Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
House passes bill to impose sanctions on I.C.C. officials for Israeli prosecutions Netanyahu calls meeting to discuss possible third Iran strike Swiss national takes own life in Iran prison, Iranian judge says Iran holds military drills as it faces rising economic pressures and Trump’s return At inflection point, Pentagon chief holds final forum for Ukraine aid Kremlin, on Trump remarks on Greenland and Canada, says Russia has Arctic interests Arab states race Turkey for influence in new Syria Lebanon elects new president in sign of Hezbollah's waning influence JPost Editorial: Now is a critical moment for Lebanon U.S. Ambassador says China is aligned with ‘agents of disorder’ Venezuelan opposition leader is briefly detained as regime tightens crackdown WSJ Editorial: Will the International Criminal Court reap the whirlwind?In The News
Israel
The House on Thursday passed legislation that would impose sanctions on officials at the International Criminal Court, making a frontal assault on the tribunal in a rebuke of its move to charge top Israeli leaders with war crimes for their offensive against Hamas in Gaza. – New York Times
U.S. and Arab mediators have made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, Palestinian sources close to the talks said on Thursday. – Reuters
Palestinian Authority security forces are struggling to win the trust of residents of Jenin as they try to assert control over the city, a historic centre of Islamist militancy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. – Reuters
The Polish government said on Thursday it would ensure free and safe participation in the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp for the highest representatives of Israel. – Reuters
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides held meetings with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed on Thursday, the Cypriot presidency said, discussing with each how to reinforce regional security. – Reuters
A senior Israeli official says the government is working with allies in a renewed push to win the freedom of an Israeli-Russian researcher who is believed to have been kidnapped in Iraq nearly two years ago. – Associated Press
Egypt’s foreign minister met a Palestine Liberation Organization delegation Thursday, calling for “unity” and the strengthening of the Palestinian Authority amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza. – Agence France Presse
IDF troops have been carrying out a large-scale operation in West Bank villages in recent days, targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) battalions funded by Iran. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) killed the commander of Hamas’s “Sabra Battalion,” Osama Abu Namos, during a strike last week, the military announced on Thursday evening. – Jerusalem Post
A resident of Kabul in northern Israel was arrested on suspicion that he had planned to carry out a suicide attack in Israel, the police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Israeli officials are worried Hezbollah might resume fighting once the first phase of the ceasefire ends on January 27, an official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Israel’s air force intercepted three drones apparently launched at the country by Yemen’s Houthis in quick succession on Thursday evening, the military said, marking the first attack in days by the Iran-backed terror group. – Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a discussion on Thursday to evaluate the Israeli military’s preparedness for the possibility of a third attack on Iran. – JNS
Editorial: To Katz, Halevi, and all leaders of Israel’s defense establishment: Grow up. The stakes are too high for division and ego. Israel cannot afford this kind of disunity. Our enemies thrive on our weakness. Leadership must rise above these petty battles and remember the greater goal: ensuring the safety and survival of the State of Israel. – Jerusalem Post
Steven Burg writes: Just as Gerber demonstrated to Congress and received bipartisan support for the Taylor Force Act, so, too, does the Israeli government need to recognize and declare in a unified voice that until the PA takes concrete steps to dismantle its system of rewarding terrorism, any talk of its role in future governance arrangements is a non-starter. – Jerusalem Post
Natan Sharansky writes: But the rest of the free world does have a choice. While international law and institutions were intended to promote peace, they have been co-opted by those who seek the destruction of the Jewish state. If the words “never again” are to mean anything, then, they must mean rejecting this state of affairs. Anything less will return us to the same condition that the post-World War II international order was designed to prevent. – The Free Press
Iran
A Swiss national arrested in Iran and accused of spying took their own life in prison on Thursday, the chief justice of Iran’s Semnan province was quoted as saying by the judiciary news agency Mizan. – Reuters
The United States has not submitted any formal request of extradition for an Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini detained in Milan, Italy’s justice minister said in an interview published on Thursday. – Reuters
Iran is reeling from a cratering economy and stinging military setbacks across its sphere of influence in the Middle East. Its bad times are likely to get worse once President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House with his policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. – Associated Press
A French city on Thursday removed posters depicting Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after Tehran called the images “insulting,” in the latest incident in a period of strained relations between the two countries. – Agence France Presse
Russia & Ukraine
More than two dozen times since Russia’s 2022 invasion, President Joe Biden’s Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin, has gone around the table with his international counterparts to secure weapons needed for Ukraine’s defense. – Washington Post
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sat down for a three-hour, expletive-laden interview with American podcaster Lex Fridman this week as part of a Ukrainian push to use nonmainstream media to reach out to Republican lawmakers and their supporters ahead of Donald Trump’s new term. – Washington Post
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday implored representatives from roughly 50 nations to maintain their military support for Ukraine’s nearly three-year long war with Russia, saying it would “be crazy to drop the ball now.” – New York Times
The Kremlin on Thursday said that Russia had strategic national interests in the Arctic when asked to comment on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks about acquiring Greenland, absorbing Canada and taking control of the Panama Canal. – Reuters
President Joe Biden is expected to unveil new sanctions targeting Russia’s economy this week, according to a U.S. official, as part of measures to bolster Kyiv’s war effort against Moscow before Donald Trump takes office. – Reuters
Russian firefighters were on Thursday still battling a fire reported to have broken out at an oil depot near an air base for strategic bombers in the Volga region, more than 24 hours after a Ukrainian drone attack. – Reuters
A supermarket in the Russian-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine has been struck by the Ukrainian army wounding at least two people, Russia’s TASS state news agency said on Friday. – Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would be talking with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping by phone soon. – Bloomberg
Far from saving money on US weapons that are being provided to Ukraine, a Russian victory in the war would require a surge in Pentagon spending of more than $800 billion through 2029, a conservative think tank argues in a new report. – Bloomberg
Kaush Arha, George Scutaru, and Justina Budginaite-Froehly write: With his focus on business and infrastructure and making America great again, Trump could leverage a free Crimea to transform the region into a future of peace and prosperity backed by American industry and ingenuity. Like President Harry Truman and General George Marshall before him, Trump could leave a legacy of reshaping Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Those who underestimate him—and the potential for such a vision—do so at their peril. – National Interest
Syria
Saudi Arabia and other Arab states are jockeying for influence with Syria’s Islamist government, hoping to gain an advantage on rivals in the strategically positioned country despite misgivings about the jihadist past of its new leaders. – Wall Street Journal
A key dam in northern Syria has become a flash point in the conflict between Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups, which has intensified in the weeks since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive. – Associated Press
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he would travel to Syria on Friday to encourage the country’s transition following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by Islamist insurgents, and appealed on Europe to review its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed. – Associated Press
Some 55 tonnes of EU-funded medical supplies entered northwestern Syria from Turkiye on Thursday, a UN health official said. – Agence France Presse
Thousands of Syrians from ousted President Bashar Assad’s Alawite community mourned on Thursday three civilians killed by foreign Islamist allies of the country’s new authorities, a war monitor and an attendee said. – Agence France Presse
The IDF on Thursday made a surprising announcement that it is continuing some attack missions against Syrian military capabilities and not merely holding onto buffer zones, which it seized in early December when the Assad regime suddenly fell. – Jerusalem Post
Turkey
Turkey is planning to start flights to Syria’s Damascus in the coming days, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Thursday. – Reuters
Turkish officials will tell U.S. Under Secretary of State John Bass during talks in Ankara this week that Syria needs to be rid of terrorist groups to achieve stability and security, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said on Thursday. – Reuters
Turkish police in the southern province of Mersin said they had detained a pro-Kurdish mayor on Friday, along with five other managers of the municipality, as part of a terrorism-related investigation. – Reuters
Lebanon
Lebanon’s Parliament elected a U.S.-trained general as president, ending a two-year vacancy in a sign of Hezbollah’s waning influence following a bruising war with Israel and the weakening of the group’s Iranian patron. – Wall Street Journal
Lebanese government bonds extended their three-month-long rally on Thursday as the crisis-ravaged country’s parliament voted in a new head of state for the first time since 2022. – Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday welcomed the “crucial election” by Lebanese lawmakers of army chief Joseph Aoun as president and said he would soon visit the country. – Agence France Presse
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warmly welcomed the election of Joseph Aoun as Lebanon’s president in a Thursday X/Twitter post. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: If, however, Aoun’s election is merely a return to the status quo – a figurehead president who cannot keep control of the reins of Hezbollah – then there will be little to be optimistic about. This is his opportunity to show the Lebanese people, Hezbollah, Israel, and the wider world that he means business and is serious about improving the fortunes of his country. For Lebanon, this is the chance for a fresh start. – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
Singapore said on Thursday it had detained three men since October last year who were preparing to travel to the Middle East to fight against Israel, and one had expressed willingness to carry out attacks in Singapore if instructed to do so. – Reuters
A defiant Nicolas Sarkozy told a Paris court on Thursday that allegations of illegal Libyan financing of his successful 2007 presidential bid were a “conspiracy” and that not a single cent of Libyan cash would ever be found in his campaign. – Reuters
Morocco received a record 17.4 million tourists in 2024, up 20% compared with previous year, with Moroccans living abroad accounting for nearly half the total, the tourism ministry said on Thursday. – Reuters
An oil tanker that burned for weeks in the Red Sea after being attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and threatening a massive oil spill has been salvaged, a security firm said Friday. – Associated Press
Korean Peninsula
A South Korean marine colonel who faced insubordination and defamation charges after accusing President Yoon Suk Yeol of whitewashing his investigation into a marine’s death was acquitted by a court-martial on Thursday. – New York Times
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s security chief said on Friday the impeached leader, who faces arrest over a criminal probe into his Dec. 3 martial law bid, has been unfairly treated for a sitting leader and warned bloodshed must be avoided. – Reuters
South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok said on Friday the government will make an all-out effort to stabilise the economy and will monitor financial markets around the clock to act if needed. – Reuters
The support rate for South Korea’s main opposition that has been leading the impeachment campaign against President Yoon Suk Yeol dived, as investigators struggle to arrest the embattled leader. – Bloomberg
China
Tension between national-security hawks and the biggest American technology companies over China policy has burst out into the open. – Wall Street Journal
The United States ambassador to China, R. Nicholas Burns, said the Biden administration is making a last push to try to persuade China to stop transferring equipment to Russia for the war in Ukraine. – New York Times
President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration plans to finalize rules next week cracking down on Chinese vehicle software and hardware, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters. – Reuters
Nigeria and China plan to deepen cooperation in areas such as clean energy, defence and finance, with China pledging support for Nigeria’s issuance of Panda bonds to fund infrastructure, the two countries’ foreign ministers said on Thursday. – Reuters
China’s top anti-graft watchdog said on Friday that it had filed more than 4,000 disciplinary cases against officials in 2024, as it attempts to tackle a long-running corruption problem. – Reuters
China’s President Xi Jinping will send a high-level envoy to Donald Trump’s inauguration, in an unprecedented move designed to reduce friction between the countries at the start of the new US administration. – Financial Times
South Asia
India’s new central bank governor Sanjay Malhotra has initiated a review of the Reserve Bank of India’s inflation and growth forecasting tools to minimise projection errors, four sources said. – Reuters
An airstrike by Myanmar’s army on a village under the control of an armed ethnic minority group killed about 40 people and injured at least 20 others, officials of the group and a local charity said Thursday. They said hundreds of houses burned in a fire triggered by the bombing. – Associated Press
Pakistani security forces recovered at least eight out of 16 mine workers who were kidnapped by militants in the country’s restive northwest Thursday morning, police and two security officials said. – Associated Press
James Durso writes: It is time for diplomacy, which will be difficult given the Taliban’s need to manage a complicated internal situation caused by the presence of ISIS-K, al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. […] The Taliban appeared to welcome Trump’s return when an Islamic Emirate spokesman said Kabul hoped the incoming administration “will take realistic steps toward concrete progress in relations between the two countries and both nations will be able to open a new chapter of relations.” – The Hill
Asia
The 1980s economic vibes are back. Japanese stocks scaled new heights in 2024. And the U.S. just stopped a Japanese acquisition of an American industrial icon on national-security grounds. – Wall Street Journal
Armenia’s government on Thursday gave approval to a bill that calls for the country, once part of the Soviet Union, to launch a bid to join the European Union. – Reuters
Taiwan’s navy simulated on Thursday an effort to see off enemy ships as it wrapped up three days of New Year drills, sending two of its newest and most advanced warships to lead a flotilla into the Taiwan Strait. – Reuters
A U.N. committee found that Australia violated a human rights treaty by detaining a group of asylum seekers, including minors, on the remote Pacific island of Nauru even after they were granted refugee status, it said in a statement on Thursday. – Reuters
A synagogue in Sydney was daubed in antisemitic graffiti on Friday, police said, the latest in a spate of incidents targeting Jews in Australia. – Reuters
A prominent Vietnamese lawyer went on trial Thursday for Facebook posts that allegedly criticized the country’s former top judge, in a case that human rights groups said could have a chilling effect on expression in the country. – Associated Press
As Elon Musk and Argentina’s Javier Milei champion ambitious plans to dramatically slash the size of government, a similar effort is getting underway across the globe from political leaders with a completely different ideology: Vietnam’s Communist Party. – Bloomberg
Around half a million members of an influential Philippine religious group are set to hold a rally in the capital on Monday, police said, to oppose moves in Congress to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte. – Bloomberg
Europe
Tech billionaire Elon Musk tested the boundaries of foreign election interference on Thursday, hosting Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), on his social media platform six weeks before Germans head to the polls. – Washington Post
Talks to form a coalition government led by Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) will begin on Friday, the party said on Thursday, as thousands protested in Vienna against the prospect of the country’s first FPO-led government. – Reuters
Peter Magyar, the opposition challenger to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, told Reuters he would keep Hungary firmly anchored in the European Union and NATO if he wins elections due in early 2026 and would strive for “pragmatic relations” with Russia. – Reuters
Slovakia is weighing retaliation against Ukraine including withholding aid if a solution is not found to Kyiv’s decision to shut off Russian gas, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday after talks with EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen. – Reuters
The head of the European Space Agency dismissed concerns on Thursday that cooperation in Europe is dwindling as Italy charts its own course on rocket operations and weighs a potential agreement with Elon Musk’s Starlink on satellites. – Reuters
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders closest to Donald Trump, said on Thursday she believed the U.S. president-elect would defend Western interests once he took office and would not abandon Ukraine. – Reuters
Ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday an allies’ group aimed at speeding arms to Ukraine was best kept under U.S. leadership but would adapt if Washington changes its involvement. – Reuters
Denmark acknowledged on Thursday it had long neglected the defence of Greenland, a vast and strategically important Arctic island, after President-elect Donald Trump said acquiring the Danish sovereign territory was vital for U.S. security. – Reuters
Leaders of rival communities in Cyprus will meet on Jan. 20 to discuss opening new crossing points on the ethnically-split island, diplomats and officials said on Friday. – Reuters
As they plied the gray, icy waters of the Baltic Sea west of Russia on Thursday, the crew of the Estonian minehunter EML Sakala kept a careful eye on any vessels slowing down suspiciously or suddenly changing course. – Associated Press
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is trying to schedule a meeting with Donald Trump in Florida ahead of the president-elect’s inauguration, according to two people familiar with the matter. – Bloomberg
Support for joining the European Union is increasing in Iceland after the nation’s new government said it plans to hold a referendum on re-engaging in membership talks. – Bloomberg
Editorial: The resurfacing of this scandal is no doubt deeply uncomfortable for the British political class, especially for those who looked the other way as innocent children were preyed upon. History has given Keir Starmer an opportunity to make a real difference. He should seize it to ensure such a tragedy never happens again. The cause could hardly be more urgent, and the victims deserve no less. – Bloomberg
Africa
President Biden’s decision to accuse a Sudanese paramilitary group of genocide in the final days of his administration drew criticism as too little too late, with tens of thousands of people already dead after 20 months of fighting in the East African country. – Wall Street Journal
The young West African students touched down in what was then the Soviet Union knowing only a handful of Russian words and little about their new home. – Washington Post
Mozambique opposition leader Venancio Mondlane returned home on Thursday, after fleeing in the days following a hotly contested October election that sparked demonstrations in which scores of protesters have been killed. – Reuters
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said on Thursday he would like to continue serving his country as president but emphasised that his party had not yet made a formal decision on its candidate for this year’s election. – Reuters
Benin’s armed forces have suffered heavy losses in an attack on one of their most well-equipped positions in the north, where troops are trying to curb cross-border assaults by Islamist militants, the national guard’s chief of staff said on Thursday. – Reuters
Ghana’s new government could seek extra funding from the International Monetary Fund during its current, three-year programme with the lender in order to cushion the economy, finance minister designate Cassiel Ato Forson said on Thursday. – Reuters
Congo on Thursday banned Al Jazeera satellite news network over its interview with the leader of a violent rebel group that has seized territory in the country’s east in recent days. – Associated Press
Another senior member of South Africa’s leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party has quit, dealing it a further blow following election losses and high-profile departures last year. – Bloomberg
The Americas
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was briefly detained on Thursday by the regime of President Nicolás Maduro after she emerged from months in hiding to rally the opposition against his planned inauguration to a third six-year term. – Wall Street Journal
The last time the U.S. seriously floated the idea of taking over Canada, it was 1866, and the dust had just settled on the Civil War. Still angry that the English tried to help the Confederacy, a U.S. politician introduced a bill in the House of Representatives calling for the annexation of British North America. – Wall Street Journal
Even in authoritarian Venezuela, where Nicolás Maduro’s government has made thousands of politically motivated arrests over the past decade, human rights activists said they have never seen anything like the current wave of disappearances. – Washington Post
Pierre Poilievre, the man who is the favorite to become Canada’s next leader, has painted his country as “broken” and ridden with “crime and chaos.” He has derided Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “wacko” and his ministers as “crazy,’’ “disastrous,” “incompetent and discredited.” – New York Times
Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party said late on Thursday it will choose a new leader on March 9 ahead of the 2025 elections for which polls show the party in a very weak position. – Reuters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed U.S. tariffs on Canadian products in a meeting with American business leaders on Thursday, saying the step would have “negative impacts” on both countries. – Reuters
Guyana said Thursday that it will seek help from the United Nations’ top court to deter plans by neighboring Venezuela to elect a governor to rule its western Essequibo region, an area rich in resources long claimed by Venezuela as its own. – Associated Press
Kristina Foltz writes: The stakes are high; thousands of protesters have been killed or injured by security forces. Opposition party leaders remain under siege by regime forces as they shelter in the Argentine embassy. Now is the precise time for the world to ramp up pressure on Nicolas Maduro to accept defeat and liberate Venezuela from tyranny. Such a prospect shines a beacon of hope on the entire hemisphere. – The Hill
David Harsanyi writes: At the General Assembly, Milei derided the United Nations and promised that Argentina would drop its longtime neutrality on international matters, backing nations in the same fight. Argentina instantly became one of Israel’s greatest supporters in that corrupt institution. […] His success, on the other hand, is no miracle. Free markets work. – New York Post
United States
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris canceled her upcoming trip to Singapore, Bahrain and Germany due to the ongoing wildfires in California, the White House said on Thursday after President Joe Biden made a similar decision a day earlier. – Reuters
Two massive wildfires menacing Los Angeles from the east and west devoured nearly 10,000 homes and other structures, burning into a third night on Thursday even as the fierce winds eased and gave firefighters a welcome but temporary respite. – Reuters
Republican Vice President-elect JD Vance said on Thursday he will resign from his U.S. Senate seat from Ohio at midnight ahead of his inauguration later this month. – Reuters
The Biden administration succeeded Thursday in temporarily blocking accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from entering a guilty plea in a deal that would spare him the risk of execution for al-Qaida’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. – Associated Press
President-elect Donald Trump urged Venezuela not to harm opposition leader María Corina Machado after she was briefly arrested on Thursday, in his first public comments on the country’s disputed election. – Bloomberg
Relatives of the seven American-Israeli hostages still held in Gaza will attend the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, amid high hopes that tough talk from the incoming leader will help push a long-sought deal for their freedom past the finish line. – Times of Israel
Two American-Israeli dual citizens filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Thursday after they faced sanctions meant to apply to “foreign persons” who engaged in extremism in the West Bank. – Jewish Insider
Editorial: There’s also the problem of withering defense-industrial capacity. Europe has struggled to produce the ammunition it has committed to Ukraine, and the U.S. faces manufacturing backlogs and bottlenecks replenishing its own arsenals. If Mr. Trump is serious on a higher spending target for NATO, the U.S. should lead the way. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: That’s what The Hague really fears, but Republicans have made concessions to the reality: Democrats indulge institutions that pay lip service to the dream of international cooperation, no matter how anti-American they are. This sanctions bill is near the floor, not the ceiling, of what the U.S. could do to resist the ICC. Senate Democrats have run out of excuses for leaving Americans and Israelis at risk. – Wall Street Journal
Hal Brands writes: None of this would immediately rupture the Eurasian axis: The United States and its allies face another protracted clash for supremacy with another autocratic coalition. But it is essential to strengthen the ramparts of an embattled international order and, eventually, help America prevail in the grand Eurasian struggle that is once more underway. – Washington Post
Cybersecurity
The founder of the website used by Dominique Pelicot to invite dozens of men to rape his wife after he’d drugged her was indicted on Thursday in France on myriad charges, including some related to that case. – New York Times
A year after a series of vulnerabilities impacting a pair of Ivanti VPN products prompted an emergency directive from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to federal agencies, the Utah-based software firm is again experiencing issues with one of its signature systems. – CyberScoop
The Federal Communications Commission is tightening up reporting requirements that are meant to prove agencies are cracking down on robocalling and phone number spoofing. – CyberScoop
A group of hackers with unknown ties has claimed responsibility for breaching a Russian government agency, Rosreestr, which is responsible for managing property and land records. – The Record
Catherine Thorbecke writes: For Jakarta, there’s a limit to how many more victories it can eke out by holding its vast consumer base hostage from tech companies or forcing businesses into decisions that don’t make economic sense. Reaching a truce with Apple would signal to the world that it’s an attractive destination for firms looking for an alternative to China. – Bloomberg
Defense
Departing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spurns criticism from President-elect Donald Trump — and from Trump’s choice to replace him — that the American military has become too “woke,” and champions the value of diversity policies that the next administration wants to scrap. – Bloomberg
York Space Systems and SpaceX, two companies building satellites for the Space Development Agency’s megaconstellation, recently demonstrated the ability to connect two of their on-orbit spacecraft through a laser link. – Defense News
The Navy’s next-generation aerial jamming system reached initial operational capability in December, according to the sea service. – DefenseScoop
James Stavridis writes: The US has tried occasionally over the past 150 years to purchase Greenland. (And America has bought land from Denmark: what are now the US Virgin Islands, in 1917.) But the idea of buying huge chunks of territory from other countries is no longer viable. So, let’s try Plan B: working with Denmark on integrating Greenland’s economic, defense and diplomatic needs with our own. – Bloomberg