Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
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Israeli-backed militia leader killed in ‘internal’ clash in Gaza Trump plans to announce Gaza government, Board of Peace by Christmas, officials say WSJ Editorial: A Hamas rival falls in Gaza Iran invites Lebanon's foreign minister to discuss bilateral ties Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threaten US warships as they stage naval exercise in Gulf Hostages as leverage: Iran's secret demand aimed at crippling Israel's agriculture European leaders warn Zelensky to be wary in U.S. high-speed push for peace Putin maintains hard line in talks as Trump says Moscow is open to a deal Bloomberg’s Gearoid Reidy: China’s push against Japan's soft power will backfire Putin and Modi deepen relationship that has drawn trump’s anger U.K. report formally blames Russian agents, Putin in 2018 poisoning death Trump says he ‘ended’ the war between Rwanda and Congo, but fighting persistsIn The News
Israel
Israel is leveraging the war in Gaza to market its latest military technology. U.S. and European buyers are lining up. Officials from countries including Germany, Norway and the U.K. flocked to a conference sponsored by the Israeli Defense Ministry this week that showcased battlefield technology tested in the furnace of Israel’s military campaigns, including in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. – Wall Street Journal
The most prominent anti-Hamas militia leader in Gaza, Yasser Abu Shabab, was killed Thursday in an “internal” dispute with another family, his group said in a statement, potentially undermining Israel’s efforts to support local clans as an alternative to Hamas. – Washington Post
Israel’s military said it struck targets in two southern Lebanese towns on Thursday after ordering the evacuation of two buildings it alleged were being used by Hezbollah militants. – Reuters
The Israeli military said on Thursday that its forces have killed around 40 Hamas militants who had been trapped in tunnels below Rafah in southern Gaza, in an area now under Israeli control. – Reuters
Israel’s defence budget for 2026 has been set at 112 billion shekels ($34.63 billion), the defence minister’s office said on Friday, up from 90 billion shekels budgeted in an earlier draft. – Reuters
Israel was cleared on Thursday to enter the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest by the organiser, prompting Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia to withdraw over the Gaza war and plunging the competition into one of the biggest rows in its history. – Reuters
President Trump plans to announce before Christmas that the Gaza peace process is moving into its second phase and to unveil the new governance structure for the enclave, according to two U.S. officials and a Western source directly involved in the process. – Axios
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday tapped his military secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman as the next Mossad director. – Times of Israel
Azerbaijani media reported on Thursday an official visit by a senior delegation from Israel’s Ministry of Defense to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, which borders Iran to the south and lies along the Caspian Sea. – Arutz Sheva
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said that the new team to investigate Israeli intelligence failures regarding Hamas’s “Walls of Jericho” invasion plan will be headed by Maj.-Gen. (res.) Roni Numa in a Thursday announcement. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF, Israel Police, and Border Police officers arrested multiple terrorists, weapons dealers, and those suspected of “preparing explosive devices” as part of a large-scale counterterrorism operation in Kalkilya in the West Bank on Thursday, the military confirmed. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: This low-level fighting isn’t war, but it sure isn’t peace. The new, harmonious Gaza that President Trump outlined in late September has unsurprisingly proved elusive. So long as Hamas rules territory, peace is mere talk. There’s only the countdown to the next war, which again will likely fail to destroy Israel but bring ruin to Palestinians. Any Palestinian who tries to change that usually ends up dead. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Leaders cannot demand national resilience while asking one family to endure the intolerable quietly. And a society that prides itself on solidarity cannot allow the last hostage to remain alone. Ran Gvili must come home, not eventually, not after the election dust settles, and not once other priorities are addressed. Now. Before we rush headlong into diplomatic plans, northern fronts, political campaigns, or strategies for the next stage of the conflict, this obligation must be fulfilled. It is the most basic promise Israel owes to its defenders and to itself. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi invited Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raji to visit Iran in the near future to discuss bilateral ties, Iran’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, amid a U.S.-backed roadmap in Lebanon to disarm the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group. – Reuters
An Iranian delegation will attend Friday’s 2026 World Cup draw after initially saying they would boycott the ceremony in Washington over visa issues, media reports said on Thursday. – Reuters
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps on Thursday kicked off naval wargames in the Gulf, issuing warnings to US warships in the area, more than five months after the 12-day war with Israel that briefly drew in American forces. – Agence France-Presse
Iran offered Thailand help in securing the release of Thai hostages held in Hamas captivity on the condition that Bangkok label Israel an “unsafe country” and instruct its tens of thousands of agricultural workers working there to leave immediately, two sources familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Russia and Ukraine
In recent days, European leaders have delivered a stark warning to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: Don’t give in to Russian demands without ironclad security commitments from the U.S. – Wall Street Journal
Ukrainian anticorruption police dropped the teaser for the next episode of its top drama at 9 a.m. on Friday: They were conducting searches at locations linked to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s right-hand man. – Wall Street Journal
Russian President Vladimir Putin said parts of the U.S. peace plan were unacceptable and that Russia would take Ukrainian land through military force or other means in an interview that aired Thursday, as Moscow sticks to its demand that Kyiv surrender territory it still holds after nearly four years of fighting. – Washington Post
Azov Sea’s port infrastructure in Russia’s Temryuk was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack, the local emergencies center said on Friday. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund is analyzing Kyiv’s proposal to swap $2.6 billion in GDP-linked warrants for bonds, and is closely monitoring the response, IMF spokeswoman Julie Kozack said on Thursday. – Reuters
A key group of Ukraine creditors said on Thursday it could not yet back Kyiv’s proposal to swap $2.6 billion in GDP-linked warrants for bonds, a crucial step for the country to emerge from its debt default following Russia’s invasion. – Reuters
Russia is considering retaliatory measures against the Faroe Islands after the Faroese parliament passed a law giving the government the authority to bar Russian fishing companies from its waters, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. – Reuters
Casey Michel writes: As one American official remembered, Polish officials told Washington, “If you don’t let us into NATO, we’re getting nuclear weapons. We don’t trust the Russians.” Poland was right not to trust Russia. But with America’s sudden push for Ukraine to cede territory in return for an insecure peace, there are now questions about whether they should trust the Americans or whether the only thing they can trust in the face of nuclear imperialism is their own nuclear arsenal. – Wall Street Journal
James Stavridis writes: Let’s hope the Europeans don’t need to get to this point. Using frozen Russian funds has to be approached carefully, but it needs to be done. A European reparations loan, in tandem with the US using economic leverage in peace talks, is a good approach. After four years of destroying Ukraine in an unjust and illegal war, Moscow must pay. – Bloomberg
J. Michael Cole writes: Moscow and Beijing’s core strategy is to achieve the exact opposite: to weaken international solidarity in the democratic camp, isolate their targets, and exploit the resulting weakness to achieve their political and military objectives. There is no guarantee of success, even if the security alliances discussed above are achieved in both theaters. But one thing is certain: division, concessions, and abandonment are the surest way to ensure that the anti-democratic, revisionist powers achieve their aims and, by doing so, create a world that is much more dangerous for all. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Syria
Visa (V.N), plans to launch operations in Syria following an agreement with the war-torn country’s central bank on a roadmap to develop a digital payments ecosystem, the bank’s governor and the company said on Thursday. – Reuters
A raid by U.S. forces and a local Syrian group aiming to capture an Islamic State group official instead killed a man who had been working undercover gathering intelligence on the extremists, family members and Syrian officials have told The Associated Press. – Associated Press
Mona Yacoubian and Will Todman write: Syria’s transition holds the fate of the Middle East, given the country’s geostrategic significance as the linchpin of stability. One year after Assad’s fall, the transition government has made important progress, garnering international credibility, but falling far short of expectations at home. To succeed, the transition government must demonstrate concrete gains in reconstruction, reconciliation, and governance. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Salma Al-Shami and Michael Robbins write: To succeed, however, Washington must act quickly. So, too, must Syria’s government. The country’s people are glad that the Assad regime is gone. They are hopeful about what might come next. Yet they are still wary of the future and unhappy with the present. There is an opportunity to build a better Syria. But the window won’t stay open forever. – Foreign Affairs
Turkey
Turkey summoned Ukraine’s ambassador and Russia’s acting charges d’affaires to the foreign ministry to convey its concerns over a series of attacks on Russia-linked vessels inside its exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea, Deputy Foreign Minister Berris Ekinci said on Thursday. – Reuters
A top US diplomat signaled that Turkey is getting closer to overcoming a key obstacle that has prevented it from purchasing American F-35 jets. – Bloomberg
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s top political ally accused the US ambassador in Ankara of overstepping his authority by suggesting Turkey could reopen a Greek Orthodox seminary next year. – Bloomberg
Middle East & North Africa
Yemen has been mired in a multifaceted civil war for years. In the north, where most of the country’s population lives, the Iran-backed Houthi militias are in charge. In the south, different armed groups and the internationally recognized government hold sway in different areas. – New York Times
Iraq will remove Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis from an asset-freeze list, officials said on Thursday, after the Iran-aligned groups were mistakenly included in an earlier government publication, prompting confusion and criticism. – Reuters
A vessel located 15 nautical miles west of Yemen reported an exchange of fire after sighting about 15 small craft at a range of 1–2 cables, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said on Friday. – Reuters
Tunisian police on Thursday arrested top opposition figure Nejib Chebbi to enforce a 12-year jail term on a conviction for conspiracy, his family said, the latest sign of an escalating crackdown on political dissent by President Kais Saied. – Reuters
Morocco, which has endured seven years of drought, plans to supply 60% of its drinking water from treated seawater by 2030, up from 25%, its water minister said, as Rabat accelerates investment in desalination plants powered by renewable energy. – Reuters
Korean Peninsula
South Korea’s pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines is gaining traction following President Donald Trump’s endorsement, ending decades of U.S. resistance in a move that could reshape Asia’s security landscape and escalate an underwater arms race. – Reuters
South Korea’s industry ministry and SoftBank’s (9984.T), chip unit, Arm Holdings, have signed an agreement to strengthen the country’s semiconductor and Artificial Intelligence sectors, a presidential policy adviser said on Friday. – Reuters
A year after South Korea was shaken by its former leader’s disastrous attempt to impose martial law, President Lee Jae Myung has restored stability and is now using his popularity to press ahead with investor-friendly moves. – Bloomberg
Ukrainian children abducted by Russia are being forcibly sent to a summer camp in North Korea, a legal expert has said. – The Telegraph
China
In Ganzhou, a critical mineral hub in southern China which has found itself in the middle of U.S.-China trade tensions, history seems to be repeating itself. – Washington Post
Back in her days as a Taiwanese student activist, Cheng Li-wun gave fiery speeches urging the island to sever its Chinese bonds and declare independence. She lashed out at the Nationalist Party, which had ruled over Taiwan for decades after fleeing defeat in China, casting it as the latest colonizer to oppress the island. Now Ms. Cheng is, to the astonishment of many, the leader of the very Nationalist Party that she once despised, after winning the party’s leadership election in October. – New York Times
Chinese President Xi Jinping accompanied his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to Chengdu on Friday, a rare gesture seemingly reserved for the head of Europe’s second-largest economy that highlights Beijing’s focus on Paris in its dealings with the European Union. – Reuters
Washington must move even faster to bolster critical minerals projects and offset Beijing’s grip on the world’s supply of the building blocks for electronics, weapons and a range of other goods, three U.S. mining and refining executives said on Thursday. – Reuters
Turnout is expected to be low for Hong Kong’s “patriots only” legislative election on Sunday, with subdued political campaigning as the population reels from the city’s deadliest blaze in decades that has killed 159 people so far. – Reuters
The UK government appears poised to approve China’s plan for a massive new embassy in London, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks to put spying fears aside and revive his plans for a diplomatic reset with Beijing. – Bloomberg
Gearoid Reidy writes: With Beijing showing little inclination to back down, and repeating demands for Takaichi to withdraw her remarks, it seems likely this will be another drawn out, multiyear affair. But authorities should be wary of how the world sees its actions. Plucky defiance against an overwhelming power has broad appeal. Japan has a lot of friends, and like the nakama of One Piece, they stick together. – Bloomberg
South Asia
Russian President Vladimir Putin is embarking on a high-profile visit to India, aiming to protect a partnership that is a crucial economic and diplomatic lifeline for Moscow but one that has drawn the ire of the Trump administration. – Wall Street Journal
As the floodwaters from the devastating Cyclone Ditwah recede and families carry out the rites for the more than 480 people found dead, Sri Lanka is turning to a different kind of tallying. – New York Times
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday, aiming to boost trade with the top buyer of Russia’s arms and seaborne oil as Western sanctions squeeze their decades-old ties. – Reuters
A U.S. trade delegation is expected to visit New Delhi next week for talks, an Indian government source said on Thursday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government hopes for a reduction in punitive tariffs imposed on its goods by President Donald Trump. – Reuters
Pakistan’s widely popular army chief was confirmed to the newly created post of chief of defense forces, a position that was established last month to improve coordination among the army, navy and air force. – Associated Press
A special tribunal in Bangladesh’s capital on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against Sajeeb Wazed, the son of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, over alleged crimes against humanity during last year’s mass uprising that ended his mother’s 15-year rule. – Associated Press
Asia
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles will travel to Japan on Saturday to meet his counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi, and discuss deepening defence ties, his office said on Friday. – Reuters
The Japanese embassy in China issued a safety advisory on Friday ahead of next week’s anniversary of “the Nanjing Incident”, or the Nanjing Massacre, which it said is considered particularly sensitive. – Reuters
Taiwan has been “very moved” by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments last month on peace and stability even in the face of strong pressure, Premier Cho Jung-tai said on Friday. – Reuters
Taiwan and Japan voiced concern on Friday over Chinese military activities in the region, after Reuters reported that Beijing had deployed a large number of vessels across East Asian waters this week in its largest maritime show of force to date. – Reuters
Australia’s internet regulator said a teen social media ban would be the first domino to fall in a global push to rein in Big Tech, as Meta’s Instagram, Facebook and Threads began locking out hundreds of thousands of accounts ahead of a deadline next week. – Reuters
Indonesia is investigating companies suspected of clearing forests around flood-hit areas in Sumatra, its forestry minister said on Thursday, acknowledging poor forest management worsened the disaster. – Reuters
Malaysian authorities on Thursday charged a former top aide to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim with receiving bribes, increasing scrutiny on the premier’s pledge to crack down on corruption. – Reuters
Japan’s representative at the United Nations submitted a rebuttal against the latest Chinese letter to the UN, as the spat between the two nations over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan continues to simmer. – Bloomberg
Taipei’s first domestically built attack boat held its latest sea trials last month amid news of significant delays that have postponed Taiwan’s ambitious submarine program. – USNI News
Europe
The European Union presented a plan to remove national barriers that stand in the way of a single market for financial services, which it sees as a key step to reviving the bloc’s faltering economy. – Wall Street Journal
A British inquiry concluded Thursday that a botched “assassination” attempt ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin killed a British civilian and sickened two Russians in Salisbury, England, in 2018. – Washington Post
During a visit to Beijing on Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron of France once again pressed China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to do more to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine. – New York Times
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Britain on Thursday to move beyond Brexit and focus on rebuilding ties with Europe, using lyrics by the British rock band Oasis to tell lawmakers: “Don’t look back in anger”. – Reuters
Germany has deployed five Eurofighter jets and some 150 military personnel to the Polish town of Malbork to help secure the country’s airspace, the German air force said on Thursday, in response to Russian drone incursions in September. – Reuters
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ability to control his unruly coalition faces a test on Friday when parliament votes on a pensions bill that stirred a revolt by younger members of his own conservative party. – Reuters
NATO must be ready to respond to increasing hybrid threats in order to defend its member states’ territory, the alliance’s top military commander said on Thursday. – Reuters
A Lithuanian court found the leader of a junior party in the ruling coalition government on Thursday guilty of incitement to hatred against Jews and belittling the Holocaust in social media posts in 2023. – Reuters
The Swiss parliament on Thursday voted to relax restrictions on weapons exports in a move aimed at supporting the domestic arms industry without compromising the country’s traditional neutrality. – Reuters
Britain and Norway will mount joint naval patrols to protect undersea cables from Russia, the U.K. said Thursday, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Støre held talks on defense. – Associated Press
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s lawmakers have filed a bill that would make it harder for parliament to remove the country’s president from office. – Bloomberg
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Brussels Friday for talks with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever to try to unblock a stalled European Union effort to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. – Bloomberg
These scenes — detailed in a human rights report commissioned by the Netherlands — lay out further evidence that Mozambican government soldiers in the pay of TotalEnergies were responsible for a 2021 massacre first revealed by POLITICO. – Politico
Two suspected Russian spies are believed to have secretly entered the UK on cargo ships before traveling to locations close to key military bases and critical government infrastructure, according to reports. – Fox News
Slovenia’s government is delaying an envisioned purchase of roughly 100 AMV XP vehicles from Finnish manufacturer Patria during its current term, marking a new twist in the country’s long-running acquisition saga about armored vehicles. – Defense News
Eliot Wilson writes: Where does that leave the transatlantic dependency? President Trump wants European nations to be more self-sufficient but expects them to invest heavily in U.S. platforms and equipment, while governments in Europe want to foster their own defense sectors and are only reducing strategic dependence on Washington because they have no other choice. It is a contradictory tangle of ambitions and obligations, and Germany’s long-term procurement plans illustrate the challenges. There is a degree of incoherence here, but it is for now a feature, not a bug. – The Hill
Africa
The U.N.’s top human rights official warned on Thursday of “another wave of atrocities” in Sudan’s civil war as paramilitary groups intensify an offensive on an oil-rich crucial region bordering Darfur. – New York Times
As President Trump hosted the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, he said that his administration had accomplished what others could not. – New York Times
South Africa will not bow to U.S. pressure to change its policies on race, Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said on Thursday, after Washington confirmed that Pretoria would be excluded from the G20 under its presidency. – Reuters
Two weeks after one of Nigeria’s worst school kidnappings, parents of the more than 250 missing children are desperate for news and dismayed at what they see as the slow response from authorities. – Reuters
The U.S. is reviewing its relationship with Tanzania amid concerns over religious freedom, free speech, obstacles to U.S. investment and violence against civilians, the State Department said on Thursday. – Reuters
The U.S. will provide more than $1.6 billion to Kenya’s health system under a new five-year agreement signed on Thursday, the first such agreement reached under the Trump administration’s overhaul of foreign aid. – Reuters
Hal Brands writes: It would also involve recognizing that a world in which Africa remains a bottom-tier priority for US statecraft is one in which American influence there will continue to decline. Whatever he does, Trump won’t find Africa an easy place to navigate. But he won’t have the luxury of treating it as an afterthought. There, dynamism competes with disaster; multiplayer struggles intensify local conflicts. Africa’s global salience is growing, not least because of the viciously competitive era that is coming into view. – Bloomberg
Nathaniel Mong’are writes: Africa does not intend to be the world’s next sacrifice zone. Africans want to power the global transition on terms that protect their land, their people, and their future. If the West continues its retreat, then COP30 will not be remembered simply as a diplomatic failure; it will be remembered as the moment that Africa lost its last line of defense. Without a credible Western counterweight, China will proceed without scrutiny, and the world will sleepwalk into a future where Africa’s resources, not its people, define its role in the global climate order. – Foreign Policy
The Americas
Honduran centrist candidate Salvador Nasralla on Thursday alleged fraud in the country’s highly contested presidential vote after his Trump-backed rival Nasry Asfura pulled narrowly past him overnight. – Reuters
Top law enforcement officials in Cuba said on Thursday the island was prioritizing the fight against narcotics trafficking in the Caribbean and continued to provide information to the U.S. Coast Guard amid escalating tensions and surging U.S. military presence in the region. – Reuters
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday presented the government’s 2026 budget proposal to the National Assembly, urging lawmakers to approve spending of some $19.9 billion. – Reuters
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez will not immediately return to the Central American country after leaving this week the U.S. prison where he was serving a sentence for drug trafficking, his wife told Reuters, citing security reasons for the decision. – Reuters
The Bahamas is proposing to impose harsher penalties on human smugglers, a move that officials say they hope will help dismantle criminal organizations that use the Caribbean nation as a staging point to smuggle migrants into the United States. – Reuters
Chile’s conservative presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast met with Donald Trump’s ambassador, the US diplomat said on Thursday, after officials in both nations traded critical remarks in the homestretch of an especially polarizing campaign. – Bloomberg
North America
The Trump administration kicked off what could be a contentious process to rework the trade deal that governs North American business this week, as it began holding hearings about the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that President Trump signed into law in 2020 during his first term. – New York Times
The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of air strike weapons and related equipment to Canada for an estimated cost of $2.68 billion, the Pentagon said on Thursday. – Reuters
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday she will travel to Washington for the draw of the 2026 soccer World Cup, and will also meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney. – Reuters
Canada and Mexico should not be used as export hubs for China, Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Thursday, saying that this was already happening in some cases in Mexico. – Reuters
United States
The House and Senate Armed Services Committees are scrutinizing a Sept. 2 attack by the U.S. military on a speedboat in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration has claimed was smuggling drugs — and especially whether a decision to fire a second missile at the vessel, which killed two survivors of the first blast, was a war crime. – New York Times
The Trump administration on Thursday allowed transactions with Lukoil (LKOH.MM), gas stations outside of Russia with a narrow waiver to sanctions the U.S. imposed in October for the role the company’s revenues play in supporting Moscow’s war in Ukraine. – Reuters
U.S. trade with China needs to be balanced and probably needs to be smaller, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Thursday, adding that he viewed a 25% drop in goods trade with China as heading in the “right direction.” – Reuters
U.S. immigration authorities arrested a visiting professor at Harvard Law School this week after he pleaded guilty to discharging a pellet gun outside a Massachusetts synagogue the day before Yom Kippur, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday. – Reuters
Cybersecurity
Canadian tech startup Cohere’s CEO Aidan Gomez said on Thursday the U.S. and Canada hold an “incredible position” to partner with economies adopting AI around the world, putting the countries in the lead against China in the global AI race. – Reuters
Chinese-linked hackers used sophisticated malware to penetrate and maintain long-term access to unnamed government and information technology entities, U.S. and Canadian cybersecurity agencies said on Thursday. – Reuters
NEXTDC Ltd (NXT.AX), said on Friday it inked a memorandum of understanding with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to collaborate on the development of a hyperscale AI campus and graphics processing unit supercluster in Sydney, boosting its shares. – Reuters
Russian authorities said Thursday they have imposed restrictions on Apple’s video calling service FaceTime, the latest step in an effort to tighten control over the internet and communications online. – Associated Press
WhatsApp faces an antitrust investigation in the European Union, where regulators said Thursday that they’re looking into the messaging service’s artificial intelligence policy. – Associated Press
Nvidia Corp. would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday in a bid to codify existing US restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductors to the Chinese market. – Bloomberg
The Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) identified a large-scale phishing campaign targeting Israeli organizations connected to the Iranian-linked group MuddyWater, the directorate said Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., called for robust safeguards in U.S.-developed AI systems to prevent abuse and misuse, arguing that both the technology and its development standards should reflect “American” values. – CyberScoop
The Trump administration is aiming to release its six-part national cybersecurity strategy in January, according to multiple sources familiar with the document. The document, which is a mere five pages long, will possibly be followed by an executive order to implement the new strategy. – CyberScoop
A Russia-aligned threat actor attempted to compromise the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a recent phishing campaign, according to new research. – The Record
NATO this week challenged around 1,300 participants in a cyberdefense exercise to guard against major attacks on critical infrastructure including power plants, fuel depots, commercial satellites and military networks. – The Record
The British Home Office on Thursday said it wants law enforcement to deploy facial recognition and similar technologies on a “significantly greater scale” and has initiated a new public consultation process to create a stronger legal framework for its use prior to the expansion. – The Record
Editorial: Bear in mind that this wouldn’t mean that AI companies are in any sense “unregulated.” In addition to the federal framework, they’d still be subject to consumer safety law, privacy and data security rules, civil-rights statutes, tort liability, contract law, securities regulation, labor law, antitrust enforcement, and so on. They’ll also have strong incentives to follow guidelines established by trade groups and standards organizations. – Bloomberg
Defense
Video footage of a U.S. military strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea shows two people attempting to flip their capsized vessel as they were attacked again, multiple lawmakers said Thursday after speaking with the Navy admiral who oversaw the controversial mission. – Washington Post
The U.S. Navy on Thursday released its findings from four investigations scrutinizing the significant challenges encountered by one of its aircraft carrier groups over nine months in the Middle East, where several major accidents occurred as the ships battled Yemeni militants. – Washington Post
The Pentagon has completed its review of the AUKUS project to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines and has found areas to put the deal on the “strongest possible footing,” a U.S. official said on Thursday. – Reuters
A newly formed task force based in the Middle East is now equipped and ready to deploy one-way attack drones, U.S. Central Command has announced. – Defense News
A Pentagon inspector general report confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent sensitive operational information about an impending strike in Yemen over his personal cell phone, potentially endangering the mission objectives and troops carrying it out. – Defense News
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has extended its contracts for Earth observation data with four firms as the spy satellite agency readies a new commercial acquisition approach that would provide longer-term funding. – Breaking Defense
As defense leaders head to Reagan National Defense Forum to mingle with Trump administration officials, a new poll finds growing bipartisan support for NATO, sending weapons to Ukraine and Golden Dome spending. – Breaking Defense
Evan Ellis writes: The positive contributions of the event highlighted that successful collaboration in combatting organized crime in the region involves not only the governments and citizens of the region and the United States, but also other countries with a presence and stakes in what happens in the region, including the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and France, among others. – Center for Strategic and International Studies