Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Biden administration agrees to ship 500-pound bombs to Israel Israel calls on civilians to leave Gaza city after deadly strike on school building in south Israeli military says it strikes Syrian army targets on Golan Heights WaPo’s David Ignatius: A Gaza cease-fire agreement appears within reach WSJ Editorial: Where’s the report to congress on Iran’s nuclear program? First F-16 jet fighters on their way to Ukraine, U.S. and allies say Russia recruits sympathizers online for sabotage in Europe, officials say Lebanon's Hezbollah chief: Hamas negotiates on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance South Korea to deploy 'starwars' laser weapons targeting North Korean drones For first time, NATO accuses China of supplying Russia’s attacks on Ukraine Modi’s embrace of Putin irks Biden team pushing support for Kyiv This alliance united West Africa for decades. Now countries are backing out.In The News
Israel
The U.S. will soon begin shipping to Israel the 500-pound bombs that the Biden administration had previously suspended, ending a two-month pause it had imposed in a bid to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza, U.S. officials said. – Wall Street Journal
The Israeli military issued a sweeping call for residents of Gaza City to leave the area after days of punishing airstrikes across the enclave, moves that indicate Israel’s high-intensity campaign against Hamas isn’t over even as the risk of full-scale war with Hezbollah militants grows on its northern border with Lebanon. – Wall Street Journal
A backlog of 1,150 truckloads of humanitarian aid is waiting to be collected from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, Israel said on Wednesday, prompting the United Nations to say: “We’re doing what we can.” – Reuters
The United States was “cautiously optimistic” about Gaza ceasefire talks, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told CNN on Wednesday, adding that gaps between the two sides could be narrowed. – Reuters
Israel and the United States agree on the importance of seizing the opportunity for a Gaza ceasefire deal but challenges remain, Israel’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday after its minister, Yoav Gallant, met U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk. – Reuters
Israeli tanks and artillery on Wednesday struck Syrian army targets that had violated the 1974 demilitarisation deal in the area of the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said. – Reuters
The window for US President Joe Biden’s administration to broker a long-sought normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia before the November presidential election has closed, a Democratic lawmaker and a senior Republican Senate aide told The Times of Israel on Wednesday. – Times of Israel
Israel has been advised that establishing a state commission of inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by the military during the ongoing war against terror group Hamas in Gaza would help prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, Kan news reported Wednesday. – Times of Israel
Terrorists threw three firebombs on Wednesday evening towards the vehicle of a woman who was driving with her seven children near the community of Ateret, located in the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. – Arutz Sheva
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi spoke on Wednesday at the graduation ceremony of the National Security College and said that a deal that would see the release of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza “embodies the basic values required for an exemplary society and a society that values life.” – Arutz Sheva
Soldiers of the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit encountered a terrorist cell and engaged them in close-quarters combat. During the battle, the soldiers directed a drone and identified two armed terrorists hiding among the rubble. The terrorists tried to shoot at the drone and were eliminated by tank fire. – Arutz Sheva
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the majority of Hamas terrorists in Gaza have been killed or injured during the nine months of the war against Hamas. – Arutz Sheva
David Ignatius writes: The Gaza war has been a nightmare for all the combatants — starting with the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack through to a shattering Israeli retaliatory campaign that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. It was a searing test, too, for Biden, who tried to be Israel’s stalwart ally even as he clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war’s civilian toll. “Every war must end,” as strategist Fred Iklé wrote about Vietnam. Gaza isn’t over. But as one White House official put it late Wednesday: “fingers crossed. – Washington Post
Iran
Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned against the dangerous activity of Iran and China, as he held a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s summit in Washington. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: News reports have said the U.S. opposed the IAEA’s censure before finally going along with the Europeans. The White House has also failed to help the public understand Iran’s role as the head of the terrorist hydra of proxy militias behind the war in Gaza, Houthi attacks on commercial shipping, and attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq, Syria and Jordan – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Considering that Avril Haines, the US Director of National Intelligence, said on Monday that in recent weeks “Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years,” Khamenei’s words take on new meaning. Khamenei was essentially praising the fruits of his own handiwork. – Jerusalem Post
Holly Dagres writes: Even if the president-elect is able to deliver on his agenda — which would happen only with the blessing of the supreme leader — he is unlikely to satisfy those Iranians who already see the Islamic Republic as irredeemable. This is especially true of Nasleh Zed, who will not easily forget the faces of those killed and brutalized by the state over the years. To them, as long as an octogenarian cleric and his allies continue to rule over their country, Iran can’t be free. – New York Times
Hamidreza Azizi writes: To equip their militaries to respond quickly to asymmetric naval threats in the future, European governments must increase the number of forward-deployed vessels in their fleets and improve logistical support. As Iran’s maritime forward defense takes shape, the United States and its allies need to be prepared. Iran’s strategy is designed to be nimble, allowing it to raise the stakes of regional conflict and to threaten U.S. interests in many places at once. Washington will need to draw on the full range of its diplomatic and military tools in order to deny Tehran the advantage it seeks at sea. – Foreign Affairs
Arash Azizi writes: Lenin once admonished that those who want obedience will get only obedient fools as followers. Khamenei never heeded that warning. Time and again, he pushed out independent-minded but impressive figures in favor of obedient fools. As he looks at the ragtag team of tinfoil-hat conspiracists and dour fundamentalists that surrounds him today, he must be somewhat embarrassed. Just five years ago, on the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, he spoke of cultivating a government dominated by “devout young revolutionaries.” By opening up the political space to technocrats and centrists, he is perhaps admitting the defeat of that dream. – The Atlantic
Russia & Ukraine
The Excalibur artillery round performed wonders when it was introduced into the Ukrainian battlefield in the summer of 2022. Guided by GPS, the shells hit Russian tanks and artillery with surgical precision, as drones overhead filmed the resulting fireballs. That didn’t last.. – Wall Street Journal
More than a year after President Biden vowed to provide F-16 jet fighters to Ukraine, the first planes are being delivered, boosting Kyiv’s capability to shoot down Russian missiles and attack its ground forces. – Wall Street Journal
Britain’s new Labour government will make supporting Ukraine’s war against Russia a top international priority, the country’s incoming defense chief said, as he takes on a mission to counter Kremlin adventurism and bolster British military might at a time of fiscal constraints. – Washington Post
Europe has in the months since been grappling with a rapid increase in Moscow-led sabotage attacks or plots as Russia turns its focus to increasing the cost of Western support for Ukraine. – Washington Post
Russia has designated the Moscow Times, a leading English-language media outlet focused on covering Russia, an “undesirable organization,” effectively banning its operations within the country and exposing anyone collaborating with it to potential criminal charges. – Washington Post
The United States and its NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine should have an “irreversible” path to membership in the alliance, enshrining the phrase in a document that was released on Wednesday during the alliance’s summit in Washington. – New York Times
A lawyer for the jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza said his client is in “stable” health after being moved to a Russian prison hospital last week without explanation and out of contact for six days. – New York Times
Ukrainian air force said Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and six Shahed drones in an attack on Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday. – Reuters
Norway will donate six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help it in defense efforts against Russian air attacks, the Norwegian government said in a statement on Wednesday as NATO leaders attended a summit in Washington. – Reuters
Russia said on Wednesday that its military was still working to create a “buffer zone” in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region but this would take time. – Reuters
Leading figures in Russian artistic and intellectual circles have expressed shock and dismay after a theatre director and playwright were jailed for six years on charges of “justifying terrorism”. – Reuters
Ukraine’s top prosecutor accused Russian forces on Wednesday of killing two Ukrainian servicemen who were captured in June in the partially-occupied southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. – Reuters
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto during talks in Washington on Wednesday that any initiatives to try to put an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine should not be based on Russian narratives. – Reuters
Thousands of Ukraine’s deadliest weapons were made on the top three floors of a residential high-rise in Kyiv. The space, which used to be an office for an IT company, contained workstations littered with quadcopters in various stages of assembly, accompanied by clusters of electronic components and circuit boards strewn about the desktops. – Bloomberg
Russia has promised to discharge Indian nationals who were “misled” into joining its army to fight in Ukraine, India’s foreign secretary said Tuesday. – CNN
Adrian Bonenberger writes: The next step in making Ukraine resilient against Russian attacks depends partly on weapons and air defense systems against missiles, and partly on getting homes and communities the energy they need before winter sets in. This could be a boon for U.S. and European manufacturers of home batteries, and of solar panel arrays made in the U.S. and in Europe. Right now, China has an iron grip on this market and is uninclined, for reasons of their own, to assist the Ukrainians. – The Hill
Andrei Kolesnikov writes: In the late twentieth century, Moscow’s militarization of the economy and belief in the magical power of massive state investment helped precipitate the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thus far, Putin has avoided the same kind of fate for today’s Russia by maintaining the remnants of an open market and keeping his financial agencies in technocratic hands. But now that old-school economists are leading the military parades, it is unclear how long this economic rationalism can continue to survive. – Foreign Affairs
Hezbollah
A few weeks before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, a senior White House official visited eastern Lebanon for a sightseeing trip that doubled as a dramatic political statement. The official, Amos Hochstein, one of President Biden’s most trusted national security advisers, toured the ancient ruins of Baalbek in an area well known as a stronghold of Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group sponsored by Iran. – New York Times
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Hamas was conducting Gaza ceasefire talks with Israel on behalf of the entire “Axis of Resistance” and, if a deal was reached, Hezbollah would stop its operations with no need for separate talks. – Reuters
Now, Israel has considerable air defenses, but a new war could mean thousands of missiles fired daily at Israel that would strain — and possibly overrun — them. Today, Hezbollah is believed to have an arsenal of more than 150,000 missiles, including long-range and precision-guided ones that could reach deep into Israel. – Bloomberg
Italy is working to clinch a land border agreement between Lebanon and Israel in an effort to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, according to Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. – Bloomberg
Turkey
Turkey is seeking an explanation from Saudi Arabia after Saudi police detained a Turkish journalist over alleged comments he made about the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Turkish diplomatic source said. – Reuters
The extremist Kurdish Islamist party in Turkey proposed a bill in parliament on Tuesday that would revoke the citizenship of Turkish nationals who served in the Israeli military in Gaza and allow for the confiscation of their assets. – Times of Israel
The Prime Minister’s Office is advancing an embargo on the import of goods from Turkey, according to Hebrew media reports on Wednesday – Times of Israel
Middle East & North Africa
More than 80 lawyers, academics and activists in the United Arab Emirates who had been convicted in shadowy national security trials years ago, after they had called for political reforms, had expected to soon be released from prison as, one by one, their sentences expired. – New York Times
Morocco plans to acquire a spy satellite from Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) in a $1 billion deal, Moroccan media reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
Heading for Turkey to the north and Iran to the east, hundreds of oil tankers snake each day from near Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, clogging the Iraqi region’s often winding and mountainous highways. The tankers are the most visible aspect of a massive operation to truck oil from the semi-autonomous region of Iraq to Iran and Turkey in murky, off-the-books transactions that have boomed since an official export pipeline closed last year. – Reuters
Libya’s eastern-based parliament approved what it called an additional budget of 88 billion Libyan dinars ($18.3 billion) on Wednesday to its appointed government for the rest of the current year, the parliament spokesman said. – Reuters
The United Nations Libya mission (UNSMIL) called on Wednesday on Libyan authorities to free political activist Al-Moatassim Al-Areebi and to end arbitrary detentions. – Reuters
An Iraqi court issued a death sentence against a wife of the late Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, for working with the group and detaining Yazidi women in her home, the Iraqi judiciary said on Wednesday without naming the woman. – Reuters
An aid group that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean says one of its missions was interrupted by armed bandits who boarded the overloaded smugglers’ boat and sped away with it after the migrants threw themselves into the sea. – Associated Press
Regular flights between the Syrian capital of Damascus and Saudi Arabia resumed Wednesday for the first time in more than a decade as part of a thaw in relations between the countries, Syrian state media reported. – Associated Press
A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a Liberian-flagged tanker in the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday, as authorities acknowledged the rebels launched their longest-range attack yet on a U.S.-flagged vessel near the Arabian Sea. – Associated Press
Korean Peninsula
South Korea will deploy laser weapons to shoot down North Korean drones this year, becoming the world’s first country to deploy and operate such weapons in the military, the country’s arms procurement agency said on Thursday. – Reuters
Hedge funds hunting for artificial intelligence-related stock market bargains are rushing into South Korea’s chipmakers, betting a new wave of demand for high-end memory chips and government spending makes them more valuable. – Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister has lambasted Seoul and Washington over recent military exercises near the North-South border and warned the allies have “crossed the red line.” – Newsweek
China
After decades of viewing China as a distant threat, NATO on Wednesday accused Beijing of becoming “a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” and demanded that it halt shipments of “weapons components” and other technology critical to the rebuilding of the Russian military. – New York Times
Taiwan defence ministry said on Thursday it was closely watching Chinese military movements after a surge in warplanes joined drills with China’s Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific. – Reuters
The NATO summit in Washington’s planned statement is full of “belligerent rhetoric” and the China-related content has provocations and lies, a spokesperson for the Chinese mission to the European Union said. – Reuters
The launch of a Hyperbola-1 rocket developed by China’s private aerospace company i-Space failed on Thursday, the official Xinhua news agency said. – Reuters
China sent a record number of warplanes across a US-drawn boundary in the Taiwan Strait — a move that comes as the new president of the archipelago mulls a trip that may include a stop in America. – Bloomberg
Michael Schuman writes: So far, Xi has been unwilling to temper his government’s xenophobic rhetoric or rein in his security state to avoid such geopolitical fallout. He appears to believe he can erect barriers that protect his political interests but permit the foreign capital and technology China still needs. From outside, however, China appears to be sinking into isolation and paranoia that endanger the country’s future. Xi is building walls when he should be building trust. – The Atlantic
South Asia
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the war in Ukraine on Wednesday with the leader of Austria, an ally of Kyiv that has a policy of military neutrality, emphasizing the need for diplomacy a day after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. – Associated Press
Pakistan will extend expired registration cards given to almost 1.5 million Afghans for a year, the prime minister said on Wednesday, after the U.N. refugee commissioner asked for a pause in the country’s plan to repatriate refugees. – Reuters
Pakistan has authorised its army-run spy agency to tap telephone calls and messages, strengthening its key role in the politics of the nation, as opposition politicians and social media users voiced concerns over potential misuse or privacy violations – Reuters
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s embrace of Vladimir Putin on the eve of President Joe Biden’s pivotal NATO summit in Washington has frustrated US officials who have made closer ties with the Asian nation a cornerstone of their foreign policy. – Bloomberg
Asia
A Japanese navy destroyer made a rare entry into China’s territorial waters near Taiwan earlier this month without notifying China and sparking “serious concerns” from Beijing, Japanese media outlets reported late on Wednesday. – Reuters
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shared concerns over growing ties between Russia and North Korea and agreed to continue their security cooperation, according to a statement from Yoon’s office on Thursday. – Reuters
Thailand’s Election Commission on Wednesday endorsed 200 new senators who will replace a military-appointed upper house, revealing a new legislative body that analysts say could make it harder for the embattled ruling Pheu Thai party to govern. – Reuters
The Philippines Air Force arrived in northern Australia on Wednesday on its first overseas deployment in six decades for combat practice alongside U.S. and Australian fighter jets, amid a rise in tensions with China in the South China Sea. – Reuters
India has no right to carry out development in the area China calls South Tibet, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday in response to a Reuters report on New Delhi’s plans to speed up hydropower projects in the border state. – Reuters
China and Bangladesh are reaffirming their ties during a visit by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Beijing on Wednesday as tensions rise in the region over territorial disputes and resources. – Associated Press
Europe
Now the votes are in, and France is saddled with the most divided National Assembly in the history of its modern republic. After taking a few days to ponder this outcome, Macron broke his silence on Wednesday with a public letter that called for yet another period of national soul-searching—this time to identify principles that might guide the new lawmakers. – Wall Street Journal
The French government has put thousands of homeless immigrants on buses and sent them out of Paris ahead of the Olympics. The immigrants said they were promised housing elsewhere, only to end up living on unfamiliar streets far from home or flagged for deportation. – New York Times
Poland needs to prepare its soldiers for all-out conflict, its armed forces chief of staff said on Wednesday, as the country boosts the number of troops on its border with Russia and Belarus. – Reuters
The European Commission on Wednesday said it welcomed the one year extension roaming between the European Union and Ukraine has been extended for another year – Reuters
Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Wednesday hailed the special relationship between the UK and U.S. at his first one-on-one meeting with President Joe Biden, where the two also celebrated England’s soccer win in the semi-finals of Euro 2024. – Reuters
The pending NATO summit statement in Washington will include an intention to bolster air defences along the eastern flank of the alliance, Romania’s president said on Wednesday. – Reuters
The passage of trucks over the border into Poland from Belarus has been slowed by new sanctions, a Polish customs spokesperson said on Wednesday, after Minsk said Warsaw had stopped allowing lorries to cross. – Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday he will wait for the country’s political parties to build a “Republican” majority at the National Assembly before he can decide on a new prime minister, after no party won a majority in Sunday’s legislative elections. – Associated Press
Editorial: Critics may not like it, and Mr. Farage is complaining that Britain’s system is “unfair.” But as with America’s Electoral College, first-past-the-post helps provide a majority that can govern. The reminder to the victors is that in a democracy you govern on borrowed time. The message to insurgents is that anger isn’t enough to win. Challengers need to invest the hard work and time of building broader coalitions in enough geographic areas to win seats in addition to votes. Ms. Le Pen is getting better at this, which explains her party’s steady gains, and now it’s Mr. Farage’s turn to try. – Wall Street Journal
Lionel Laurent writes: The longer this mess drags on, the greater the risk of lost growth, lost investment and lost faith in democracy — all good news for Le Pen, who is biding her time and who clearly remains the politician to beat in 2027 even as she faces a new campaign-finance probe. France has a huge task addressing issues like productivity, purchasing power, demographic decline and the bloated size of its state. No one person can lead France out of its crisis — and maybe, for a while, that’s no bad thing. – Bloomberg
Tom Rogan writes: The Polish army is designed and increasingly equipped to deliver penetrating maneuver warfare in mass and at scale. As such, it would constitute the U.S. Army’s primary ground combat partner in any war in Europe. At the start and at the finish, it would primarily be the Polish and U.S. armies breaking Russian lines and annihilating their formations with aggression and effect. In other words, it would be Polish and American soldiers doing the winning. – Washington Examiner
Matthias Matthijs writes: Regardless of who is in the White House come January 2025, there is sure to be more, not less, transatlantic discord over trade, industrial policy, and defense. The EU faces pressure to do more on all fronts. That would have been a daunting challenge for the EU, even with France and Germany leading the charge. But with Paris and Berlin now locked in major domestic battles, it will be an even steeper hill to climb. – Foreign Affairs
Ilan Berman writes: The second problem plaguing the Alliance is the trajectory of its only Middle Eastern member, Turkiye. During the decades of the Cold War, Turkiye played an indispensable role in safeguarding the bloc’s southeastern flank against Soviet encroachment. But in the post-Cold War era, shifting policies on the part of the country’s long-serving strongman, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have made Turkiye the Alliance’s most grudging member—and arguably its weakest strategic link. Today, it’s easy to forget that NATO cohesion was sorely tested by Ankara’s policies in the not-so-distant past. – American Foreign Policy Council
Africa
Three West African countries have broken away from a 15-member regional bloc that has long ensured free movement of people and goods among its tightly knit economies, further destabilizing an area that is home to nearly 400 million people and threatened by violent insurgents. – New York Times
Rwanda does not have to repay the hundreds of millions of pounds it received from Britain as part of a contentious policy aimed at sending migrants on a one-way flight to the Central African nation, two senior Rwandan government officials say. – New York Times
South Sudan peace talks that almost reached completion faced a stumbling block with opposition groups demanding a newly passed bill allowing the detention of people without an arrest warrant scratched out in order to sign a proposed agreement. – Associated Press
Between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwanda government forces are deployed in neighboring eastern Congo, operating alongside the M23 rebel group which has been making major advances, U.N. experts said in a report circulated Wednesday. – Associated Press
Rwandan President Paul Kagame is expected to cruise to a fourth term in office in an election on Monday against two opposition candidates who were cleared to run against him but have only modest expectations. – Reuters
Mali’s ruling military junta and Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom signed three cooperation deals and discussed projects including a Russian-designed low-power nuclear power plant, Rosatom said on Wednesday. – Reuters
A South African soldier, who was part of a United Nations peacekeeping force in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, died on Monday when a hand grenade exploded close to his sleeping quarters, South Africa’s military said. – Reuters
Gordon G. Chang writes: This is a moment when America can make headway on the continent, because African leaders are also upset about China’s unfulfilled pledges, such as those made by Xi Jinping in Johannesburg last August. China’s economy is stumbling, which means Beijing is stretched for funds to complete Belt and Road infrastructure projects. Chinese investment in the continent is up post-COVID, but there will be a turning point soon, as there has already been a falloff in public-sector investment and public-sector lending. – The Hill
Latin America
The human rights organization Cristosal said Wednesday that at least 261 people have died in prisons in El Salvador during President Nayib Bukele’s 2 1/2-year-old crackdown on street gangs. – Associated Press
Colombian warlord Salvatore Mancuso on Wednesday was released from prison in the South American country after repeatedly asking the courts to approve his freedom and promising to collaborate in the government’s rapprochement with illegal armed groups. – Associated Press
After 25 years of politically authoritarian and economically ruinous rule under Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela is heading toward a critical July 28 national election. Against all odds, a resurgent opposition could threaten the regime’s hold on power. But it is possible that Mr. Maduro will cling to office through fraud or force. Everything must be done to ensure he does not — and that voters make the most of this opportunity to restore freedom and democracy. – Washington Post
North America
Canada, looking to shore up its defense of the Arctic, is moving ahead to acquire up to 12 submarines and has started a formal process to meet with manufacturers, the defense ministry said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Mexican navy officials running the country’s biggest port are increasingly concerned about the rising flows of unregulated “dual use” chemicals used to produce synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl, four Navy officials told Reuters. – Reuters
The Biden administration took steps on Wednesday to prevent China from circumventing American tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum by routing those imports through Mexico. – New York Times
Editorial: Yet to Mr. Trudeau the Arctic might as well be the Indian Ocean. Europe slept even as Vladimir Putin rearmed and threatened Ukraine. Canada is still sleeping, and if it doesn’t meet its alliance obligations, it will have no cause to complain if the alliance wonders if the country should remain a member. – Wall Street Journal
Alexander B. Gray writes: Canadians have fought and died alongside American servicemen and women in two world wars and throughout the Cold War and its aftermath. The bonds of friendship and strategic alignment between Ottawa and Washington run deep. Yet the current trajectory of Canadian strategic and defense priorities is forcing an abrupt rupture with both NATO and the United States. Without an urgent refocus on its multilateral and bilateral defense commitments, Ottawa risks undermining the basis of the trans-Atlantic defense partnership and U.S. homeland defense. NATO leaders have an obligation to speak out strongly in support of a change in course. – The National Interest
United States
The U.S. may need to take further and “more creative” actions beyond tariffs to protect U.S. industries and workers against China’s growing excess industrial capacity, the U.S. Treasury’s top economic diplomat said on Wednesday. – Reuters
The United Arab Emirates deported a student who wore a Palestinian-style keffiyeh scarf and shouted “Free Palestine!” as he crossed the stage to receive his diploma while graduating from New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus in May, according to a report by Washington Square News, an NYU student newspaper. – Times of Israel
Paul J. Saunders writes: The United States cannot adequately protect its citizens without engaging deeply beyond its borders or beyond its Atlantic and Pacific shores. The United States will face grave challenges if its adversaries establish hegemony in either Europe (most likely through division and disarray) or Asia (through a combination of enticements and intimidation) and establish de facto control of their polities and resources. America’s alliance relationships are critical in preventing that outcome. Rather than demeaning Americans who are uncertain about our alliances, or trying to “educate” them, those who see value in U.S. alliances should do a much better job of explaining what they are for. – The National Interest
Cybersecurity
Germany will remove Chinese components from the country’s 5G mobile networks by the end of 2029, ending years of debate that had left the country dragging far behind allies in addressing what the U.S. has warned was a key vulnerability. – Wall Street Journal
Several Macau government websites were hacked and police have launched a criminal investigation to trace the source of the crime, Chinese state media reported late on Wednesday. – Reuters
Microsoft has clinched a 20-million-euro ($21.7 million) deal to settle an antitrust complaint about its cloud computing licensing practices, averting an EU antitrust investigation and potential hefty fine. – Reuters
Australia has instructed all of its government entities to take stock of their entire technology estates and identify any assets that could be controlled or manipulated by foreign states. – The Record
China’s national cybersecurity agency was accused on Wednesday of misrepresenting research from Western cybersecurity companies in an ongoing attempt to deny allegations that a Being-backed hacking group is behind attacks targeting critical infrastructure in the West. – The Record
Catherine Thorbecke writes: If Temu presents a threat to consumers or is engaged in illegal activities, lawmakers should work together to gather much stronger evidence than he has assembled. They should also focus on developing comprehensive digital privacy laws and broader oversight of supply chains. An escalating tech war with China is not the answer. – Bloomberg
Defense
The United States will start deploying long-range fire capabilities in Germany in 2026 in an effort to demonstrate its commitment to NATO and European defense, the United States and Germany said in a joint statement on Wednesday. – Reuters
NATO has signed a nearly $700 million contract to have member countries produce more Stinger missiles, one of many steps the alliance is pressing at its summit in Washington to get each country to boost its own weapons production capabilities. – Defense News
Senate lawmakers want the Defense Innovation Unit to expand its presence across the U.S. and are calling on the Pentagon’s commercial technology hub to develop a plan to partner with universities and tech companies around the country. – Defense News
The joint, biennial exercise that ran June 7 to June 18 played out on the South Pacific island nation of Palau, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and at sea across the Navy’s Marianas Island Range Complex. This year marked its first time as a multinational exercise, and the exercise force included about 4,000 from Japan’s self-defense units. – USNI News
For the first time in more than a decade, the Marine Corps has published official doctrine on how it employs deception — a tactic used by militaries throughout history to deliberately deceive the enemy through decoys, demonstrations, ruses and manipulation of information. – Military.com