring professional dancers, rock bands and a short drama about an elderly Chinese atheist whose suspicion of Christianity transformed into belief while she was visiting her son in the United States. – Washington Post
The Chinese government has banned the sharing of “obscene” content in private online messages and increased the penalties for spreading pornographic material — saying this would become a legal issue as well as a “moral” one. – Washington Post
China said on Wednesday that it opposed the United States’ “indiscriminate use of tariffs” and “unreasonable suppression” of Chinese industries when asked about Washington’s plan to impose tariffs on Chinese semiconductor imports. – Reuters
Chinese authorities on Wednesday said two Taiwanese citizens led a smuggling operation involving a Chinese-crewed vessel that damaged subsea cables earlier this year. – Reuters
Shuli Ren writes: The nagging question is how thought leaders in the West got the world’s second-largest economy so wrong. Of course, Beijing doesn’t make it easy — the country didn’t open up from pandemic-related lockdowns until the end of 2022. But some of it, I suspect, is elites’ aversion to visiting an autocracy whose political values are different from their core beliefs. Making money off China isn’t as easy as a decade ago, and some worry that, once there, they might get an exit ban. But one thing is for sure: It would be a huge mistake writing off China, the only other economic superpower that matters. – Bloomberg
Matthew Brooker writes: Britain hasn’t given up trying to slice and dice China. Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledges the threat to national security but says the scale of the business opportunity is “immense.” He’s preparing to visit Beijing in January, where he may finally announce approval for the London embassy. The glistening chimera is still exerting its pull. – Bloomberg
South Asia
China has launched a trade dispute with India over solar cells, solar modules and IT goods, requesting dispute consultations on the matter, the World Trade Organization said on Tuesday. – Reuters
A protest erupted in India’s capital Tuesday in response to the death of a Hindu man who was lynched and burned by an angry mob in neighboring Bangladesh, a new sign of strain in relations between the neighboring countries. – Associated Press
A consortium bid 135 billion rupees ($482 million) for a 75% stake in Pakistan International Airlines Corp., a watershed moment in what’s been an attempt to privatize the national carrier since the 1990s. – Bloomberg
Asia
Foreign laborers being held against their will in Cambodia to run online scams were forced to keep working even as Thai military attacks on the disputed border area intensified this month, according to witnesses and videos. – Wall Street Journal
In the hours after the massacre at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney last week, it seemed that Australia’s leaders had come together to offer a bipartisan response, as they had done for many past catastrophes. – New York Times
Australia’s most populous state on Wednesday passed sweeping new gun and anti-terror rules following the mass shooting on Bondi Beach, tightening firearm ownership, banning public display of terror symbols and strengthening police power to curb protests. – Reuters
Thailand’s caretaker leader Anutin Charnvirakul was picked by his party on Wednesday to stand as its candidate for prime minister in a general election in early February, as he bids to benefit from a wave of nationalism arising from an ongoing border conflict with Cambodia. – Reuters
The U.S. on Tuesday said Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau spoke to Palau President Surangel Whipps about transferring third-country nationals to the Pacific Island nation, even after its lawmakers rejected a previous request from Washington on the matter. – Reuters
President Donald Trump said he will be extending invitations to next year’s U.S.-hosted Group of 20 summit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as the Republican administration looks to deepen its relationship with the Central Asian nations. – Associated Press
The governor of Niigata on Tuesday formally gave local consent to put two reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in the north-central prefecture back online, clearing a last hurdle toward restarting the plant idled for more than a decade following the 2011 meltdowns at another plant managed by the same utility. – Associated Press
The Thai military said ceasefire talks with Cambodia, set to begin on Wednesday, are expected to conclude with a meeting of the countries’ defense ministers on Dec. 27, as the two sides seek to end weeks of deadly clashes. – Bloomberg
Vietnam’s Communist Party will nominate current General Secretary To Lam to stay in the top job, according to people familiar with the matter, paving the way for him to push on with a reform program that’s reshaping the nation. – Bloomberg
A British national in Australia has had his visa cancelled and faces deportation for allegedly displaying Nazi symbols. – BBC
While the Armenian government is cautiously attempting to break years of stagnation and deepen its relations with Israel as part of its pivot toward the West, the Armenian lobby in the United States is pursuing an independent and more adversarial approach. – Jerusalem Post
Europe
Paralysis has become the defining feature of French politics, and the country’s far-right National Rally is reaping the rewards. On Tuesday, French lawmakers approved a special bill that extends this year’s budget into early 2026, following weeks of rowdy debate in the country’s fractured Parliament that failed to produce agreement on a new budget. – Wall Street Journal
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was released from custody after being arrested on Tuesday in London at a pro-Palestinian protest, police said. – Reuters
The French government condemned on Wednesday a visa ban imposed by the Trump administration on Thierry Breton, a former European Union commissioner who helped drive the EU’s Digital Services Act, which has recently targeted top U.S. tech companies. – Reuters
British police said on Tuesday they would take no further action over comments made about the Israeli military during a performance by punk duo Bob Vylan at the Glastonbury music festival in June. – Reuters
Italy’s government comfortably won a vote of confidence in the upper house Senate on Tuesday over its 2026 budget, keeping it on track to secure parliament’s final approval before the end of the year. – Reuters
Poland seeks to become a permanent member in the Group of 20 — a club of the world’s biggest economies — to help represent dynamic Eastern Europe after a speedy advance in living standards, according to Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski. – Bloomberg
France has launched a probe after a video emerged of a man harassing and humiliating a young Jewish child at a Paris airport, demanding that he “free Palestine” and “dance,” a judicial source said Tuesday. – Agence France-Presse
Africa
U.S. President Donald Trump’s mass recall of ambassadors will leave Washington without top-level presence in more than half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, complicating America’s efforts to push its agenda in a region that has faced military coups and devastating conflicts in recent years. – Reuters
The Trump administration is not satisfied with the Rwanda-backed M23’s withdrawal from a strategic town in eastern Congo, a senior U.S. official told Reuters, as residents reported persistent clashes nearby on Tuesday. – Reuters
The U.S. government has signed health deals with at least nine African countries, part of its new approach to global health funding, with agreements that reflect the Trump administration’s interests and priorities and are geared toward providing less aid and more mutual benefits. – Associated Press
Armed men have kidnapped 28 people travelling to an annual Islamic event in Nigeria’s central Plateau state, local police told the BBC. – BBC
The Americas
The United States told the United Nations on Tuesday it will impose and enforce sanctions “to the maximum extent” to deprive Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of resources as Russia warned other Latin American countries could be next. – Reuters
Venezuela’s ruling-party controlled National Assembly unanimously approved a law on Tuesday that allows prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone who promotes or finances what it describes as piracy or blockades. – Reuters
Colombia ’s government has declared an economic state of emergency that enables President Gustavo Petro’s administration to issue taxes by decree, as the nation struggles to finance hospitals and the military while paying off record debts. – Associated Press
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been permitted to leave prison to undergo surgery on Christmas Day following approval from Brazil’s Supreme Court, court documents show. – BBC
United States
The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to let Donald Trump send National Guard troops to the Chicago area as the Republican president expands the use of the military for domestic purposes in a growing number of Democratic-led jurisdictions, a policy critics call an effort to punish adversaries and stifle dissent. – Reuters
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R), who is also now President Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, said Tuesday that the Trump administration does not aim “to conquer anybody.” – The Hill
A federal judge said the Trump administration can move ahead with a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications, providing a setback for US technology companies that rely on hiring skilled foreign workers. – Bloomberg
The Trump administration is sending about 350 Louisiana National Guard troops to New Orleans, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, deploying military forces to another American city that has been the target of an immigration crackdown. – Bloomberg
Cybersecurity
Bolivia’s new government on Tuesday issued a decree that will allow global satellite internet companies such as Starlink or Kuiper to provide internet access across the Andean nation as it tries to upgrade its technology and speed up its notoriously slow connectivity rates. – Associated Press
Multiple cryptocurrency companies were sued by federal regulators this week for their alleged role in an elaborate investment scam that siphoned more than $14 million from retail investors. – The Record
The U.S. Justice Department said it seized a web domain and database that were used to siphon millions of dollars from Americans’ bank accounts through an online fraud scheme that exploited search engine advertising. – The Record
Defense
The U.S. Coast Guard is waiting for additional forces to arrive before potentially attempting to board and seize a Venezuela-linked oil tanker it has been pursuing since Sunday, a U.S. official and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. – Reuters
The US fleet of F-35s, the most sophisticated stealth fighter jet in the world, was only available to fly half of the time because of poor maintenance by Lockheed Martin Corp., a government watchdog said. – Bloomberg
The Navy and Palantir recently announced a $448 million deal that will integrate the tech firm’s advanced AI software into multiple public and private shipyards and suppliers to optimize naval construction and readiness, and help surge U.S. nuclear submarine production under the second Trump administration. – Defensescoop
Long War
Two men were found guilty on Tuesday of plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired gun rampage against the Jewish community in England, a planned attack investigators say demonstrates the resurgent risk posed by the militant group. – Reuters
The head of an alliance of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger declared Tuesday that the launch of a joint battalion “must be followed by large-scale operations in the coming days” in a region plagued by deadly extremism. – Associated Press
Attorney-General Ken Paxton announced on Tuesday on X/Twitter that he is taking legal action in the lawsuit involving the terrorist organization CAIR. – Jerusalem Post