Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Hamas says open to Gaza peacekeeping force, but rejects foreign role in ‘internal affairs’ Iranian students protest as anger grows Trump considers targeted strike against Iran, followed by larger attack JPost Editorial: Loyalty to IRGC may not be worth the cost of sinking with it when it falls MEI’s Alex Vatanka: Iran considers its response to potential renewed US-Israeli strikes Russia attacks Ukraine ahead of invasion’s 4th anniversary At least 10 killed in Lebanon, officials say, after Israel strikes Hezbollah North Korea's ruling party re-elects Kim Jong Un general secretary US intelligence agencies tie Chinese explosive test to push for a completely new nuclear arsenal Seeking recognition, Somaliland minister says US can access its minerals, military bases Mexico takes on cartels as killing of drug kingpin sparks violence WSJ’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady: The Cuban regime’s slow collapseIn The News
Israel
Netanyahu argues that military radio is more appropriate for a dictatorship such as North Korea than a democracy. Critics, however, see the effort as part of a broader offensive against media outlets that have criticized Netanyahu’s right-wing government. – Washington Post
Remarks by Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, prompted a storm of condemnation from Arab leaders over the weekend after he suggested that it “would be fine” if Israel took lands stretching across the Middle East from Egypt to Iraq. – New York Times
The European Union’s top diplomats are set to meet Monday with the director of the Board of Peace in Brussels after a shaky and controversial embrace of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure and rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. – Associated Press
US President Donald Trump’s administration said Saturday that it was “aware of” the settler killing of a Palestinian-American in the West Bank a few days earlier, but avoided condemning the attack. – Times of Israel
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said Friday that his terror organization is open to international peacekeeping forces in Gaza, but rejected any interference in the territory’s “internal affairs.” – Times of Israel
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Israel on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday. Modi will speak at the Knesset, hold an innovation event in Jerusalem, and visit Yad Vashem, Netanyahu announced. – Jerusalem Post
Amid escalating tensions with Iran in the past few weeks, Israel’s health services have begun preparing for war by taking proactive measures to ensure continuity of care during potential missile strikes. – Jerusalem Post
Amid the rising tensions between the United States and Iran this week, the Home Front Command is set to receive major reinforcements, in the form of a brand new search and rescue unit. – Jerusalem Post
Border Police on Friday thwarted an attempt by approximately 30 Palestinian West Bank residents to infiltrate Israel through the seam route near the Nebi Samuel area, located just outside Jerusalem. – Jerusalem Post
Interest is running high among young people in Gaza as the National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip (NCAG) has begun recruiting members for a new police force. – Jerusalem Post
Kobi Michael writes: Under current conditions, this is a completely possible mission due to Hamas’s relative weakness compared to its situation a year or two ago and due to the lack of hostages in the field, which greatly limited the IDF’s maneuverability. President Trump will be able to reach this decision only after exhausting all other options and becoming convinced that there is no chance of implementing his own plan without dismantling Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza and that only the IDF can do this job. – Jerusalem Post
Brian Katulis writes: The course the United States chooses on both Iran and the Israel-Palestine front will have consequential spillover effects across the region. During the first year of his second term in office, President Trump has focused on the Middle East unlike any other US president since Barack Obama in his first term, and his impact has been mixed. The coming days and weeks will offer an important test of whether Trump will build on his successes and strengthen some of the weaker aspects of his Middle East policy. – Middle East Institute
Iran
Students at universities across Tehran clashed with pro-regime demonstrators on Sunday, as anger over a brutal government crackdown spilled onto university campuses for a second straight day in a sign of rising unrest. – Wall Street Journal
A new wave of popular discontent is growing in Iran, with college students holding antigovernment rallies on campuses and grieving families using mourning ceremonies to air their opposition to the Islamic Republic. – Wall Street Journal
Trump has said he would prefer a strict agreement that stops Tehran from ever being able to develop nuclear weapons—a potentially historic breakthrough. Should Trump instead order an attack, in the hope of coercing the Iranian regime or even bringing it down, he would be risking a major conflict that could envelop the rest of his presidency. – Wall Street Journal
Iran has sought for years to build closer military ties with China and Russia, but its powerful friends are proving reluctant to step forward as the regime faces the most acute U.S. threat to its survival in decades. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump has told advisers that if diplomacy or any initial targeted U.S. attack does not lead Iran to give in to his demands that it give up its nuclear program, he will consider a much bigger attack in coming months intended to drive that country’s leaders from power, people briefed on internal administration deliberations said. – New York Times
U.S. and other Western security officials say they are monitoring increasingly worrisome signs that Iran could direct proxies to conduct retaliatory terrorist attacks against American targets in Europe and the Middle East if President Trump orders large-scale strikes against Iran. – New York Times
Ayatollah Khamenei has instructed Mr. Larijani and a handful of other close political and military associates to ensure that the Islamic Republic survives not only American and Israeli bombs, but also any assassination attempts on its top leadership, including on Ayatollah Khamenei himself, according to the six senior officials and the Guards members. – New York Times
The United States did not ask Iran to stop enriching uranium in talks over a nuclear deal held in Switzerland this week, Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday, contradicting Washington’s public position. – New York Times
Iran and the U.S. will hold a third round of nuclear talks on Thursday in Geneva, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on Sunday, amid growing concerns about the risk of military conflict between the longtime adversaries. – Reuters
Iran agreed a secret €500mn arms deal with Russia to acquire thousands of advanced shoulder-fired missiles in its most significant effort to rebuild air defences shattered during last year’s war with Israel. – Financial Times
Editorial: With the chances of a US attack increasing by the day, the nations tethered to the Islamic Republic must ask themselves: Is loyalty to the Islamic regime worth the repercussions they would face the day after it falls? The Islamic Republic’s economy remains under severe strain. Protests endure despite a brutal crackdown by authorities on Iranians demonstrating for their freedom. The “Axis of Resistance” is brittle and destined to be shattered. For the people of Lebanon, Yemen, and across the Middle East, the cost of sinking with the Iranian warship may be far greater than the cost of breaking free from it. – Jerusalem Post
Marc Gustafson writes: An attack on Iran would still entail risk. The regime’s identity is rooted in resistance to foreign interference. An external attack could trigger pockets of fierce backlash. U.S. personnel remain within range of thousands of Iran’s short-range missiles. Oil markets could convulse if Tehran disrupted Gulf shipping. The trauma of past Middle East wars has shaped Washington’s Iran policy for decades. But today Iran’s proxies are weakened, its economy is fragile, its population is restless and its leadership is superannuated. The risks of escalation are less pronounced than in 2024, when I hesitated on the president’s doorstep. – Wall Street Journal
Marc Champion writes: It might even help Khamenei decide whether it makes sense to cut a deal to avert war. And if not him, then greater US clarity could also help potential replacements — inside or outside the regime — to organize for power and avoid the worst of all possible worlds for Iran and the wider region: chaos in a heterogeneous nation of 92 million people. – Bloomberg
Mark F. Cancian and Chris H. Park write: U.S. forces lack special operations and ground units needed to conduct raids or operations ashore. Snatching the Iranian leadership, therefore, is not a realistic option, particularly given the distance of likely launch points to Tehran. The available forces are also insufficient for regime change beyond limited targeted strikes. It is unlikely that the United States will attack Iranian leaders, given concerns about retaliation and legitimacy. Moreover, the regime’s resilience even after taking significant losses from Israeli operations suggests that decapitation will not destabilize the regime. Finally, there are not enough forces for an extended, multi-week air campaign. That would require a substantial logistical buildup, which is possible but would take additional time. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Alex Vatanka writes: This is the landscape in which diplomacy now operates: a narrow corridor between escalating military preparations, rigid political red lines, and deep mistrust. Grossi may still believe that a technical agreement can stop the slide toward war, but every sign on the ground suggests otherwise. The Trump administration most likely aims for a limited conflict that reshapes the balance of power without trapping it in a quagmire. Iran’s leaders think they can survive such a strike as long as they retaliate hard enough to deter the next one. – Middle East Institute
Russia and Ukraine
Russia pounded Ukraine’s power grid on Sunday with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, killing at least one man in Kyiv, the capital, even as negotiators for both countries prepared for another round of peace negotiations in the coming days. – New York Times
Ukraine’s domestically produced Flamingo missiles hit a Russian plant manufacturing ballistic missiles in Russia’s remote southern region of Udmurtia overnight, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Saturday. – Reuters
Moscow airports were back in operation on Sunday evening after suspensions imposed by aviation regulator Rosaviatsia over drone attacks which the city’s mayor said had been repelled. – Reuters
Ukrainian authorities detained a suspect accused of carrying out a deadly “terrorist attack” in central Lviv that killed one police officer and injured 25 others, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday. – Fox News
Both Russia and Ukraine face a growing manpower crisis. Western estimates put Ukrainian military casualties at roughly 500,000 to 600,000 since 2022, including more than 100,000 killed, while Russia is believed to have suffered about 1.2 million casualties. Combined battlefield casualties on both sides may now be approaching two million, according to recent analyses. – Fox News
Hanna Notte writes: Unable to get from Mr. Trump what he wants in Ukraine, Mr. Putin will fight on, sinking Russia’s resources ever more deeply into his calamitous war. The cost, in treasure and personnel, will climb ever higher. The United States, meanwhile, will continue to shake up the global order — guided not by the allure of a great-power concert with Russia but by the maxim of Trump First. Whatever else that is, it won’t look much like respect. – New York Times
M. Gessen writes: Yet another round of U.S.-led negotiations on the Russian-Ukrainian war was in the planning stages. A day before Mamonova and I talked, Russia had violated the ostensible temporary ban on targeting the energy infrastructure. Kyiv had spent much of the previous 24 hours without electricity and under an air-raid alert. It wasn’t the first such day, or the second, or the fifth, and it wasn’t clear that anyone outside Ukraine took much notice. This, too, reminded Mamonova of Russian captivity. “You scream and no one can hear you.” – New York Times
Luke Coffey and Can Kasapoğlu write: But on a strategic level, the bridge in Krasnoyarsk matters more. Kyiv should focus its efforts there instead. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth year and peace talks continue to stall, the Trump administration should think creatively and boldly about how to shift the balance. Helping Ukraine exploit Russia’s structural vulnerabilities would not guarantee peace. But it would make continued war far less comfortable for the Kremlin. And at this stage of the conflict, changing Russia’s cost-benefit calculation is exactly what is needed. – National Interest
Hezbollah
Lebanon’s public health ministry said that at least 10 people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight. Israel’s military said it had targeted Hezbollah command centers in the east of the country. Hezbollah said eight of its members were among those killed in the attacks late Friday. – New York Times
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has tightened control over Hezbollah in the Middle East amid looming prospects of potential U.S. strikes, according to reports. – Fox News
As tensions continued to escalate between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, experts told The Jerusalem Post that Hezbollah remains capable and willing to join an attack on Israel, but such a move would prove costly for the Lebanese terror group. – Jerusalem Post
Syria
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that 15,000 to 20,000 people, including Islamic State affiliates are now at large in Syria, after an exodus from a camp that held jihadists’ families, U.S. officials familiar with the estimate said. – Wall Street Journal
Australia’s centre-left government on Sunday rejected a local media report that said it was working to repatriate Australians in a Syrian camp holding families of suspected Islamic State militants. – Reuters
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Saturday for two attacks targeting Syrian army personnel in northern and eastern Syria, as the militant group signaled what it described as a new phase of operations against the country’s leadership. – Reuters
The Islamic State group has blasted Syria’s interim president calling him a “puppet without a soul” controlled by Western countries, adding that his fate eventually will be similar to that of ousted leader Bashar Assad. – Associated Press
Saudi Arabia
State energy major Saudi Aramco has sold several cargoes of ultra light crude oil from its $100 billion Jafurah gas plant to U.S. majors and an Indian refiner as it prepares to export its first cargo later this month, four trade sources said. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia could have some form of uranium enrichment within the kingdom under a proposed nuclear deal with the United States, congressional documents and an arms control group suggest, raising proliferation concerns as an atomic standoff between Iran and America continues. – Times of Israel
The solution for Iran is no longer a limited military move, but a large, fundamental change, including the ousting of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a Saudi royal family source told N12 News on Sunday. – Jerusalem Post
Korean Peninsula
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung held summit talks in Seoul on Monday with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, where they agreed to expand cooperation in sectors including trade, key minerals, technology and culture. – Reuters
North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party re-elected Kim Jong Un as general secretary at a party congress meeting on Sunday, state media said, a move seen as underlining his absolute grip on power and greater confidence over domestic stability. – Reuters
South Korea has asked the Russian embassy in Seoul to take down a large banner reading “Victory will be ours”, its foreign ministry said, just ahead of this week’s fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine. – Reuters
South Korea on Sunday protested a Japanese government event commemorating a cluster of disputed islands between the two countries, calling the move an unjust assertion of sovereignty over its territory. – Reuters
China
President Trump’s summit with President Xi Jinping in China this April is expected to be a grandiose affair, although friction over trade, Taiwan and technology could upset the bonhomie. – New York Times
Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal rejected an appeal by 12 pro‑democracy activists and upheld their jail terms on Monday in a national security case that critics say highlights the China-ruled city’s crackdown on dissent. – Reuters
China is making a “full assessment” of the U.S. Supreme Court’s tariff ruling and has urged Washington to lift “unilateral tariff measures” on its trading partners, warning that fighting between the two countries is “harmful”. – Reuters
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will make his first visit to China next week since taking the helm of Europe’s biggest economy, as he tries to position the country to a world in which assertive great powers play an increasingly dominant role. – Associated Press
US intelligence agencies believe that China is developing a new generation of nuclear weapons and has conducted at least one covert explosive test in recent years as part of a broader push to completely transform its nuclear arsenal into the world’s most technologically advanced, according to multiple sources familiar with the US intelligence assessments. – CNN
Editorial: Mr. Trump has reserved the right to test U.S. nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with adversaries, which is not an escalation. The world has changed since the U.S. stopped testing nuclear weapons in the 1990s, and simulations and modeling aren’t a perfect substitute. The U.S. nuclear deterrent has been a force for peace in the world for 80 years, but preventing a nuclear exchange requires a capable and credible American arsenal. The State Department is right to explain, as it did this month, that it’s time to end the era “of U.S. unilateral restraint” that has limited only the free world’s defenses. – Wall Street Journal
South Asia
In India, the timing of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against President Trump’s use of an emergency law to impose tariffs caused acute whiplash. The country had just escaped a 50 percent tariff with a trade deal announced not even three weeks ago. One term of that deal has been making India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, particularly uncomfortable. – New York Times
But for the Hindu right, the 16th-century mosque is an eyesore — a symbol of an abhorred past of foreign invasions that brought Islam to India’s north and altered the region’s ancient demography. Hindu nationalists sought to dismantle the mosque through the courts by claiming it was built on a sacred Hindu site, using archaeological claims to help further the rise of Hindu nationalism. – New York Times
India moved to deepen trade ties with Brazil on Saturday, signing a pact to expand cooperation in mining and minerals as it seeks to meet rising domestic steel demand and support capacity expansion amid a global race for raw materials. – Reuters
Pakistan said it launched strikes on militant targets in Afghanistan after blaming recent suicide bombings – including assaults during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – on fighters it said were operating from its neighbour’s territory. – Reuters
India has delayed plans to send a trade delegation to Washington this week, chiefly because of uncertainty after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, a source in its trade ministry said on Sunday. – Reuters
Editorial: If India distances itself from Russia, it would be a real victory for American foreign policy, akin to when Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat left the Soviet sphere for America’s embrace in the 1970s. That victory was made possible by skillful diplomacy and a foreign leader who no longer wanted to be in the orbit of America’s enemies. It was a signal achievement in an otherwise gloomy decade for the West. India’s seizure of “shadow fleet” tankers provides an opportunity for Washington and New Delhi to chart a new course together. “Prime Minister Modi and I,” Trump told followers on Truth Social in February, “are two people who get things done.” Let’s hope so. – Washington Examiner
Mihir Sharma writes: As Premier Zhu Rongji figured out more than two decades ago as China prepared to join the World Trade Organization, international agreements are always an opportunity to push through painful domestic reform. Once a country accepts the benefits of economic integration — as Modi’s voters apparently now have — trade deals provide leverage for broader transformation. – Bloomberg
Asia
In Asia, where most of the world’s goods are made, governments had raced to do deals with Mr. Trump. The goal was to negotiate lower tariffs for their export-dependent industries. Many government leaders who brokered deals and made significant pledges faced political recrimination at home, accused of giving away too much and, at times, even sacrificing national sovereignty. – New York Times
In a world where geopolitical power is being defined partly by the race between the United States and China to dominate artificial intelligence, India has a pitch for those left behind. The South Asian giant has neither America’s homegrown A.I. giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, nor China’s know-how and stores of the rare earth elements that power everything from chips to data centers. – New York Times
President Donald Trump met Vietnamese leader To Lam on Friday and said he would work to remove Hanoi from lists of countries restricted in accessing U.S. advanced technology, according to a summary of the talks posted on the news website of the Vietnamese government. – Reuters
An Australian warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, a government source said on Sunday, in the latest transit of the sensitive waterway by a U.S. ally that Chinese state-backed media said was tracked and monitored by the nation’s military. – Reuters
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court will begin presenting evidence Monday to support their charges against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, detailing his alleged involvement in dozens of killings as part of his so-called war on drugs. – Associated Press
Two Cambodian journalists have appealed their convictions on treason charges and 14-year prison sentences for posting photographs on Facebook related to border clashes with Thailand last year, the spouse of one and a court official said Friday. – Associated Press
Australia’s government said it will “examine all options” after US President Donald Trump imposed a 15% tariff on foreign imports. – Bloomberg
U.S. and Philippine defense officials committed to bolstering missile and drone deployments across the Southeast Asian archipelago in support of Washington’s first island chain deterrence efforts against China. – USNI News
The U.S. Air Force and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force conducted two days of drills alongside four B-52 bombers over the Sea of Japan and East China Sea this week. – USNI News
Karishma Vaswani writes: The greatest challenge may lie closer to home. Conservative societies will need to confront narratives that frame female success as national decline. And where economic and educational gaps between men and women are widening, governments should address this directly by creating forums for open discussion while simultaneously regulating and monitoring sites where grievances can spread. None of this will be easy. But failing to act now risks allowing a new generation to be shaped by insidious ideas, spreading quietly through feeds and forums — hiding in plain sight. – Bloomberg
Europe
The death of Quentin Deranque on Feb. 14 has amplified tensions between the far left and extreme right in France, threatening to destabilize the country ahead of crucial municipal elections next month and a presidential vote in 2027. The killing has ostracized France’s far-left France Unbowed party, with whom some mainstream candidates had worked to block Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally from taking power in 2024. – Wall Street Journal
Now, concerns here are mounting that Russia’s growing military footprint in the Arctic and President Trump’s threats to annex Greenland risk upending decades of tense calm in the High North. Unlike in Greenland, which Trump falsely contends is “covered with Russian and Chinese ships,” Russia and China have a real presence in Svalbard—and are deepening their cooperation. – Wall Street Journal
Hungary raised an objection to the European Union’s plan to loan 90 billion euros to Ukraine during a meeting of ambassadors on Friday, an unexpected hurdle that could make funneling needed money to Kyiv more difficult than anticipated. – New York Times
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Sunday “no thanks” to U.S. President Donald Trump’s idea of sending a hospital ship to Greenland, a territory that Trump has repeatedly said he wishes to take over. – Reuters
Police in Tirana fired tear gas and used water cannons in clashes on Friday with opposition protesters demanding the resignation of the Albanian government following corruption allegations against the deputy prime minister. – Reuters
The European Union’s executive arm requested “full clarity” from the United States and asked its trade partner to fulfill its commitments after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down some of President Donald Trump’s most sweeping tariffs. – Associated Press
Five European nations have announced a new program to produce low-cost air defense systems and autonomous drones using Ukrainian expertise hard-won over the past four years of war against Russia. – Associated Press
Estonia has started public procurement of 600 modular bunkers as part of a joint push by the Baltic states to secure their long border with Russia and Belarus, marking a crucial next phase in the region’s ambitious fortification drive. – Defense News
Dov Zakheim writes: Macron made it clear in his Munich speech that his offer was extended to all France’s European allies, specifically mentioning Sweden. The more countries that are involved in the creation of a new European deterrent, the longer it will take to reach any definitive agreement among them. Senior Washington officials continue to reassure their European counterparts that there is no thought of withdrawing the American nuclear umbrella. Nevertheless, as long as the Trump administration continues to whittle away at both NATO’s command structure and the size of the U.S. military presence on the continent, Europeans will worry about the sincerity of those assurances. They will proceed, however slowly, with a design for a strategic nuclear deterrent of their own. – The Hill
Azeem Ibrahim writes: This is not about nostalgia for empire. It is about preserving operational certainty in a system where uncertainty is weaponized. If the Chagos deal collapses under scrutiny, it will not be because of American heavy-handedness; it will be because strategic logic reasserted itself over legalistic symbolism. In that respect, Trump’s stance may indeed have saved Britain from a costly mistake — and preserved a critical pillar of Western deterrence at a moment when it can least afford erosion. – National Interest
Africa
Fifteen migrants the U.S. deported to Cameroon in recent weeks are being held in prisonlike conditions at a secret detention facility, according to lawyers for some of the deportees. – Wall Street Journal
The U.N. World Food Programme said on Friday its life-saving food and nutrition assistance in Somalia could grind to a halt by April unless new funding is secured, putting millions of people at risk of worsening hunger. – Reuters
At least 50 people were killed and several women and children abducted after armed men attacked a village in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state, a state lawmaker told Reuters on Friday. – Reuters
Gebreegziabher Berehe has stopped waiting for tourists to arrive as many worry about a return to war. The tour guide in Ethiopia ’s northern region of Tigray says his bookings have dried up, ATMs in the city of Mekele are empty and he is considering leaving a country where he can no longer afford to live. – Associated Press
Somaliland is willing to give the United States access to its minerals and military bases, a minister told AFP in an interview Saturday, as the breakaway region of Somalia seeks international recognition. – Agence France-Presse
Editorial: The government is now partnering with private business to address problems around transportation, crime and dilapidated government buildings. But while South Africa is starting to enjoy the advantages of markets, self-styled socialists in the U.S. are moving in the opposite direction, pushing for expanded state control over private utilities. Supporters of the “public power” movement in the U.S., such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, might want to take a trip to South Africa to learn firsthand what works and what doesn’t. – Washington Post
The Americas
Venezuelan officials fired top managers at Grupo Lamar and took control of operations. Before long, shrimp exports were falling even faster than oil output had dropped years earlier. No one was surprised: The regime has been seizing companies and running them into the ground for more than two decades, turning what was once Latin America’s most affluent country into one of its poorest. – Wall Street Journal
The supporters of ousted autocrat Nicolás Maduro gathered in a shabby meeting hall here last week to denounce Washington’s grip on their country. The rhetoric was familiar: America is in decline, its sanctions illegitimate, Maduro’s arrest illegal. – Wall Street Journal
Indigenous protesters have occupied Cargill’s Santarem river port terminal in Brazil’s Para state and “completely” interrupted operations at the site, the U.S. grain trader said in a statement on Saturday. – Reuters
Spain’s foreign minister urged the European Union on Friday to lift its sanctions on Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, after lawmakers in the South American country approved a limited amnesty bill for certain prisoners. – Reuters
North America
Mexico’s military killed the country’s most powerful drug kingpin, Nemesio “Mencho” Oseguera, escalating the government’s war against cartels amid pressure from President Trump to curb narcotics trafficking and sparking a widespread, violent gang response. – Wall Street Journal
Canada on Friday approved some newer models of Gulfstream business jets for flying in domestic airspace, about three weeks after President Trump complained about regulatory delays and threatened economic repercussions for the country’s aerospace sector unless rectified. – Wall Street Journal
For Canadians, the United States Supreme Court ruling on Friday striking down many of President Trump’s tariffs changes very little. A 35 percent tariff on most Canadian exports to the United States was put in place last year, and that tariff has now been struck down. – New York Times
A new U.S.-military-led task force specializing in intelligence collection on drug cartels played a role in the Mexican military raid on Sunday that killed the Mexican drug lord known as ‘El Mencho,’ a U.S. defense official told Reuters. – Reuters
Cuban security advisers and doctors have been leaving Venezuela as Interim President Delcy Rodriguez’s government faces intense pressure from Washington to unwind Latin America’s most consequential leftist alliance, according to 11 sources familiar with the matter. – Reuters
Air Canada said on Sunday it has temporarily suspended operations in Mexico’s Puerto Vallarta, and United Airlines said it canceled its flights there, after reports of a military operation there against the chief of a drug gang. – Reuters
Cuba’s debilitated health care system has been pushed to the brink of collapse by the U.S. blockading the country’s oil supply, a Cuban official said Friday. – Associated Press
Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes: Mr. Rodríguez Castro, known as “El Cangrejo”—the crab—because of a birth defect, never finished school. But he is said to be much-loved by his ruthless grandfather and is buddies with the crooks running GAESA. He could be acting as a go-between. Cuba denied this on Friday, calling it speculation. It’s possible that unnamed Trump officials, by advancing the story, are trying to sow division inside the Cuban government and give head of state Miguel Díaz-Canel reason to worry he is being sidelined. The regime has been cutting deals with Washington, on and off, for nearly seven decades. Now is the time for all of them to leave. – Wall Street Journal
George F. Will writes: On Jan. 29, President Trump declared Cuba “an unusual and extraordinary threat.” This absurd finding enables a U.S.-enforced oil embargo that might tip Cuba into, at best, social entropy. Then what? Cuba’s internal-security apparatus has reduced society to a dust of individuals. There is no latent capacity for organic democratic expression, as Solidarity became in Poland in the 1980s, when, suddenly, a third of the nation joined it. If Cuba soon completes its collapse into the status of a failed state, flotillas of the desperate might sail 90 miles north. – Washington Post
United States
A man was shot and killed Sunday after breaching the secure perimeter at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, the Secret Service said. The president and first lady Melania Trump are in Washington, D.C., this weekend. – Wall Street Journal
The answers will largely turn on how aggressively the Trump administration pushes to permanently replace the struck-down tariffs with new ones, and how trade partners and U.S. political leaders respond. On the one hand, higher tariffs allow the government to bring in more revenue to shrink the runaway government debt, and help re-energize sectors of the U.S. economy. – Wall Street Journal
President Donald Trump said he will direct the release of government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life and unidentified aerial phenomena, saying there is “tremendous interest” in the issue following remarks by former President Barack Obama. – Fox News
Editorial: This is rhetoric that could cause some deranged Trump acolyte to turn to violence against a Justice. It’s as bad as Sen. Chuck Schumer’s threat in 2020 that Justices Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh had “released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!” Recall the nut who stalked Justice Kavanaugh’s home in 2022, after the leak of the Court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. We hope all nine Justices appear next week at the State of the Union address as a show of self-protective solidarity. This is the same Court that ruled Mr. Trump’s way on presidential immunity, which was more personally consequential for this President. Mr. Trump shouldn’t have been surprised by the Court. We warned from the start that this would be the result of his unlawful resort to IEEPA. The fault doesn’t lie with the Justices but with his own tariff obsessions. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Even if reprocessing proves successful, the U.S. will need to find stable sources of raw uranium. Canada, the world’s second-largest exporter of the mineral, might be able to help meet those needs. The president’s threatening and badgering of America’s northern neighbor has made that more complicated. It is a good sign that the administration is taking the issue of nuclear fuel seriously. If it cannot deliver, the promise of nuclear innovation will evaporate. – Washington Post
Eli Lake writes: We will see if Trump makes public what he has told Carlson in private. For now, the former Fox News host remains inside Trump’s inner circle. He still speaks for a core constituency of the MAGA coalition. On his podcast, Carlson may present himself as a journalist, but he is now a movement leader. And as such, he is steering the right over the cliff and into the darkness. – The Free Press
Cybersecurity
A US federal grand jury has charged three Silicon Valley engineers with allegedly stealing trade secrets from tech companies, including Google and transferring the information to Iran, the Justice Department said Thursday. – Times of Israel
A 29-year-old Ukrainian man was sentenced to five years in prison for his years-long role in a scheme that helped North Koreans get illegally hired in IT roles at 40 U.S. companies. – The Record
Russia’s intensifying cyberattacks, sabotage and covert influence operations across Europe show the Kremlin is preparing for a prolonged confrontation with the West, Dutch intelligence agencies said in a report published this week. – The Record
A cybersecurity official at the State Department called for the public and private sector to more tightly coordinate plans to transition their systems, devices and data to quantum-resistant encryption algorithms. – Cyberscoop
Marsha Blackburn writes: Instead of taking these lawsuits seriously, social media companies blame victims and parents. They suggest that grieving parents should have better monitored their children’s social media use — even as the companies make that task harder and harder. The trial in Los Angeles is ramping up public pressure for Congress to act, and we must heed the call to hold Big Tech accountable. To my fellow legislators, I have one simple question: Will you side with moguls like Mark Zuckerberg? Or will you side with the 86 percent of Americans who are demanding we stand up to Big Tech for preying on our children? – Washington Post
Defense
Soldiers of the Army National Guard’s 28th Infantry Division snagged the award for Best Innovation at the U.S. Army’s inaugural Best Drone Warfighter Competition in Huntsville, Alabama, this week for inventing a drone that uses a claw to retrieve downed drones. – Defense News
Fincantieri is to build four U.S. Marine Corps landing vessels at its U.S. Marinette Marine yard in a new deal that follows the cancellation of its contract to build Constellation class frigates for the U.S. Navy. – Defense News
The Air Force is preparing to declare its T-7 Red Hawk training jet ready for production in days, following years of delays, an Air Force official overseeing the program told Breaking Defense in an exclusive interview. – Breaking Defense
When US President Donald Trump issued a new executive order on foreign arms sales two weeks ago, he ordered the Defense, State and Commerce Departments to conduct a series of reviews, with the goal of a large-scale restructuring of how America sells weapons abroad. – Breaking Defense
Space Force guardians provided critical support during high-profile U.S. military operations in Iran and Venezuela — experience that underscores the need for additional resources to prepare the service for future conflicts, a senior official told DefenseScoop in an exclusive interview Friday. – Defense Scoop
Sara Willett writes: The domain specific insight provided by this data is difficult to obtain and can be applied to a wide range of unmanned and autonomy solutions, including training specific AI applications such as target recognition models and improved predictive maintenance. Warfighters are relying on autonomous and unmanned systems at ever increasing rates. They need companies which know how to develop and build machines and do so in a manner that best fits how the US military will fight and sustain them on the battlefield. At the end of the day, we are talking about the security of the United States. And for that, experience still matters. – Breaking Defense