Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Gaza’s border with Egypt reopens, but few Palestinians make it across IDF finds huge haul of mortars in UNRWA blankets, humanitarian aid Hamas document reveals secret plan to maintain control of Gaza admin. under NCAG's noses - KAN Acumen Risk’s Yaron Schwartz: Hamas disarmament: Hard way is better than the easy way U.S., Iran poised to meet for talks WSJ Editorial: The ‘deal’ in Iran is regime change Russia is ready for new world with no nuclear limits, senior diplomat says Egypt's drone deployment to border raises stakes in Sudan's civil war Syrian state forces deploy in Kurdish-run city under ceasefire deal ISIS’s David Albright, Spencer Faragasso and the Good ISIS Team: North Korean probable high explosive test sites EU mulls ban on Russian copper, platinum in new sanctions Trump unveils $12 billion critical minerals stockpileIn The News
Israel
The Rafah border crossing connecting Gaza with Egypt reopened on Monday, a long-awaited step that got off to a rocky start with only a few Palestinians able to leave and enter the war-torn enclave. – Wall Street Journal
U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to visit Israel for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s military chief, two senior Israeli officials said on Monday. – Reuters
Israel is increasingly doubtful it can normalize relations with Saudi Arabia any time soon, dismayed by what it sees as hostile moves by the kingdom to expand its defense ties and confront the United Arab Emirates, an Israeli ally. – Bloomberg
Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas said Monday that elections will be held on November 1 for the Palestinian National Council, the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the PA’s official news agency Wafa reported. – Agence France-Presse
French authorities have issued warrants for two Franco-Israeli nationals for “complicity in genocide,” over allegations that they tried to stop humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, a legal source said Monday. – Agence France-Presse
Israel is quietly developing new space‑based capabilities designed to give the country an edge in the next war with Iran, Avi Berger, head of the Space Office at the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research & Development (MAFAT) told Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF on Tuesday announced that it found a huge haul of around 110 mortar rounds, as well as some rockets and other military items, concealed within UNRWA blankets and humanitarian aid in southern Gaza. – Jerusalem Post
Hamas plans to continue having administrative control of Gaza, contrary to what the ceasefire agreement establishes, according to a leaked document shared by KAN News on Sunday. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF announced it will deploy military police at crossings along the border fence between Israel and Gaza, in an attempt to prevent smuggling by inspecting military vehicles and the belongings of Defense Ministry contractors operating in the Yellow Line area. – Jerusalem Post
The Israeli Navy and a US Navy destroyer conducted a joint exercise on Sunday at Eilat’s port as part of ongoing cooperation between Israel and the US in the Red Sea, the IDF announced on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
Israeli airline Arkia is changing the routing of its flights to Thailand after Somali authorities refused to grant permission for flights to pass through their airspace. Somalia’s decision comes after the airline flew Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to Somaliland last month, weeks after Israel became the first UN member state to recognize the nation. – Haaretz
Yaron Schwartz writes: The uncomfortable truth is that terrorism ends most swiftly not through conversion but through defeat. And while the moral clarity of voluntary disarmament is appealing, the historical record demands we understand its limitations. Every day we wait for Hamas to choose the easy way is another day it uses to consolidate power and plan future attacks. History has shown us that the hard way is often better and faster than the easy way. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
Senior U.S. and Iranian officials are poised to meet in Turkey this week, amid efforts by regional powers to craft a diplomatic alternative to a clash that risks sparking broader turmoil. – Wall Street Journal
An Iranian protester who drew global attention last month after he was widely reported to be awaiting execution has been released on bail, according to a human rights group and an Iranian state media outlet. – New York Times
The priority of talks between Iran and the United States this week in Istanbul is to avoid any conflict and de-escalate tensions between the two sides, a regional official told Reuters on Tuesday, adding a group of regional powers were also invited. – Reuters
Iran’s leadership is increasingly worried a U.S. strike could break its grip on power by driving an already enraged public back onto the streets, following a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests, according to six current and former officials. – Reuters
Britain on Monday imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Iranian officials and a state security body targeting those it says enabled violent crackdowns on recent peaceful protests. – Reuters
Iranian police have arrested four foreigners over last month’s unrest, Iranian state media reported on Monday, without specifying their nationality. – Reuters
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia was still trying to de-escalate tensions around Iran, and that it had long ago offered its services to process or store Iran’s enriched uranium. – Reuters
The U.S. would prefer a negotiated agreement with Iran to dismantle its nuclear program, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in an interview that aired on Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday night. – Jewish Insider
Women in Iran have been ‘raped and mutilated’ for standing up to Iran’s brutal regime, a journalist has claimed. Michel Abdollahi has spoken of stories from inside Iran, claiming women are being abducted before being ‘raped and mutilated’ to prevent them from protesting against the regime. – Daily Mail
Editorial: There is a better way for President Trump: Help the protesters topple the ayatollah and his enforcers. Don’t crush the Iranian people’s hopes; give them the confidence to keep pushing against a regime that has no answer but bullets to any of their problems. If Iran’s revolutionary regime falls, the whole region gets better. China and Russia lose the third spoke in their axis of U.S. adversaries. The price of oil is lower today than it was at the start of the 12-day war in June, and the U.S. has options to mitigate disruptions. Iran’s regime and its proxies are at their weakest, and its people are waiting. Mr. Trump has forged his opportunity, and this is his moment to seize it. – Wall Street Journal
Sean Durns writes: Some have argued that Iran can be enticed to peacefully end its nuclear weapons program, just as Libya and South Africa once did with theirs. But this will prove easier said than done when dealing with a regime whose very legitimacy is bound to its budding nuclear arsenal. Henry Kissinger famously said that Iran must decide whether it is a “nation or a cause.” However, the Islamic Republic has chosen to be both. And its nuclear ambitions will likely last as long as the regime itself. – Washington Examiner
Eli Lake writes: The Iranian regime seemed to be near its end, and the crown prince looked like the only plausible answer to a pressing question: Who comes next? Pahlavi himself appeared to accept this mantle. He called for two days of demonstrations on January 8 and 9 at the height of the protests, and Iranians seemed to heed his call, flooding the streets in unprecedented numbers. “The bond between me and the Iranian people is not new,” he said at a January 16 press conference in Washington. “It’s been with me since birth and it cannot be broken. – The Free Press
Russia and Ukraine
Russia is ready for the new reality of a world with no nuclear arms control limits after the New START treaty expires later this week, Russia’s point man for arms control said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Russia would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as foreign intervention and treat those forces as legitimate targets, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, citing Minister Sergei Lavrov. – Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that it was realistic to achieve a dignified and lasting peace, ahead of the next round of peace talks with Russian and U.S. officials due this week in Abu Dhabi. – Reuters
Russia has largely observed a ceasefire on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday as Kyiv prepared for the next round of trilateral talks on how to end the war. – Reuters
Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, its second largest city of Kharkiv and other centres early on Tuesday, officials said, triggering fires and dealing new blows to energy infrastructure. – Reuters
Ukraine has agreed with Western partners that any persistent Russian violations of a future ceasefire agreement would trigger a co-ordinated military response from Europe and the U.S., the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people briefed on the discussions. – Reuters
There’s a chance the dreaded buzz of propellers heard on Ukrainian battlefields is coming from drones built in a country with a population of just over a million on Europe’s southeastern fringe: Cyprus. – Associated Press
A Russian drone strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro hit a bus carrying mineworkers and killed at least a dozen people, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday, hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the next round of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations will take place on Wednesday and Thursday. – Associated Press
An influential Russian state television pundit has suggested Russia should target Elon Musk’s satellites in space with nuclear weapons. – Newsweek
Russia earned over $15 billion from arms exports in 2025, supplying military equipment to more than 30 countries despite Western sanctions aimed at isolating Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin announced last week, though questions remain about the number’s validity. – Defense News
Syria
Syrian government security forces deployed in a Kurdish-controlled city in the northeast on Monday, a first step towards implementing a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal that foresees the Kurdish-run regions being merged with Damascus. – Reuters
Hani Al Sawah recently walked the streets of Damascus, Syria’s capital, with wide-eyed excitement. It had been 13 years since the rap artist last was in Syria. – Associated Press
The Syrian militiaman who went viral for allegedly cutting the braid off a female Syrian Democratic Forces fighter he said he killed was arrested by Syrian authorities in Raqqa, according to Kurdish reports on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
Bernard-Henri Lévy writes: And are his Turkish patrons, who orchestrated his rise to power and are today helping him tear our Kurdish friends to pieces, reliable allies within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? I believe not. I have long argued for expelling Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey from the Atlantic alliance, as I wrote in these pages in 2018. The Kurds, by contrast, are loyal, steadfast and heroic allies. History will judge us harshly if we abandon them. – Wall Street Journal
Qanta Ahmed writes: If the Islamists are allowed to capture the Levant and the Middle East, the United States will have abandoned not only the Kurds and the minorities but also any semblance of humanity or moral values. This possibility is causing growing consternation in Washington, suddenly keen to roll back the disaster of these events. Syria, the SDF, the Kurdish nation, and all peoples of Rojava deserve better. They deserve safety, as do Israelis and all residents of the Middle East – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
The deployment of a powerful model of Turkish combat drone to a remote airstrip on Egypt’s southwestern border signals a sharp escalation in Sudan’s civil war, suggesting one of its largest neighbours is being drawn deeper into the fray, more than a dozen officials and regional experts say. – Reuters
Morocco’s energy ministry said on Monday it has paused tenders launched last month for an LNG terminal and related gas pipeline projects, without giving details on the reasons for the suspension. – Reuters
The Middle East does not need another confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, and Tehran needs to reach a nuclear deal with Washington, Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said at a World Governments Summit panel in Dubai. – Reuters
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) denounced the IDF for dropping non-toxic chemical substances near the Blue Line in a Monday statement. – Jerusalem Post
Korean Peninsula
South Korean defence firm Hanwha Aerospace said on Monday that it had won a $922 million contract to supply long-range artillery systems and rockets to Norway. – Reuters
South Korea’s stubbornly low birth rate could force dozens of universities to shutter in the coming years, experts say, as the country faces record-low enrollment at elementary schools. – Newsweek
David Albright and Spencer Faragasso write: Another possible explanation is that each facility is testing completely different nuclear weapons designs, inevitably involving different amounts of high explosives and surrogate cores, such as tests representing different fissile materials (e.g. uranium versus plutonium) or advanced weapon designs. In addition, North Korea may have detonated many near- or full-size surrogate fission devices featuring new types of neutron initiators for use in designs with weapon-grade uranium cores instead of plutonium cores or able to withstand space flight. In sum, depending on the design of the final assembled weapon system, the amount of high explosives can significantly differ, and this could account for the varying sizes in the test craters seen at either site. – Institute for Science and International Security
China
China and Uruguay should work together to advance an “equal and orderly multipolar world”, President Xi Jinping told his counterpart Yamandu Orsi on Tuesday, according to a media pool report. – Reuters
China’s former justice minister Tang Yijun was sentenced by a Chinese court to life in prison on Monday for taking bribes, state broadcaster CCTV reported. – Reuters
Chinese independent refiners are buying discounted Iranian heavy crude to replace Venezuelan shipments that have stalled after the U.S. claimed control of the OPEC producer last month, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Monday. – Reuters
Beijing on Monday criticized the Dalai Lama ’s first Grammy win, describing the music industry award for an audiobook, narration and storytelling as “a tool for anti-China political manipulation.” – Associated Press
China executed four people found guilty of causing the deaths of six Chinese citizens and running scam and gambling operations out of Myanmar worth more than $4 billion, authorities said on Monday. – Associated Press
John Garnaut writes: If Mr. Trump continues with an accommodative approach to China and further destabilizes the U.S.-anchored alliance systems, the strategic consequences two years from now could be profound. With fewer constraints, both internal and external, Mr. Xi would be free to squeeze Taiwan even harder, backed by a regenerated Chinese military leadership that has been conditioned to execute — not question — his orders. – New York Times
South Asia
The U.S. has agreed to reduce tariffs to 18% on India, which in turn will stop buying Russian oil, President Trump said Monday, in a deal aimed at easing trade tensions between the two countries. – Wall Street Journal
Pakistani soldiers were hunting down separatist militants on Monday who stormed schools, banks, and security installations, killing nearly 50 people, in coordinated attacks across southwestern Balochistan province, the military said. – Reuters
A court in Bangladesh on Monday sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to 10 years in prison and her niece Tulip Siddiq, who is a British lawmaker, to four years in two cases involving a government township project near the capital. – Associated Press
Indian refiners are seeking guidance from New Delhi on the future of Russian purchases after President Donald Trump announced the world’s third-largest oil importer would stop taking Moscow’s crude in exchange for lower trade tariffs. – Bloomberg
Pakistan says it has fielded requests for its JF-17 fighter from five countries in recent months — a surge of interest that could overwhelm its capacity to jointly produce the jet with China. – Bloomberg
Asia
The Thai military said on Monday it had recovered a trove of evidence of transnational fraud from a Cambodian scam compound seized during clashes last year between the two countries along their disputed border. – Reuters
Taiwan must look to fellow democracies, not China, for trade and economic cooperation, President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday, as his government mapped out how the island plans to work with the United States on areas like AI and critical minerals. – Reuters
Philippine lawmakers met on Tuesday to decide whether to advance impeachment complaints against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is accused of betraying the public’s trust, corruption and violating the constitution. – Reuters
Kyrgyzstan’s government said on Monday that it is seeking talks with the European Union, after Bloomberg reported last week that the bloc is planning the first-ever use of its anti-sanctions circumvention tool against the Central Asian country. – Reuters
Thailand is holding a general election on February 8 with three parties expected to dominate the contest to decide which will lead the Southeast Asian country’s next government. – Reuters
A year after Vietnam elevated its relations with Washington to the highest diplomatic level, an internal document shows its military was taking steps to prepare for a possible American “war of aggression” and considered the United States a “belligerent” power, according to a report released Tuesday. – Associated Press
The United States and Taiwan are expected to roll out their latest hardware and use elite Taiwanese troops under a joint project to prepare for asymmetric warfare in case the island government’s long-time political rival China attacks, according to military experts. – Defense News
Europe
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is pressuring the U.K.’s former Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson to provide evidence to American authorities over Jeffrey Epstein, after a cache of emails appeared to show that Mandelson leaked confidential British government correspondence to the disgraced financier. – Wall Street Journal
The European Union needs to improve how it tracks supplies of raw materials essential for building batteries and solar panels to address its vulnerability to having access cut off by foreign governments, according to a new report by the bloc’s auditing body. – Wall Street Journal
Britain said on Monday it had expelled a Russian diplomat after summoning the country’s ambassador in what it said was a reciprocal move after Moscow last month expelled a British diplomat, accusing them of being an undeclared spy. – Reuters
Britain’s military bases experienced a doubling of drone incidents last year, highlighting the changing nature of warfare and prompting the government to hand more powers to its forces to protect sites from aerial threats. – Reuters
Britain’s former U.S. ambassador, Peter Mandelson, received money from Jeffrey Epstein and leaked a confidential government briefing to him, newly released files appeared to show, renewing scrutiny of his conduct in public office. – Reuters
Germany has detained five people suspected of operating a network that exported goods to Russian defence companies, contravening European Union sanctions imposed after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, federal prosecutors said on Monday. – Reuters
Portugal’s government approved a 2.5 billion euro ($3.0 billion) package of loans and incentives on Sunday to help people and businesses rebuild after the devastation caused by Storm Kristin, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said. – Reuters
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen warned on Monday that while U.S. President Donald Trump has ruled out military force, Washington still fundamentally seeks to control the Arctic island. – Reuters
The European Union is considering to ban Russian imports of several platinum group metals and copper as part of new sanctions targeting Moscow for its war against Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter. – Bloomberg
Hungary says it has asked the European Union’s top court to annul a new law banning the import of Russian gas into the bloc, filing the challenge within hours of the new law taking effect. – Politico
The European Union is pressing ahead with talks to grant United States border authorities unprecedented access to Europeans’ data, despite growing concerns about American surveillance. – Politico
Poland’s Ministry of National Defence has signed a deal with a consortium comprising Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and Polish state-run defense group PGZ to acquire counter-unmanned aerial systems (CUAS) that will protect the country’s airspace. – Defense News
Domènec Ruiz Devesa and Emiliano Alessandri write: A Europe that can militarily, industrially and politically rely on itself makes a more credible and valuable ally. And the 80-year transatlantic alliance will only endure if the U.S. and Europe strike a new bargain. So, as transatlantic allies grapple with a less straightforward alignment of interests and values, Rutte needs to be promoting a more balanced NATO with a strong European pillar — not undermining it. – Politico
Stavros Papastavrou writes: 2025 may ultimately be seen not only as the year when Europe accelerated its separation from Russian gas, but also as the moment when the transatlantic partnership entered a new phase, defined by long-term strategic vision. The task for 2026 is to turn alignment into durable progress. Greece, the United States, and our European partners must work together, project by project, corridor by corridor—so that the energy connecting our nations secures prosperity and stability for generations to come. – Foreign Policy
Africa
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo will send its first team to monitor a ceasefire between Congo’s government and the AFC/M23 rebel group in the coming days, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Monday after hosting talks in Doha. – Reuters
Islamic State militants set off explosions and roamed freely among passenger planes during an attack at Niger’s main international airport, according to footage distributed by SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist activity worldwide. – Reuters
Nigerian prosecutors filed 57 terrorism-related charges on Monday against nine men accused of carrying out a deadly attack on Yelwata community in Nigeria’s central Benue state in June 2025 that killed about 150 people. – Reuters
At least 80 congregants earlier believed to have been abducted by gunmen from three churches in northern Nigeria last month have returned home, police said on Monday, a claim immediately disputed by the Christian Association of Nigeria. – Reuters
The junta that seized power in Guinea-Bissau in a coup in November has vowed to bring the revolutionary PAIGC party into government and has released its leader, former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, though he remains under house arrest. – Reuters
A white South African separatist group, emboldened by U.S. President Donald Trump’s drive to take over Greenland, has laid claim to land that descendants of Dutch settlers acquired from a Zulu king but later lost to Britain. – Reuters
Gridworks, a British government-owned investor in Africa’s electricity networks, on Monday signed agreements to develop and invest in transmission projects worth around $400 million during a visit by Britain’s foreign minister. – Reuters
The U.S. is mounting an increasing blitz of air attacks and military missions against Islamist terrorists in Somalia to reduce the threat of jihadi attacks on the U.S. homeland. – Fox News
The Americas
As he prepared for his first face-to-face visit with President Trump, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia had been on his best behavior, focused mainly on combating groups involved in the drug trade — Mr. Trump’s stated priority for leaders across Latin America. – New York Times
The almost monthlong disappearance from public view of Bolivia’s towering socialist icon, ex-leader Evo Morales, shortly after the Jan. 3 U.S. seizure of his close ally former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, is alarming his supporters, roiling his enemies and galvanizing the internet. – Associated Press
Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA’s workers and retirees are hoping oil-industry reform sparked by U.S. intervention last month will increase the purchasing power of their eroding wages and pension payments, but their confidence is measured. – Reuters
Venezuela’s government and the U.S. embassy said on Monday that interim President Delcy Rodriguez met with U.S. envoy Laura Dogu, as the two countries gradually resume bilateral relations. – Reuters
Former Peruvian Foreign Minister Augusto Blacker Miller, who was arrested in Brazil in December, died in a prison hospital in Rio de Janeiro late last month, the state penitentiary authority said on Monday. – Reuters
Argentina has no plans to return to international capital markets despite a sharp fall in sovereign yield spreads, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said on Monday, playing down investor speculation that the improving indicators could pave the way for new external financing. – Reuters
The second-in-command of Colombia’s Clan del Golfo crime gang – the country’s largest illegal armed group – Jose Gonzalo Sanchez died when the boat he was traveling in to promote the gang’s peace process with the government capsized in a river in the northwest of the country, according to reports from the illegal armed group and the government. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Mexico would stop sending oil to Cuba as he ramped up a pressure campaign on the Caribbean nation. – Reuters
Cuba and the United States are in communication, a Cuban diplomat told Reuters on Monday, although he said the exchanges have not yet evolved into a formal “dialogue.” – Reuters
The embattled Senate leader of Mexico’s ruling Morena party, Adán Augusto López, stepped down on his own accord, President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters Monday. – Bloomberg
United States
Former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said on Monday that they have agreed to speak with members of the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. – Washington Post
Federal immigration officers in Minneapolis will start wearing body cameras “effective immediately,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said Monday. – Washington Post
President Donald Trump, through an array of allied groups, has stockpiled nearly $400 million, according to the latest campaign finance report, money that he could deploy to boost the campaigns of Republicans in the midterm elections. – Washington Post
President Trump on Monday rolled out a $12 billion initiative aimed a bolstering domestic stockpiles of strategic critical minerals, as the United States looks to reduce its reliance on China for key components of technology that powers cars, computers and phones. – New York Times
A federal judge late on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending a humanitarian protection for more than 350,000 Haitians, who have been able to live and work in the United States under what is known as Temporary Protected Status, or T.P.S. – New York Times
Editorial: The U.S. is far from being sidelined. It remains the world’s largest economy and its biggest consumer market. No serious country is trying to wall itself off from American trade or investment. But they are preparing for a world in which access to the U.S. market can no longer be taken for granted — and in which Washington’s rules, once predictable, can change abruptly. – Washington Post
Eugene Kontorovich writes: Given that the State Department sees some of these organizations as “a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” the administration should make clear to America’s friends and allies that their departure from these organizations will be looked upon favorably. Israel has been a model in this regard, announcing its exit from seven of the same organizations; it is also considering a departure from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Other countries may need some prodding. – Wall Street Journal
Martha Newton and Samir Goswami write: In a world defined by adversarial choke points, the United States should use laws, regulation, intelligence and advanced data analytics to combat forced labor and secure critical mineral supply chains. Done right, this approach directly advances President Trump’s vision of abundant, affordable energy powering global markets, supporting a strong workforce and making America more secure. – Newsweek
Cybersecurity
SpaceX, the rocket and satellite maker led by Elon Musk, said on Monday it had acquired xAI, the artificial intelligence company controlled by Mr. Musk, a sweeping move to consolidate his business empire as it faces questions about the cost of its A.I. ambitions. – New York Times
Waymo, the self-driving taxi company owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, said on Monday that it had raised $16 billion to fuel its plans for global expansion. – New York Times
India is in talks with China-related Ant International to allow digital payments platform Alipay+ to be linked to India’s leading instant payments system for cross-border transactions, two government sources told Reuters. – Reuters
OpenAI is unsatisfied with some of Nvidia’s latest artificial intelligence chips, and it has sought alternatives since last year, eight sources familiar with the matter said, potentially complicating the relationship between the two highest-profile players in the AI boom. – Jerusalem Post
A China-based threat group operating for almost two decades broke into the internal systems of Notepad++, an extremely popular open source-code editor, to spy on a select group of targeted users, researchers at Rapid7 said Monday. – Cyberscoop
Defense
The military’s Northern Command has taken more than 1,500 active-duty troops in Alaska and North Carolina off heightened alert for possible deployment to Minnesota, a U.S. official said on Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. – New York Times
The U.S. Air Force is once again conducting no-notice combat readiness inspections of units, and stresses to commanders that is one of their top priorities, a top service leader said Wednesday. – Defense News
The U.S. Army has stood up a rotational force in the Philippines, according to recently released defense media. Army Rotational Force-Philippines, a previously unknown formation, was revealed for the first time Thursday following a meeting last month between the ground service and Marine Rotational Force-Southeast Asia in Manila. – USNI News
The Senate has confirmed an admiral to serve in a new position to oversee the U.S. submarine production, according to a Friday notification. – USNI News
Heather Williams writes: This new era of arms control requires new thinking, new ideas, and the creativity that the next generation of arms control leaders can bring. At the same time, the lessons learned from treaties like New START, particularly tacit knowledge, should not be lost. To be sure, the end of New START is a moment for reflection on all the treaty achieved and how the strategic landscape has changed since 2010; but it should also be a cue for new thinking on arms control and how it can work in tandem with deterrence in this era of strategic competition. – Center for Strategic and International Studies