Fdd's overnight brief

Israel

The neat rows of prefabricated tan houses pressed up against the Negev Desert look like an oasis of calm. Families are settling into new homes. Children play basketball and skip rope as the sun goes down. But the newest arrivals to this kibbutz aren’t yet at peace. They are the survivors of Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities in Hamas’s attack of Oct. 7, 2023. – Wall Street Journal

As the Assad regime collapsed this month, Israel’s military swiftly seized control over the border area with Syria—moving to disarm nearby villages to create a security buffer. Now, some of these villages are pushing back against what they fear could become a prolonged Israeli occupation. – Wall Street Journal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will undergo surgery to have his prostate removed Sunday after he was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection earlier in the week, his office said in a statement Saturday. – New York Times

Even as mediators try to secure a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, Palestinians and human rights organizations say the humanitarian situation is getting more desperate. In the 14 months since Israel launched its invasion of Gaza in response to the Hamas-led terror attack on Israel, military bombardments have turned cities into rubble-filled wastelands and 90 percent of the population of about 2.1 million has been displaced at least once. Winter is adding to the misery. – New York Times

The Israeli military forced patients and staff members to leave one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza on Friday, leaving health officials in the territory concerned for the people who had been getting treatment there amid continued fighting. – New York Times

The head of the World Health Organization on Monday called for an end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza after Israel struck one and raided another in the past few days. – Reuters

Israeli forces carrying out a weeks-long offensive in northern Gaza ordered any residents remaining in Beit Hanoun to leave the town on Sunday, citing Palestinian militant rocket fire from the area, residents said. – Reuters

Hostages held in Gaza were subjected to torture, including sexual and psychological abuse, starvation, burns and medical neglect, according to a new report by the Israeli Health Ministry that will be submitted to the United Nations this week. – Reuters

Seven people were killed and others seriously wounded in an Israeli strike on the upper floor of Al-Wafaa hospital in the centre of Gaza city on Sunday, the Palestinian civil defence said. – Reuters

Israeli forces detained more than 240 Palestinians including dozens of medical staff from a north Gaza hospital they raided on Friday, including its director, according to the Health Ministry in the enclave and Israel’s military. – Reuters

Israeli jets struck seven crossing points along the Syria-Lebanon border on Friday, aiming to cut the flow of weapons to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon. – Reuters

The son of a founding member of Hamas has warned Israel must not “rejuvenate” the terrorist group by releasing its most dangerous members – including his father – from jail as part of a hostage deal. – The Telegraph

A Palestinian journalist was shot dead overnight at the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, with her family on Sunday accusing the Palestinian Authority’s security forces of killing her while she was with her mother and two small children. – Agence France-Presse

After concluding its activities in Rafah last week, the IDF’s Nahal Brigade began operations against terror targets in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, following intelligence regarding the presence of terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area, the military stated on Saturday morning. – Jerusalem Post

Hamas called on all components of Palestinian society to mobilize in order to confront the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) “unprecedented” level of “aggression” against it and other terror groups in the West Bank, the terror group confirmed in a Friday press release. – Jerusalem Post

Hamas was monitoring local Israeli leaders, security officers, and individual communities near the border with the Gaza Strip for at least seven years before carrying out its brutal October 7, 2023, massacre, a television news report revealed on Sunday evening. – Times of Israel

Editorial: This development is particularly concerning as Jerusalem had stood as a relative island of stability during recent months of regional tension. The breaking of this calm through a multifront assault represents more than just another security incident – it potentially signals the opening of a new phase in the ongoing conflict, one where our enemies demonstrate both the capability and willingness to target a sort of no-man’s-land when it comes to aerial action. The implications extend far beyond the immediate security concerns. Such an escalation, if left unchecked, could embolden other hostile actors in the region to join in similar efforts. – Jerusalem Post

Editorial: Staying in Lebanon, if necessary, reinforces this stance. The days when Israel ignores actions inimical to its interests and security taking place just across the border – especially actions prohibited by international agreements – are over. This message is not only intended for Israel’s enemies. It is also for its own citizens. Only such resolve can assure the displaced residents of northern Israel that it is safe to return home. – Jerusalem Post

Seth Cropsey writes: Creating this strategy will take time. An Israeli attack on Iran directly, whether against the nuclear program or other critical targets in the country, will help set the parameters for U.S. policy towards Iran, and open other possibilities for American action to end the radical clerics’ rule. The departing Biden administration can be counted on to oppose any effort by Israel to topple Iran, the source of the warfare that has engulfed the Middle East since Oct. 7, 2023. But Trump possesses a clearer understanding, and his administration should welcome a new approach, one that redefines maximum pressure on Iran. – The Hill

Seth Mandel writes: FEWS would not be the first, nor will it be the last, such humanitarian agency to detonate science and truth in the name of anti-Israel activist politics. That is, in fact, becoming the norm. But unlike, say, UNRWA or the Red Cross in Gaza, FEWS has not been coopted by Hamas. Sadly, it didn’t have to be—it volunteered itself as a sacrifice to Hamas’s cause. And that’s even worse. – Commentary Magazine

Seth Mandel writes: Gaza, meanwhile, was doomed from the start because even a Hamas victory—which would mean its outlasting of Israel’s determination and its accumulation of enough international support to hold its legitimacy as rulers of Gaza—would be a disaster for Gazan civilians. Hamas essentially rigged the Gaza Strip to blow up, then lit the fuse, because it had already built a second Gaza for itself underground. But Hamas is on the ropes as well, bringing some measure of justice for what the terror group has done to Gaza and to Israel. – Commentary Magazine

Russia & Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized Saturday that a “tragic incident occurred in Russia’s airspace,” the Kremlin said, acknowledging a role in the crash of a plane carrying 67 people, but stopping short of an expression of responsibility. – Wall Street Journal

As the deadly Russian march forward intensifies, most Ukrainians are running for their lives. While some are loyal to President Vladimir V. Putin and welcome the white, blue and red flag hoisted here, the majority of those left behind are elderly, disabled and poor, with no means of relocating. Helping them to safety is the White Angels’ job, and as the front line shifts, its urgency is rising. – New York Times

With much fanfare, Ukraine was granted permission to fire Western long-range missiles at Russian military targets more than a month ago. But after initially firing a flurry of them, Ukraine has already slowed their use. – New York Times

North Korean troops deployed in Russia’s Kursk region are suffering heavy losses and being left unprotected by the Russian forces they are fighting alongside, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday. – Reuters

Russia will scrap a moratorium on the deployment of intermediate and shorter range nuclear-capable missiles because the United States has deployed such weapons in various regions around the world, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday. – Reuters

Eugene Spector, a U.S. citizen jailed for a total of 15 years this week after a Moscow court convicted him of espionage, was found guilty of passing biotechnology secrets to the United States, Russia’s FSB security service said on Friday. – Reuters

A Russian man arrested for allegedly running a travel agency for gay customers was found dead in custody in Moscow, rights group OVD-Info reported Sunday, amid a crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in Russia. – Associated Press

Matthew Bondy writes: Former President John F. Kennedy was right when he said that nations “should never negotiate out of fear, but should never fear to negotiate.” The chance for peace in Ukraine shouldn’t be brushed off lightly, but neither should justice be forgotten or an unstable peace be bought at an exorbitant price. If Putin tries to take too much land, refuses to allow a NATO security guarantee to remaining Ukrainian territory, or prefers war to the loss of frozen assets, the cost of such a peace may be too high. – The Hill

Tom Rogan writes: While he might get some weaker minds to dance to his nuclear threat waltz, Putin is ultimately an ambitious but rational imperialist. He is not a lunatic. Where he finds restraint, Putin’s malicious behavior can be deterred. The world should take example from Finland. In face of blatant Russian aggression the appropriate response is not to dither in ad infinitum national security council meetings or issue diplomatic ripostes. Instead, it is to respond with decisive action of a manner and intent that leaves the Kremlin with no doubt that it has overplayed its hand. – The Hill

Anton Grushetskyi and Volodymyr Paniotto write: Even as Ukrainians have navigated the ups and downs of the war, they have remained broadly optimistic about their future. Only 19 percent of Ukrainians believe that ten years from now their economy will be destroyed and many more of their compatriots will have fled. Most Ukrainians still believe that in ten years Ukraine will be a prosperous country within the EU. The war may have slightly diminished Ukrainian optimism about the future, but, contrary to Moscow’s aims, the invasion has also made the country more united—and more resolved to move away from Russia and toward the West. – Foreign Affairs

Ramzy Mardini writes: For the sake of Ukraine’s people, the practical and moral course is to shift toward a policy of accommodation with Russia, abandoning unproductive attempts to negotiate from an unattainable position of strength. Neither escalation nor time is on Ukraine’s side. The new administration must understand the intransigence of this reality, recognize Russia’s security concerns, and seriously engage with its terms for ending its war on Ukraine. The pill will surely be a bitter one to swallow now, but its bitterness will only grow with time. – National Interest

Afghanistan

Mr. Lin, 43, is part of a small but growing vanguard of venturesome tourists making their way to Afghanistan, disregarding dire warnings issued by their governments. The State Department advises Americans not to travel to Afghanistan “due to terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, civil unrest, kidnapping and crime.” – New York Times

Afghan Taliban forces targeted “several points” in neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan’s defence ministry said on Saturday, days after Pakistani aircraft carried out aerial bombardment inside Afghanistan. – Reuters

The Taliban says it will close all national and foreign nongovernmental groups in Afghanistan employing women. It comes two years after they told NGOs to suspend the employment of Afghan women, allegedly because they didn’t wear the Islamic headscarf correctly. – Associated Press

Turkey

The jailed leader of Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, has been quoted as indicating he may be prepared to call for militants to lay down arms, after a key ally of President Tayyip Erdogan urged him to end the group’s decades-old insurgency. – Reuters

Turkey has decided to allow parliament’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party to hold face-to-face talks with militant leader Abdullah Ocalan on his island prison, the party said on Friday, setting up the first such visit in nearly a decade. – Reuters

Turkey announced on Sunday a $14 billion regional development plan that aims to reduce the economic gap between its mainly Kurdish southeast region and the rest of the country. – Reuters

Thousands of people protested in Turkey’s capital Ankara on Saturday to demand a bigger hike in the minimum wage, chanting slogans calling on the government to resign and waving the opposition and national flags. – Reuters

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that there would be more interest rate cuts in 2025 after the central bank cut its key rate by 250 basis points to 47.5% this week. – Reuters

Michael Rubin writes: During the Cold War, families huddled around radios at great personal risk to listen to Voice of America or RFE/RL. They understood the Soviet Union was rotten, and the Kremlin lied to them. The “I” in the DIME was a critical component in the West’s ultimate victory over the forces of totalitarianism. Turkey may be a tougher nut to crack since many Turks remain ignorant and dangerously detached from reality, but regional security requires the West to try to penetrate the bubble. The alternative is to have Turkey descend further into terror sponsorship, genocide incitement, and ultimately, armed conflict. – Middle East Forum

Yemen

Israel is preparing to fight along a new front against Houthi militants in Yemen, striking back at the group for its drone and missile attacks and signaling a potential lengthy campaign that would take the battle far from Israel’s borders. – Washington Post

For years, the Houthis were the enemy most Israelis didn’t know they had. Now the Iranian-backed militia that controls much of northern Yemen, over a thousand miles from Israel, is keeping them up at night — literally — with a string of attacks on Israeli soil. – New York Times

An advanced U.S. military anti-missile system was used in Israel to try to intercept a projectile for the first time since President Joe Biden placed the system in Israel in October, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. – Reuters

Israel’s recent strikes in Yemen were effective, but to neutralize the Houthis long-term, the Iranian supply line into Yemen must be shut down, Prof. Amatzia Baram emphasized in a Friday interview with Maariv. – Jerusalem Post

Korean Peninsula

International investigators worked to pinpoint what caused the fiery crash of a South Korean passenger plane that killed nearly all of the 181 people on board, in one of the deadliest aviation disasters in years. – Wall Street Journal

South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok ordered an emergency safety inspection on Monday of the country’s entire airline operation system as investigators worked to identify victims and find out what caused the deadliest air disaster in the country. – Reuters

South Korean investigators have sought an arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol over this month’s short-lived imposition of martial law, an official said on Monday, the first time an incumbent president has faced such action. – Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a key policy-setting meeting of the country’s ruling party last week ahead of the new year, state media KCNA reported on Sunday. – Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has celebrated the completion of a new fish farm in the east coast and called for developing rural areas, state media KCNA said on Monday, amid concerns over chronic economic challenges. – Reuters

Dmitri Alperovitch and Sergey Radchenko write: Mr. Kim has repeatedly rebuffed overtures from the Biden administration. Even if he engages with Mr. Trump, the North’s leader is likely to be a problematic partner who will seek his own advantage above all  to maximize his leverage. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. It at least weakens his dependence on China and Russia and pokes a hole in the authoritarian coalition. Challenging times call for bold moves. And if Mr. Trump can tap once again into his personal connection with Mr. Kim, it could lead to an outcome that eases North Korean insecurities, creates better regional stability and undermines America’s nascent coalition of adversaries. – New York Times

Robert E. Kelly and Min-hyung Kim write: Washington’s moves have failed to resolve the core security problems that a South Korean program can redress: North Korea’s relentless march toward ever more powerful weapons of mass destruction and the United States’ unreliability in (and likely after) the Trump era. The United States itself would never tolerate the nuclear vulnerability South Korea now experiences. Rather than insisting that its ally remain imperiled, Washington should drop its barriers to Seoul’s finding its own way to security. – Foreign Affairs

South Asia

State-run Indian refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL.NS) is buying Middle Eastern crude to make up for less supply of cheaper Russian oil, its head of finance Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta said in a recent interview. – Reuters

India on Friday extended its mandate for imported coal-based power plants to operate at full capacity until Feb. 28, a government circular showed. – Reuters

Authorities in India have declared a seven-day mourning period to honor Manmohan Singh, officials said Friday, as politicians and public paid tributes to the country’s former prime minister widely regarded as the architect of India’s economic reform program. – Associated Press

Europe

A former soccer star and conservative critic of the West was sworn in on Sunday as the new president of Georgia, a strategically important republic in the middle of the Caucasus, replacing a head of state who vowed to continue fighting to steer the country closer to Europe. – New York Times

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump, shocked many in Germany last week by endorsing its far-right Alternative for Germany party, which is under surveillance by domestic intelligence for being extremist. – New York Times

A day after the Finnish authorities seized an oil tanker suspected of severing vital undersea cables, NATO said on Friday that it would step up security in northern seas and the European Union threatened new sanctions against Russia amid growing concern about a covert campaign to sabotage European infrastructure. – New York Times

Finnish police said on Sunday they had found tracks that drag on for dozens of kilometres along the bottom of the Baltic Sea where a tanker carrying Russian oil is suspected of breaking a power line and four telecoms cables with its anchor. – Reuters

Incumbent president Zoran Milanovic won the most votes in the first round of Croatia’s presidential election on Sunday but fell just short of a majority and will have to go to a second round, results from the State Electoral Commission (DIP) showed. – Reuters

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 20 people who were convicted of extremism, state media reported on Saturday. – Reuters

Finnish authorities said on Saturday they are moving an impounded tanker closer to port after boarding the vessel carrying Russian oil earlier this week on suspicion it had damaged an undersea power line and four telecoms cables. – Reuters

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday dissolved Germany’s lower house of parliament to pave the way for snap elections on Feb. 23 following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-way coalition. – Reuters

The United States on Friday sanctioned Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, a former prime minister widely seen as the country’s de facto leader, saying he was undermining democracy and allowing Russia to benefit. – Reuters

Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom said Saturday it will halt gas supplies to Moldova starting on Jan. 1, citing alleged unpaid debt by the European Union candidate country, which has brought in emergency measures as it braces for power cuts. – Associated Press

Finland’s conservative-led government has unveiled a broad plan to lift defense spending from $6.8 billion in 2025 to $11.5 billion in 2032. – Defense News

Editorial: “The exclusion of the defence industry from private funding opportunities could undermine European defence efforts and threatens to put European companies at a competitive disadvantage while posing a security risk for the EU and its Member States, especially in areas like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and space,” the European Commission report warned. Europe is slowly waking up to global perils. Twenty-three of NATO’s 32 members are now on track to meet the defense-spending standard of 2% of GDP, and some are talking about targets of 3% or more. Yet they’ll need the help of Europe’s private sector, which is indulging in sustainable fantasies at the expense of the continent’s security. – Wall Street Journal

Matthew Brooker writes: But it would be dangerous to be complacent. Those who care for the future of capitalism in the UK should absorb the lessons of overreach and accept that free markets have passed their phase of omniscience. The case for private ownership will be more powerful if it is confined to that bulk of economic life where it is shown to be most effective. Facts do indeed eventually win the debate. – Bloomberg

Kamran Bokhari writes: Lebanon is at risk of internal strife because of the weakening of Hezbollah and, more importantly, the collapse of the Assad regime and the empowerment of Sunni Arab forces under the leadership of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of Al Qaeda. Turkey, through its backing of HTS and other Sunni Arab rebel forces, is in a position to replace Iran as the dominant power in Syria. Meanwhile, the latest news out of Paris indicates that Macron may face the loss of his most recently appointed prime minister in the very near term. Despite its long legacy as a liege of the Levant, France lacks the wherewithal to help the Trump administration manage the Middle East effectively. – National Interest

Max Primorac writes: The gas law now goes to the upper chamber, the House of Peoples, where it needs to muster a majority of Muslim, Serb, and Croat deputies, each wielding veto power. Croats are expected to lose that constitutional protection as well, and the country’s High Representative, a European diplomat empowered by Dayton with the final say over all of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s laws. – National Interest

The Americas

Brazil has stopped issuing temporary work visas for BYD, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, in the wake of accusations that some workers at a site owned by the Chinese electric vehicle producer had been victims of human trafficking. – Reuters

Peru’s government on Thursday declared an environmental emergency in a northern coastal area, where state oil firm Petroperu last weekend spilled a crude oil shipment into surrounding waters of the Pacific Ocean. – Reuters

Guatemala said it is open to engaging in a “constructive and respectful dialogue” with the new administration of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, though no agreement has been made on accepting deported migrants. – Reuters

Venezuelan authorities are investigating a detained member of Argentina’s Gendarmeria national security force for links to international right-wing terrorism, Venezuela’s attorney general announced on Friday. – Reuters

The Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas, where five members of the Venezuelan opposition are staying to avoid arrest, has become a “prison,” one opposition member staying there said on Saturday. – Reuters

United States

This past year showed that the progressive politics that dominated most industrialized countries over the past two decades or more is shifting to the right, fueled by working-class anxieties over the economy and immigration, and growing fatigue with issues from climate change to identity politics. The return of Donald Trump to the White House is the most dramatic and important example—but it is far from the only one. – Wall Street Journal

Former President Jimmy Carter, the Georgia peanut farmer whose one term in the Oval Office was plagued by problems at home and abroad but who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after he left office, died Sunday in Plains, Ga. He was 100 years old, the longest-lived former president in the country’s history. He had been in hospice since February 2023. The Carter Center confirmed his death. – Wall Street Journal

In the past several weeks — and before he has been sworn in for his second term — President-elect Donald Trump has threatened trade wars with both of the United States’ closest neighbors, mused about taking over Greenland, blustered about bringing the Panama Canal back under American control and suggested making Canada the 51st state. – Washington Post

Marc Fogel, an American teacher serving a 14-year prison sentence in Russia, has been designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained, the State Department said on Friday. – New York Times

Editorial: Biden and these aides have told people in recent days that he could have defeated Trump, according to people familiar with their comments, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.” The Post reports that Mr. Biden doesn’t want to say this publicly lest it seem a criticism of Kamala Harris, but wow. This ignores that Mr. Biden was trailing before he dropped out and that Ms. Harris made the race closer. Mr. Biden’s regret should be how he governed, and that he didn’t drop out a year earlier. – Wall Street Journal

Editorial: In truth, portraying a great divide between Mr. Carter’s presidency and his post-presidency is a bit simplistic. He was a complicated man, but consistent in his principles, which were guided, perhaps more than those of any other modern American president, by his religious beliefs. “As Martin Luther recognized centuries earlier,” wrote a Carter biographer, Randall Balmer, “those who subscribe to the ethic of works righteousness can never be certain they have accumulated enough merit. Jimmy Carter doesn’t lack so much for passion as he does for respite.” – Washington Post

Stuart E. Eizenstat writes: The day after his loss to Reagan, Carter told us to get our chins off the floor and make his months as a lame duck the most productive transition in history. He signed the Alaska lands law and the Superfund chemical cleanup law. He made a deal for the release of the Tehran hostages. At the request of his bitter opponent, Sen. Kennedy, he appointed Stephen Breyer to the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, clearing his way to the Supreme Court. In nearly 44 years after leaving the White House, Jimmy Carter never stopped trying to make America, and the world, a better place. – Wall Street Journal

Lee Reiners writes: DOGE would have an ally in this effort in Paul Atkins, Mr. Trump’s nominee to lead the SEC. Testifying in 2015 on the effect of Dodd-Frank, Mr. Atkins told the House Financial Services Committee that the legislation’s authors “blew” a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to streamline our crazy quilt of financial services regulators,” most notably by failing to merge “the SEC and CFTC to create one markets regulator.” Working alongside DOGE as well as artificial-intelligence and crypto czar David Sacks, Mr. Atkins has an opportunity to right this wrong. Let’s hope they don’t blow it. – Wall Street Journal

Russel L. Honoré writes: The fact that Mr. Musk spent a quarter of a billion dollars to help re-elect Mr. Trump does not give the incoming White House the license to look the other way at the national security risks he may pose. If Mr. Trump and his appointees mean what they say about getting tough on America’s adversaries, then they will act on this matter without delay. There is too much at stake to ignore what’s right in front of them. – New York Times

Michael Pettis writes: In the end, tariffs are simply one among many tools that can improve economic outcomes under some conditions and depress them under others. In an economy suffering from excess consumption, low savings, and a declining manufacturing share of GDP, the focus of economists should be on the causes of these conditions and the policies that might reverse them. Tariffs could be one such policy. – Foreign Affairs

Rimon Tanvir Hossain writes: While some players like New Delhi, Brasilia, and Ankara are hedging against uncertainties to garner more negotiating power with Washington, others argue that new members like Egypt and Ethiopia are simply deepening ties with non-Western members, unlike Russia or Iran. Bringing Trump into the equation at the helm of the G7 bloc doesn’t immediately signal any tightening of alignment within BRICS. Still, it can potentially accelerate common causes over concerns like climate cooperation and financial statecraft in the interests of member states already under heavy sanctions. – National Interest

Defense

The Navy began procuring Constellation (FFG-62) class frigates (FFGs) in FY2020, and a total of six have been procured through FY2024. Current Navy plans call for procuring a total of at least 20 FFG-62s. The Navy’s proposed FY2025 budget requests $1,170.4 million (i.e., about $1.2 billion) for the procurement of the seventh ship in the program. – USNI News

New command opportunities are now available to Navy information warfare officers, according to service leaders. In a message released to the MyNavyHR website recently, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro indicted that IW officers will transition from restricted line officers to line officers performing information warfare duties. – DefenseScoop

The Army intends to award prototyping agreements to BAE Systems for new ultra-fast weapons to shoot down drones and other airborne threats, according to a recently posted notice. – DefenseScoop