Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Six months after war, Israel warns it could strike Iran again Trump, Netanyahu to discuss next phase of Gaza plan WSJ Editorial: Hamas is loving its revival Iran sends conflicting signals on its missiles as Israeli concerns rise Iran’s president says his country is in a full-scale war with the West AEI’s Matthew Continetti: The Iran strike was the high point of Trump's year WSJ Editorial: Ukraine’s new concessions for peace Hezbollah leader says Lebanese efforts to disarm group ‘not in country’s interest’ WaPo Editorial: Unfinished business in the Middle East North Korea's Kim Jong Un oversees cruise missile launches U.S. strikes on nigeria targeted islamic state camps with missile barrage WSJ Editorial: Trump bombs ISIS in AfricaIn The News
Israel
Six months after launching a 12-day war with Iran over its nuclear program, Israeli officials are raising the prospect of another clash over Tehran’s efforts to rebuild its arsenal of ballistic missiles. – Wall Street Journal
For more than two years, Israelis were bitterly divided over the war in Gaza. With the backing of a mass protest movement, political parties opposing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded his government end the war and strike a deal to return the hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023. – Wall Street Journal
Israel on Friday became the first country to formally recognize Somaliland, an autonomous region that broke away from Somalia decades ago, in a reciprocal agreement that expands recognition of the Jewish state in the Muslim world. – New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to push for progress in the stalled ceasefire in Gaza when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday for talks that will include Israel’s concerns over Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran. – Reuters
The Israeli military said on Thursday that its forces killed a member of Iran’s Quds Force in Lebanon who had been involved in planning attacks from Syria and Lebanon. – Reuters
Countries including Britain, Canada, Germany and others on Wednesday condemned the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying they violated international law and risked fuelling instability. – Reuters
The Iron Beam laser-based, air-defense system has been deployed in the field, the Defense Ministry reported Sunday. – Jerusalem Post
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed opening the Rafah crossing in both directions, letting Palestinians who left Gaza enter again, but had to withdraw it after opposition from several coalition members led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, N12 reported on Sunday, citing two Israeli officials. – Jerusalem Post
Former hostage Romi Gonen said Thursday that she endured four separate incidents of sexual abuse by four different men during 471 days of captivity in Gaza. “There were different levels of severity,” she said. Speaking on the investigative TV program Uvda, she described the third incident as the most severe. – Ynet
Editorial: This has been tried and failed. Whatever gets built is knocked down in the next war that Hamas starts before hiding behind or underneath its civilian population. The region knows this well, and allies and enemies will judge U.S. resolve accordingly. Will the Trump envoys be remembered as the team that saved the hostages or the team that saved Hamas? The verdict is still out. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Israel’s recognition of Somaliland has already produced a headline Trump could not resist. Asked whether the US would follow Israel’s lead, he replied: “Does anyone know what Somaliland is?” Whatever one thinks of the move, it should not become a substitute for decisions on Gaza and Iran. On Monday, the agenda should be ruthless: Finish the hostage deal in full, enforce the terms already signed, and lock in US-Israel alignment on Iran. Anything less is a delay with better lighting. – Jerusalem Post
Gabriel Rosenberg writes: By aligning with a willing partner, leveraging a critical geographic position in the fight against global jihad, and having the courage to move first, Israel has demonstrated the kind of diplomatic creativity and resolve that merits admiration. Doing the right thing, especially when it is unpopular, is what matters. That is a lesson the Jewish people know all too well. – Jerusalem Post
Justin Hayet writes: Iran is preparing for the next war. Missile production does not wait for political cycles or election timelines. Strategic access, once misused, does not reset. Commitments not secured in real time are not retroactively granted. Deterrence is built before it is tested. Israel’s leadership will ultimately be judged not by how often it spoke to power, but by what it secured while the window was still open. – Jerusalem Post
Lev Stesin writes: The days of political stability during the Angela Merkel era are gone. However, Germany may still surprise us and maintain its current steady, very German path of rejuvenation forward. The West needs a strong, assertive Germany. Israel needs a friend on a continent that is in decline, and lost to dreams and misplaced expectations. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
Live music is blaring on the streets of Tehran, women are ditching their mandatory hijabs and young people are dancing in cafes, as authorities allow a degree of social freedom not seen since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. – Wall Street Journal
Amid mounting Israeli concerns over Iran’s ballistic missile program, Tehran seemed conflicted last week over the message it wants to send about its weapons capability. – Washington Post
Three more Iranian satellites were sent into space on Russia’s Soyuz launchers on Sunday, Iranian state media said, as the two U.S.-sanctioned nations extend their space collaboration. – Reuters
Iran has seized a foreign oil tanker near the Iranian island of Qeshm in the Gulf, saying it was carrying 4 million litres of smuggled fuel, state media reported on Friday. – Reuters
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday his country is in a full-scale war with the U.S., Israel and Europe ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s meeting Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump. – Associated Press
A group of Iranian hackers claimed on Sunday that it had cracked the cellphone of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, and threatened to release information tying him to the Qatargate scandal. – Times of Israel
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is developing biological and chemical warheads for the country’s long-range ballistic missiles, informed military sources told Iran International on Sunday. – Iran International
Matthew Continetti writes: Perhaps Mr. Trump was simply pursuing the line he had taken on Iran since entering the race for the White House in 2015. Or perhaps he intuited that the conventional approach to the Middle East—the strategy pursued by Messrs. Obama and Biden—had things backward. Peace isn’t achieved by placating murderers. It’s established by creating facts on the ground, by dynamism, surprise and force. By taking out Iran’s nuclear program, Mr. Trump showed that U.S. power makes the world a safer place. It’s a lesson worth following in 2026 and beyond. – Wall Street Journal
Fatemeh Aman writes: Recent diplomatic activity does not necessarily signal a reversal of this trend. It reflects continuity more than transformation. Without sustained credibility, policy consistency, and the ability to deliver beyond symbolism, Iran’s role in Central Asia is likely to remain constrained. Central Asia today is more confident, more selective, and more crowded strategically than it was three decades ago. Iran is still a neighbor. It is still relevant. But it is no longer indispensable to Central Asia’s regional economic or strategic planning. That reality, more than any single policy failure, explains why a relationship that once seemed promising ultimately plateaued. – National Interest
Russia and Ukraine
Talks to end the Ukraine war on Sunday spurred fresh optimism from President Trump yet no clear signs that the two sides reached a breakthrough as Russia continues to push for land gains and reject a ceasefire. – Wall Street Journal
Repairmen were patching up a railway station damaged by a Russian attack here in east Ukraine when an air-raid siren portended another barrage of explosive drones. – Wall Street Journal
The Kremlin said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump do not support a European-Ukrainian push for a temporary ceasefire ahead of a settlement, and that Moscow thinks Kyiv needs to make a decision on Donbas. – Reuters
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday announced an additional $2.5 billion of economic aid for Ukraine. The assistance will help Ukraine unlock financing from the International Monetary Fund, Carney said during an appearance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who also spoke briefly to reporters. – Reuters
Ukraine’s leading private energy provider said on Sunday that it had restored power to more than a million households in and around Kyiv a day after a Russian air attack had forced emergency outages. – Reuters
Power line repairs have begun near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after another local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the agency said on Sunday, citing its Director General Rafael Grossi. – Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine was in no hurry for peace and if it did not want to resolve their conflict peacefully, Moscow would accomplish all its goals by force. – Reuters
Moscow is likely stationing new nuclear-capable hypersonic ballistic missiles at a former airbase in eastern Belarus, a development that could bolster Russia’s ability to deliver missiles across Europe, two U.S. researchers have found by studying satellite imagery. – Reuters
Russian overnight drone attacks damaged Slovakia-, Palau- and Liberia-flagged vessels in ports in Ukraine’s Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Friday. – Reuters
A Moscow court sentenced a former Russian diplomat to 12 years in a maximum-security penal colony for selling secrets to U.S. intelligence while on a posting to the United States, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday. – Reuters
Ukraine said it attacked the Syzran oil refinery in Russia’s southern Samara region overnight for the second time this month, causing a fire at the site. – Bloomberg
Russia extended a temporary ban on gasoline exports through the end of February to maintain stability in its domestic fuel market. – Bloomberg
Russia pounded the Ukrainian capital with waves of missiles and attack drones on Saturday, an hourslong assault that came the day before President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine’s scheduled meeting in Florida with President Trump to discuss a plan to end the war. – New York Times
Editorial: All of this is at least a plausible outline for a cease-fire, but Russia is unlikely to accept it. Russian commentators denounced it ahead of Christmas, and Mr. Putin’s holiday message included a nasty missile and drone barrage on Ukrainian civilians. Mr. Trump told the New York Post on Friday that there’s a “good shot” of reaching an agreement on Sunday. But that will mean persuading Mr. Putin that Mr. Trump won’t let the Russian win at the negotiating table what he hasn’t been able to win on the battlefield. – Wall Street Journal
Lindsey Cliff writes: These higher casualty rates have a number of causes, from the Kremlin’s “meat grinder” battle tactics to financial incentives, which greatly appeal to those in underdeveloped regions. But the consequences are clear: the very regions that Russia relies on the most are losing men faster than anywhere else. This would be bad enough in normal times. But Russia entered the war already facing a severe demographic and labor crisis. More than a decade ago, Russia’s statistical service created three population scenarios, dependent on various levels of migration into the country. Its most optimistic scenario required Russia to bring in 550,000 migrants every year just to keep the national population from shrinking. Even then, the size of the labor force was expected to shrink. – National Interest
Hezbollah
Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem on Sunday said the Lebanese government’s plan to disarm the Iran-backed group is an “Israeli-American plan” that is not in the country’s “best interest.” – Agence-France Presse
Israel has infiltrated Hezbollah so deeply to the extent that 70% of its terrorists are “working with Israel,” an anonymous terrorist in the Lebanese terrorist organization’s military wing claimed in an interview with N12 published on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: If the Trump administration goes forward with the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia, the president could ask Riyadh to hold off on new trade deals with Lebanon until Hezbollah’s arsenal is diminished. The end of one war in the Middle East kicks off the countdown to the next. If the president wants credit for a lasting peace, he cannot turn his attention away from the region in 2026. – Washington Post
Syria
The family of Abdu Kharouf, a moderate Muslim preacher in a dirt-poor section of Damascus, had been haunted for half a decade by questions of how exactly he ended up in a prison run by Syria’s feared intelligence services, where he was interrogated and died. – Wall Street Journal
At least two people were killed Sunday when violence broke out at a protest by Syria’s minority Alawite community in the city of Latakia, according to a monitoring group and the Syrian state media.- New York Times
At least eight people were killed and about 20 others injured in an explosion during Friday Prayer at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs, a spokesman for the country’s Interior Ministry said. – New York Times
Syria will start swapping old banknotes for new ones from January 1, 2026, Central Bank Governor Abdelkader Husrieh said on Thursday, under a plan to replace Assad-era notes to try to strengthen the currency’s value. – Reuters
The Kingdom of Jordan carried out two rounds of airstrikes in Syria over the past week. They are important and carry a message. – Jerusalem Post
Turkey
Australia’s Woodside Energy said on Monday it had signed a supply agreement with Turkish state-owned petroleum company BOTAS to deliver around 5.8 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas for up to nine years, starting in 2030. – Reuters
Turkey’s energy minister said Russia had provided new financing worth $9 billion for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant being built by Moscow’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom, adding Ankara expected the power plant to be operational in 2026. – Reuters
Amit Segal writes: The late historian Bernard Lewis said in 2011 that the day would come when Iran would become like Turkey and Turkey would become like Iran—the ayatollah regime would be replaced by a secular democracy, while the secular republic of Turkey would turn into a threatening Islamic empire. In June, American-made Israeli jets destroyed outdated Iranian F-14s. It would be a mistake to equip an increasingly aggressive and Islamist Turkey—which might in time supplant Iran as the most threatening country in the region—with far more advanced American weapons. – Wall Street Journal
Asli Aydintasbas writes: Erdogan might be able to escape this cycle by broadening his domestic political tent, rebuilding Turkey’s institutions, and appealing to the country’s professional elites and business community. But all that would risk exposing his rule to criticism and weakening his strong hold on power. Erdogan may harbor the dreams of an Ottoman sultan, but modern Turkey remains hobbled in its own backyard and mired in domestic problems. Although Ankara will remain a major player in the regional order, and a dominant one in Syria, it will not be able to turn back the clock to the time when it was the single dominant force in the Middle East. – Foreign Affairs
Yemen
Saudi warplanes struck a Yemeni militia backed by the United Arab Emirates on Friday, as tensions between the two Gulf powers rise over their competing positions in conflicts around the region. – Wall Street Journal
Yemen’s Saudi-led coalition said any military moves by the main southern separatist group STC in the eastern province of Hadramout that undermined de-escalation efforts would be countered to protect civilians, the Saudi state news agency reported on Saturday. – Reuters
Yemen’s main southern separatist group rejected on Friday a Saudi call for its forces to withdraw from areas it seized earlier in December, saying it will continue securing the eastern provinces of Hadramout and Mahra. – Reuters
Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi, leader of the Houthis terror group, warned on Sunday that the organization will “consider any Israeli presence in Somaliland as a military target,” the Houthi-run Saba News Agency reported. – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
Baghdad, the Kurdish government and international companies have agreed to extend an oil export deal through March 31, Kurdistan broadcaster Rudaw quoted the director of Iraq’s state oil company SOMO as saying on Thursday. – Reuters
High-profile activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was released from prison after an Egyptian presidential pardon in September, has arrived in Britain, the Egyptian-British campaigner’s family and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday. – Reuters
The Lebanese cabinet on Friday passed a draft law that aims to address a financial crisis that crippled the economy for six years, despite significant opposition to the legislation from political parties, depositors and commercial banks. – Reuters
Legislators in Algeria voted to declare France’s colonization of the North African country a crime, approving a law that calls for restitution of property taken by France during its 130-year rule, among other demands seeking to redress historical wrongs. – Associated Press
Korean Peninsula
A few years ago, a California cryptocurrency developer hired a freelance coder remotely for a project. What he didn’t know: The salary he paid landed in the hands of North Korea. – Wall Street Journal
The arms race between North and South Korea has expanded underwater as the North on Thursday condemned the South’s plan to build a nuclear-powered submarine as a security threat and unveiled the completed hull of its own nuclear sub, which is under construction. – New York Times
South Korean exports likely rose for the seventh consecutive month in December, led by strong chip demand for artificial intelligence technologies, a Reuters poll showed on Monday. – Reuters
The wife of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol interfered in state affairs in return for expensive valuables and money, a special prosecutor said on Monday. – Reuters
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday apologised to the families of the 179 people who died in a Jeju Air crash a year ago, vowing to reveal the truth behind the worst aircraft accident on the country’s soil. – Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of long-range strategic cruise missiles on Sunday, which confirmed the integrity of its nuclear power and counter-attack readiness in the face of security threats, state media KCNA said on Monday. – Reuters
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung has appointed Lee Hye-hoon, a conservative politician and former lawmaker of the opposition United Future Party, as budget minister, a spokesman at the presidential office said at a briefing on Sunday. – Reuters
A South Korean court on Friday acquitted five former government officials accused of manipulating facts in a case from 2020 where a fisheries official was killed at sea by North Korean troops. – Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signaled the country will continue to develop missiles in the next five years, as he visited major munitions enterprises in the last quarter of 2025, state media KCNA said on Friday. – Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message on December 18 to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to celebrate New Year’s Day, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Thursday. – Reuters
South Korea’s government said it plans to end its waning foreign adoptions of Korean children, while United Nations investigators voiced “serious concern” over what they described as Seoul’s failure to ensure truth-finding and reparations for widespread human rights violations tied to decades of mass overseas adoptions. – Associated Press
China
Last month, after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested her country could mobilize a military response if China tried to seize Taiwan, Beijing responded with angry statements and warplane sorties. Its message: That is none of your business. – Wall Street Journal
One simple step could help make America’s economy great again, according to President Trump. It would make China great too, according to a leading adviser to the Chinese government. – Wall Street Journal
In October, a U.S. research vessel arrived in this remote South Pacific nation to capture high-definition images of the seafloor. A few weeks later, a Chinese ship arrived to do the same thing. – Wall Street Journal
The Chinese government imposed sanctions on 20 U.S. defense companies and 10 of their executives on Friday in retaliation for the Trump administration’s approval of a large package of weapons for sale to Taiwan. – Wall Street Journal
China is making steady progress on developing more sophisticated weapons and expanding its armed force’s ability to operate away from the mainland, including against Taiwan, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of Beijing’s military strength. – Wall Street Journal
China announced military exercises around Taiwan on Monday, mobilizing naval, air, ground and missile forces for what the People’s Liberation Army described as a “stern warning” to opponents of Beijing’s claims to the island. As part of the drills, Chinese authorities said that seven zones of ocean and air space around Taiwan would be sealed off for live-fire exercises to be held on Tuesday. – New York Times
China on Sunday congratulated Cambodia on reaching a ceasefire with Thailand after weeks of deadly border fighting, as officials from the three countries prepared to open a two-day meeting in southwestern China. – Reuters
China said without naming any country that military activities such as bomb-dropping training in the waters around Scarborough Shoal have damaged the coral reefs there, state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday citing an ecological report. – Reuters
China on Saturday passed revisions to a key piece of legislation aimed at strengthening Beijing’s ability to wage trade war, curb outbound shipments from strategic minerals to sex dolls, and further open its $19 trillion economy. – Reuters
China accused the U.S. on Thursday of distorting its defence policy in an effort to thwart an improvement in China-India ties. – Reuters
Beijing imposed sanctions on Friday against 20 U.S. defense-related companies and 10 executives, a week after Washington announced large-scale arms sales to Taiwan. – Defense News
The Pentagon has claimed that Chinese missile forces are operating a new type of anti-ship ballistic missiles that are capable of reaching the West Coast of the United States, according to the annual report on Beijing’s military power. – USNI
Amara Thiha writes: By piecing together a patchwork of negotiated local arrangements, China is seeking a pragmatic alternative to propping up a single unified national power. The pieces are in place for China to succeed, but there is a high risk of turbulence spiraling out of control. The more that China strikes deals to empower rebel groups along its border, the more it erodes the central government’s authority. If the central government is weakened too much it could trigger a total state collapse, which would result in a surge in cross-border crime, refugee flows, and unchecked ethnic rivalries and violence. Ultimately, Beijing is betting that it can sustain a delicate balance to get what it wants in Myanmar despite ongoing disorder. – Foreign Affairs
South Asia
India is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build roads, tunnels and landing strips throughout the Himalayas, as it prepares for a possible future clash with its longtime nemesis China. – Wall Street Journal
One of Bangladesh’s top contenders to be prime minister, who had been in exile for nearly two decades as he faced legal troubles at home, returned to the capital, Dhaka, on Thursday, just as the country’s election season got into full swing. – New York Times
The student-led Bangladeshi party born out of the protest movement that toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has forged an electoral alliance with Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami ahead of February’s parliamentary election, stirring internal rifts. – Reuters
Two popular leaders have formed an alliance ahead of March parliamentary elections in Nepal that will challenge the older parties which have dominated the Himalayan nation’s politics for over three decades, party officials and analysts said on Monday. – Reuters
Asia
The defense ministers of Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday signed a cease-fire meant to end three weeks of deadly fighting along their disputed border. – Wall Street Journal
The Japanese government says it wants to more than double the share of Japan’s electricity generated from nuclear power to 20% by 2040, from around 9% currently. Like other countries, Japan is eager to wean itself off fossil fuels while also meeting the energy needs of power-hungry data centers and semiconductor foundries that fuel the artificial-intelligence revolution, without pushing up everyone else’s bills. – Wall Street Journal
The military junta whose 2021 coup plunged Myanmar into civil war controls less than half of the country. Resistance groups have bombed polling stations to stop people from voting. The party that won in a landslide in the last election has been banned from running. – Wall Street Journal
Russia opposes Taiwan’s independence in any form and considers the island an inseparable part of China, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published on Sunday. – Reuters
Malaysia’s influential former premier Najib Razak was jailed on Friday for a further 15 years and fined $2.8 billion for power abuse and money laundering in the biggest trial of the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, a ruling that could have big political ramifications. – Reuters
Japan’s Cabinet on Friday approved a record defense budget plan exceeding 9 trillion yen ($58 billion) for the coming year, aiming to fortify its strike-back capability and coastal defense with cruise missiles and unmanned arsenals as tensions rise in the region. – Associated Press
Families of victims of the recent Sydney massacre that targeted a Jewish festival released an open letter on Monday calling for more federal action to investigate a rise in antisemitism and the security failures behind Australia’s worst mass shooting in three decades. – Associated Press
Europe
President Trump and his team have spent much of the year railing at Europe, complaining about what they see as a cluster of countries too soft on immigration, weak on preserving democratic freedoms and unwilling to pay for the full cost of their defense. – Wall Street Journal
Now, the EU is increasing scrutiny of the terminal and others like it, and considering sanctions on those ports that it suspects are providing a backdoor for Russian fuel into Europe. – Wall Street Journal
The Western alliance between the U.S. and its European partners has been a pillar of the global order since the end of World War II. Bonded by a common belief in freedom and democracy, it prevented major global conflict, defeated Communism and presided over a surge in global prosperity. – Wall Street Journal
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said he will swiftly form a new government after his party won half the votes in Sunday’s election, signalling a possible end to the year-long political deadlock that has paralysed parliament and delayed key international funding. – Reuters
Italian prosecutors said on Saturday they had arrested nine people on suspicion of financing Hamas through charities based in Italy, in an operation coordinated by anti-mafia and anti-terrorism units. – Reuters
Switzerland cannot defend itself against a full-scale attack and must boost military spending given rising risks from Russia, the head of its armed forces said. – Reuters
Rzeszow and Lublin airports in southeastern Poland reopened on Saturday after fighter jet operations ended following Russian strikes on Ukraine, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA) said on X. – Reuters
Poland sent fighter jets to intercept a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying near its airspace over the Baltic Sea and said dozens of objects entered from Belarus overnight, warning the incidents during the holiday season may signal a provocation. – Reuters
The European Union, France and Germany condemned U.S. visa bans on five Europeans combating online hate and disinformation on Wednesday, after President Donald Trump’s administration took its latest swipe at long-standing allies across the Atlantic. – Reuters
Serbia’s protesting university students on Sunday collected signatures throughout the country for their request for an early parliamentary election that they hope would oust the autocratic government of President Aleksandar Vucic from office. – Associated Press
Africa
Guinea voted on Sunday in a presidential election widely expected to hand Mamady Doumbouya, who seized power in a 2021 coup, a seven-year mandate, completing the West African nation’s transition back to civilian rule. – Reuters
Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera sought a third term in a national election on Sunday, touting security gains in his chronically unstable nation with the help of Russian mercenaries and Rwandan soldiers. – Reuters
Angola and Namibia have agreed to accept the return of illegal migrants and criminals after the British government threatened visa penalties for countries refusing to cooperate, the UK Home Office said late on Saturday. – Reuters
Residents of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu voted on Thursday in municipal elections meant to pave the way for the East African country’s first direct national polls in more than half a century. – Reuters
A drone attack killed two Chadian soldiers at a military camp near the Sudan border before dawn on Friday, local authorities and a security source said, adding it was not immediately clear who was behind the strike. – Reuters
At least 5 worshippers were killed and 35 others injured when a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive inside a mosque in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno state, during evening prayers, police said. – Reuters
The U.S. has signed four new global health memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Botswana, and Ethiopia, which total nearly $2.3 billion in funding, the State Department said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Numerous countries including Jordan, Qatar and Algeria, as well as the African Union, have rejected Israel’s decision to recognize Somaliland, a breakaway region in Somalia. – Politico
South Africa’s rand is poised to end the year with the biggest jump since 2009 as the dollar’s weakness, combined with political stability at home, bolstered the nation’s allure for investors. –Bloomberg
Ebenezer Obadare writes: The administration is wasting an opportunity not only to drive home a point about the inextricability of commerce and freedom, but about the cornerstone principles of liberalism more broadly. At a time when the African continent needs more liberalism, the U.S. sells itself and Africa short by disavowing it, while also blurring the line between the U.S. and its geopolitical competitors, particularly China and Russia. Liberty and commerce depend on each other to thrive. The world’s leading democracy should not be in the business of separating them. – Wall Street Journal
Chama Mechtaly writes: Western governments do not have to romanticise Abu Dhabi or the RSF to avoid becoming useful idiots in an Islamist information war. But they should stop outsourcing their moral compass to Al Jazeera narratives and selectively alarmist NGO framing. The SAF is no longer a neutral state institution. It is penetrated by Muslim Brotherhood networks, increasingly aligned with Iran and other anti-Western actors, and reliant on extremist auxiliaries. Treating it as the “natural” interlocutor because it looks like a state on paper is not realism, it is theatre. – Quillette
The Americas
Argentina’s Congress passed its first budget since President Javier Milei took office two years ago, a sign that the firebrand leader may be mastering a new skill: politics. – Wall Street Journal
As U.S. forces mass off Venezuela, launch attacks on alleged drug traffickers and seize oil tankers, authorities here are mobilizing the army, calling on allies for support and appealing to the United Nations. They’re also taking advantage of U.S. threats in order to crack down on internal dissent, local and international monitors say. – Washington Post
A group of Venezuelans who were sent to a maximum-security El Salvador prison from the U.S. and then returned to Venezuela called on Friday for the United States to comply with a ruling that would allow them to challenge their deportation in U.S. courts. – Reuters
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that the United States was reviving piracy and banditry in the Caribbean Sea by blockading Venezuela and said it hoped that U.S. President Donald Trump’s pragmatism would help avoid a disaster. – Reuters
Venezuela freed 99 people jailed after last year’s election protests, the prisons authority said on Thursday, but rights groups said they believed the figure was lower despite growing pressure from Washington on President Nicolas Maduro. – Reuters
North America
When President Trump began raising tariffs earlier this year, government officials and economists feared Mexico’s export-led economy would take a devastating hit. Instead, Mexican exports to the U.S. have grown. – Wall Street Journal
A conservative candidate backed by President Trump was declared the winner of last month’s presidential election in Honduras after a protracted vote count marred by glitches and fraud allegations. – Wall Street Journal
Mexican authorities said on Sunday that at least 13 people were killed after an Interoceanic Train carrying 250 people derailed in the southern state of Oaxaca. – Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Honduran President-elect Nasry Asfura to congratulate him on his victory, the State Department said on Friday. – Reuters
United States
The Trump administration has launched investigations into the use of diversity initiatives in hiring and promotion at major U.S. companies, built on the novel use of a federal law meant to punish businesses that cheat the government. – Wall Street Journal
The court allowed President Trump to fire government workers en masse and slash federal research grants. It cleared the way for him to strip legal protections from immigrants fleeing humanitarian crises, and it enabled him to rapidly expel other immigrants to unstable African countries. – Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration is widening efforts to screen visa applicants for online speech considered dangerous and “anti-American” as the government moves to restrict legal migration and remove people from places the president has called “garbage.” – Washington Post
Cybersecurity
At a conference of state utility regulators in Seattle, a group of Trump administration officials got an earful of complaints about a plan the White House is pushing for the federal government to take control of part of the country’s power grid in the service of artificial intelligence. – Wall Street Journal
As the global race to dominate the artificial intelligence industry accelerates, the giants of Silicon Valley are promising to pour billions of dollars into India. – Washington Post
European political leaders and tech watchdogs pushed back sharply against what they called “an act of repression” after the State Department blocked five Europeans from entering the United States for allegedly censoring digital free speech. – Washington Post
South Korean prosecutors have indicted 10 people on suspicion of leaking memory chip manufacturing technology to Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a case authorities say helped pave the way for China’s development of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a critical component for artificial intelligence computing. – Reuters
South Korean e-commerce company Coupang announced on Monday a compensation deal worth 1.69 trillion won ($1.18 billion) to holders of 33.7 million accounts for a massive data leak that triggered a backlash from users and lawmakers. – Reuters
China’s cyber regulator on Saturday issued draft rules for public comment that would tighten oversight of artificial intelligence services designed to simulate human personalities and engage users in emotional interaction. – Reuters
Erin D. Dumbacher writes: AI already has the potential to deceive key decision-makers and members of the nuclear chain of command into seeing an attack that isn’t there. In the past, only authentic dialogue and diplomacy averted misunderstandings among nuclear armed states. Policies and practices should protect against the pernicious information risks that could ultimately lead to doomsday. – Foreign Affairs
Defense
The U.S. Air Force’s new Wedgetail radar plane is designed to scan for threats hundreds of miles away, stay airborne for long stretches and act as a mobile battle station for dozens of fighters at once. – Wall Street Journal
Sending drones and robots into battle, rather than humans, has become a tenet of modern warfare. Nowhere does that make more sense than in the frozen expanses of the Arctic. – Wall Street Journal
The White House has ordered U.S. military forces to focus almost exclusively on enforcing a “quarantine” of Venezuelan oil for at least the next two months, a U.S. official told Reuters, indicating Washington is currently more interested in using economic rather than military means to pressure Caracas. – Reuters
Dov Zakheim writes: Moreover, the new battleship will require an entirely new design. As I have previously argued, the Navy has a poor recent record when it comes to designing new classes of ships. It cancelled the Zumwalt-class destroyer after only three ships were delivered. And the destroyer was less than half the size of the new battleship. The odds are against the Navy designing an entirely new ship for 2030 delivery. The Navy would do far better concentrating on those ships it already plans for, together with the new frigate. The first of the new class of frigates could well enter the fleet while President Trump is still in office. And the Navy could rename that smaller, but especially important ship, the Trump class. – The Hill
Theodore Bunzel and Tom Donilon write: The drone threat is no longer theoretical. It is here, it is accelerating, and it will only grow more challenging. The United States still has the means to shape the environment before a crisis forces its hand, but the window is closing. The federal government must act fast to eliminate regulatory gaps, build a layered defense, and find the political will to fund and deploy counterdrone systems at scale. If it does not take these steps by choice, it will be forced to take them—and more—in the wake of a preventable tragedy. – Foreign Affairs
Long War
The Christmas Day attack in Nigeria ordered by President Trump targeted two alleged Islamic State camps with more than a dozen missiles fired from a U.S. Navy warship, killing multiple militants, according to a U.S. official and a Pentagon statement. – Wall Street Journal
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday an independent review into law enforcement agencies set up after the Bondi mass shooting will assess whether authorities could have taken additional steps to prevent the terror attack. – Reuters
Militants of the Islamic State group opened fire on police and wounded seven officers during a raid on the group in northwest Turkey on Monday, the country’s state-run media reported. – Associated Press
The al-Shabab extremist group remains the greatest immediate threat to peace and stability in Somalia and the region, especially Kenya, U.N. experts said in a report released Wednesday. – Associated Press
Nigeria said it shared intelligence with the U.S. ahead of Christmas night airstrikes on ISIS targets in the country. – Fox News
A former MI6 spy has claimed a new 9/11 or 7/7 attack could come at any time due to the presence of ‘hundreds’ of potential Al-Qaida sleeper agents living in the UK. – Daily Mail
Editorial: It’s good news that the Trump Administration is paying more attention to the rise of ISIS in Africa than Joe Biden did. Targeting the terrorists also beats Barack Obama’s Twitter campaign against the Boko Haram kidnappers of girls in the region. But dismantling the jihadist threat will take more sustained involvement with regional governments that are themselves threatened by Islamic radicals. That means sharing intelligence and perhaps deploying U.S. special forces on the ground if need be. The U.S. learned the hard way in 2001 that a distant jihadist group can carry out or inspire attacks on the American homeland. Better to kill them there than wait to stop an attack here. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: The Islamic State’s history shows that when the group establishes a stable presence, it’s only a matter of time before it looks to wreak havoc around the world. It’s tempting to want to pretend that the chaos in West Africa isn’t an American problem, but the world isn’t that simple […] Nigeria, a relatively wealthy country in the region, is still battling insecurity on several fronts. The central government has been ineffective at restoring security. It’s good that Abuja is willing to work closely with Washington to stop the slaughter, and Trump would be wise to remain engaged. – Washington Post