Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Iran’s president begins a rare visit to Africa ‘to promote economic diplomacy’ Iraq to trade crude oil for Iranian gas to settle power debt Republican lawmaker blasts State Dept response on US envoy for Iran Iran summons Russian ambassador over statement on Gulf islands Zelensky slams NATO for omitting a timeline for Ukraine to join The Palestinian Authority, teetering on collapse, is tested in Jenin JPost’s Seth J. Frantzman: Hezbollah learned from maritime deal how to threaten Israel Erdogan’s flip on Sweden signals mending of ties with U.S. WINEP’s Ishtar Al Shami: The reality of normalization with Assad: Syrians’ perspectives North Korea, after threatening U.S. military, fires long-range missile China lashes back at NATO criticism, warns it will protect its rights China sends large group of warplanes, navy ships towards Taiwan in forceful displayIn The News
Iran
Iran’s president has begun a rare visit to Africa as the country, which is under heavy U.S. economic sanctions, seeks to deepen partnerships around the world. – Associated Press
Iraq will begin trading crude oil for Iranian gas to end the recurring issue of payment delays to Tehran due to the need for U.S. approval, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Sudani said on Tuesday. – Reuters
A senior U.S. Republican lawmaker criticized as “absolutely unacceptable” a State Department response on Tuesday to his inquiry about why the U.S. special envoy for Iran’s security clearance was under review. – Reuters
Iran’s foreign ministry will follow up on the Durra gas field known as Arash in Iran, the country’s Oil Minister Javad Owji said on Wednesday according to semi-official Tasnim news agency. – Reuters
Iran will not negotiate over three Gulf islands disputed with the United Arab Emirates, the legal adviser to Iran’s president said on Wednesday following Tehran’s summoning of the Russian ambassador over a statement about the islands. – Reuters
The NATO defense alliance issued a stern condemnation of Iran on Tuesday, calling on the Tehran regime to curb its nuclear activities and end its military support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. – Algemeiner
Russia & Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday jolted a summit of NATO leaders by blasting their joint statement on his country’s prospective membership, decrying its lack of a concrete timeline as “unprecedented and absurd.” – Washington Post
The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, is investigating the seizure of more than 300 businesses in the Melitopol area, according to agency briefing documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The SBU is probing, among other things, whether Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, and parts of its military have orchestrated some of these takeovers. – Wall Street Journal
French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that France will supply Ukraine with cruise missiles, becoming the second nation to improve Kyiv’s battlefield odds with long-range strike capabilities. – Wall Street Journal
For Ukrainian soldiers, one advantage of achieving at least creeping advances in the now month-old counteroffensive in southern Ukraine is appropriating ready-made fortifications from the retreating Russians, who in months of preparations dug deep, well-protected trenches. – New York Times
Hackers suspected of working for Russia’s foreign intelligence agency targeted dozens of diplomats at embassies in Ukraine with a fake used car advert in a bid to break into their computers, according to a cybersecurity firm report seen by Reuters. – Reuters
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said late on Tuesday that the increase in military assistance to Ukraine by the NATO alliance brings World War Three closer. – Reuters
A Russian military officer who had commanded a submarine in the Black Sea and appeared on a Ukrainian blacklist of alleged war criminals has been shot dead by an unknown assassin while on his morning run. – Reuters
G7 members are expected to ratify a long-term security arrangement with Ukraine at the Nato summit on Wednesday. – BBC
Russian and Ukrainian military forces are firing tens of thousands of ammunition shells daily, requiring increased production from Ukraine-backed NATO allies as a counteroffensive remains ongoing. – Newsweek
Editorial: Mr. Biden’s reluctance on NATO fits his pattern of being slow to react to the changing circumstances of the conflict. He was slow to try to deter the invasion and slow to provide advanced weapons. The F-16 pilot training he announced in May may finally start next month. Mr. Biden also seems slow to recognize the strategic benefits of a Ukrainian victory. The President gets credit for helping to keep the alliance together to support Ukraine, but U.S. leadership will be as important to keep it united to bring Kyiv into NATO. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: US caution over Kyiv’s Nato membership hints, too, at the limits of America’s readiness to continue to underwrite Europe’s security, nearly 75 years after the alliance’s foundation. Russia’s aggression underlines the need for Europe’s democracies to sharply raise levels of defence spending that are still far short of those in the US — and to take far greater responsibility for defending their own continent, including Ukraine. – Financial Times
Ivan Krastev writes: It would be wishful thinking to view Prigozhin’s march on Moscow as a precursor to the end of Putin’s regime. It would also be a mistake to neglect its importance. What it signals is a shift of power from Putin the tsar to the collective Putin. – Financial Times
Tom Rogan writes: There is one other reason why Ukraine is not yet ready to join the alliance. Zelensky’s government also retains an unfortunate tendency to lie where its actions spark an unfavorable international reaction.This is not to say that Ukraine cannot join NATO until far into the future. On the contrary, Ukraine’s democratic character and extraordinary courage against Russia suggest it will one day make one of the alliance’s strongest members. But that day is not yet here, and it will not be at least until this war is over. – Washington Examiner
Melinda Haring and Douglas Klain writes: While Ukraine is walking away from this week’s Vilnius Summit without a clear path to NATO, it is already looking to next year’s NATO summit in Washington. The pressure for Biden to finally get this issue right will only magnify between now and then. Russia’s war against Ukraine is the most devastating international conflict since the Second World War, and it may already be the defining event of the early 21st century. President Biden has proven that he has the capacity to lead the Free World to victory. He just needs to do it. – The Hill
Zackary Hill writes: The Russian military may take years to rebuild its striking power. In the meantime, European policymakers are right to focus on sub-conventional aggression. But after Europe’s brief reprieve behind its Ukrainian shield, the West must prepare for a large-scale conventional assault, even against NATO members. We know too well the consequences of complacency. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Robbie Gramer writes: As NATO leaders convene for a pivotal summit, there’s one major security threat that allied leaders prefer to talk about only in broad, circumspect terms: the threat of nuclear war. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has thrust the risk of a nuclear showdown between Moscow and the West back into the spotlight. While all allied countries agree the risk of Russia escalating the conflict in Ukraine remains low, there’s a growing gap between the United States and some other allies as to when and how that risk could increase, according to interviews with nearly a dozen current and former NATO officials and security experts. – Foreign Policy
Rebecca Hamilton, Brian Finucane, and Stephen Pomper write: We support accountability for international crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine—including for the crime of aggression—if that becomes practicable and does not interfere with efforts to end a war that, because of the countries involved, quite literally poses a risk to all human life. We hope this becomes possible. But, as Hamilton reminds us, peace and justice will not align themselves by magic. For exactly this reason, there is more work to do in securing peace before the most ambitious efforts at seeking justice can be responsibly pursued. – Foreign Affairs
Israel
The Israeli operation in Jenin — the largest in the West Bank in two decades — left 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead, and, Israeli politicians boasted, depleted the weapons stockpiles of new militant groups. But it also exposed the weakness of the Palestinian Authority, which Israel counts on to maintain order across the occupied territory. – Washington Post
As Israel carried out its largest military operation in two decades in the occupied West Bank last week, the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which nominally administers parts of the territory, followed orders and stayed out of the fight. – Washington Post
Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated across the country on Tuesday, blocking the road outside the country’s main airport and about a dozen other thoroughfares and clashing with police officers to protest an overnight vote in Parliament that advanced efforts by the far-right ruling coalition to limit judicial oversight of the government. – New York Times
An Israeli court on Tuesday ordered a Palestinian journalist from East Jerusalem to perform community service and handed down a three-year suspended sentence, her lawyer said, after she was charged with incitement to violence. – Agence France-Presse
The IDF reservist protest movement was back in full swing on Tuesday following the Knesset’s Monday night approval of a first reading of the government’s repeal of the judiciary’s reasonableness doctrine, with IDF intelligence Unit 8200 and the air force leading the way. – Jerusalem Post
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to visit the city of Jenin and its refugee camp on Wednesday, more than one week after the large-scale Israeli military operation there, PA presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudaineh announced on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will leave for an official visit to Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku on Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said. During the visit, which will last till Friday, Gallant will meet with the country’s president Ilham Aliyev, his Azeri counterpart General Zakir Hasanov, the Commander of the National Border Guard General Elchin Guliyev as well as other senior security officials. – Ynet
In the shadow of the tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and the White House, Amos Hochstein, a special envoy of US President Joe Biden, arrived secretly in Israel on Tuesday and met with Netanyahu and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegabi. – Ynet
An Israeli citizen was kidnapped while traveling in Ethiopia a few days ago, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. – Times of Israel
Editorial: Hopefully, despite the massive media attention that calls to refuse orders receive, the reality will be similar to last time these threats cropped up. Reservists must realize, to paraphrase Shakespeare’s King Lear, that that way madness lies. – Jerusalem Post
Tovah Lazaroff writes: There are arguments in favor of and against the PA’s role as the leader of the Palestinian people. But if Israel and the US want to retain it as a legitimate diplomatic partner then it has to do more to legitimately strengthen it. – Jerusalem Post
Yonah Jeremy Bob writes: Given that Mount Dov is surrounded by Israeli forces and nowhere near Israeli civilians, they see no specific rush in resolving what many say was itself an accident by low-ranking Hezbollah personnel on the front, which Nasrallah only learned of and decided to back after-the-fact. Israel’s fate then may be intertwined with what happens to these fewer than 10 Hezbollah terrorists and their flimsy outpost. – Jerusalem Post
Seth J. Frantzman writes: Then the Lebanese government follows that up with territorial demands against Israel. Hezbollah learned this from the maritime deal. It works in concert with Beirut, where Beirut is the “carrot” and Hezbollah the “stick” used in concert to try to get concessions and threaten war. – Jerusalem Post
Jonathan Lincoln writes: Gaza holds promise, but it can also be the epicenter of the conflict. If the current ceasefire is sufficiently strengthened and expanded, it could reduce tensions and help introduce the type of changes for Israelis, Palestinians, and the wider region that the U.S. administration has been striving for. The alternative — intermittent periods of violence — runs counter to U.S. interests and is a far more dangerous prospect for everyone, first and foremost for Israelis and Palestinians. – War on the Rocks
Turkey
While Europe and the United States were trying to isolate Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey referred to Russia’s president as “my friend.” While NATO leaders worked to enlarge the alliance, Mr. Erdogan held up the process by seeking concessions for his nation. – New York Times
As part of his surprising U-turn that unblocked Sweden’s bid for NATO membership Monday evening, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey appears to have extracted vague commitments to “re-energize” his country’s complicated relationship with the European Union. – New York Times
Russia on Tuesday signaled the demise of a long-running United Nations humanitarian operation in Turkey delivering aid to 4 million people in rebel-held northwest Syria after it vetoed a nine-month authorization renewal at the U.N. Security Council. – Reuters
Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has berated Sweden for harbouring “scoundrels and terrorists”. He has called its government “evil” for allowing a Koran to be burnt on the streets of Stockholm. The Turkish president at one point even told Sweden “not to bother” with its Nato application. – Financial Times
Immediately after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, quelled a military coup attempt in 2016, he detained 77,000 people, including 10,000 soldiers. – New York Sun
Middle East & North Africa
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday failed to adopt two rival resolutions to extend cross-border aid deliveries into northern Syria from Turkey, effectively cutting off a vital lifeline to about 4.1 million people in opposition-held territories. – New York Times
The Egyptian government said Tuesday that it had inked a series of deals to sell off $1.9 billion worth of stakes in state-owned companies, in a move that promises to bolster Egypt’s ailing private sector. – Associated Press
Saudi Arabia has deposited $2 billion into Pakistan’s central bank, the government said Tuesday, a much-needed financial boost ahead of a critical meeting of the International Monetary Fund on the new bailout package for the cash-strapped South Asian country. – Associated Press
A multibillion-dollar agreement signed with France’s TotalEnergies could help resolve Iraq’s longstanding electricity crisis, attract international investors and reduce its reliance on gas imports from neighboring Iran, a point of tension with Washington. – Associated Press
Ishtar Al Shami writes: Despite the bleak possibilities ahead of them, Syrians opposed to the Assad regime have hope that these recent normalization efforts will ultimately fail. Knowing Assad’s spiteful mentality and unwillingness to give up any strategic victories—including the advantageous demographic shifts that have taken place in the wake of the regime’s forced displacement of citizens—many Syrians are confident that Assad will not live up to any of the preconditions placed on the regime by the Arab fold, including repatriation, an end to Captagon production and smuggling, and cooperation in controlling militias and instituting reforms. – Washington Institute
Korean Peninsula
North Korea fired a long-range missile on Wednesday, after warning about “resolute” consequences for the U.S. military’s reconnaissance activities in the region. – Washington Post
North Korea threatened military action against American spy planes operating off the country’s east coast, its state media reported on Tuesday, as a United States submarine capable of shooting nuclear ballistic missiles planned to visit South Korea for the first time in four decades. – New York Times
The United States’ top general met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts for a rare trilateral meeting in Hawaii on Tuesday, as North Korea conducted its latest ballistic missile test launch. – Reuters
North Korea on Tuesday condemned U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine as a “criminal act” and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the plan. – Reuters
More expert organizations should take part in reviewing Japan’s plan to release Fukushima wastewater into the sea in addition to the U.N nuclear watchdog, South Korean opposition lawmakers said on Wednesday while visiting Japan. – Reuters
China
Beijing lashed back at NATO’s accusation that China challenges the bloc’s interests and security, and opposed any attempt by the military alliance to expand its footprint into the Asia-Pacific region. – Reuters
U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will travel to Beijing next week to discuss strategies for limiting global warming, amid a push by the world’s two largest economies to reengage on multiple issues following a sharp decline in contacts. – Associated Press
China sent navy ships and a large group of warplanes, including fighter jets and bombers, toward Taiwan over two days, the island’s defense ministry said on Wednesday, before its annual military exercises aimed at defending itself against a possible invasion. – Associated Press
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is unwell and the country’s senior diplomat will take his place at a two-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this week in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. – Associated Press
UK ministers used national security powers to intervene in eight transactions involving Chinese-linked investment in British companies in the past year, underlining their concern over the potential for Beijing to gain influence over vital industries. – Financial Times
Joseph Bosco writes: Now, Beijing is giving Washington the cold-shoulder treatment even before a new incident occurs. The Biden administration should inform China there will be no visit by Raimondo until after serious conversations between Austin and his Chinese counterparts and meaningful follow-up actions. – The Hill
David Fickling writes: For too long, the developing world’s debt has turned into a geopolitical argument between the US and China, with each side accusing the other of debt-trap diplomacy or vulture capitalism. In truth, both nations have far more to gain from working together to resolve the common global challenges of climate and shaky emerging-market finances. Energy ministers from Group of 20 countries meeting in Goa next week need to discuss the next steps to be taken on the climate transition. Washington and Beijing should use their current momentum to ensure that institutional inertia doesn’t stop the funds needed to achieve that goal from flowing. – Bloomberg
Kabir Taneja writes: China’s presence in the Middle East will be a constant in the future, in no small part because of the designs of the regional powers themselves. While the plan may be to keep the U.S. more engaged in the region, doing so may also provide a cushion for the likes of India to maintain a degree of balance while slowly buying into the premise that countering Chinese influence in areas of interest like the Middle East will require robust collaboration to cover shortfalls in economic and diplomatic capacity. This is already visible as India and the U.S. look beyond the Indo-Pacific and the “Quad” (comprising India, the U.S., Australia, and Japan) for economic cooperation. The Middle East may be the next focus. – Middle East Institute
Asia
Thailand’s state Election Commission said Wednesday it concluded there is evidence that the top candidate to become the country’s next prime minister, Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat, violated election law and referred his case to the Constitutional Court for a ruling. – Associated Press
ASEAN foreign ministers on Wednesday held a retreat expected to address an intensifying conflict in army-ruled Myanmar, as cracks appear in the regional bloc over a two-year-old peace process that has yet to get off the ground. – Reuters
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who served almost nine years in office after seizing power in a 2014 military coup, said Tuesday that he is leaving politics. – Associated Press
Vietnam allowed 73-year-old pro-democracy campaigner Chau Van Kham to return home to Sydney on Tuesday after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged that the retired baker be released from prison during a visit to Hanoi last month. – Associated Press
Indonesia’s top diplomat warned Tuesday of the threat posed by nuclear weapons, saying that Southeast Asia is “one miscalculation away from apocalypse” and pressing for world powers to sign a treaty to keep the region free from such arms. – Associated Press
Thai police have arrested two Germans in connection with the abduction and slaying of another German, whose dismembered body was found in a freezer in a southern Thailand home, authorities said Wednesday. – Associated Press
Having served as chief economic planner to the late Philippine president Benigno Aquino, Arsenio Balisacan said he never expected to take the same post under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – Financial Times
Rahm Emanuel writes: We must establish that capacity and maintenance partnership now, during peacetime. Just like the training and exercises we do together, demonstrating that we can keep our warships in theater for repair work will signal to any adversary that we are ready for the fight should it come. Let’s be honest: the regulation of the past to require most maintenance at home port has outlived its usefulness, given a naval rival like China. – Wall Street Journal
Europe
Finland’s deputy prime minister apologized on Tuesday for “stupid social media comments” after a series of racist and sometimes violent remarks posted in 2008 surfaced in the Finnish press — the latest scandal for the party she leads, the right-wing Finns, since it joined the country’s governing coalition less than a month ago. – New York Times
Britain sent long-range “Storm Shadow” cruise missiles to Ukraine in May. And France pledged a shipment of the same missiles, which it calls SCALPs, as NATO leaders gathered in Lithuania on Tuesday. – New York Times
Spain’s right-wing opposition leader put Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on the defensive in an election TV debate that saw both leaders accusing each other of pacting with parties they deem dangerous for Spain. – Associated Press
Trade talks between Australia and the EU were halted on Tuesday after Australian minister Don Farrell cut short a visit to Brussels without resolving a dispute over meat quotas. – Financial Times
Hungary’s government will discuss Sweden’s bid to join NATO at an extraordinary meeting later this week, according to local television station ATV. – Bloomberg
The US imposed sanctions on the director of Serbia’s spy agency, a close ally of President Aleksandar Vucic, over claims that he’s helped Russia undermine stability in the Balkans and facilitated drug and weapons trafficking. – Bloomberg
Martin Wolf writes: We are in a competition of systems. I hope that democracy and individual freedom do ultimately win. In the long run, they have a good chance of doing so. Nevertheless, we must also remember the threats we now confront to peace, prosperity and planet. Tackling these will require deep engagement with China. But if the west is to have the influence it hopes for, it must realise that its claims to moral superiority are neither unchallengeable nor unchallenged. Many in Reutersour world view the western powers as selfish, self-satisfied and hypocritical. They are not altogether wrong. We must do far better. – Financial Times
Rachel Sanderson writes: It’s a reminder that alongside the return of hard-right political parties across Europe, other historic fissures are reopening too. Belfast and Edinburgh are closely watching the outcome of the vote in Spain. Jonathan Parker, politics lecturer at Glasgow University, notes independence demands in Spain have parallels in the cracks in the UK. Parker compares policy tensions between London and Edinburgh, such as Downing Street’s veto of Scottish plans on gender identity, to Madrid’s imposition of more hours of lessons in Castilian Spanish lessons on Catalan schoolchildren. – Bloomberg
Africa
As the war in Sudan heads into its fourth month, Omdurman — the city across the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum — has become the site of some of the most fierce fighting between the two forces battling for power: the army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. – New York Times
A trove of testimonies from more than 200 people who accuse senior Ugandan officials, including the president and his son, of torture, killings and other crimes against humanity has been submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a lawyer for the complainants said on Tuesday. – New York Times
A prominent rights group on Tuesday called for the International Criminal Court to investigate atrocities in Sudan’s volatile Darfur region, including what it says were “summary executions” of 28 non-Arab tribesmen by a Sudanese paramilitary force and allied Arab militias in May. – Associated Press
Gunmen killed at least 40 civilians in a single day in Sudan’s Darfur region as ethnically motivated bloodshed has escalated in step with war between rival military factions, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
Sudan’s army-aligned foreign ministry on Tuesday rejected a regional summit’s proposal to consider deploying peacekeeping forces to protect civilians, dashing tentative hopes the gathering might help efforts to end a near three-month-old war. – Reuters
Nigeria’s state-owned oil company says an oil tanker capable of carrying 800,000 litres of smuggled crude has been intercepted offshore while heading to Cameroon. – BBC
In addition to delayed delivery of state employees’ wages — “for the first time” in Kenya since it gained independence from Britain in 1963, according to opposition lawmaker Opiyo Wandayi — President William Ruto has faced mounting criticism for slashing subsidies, implementing austerity measures and aggressively collecting taxes. – Financial Times
The Americas
Thousands of protesters, angered by the jailing of two alleged drug cartel members, besieged a state capital in southern Mexico, battling police and national guard troops, taking government employees hostage, and crashing an armored vehicle through the gates of the legislature. – Washington Post
Paraguay’s president-elect, Santiago Pena, committed to maintaining diplomatic ties with Taiwan on Wednesday, going against a trend of Taipei’s diplomatic allies switching their allegiance to China. – Associated Press
With tensions surrounding Guatemala’s June 25 presidential election heightening, President Alejandro Giammattei took the unusual step of publishing an open letter Monday saying he has no intention of staying in power beyond his term. – Associated Press
Canada’s ethics watchdog has launched investigations into allegations that Nike Canada and a gold mining company benefitted from Uyghur forced labour in their China operations. – BBC
Cuban authorities on Tuesday said the U.S. recently had a nuclear-powered submarine at its military base at Guantanamo Bay and called the action a “provocative escalation” of tensions weeks after Washington alleged that there was a Chinese spy base on the island. – Reuters
Cybersecurity
Chinese cyberspies exploited a fundamental gap in Microsoft’s cloud enabling them to conduct a targeted hack of unclassified U.S. email accounts — a troubling vulnerability officials said was discovered by the U.S. government. – Washington Post
Amazon is disputing its status as a big online platform that needs to face stricter scrutiny under European Union digital rules taking effect next month, the first Silicon Valley tech giant to push back on the pioneering new standards. – Associated Press
Hacker group Anonymous Sudan, which is believed to be an Islamist hacker collective, may actually be a Russian group that operates in the interests of the Russian government, cybersecurity experts told Bloomberg last month. – Jerusalem Post
A trio of Twitter accounts that appear to have links to the Chinese government have been spreading propaganda to audiences in Latin America and successfully avoided the social media company’s now abandoned efforts to label state media, researchers said in an analysis published Tuesday. – CyberScoop
Robert M. Lee writes: Cyberthreats are growing but we’ve proven we are successful at defense when we work together as a community and apply existing industry expertise and capabilities to the furthest extent possible. If the government comes together with a cohesive voice to define the priorities and industry does what they do best and addresses those priorities, together we can meet the challenge. In the infrastructure community, we all live and work in the communities we serve. We want to defend our national security and keep people safe because those are our families, too. – CyberScoop
Fiona Alexander writes: The position of the Biden Administration and European allies on Guterres’s Global Digital Compact proposals remains unknown. They should step up and demonstrate clear opposition. Time is pressing. If ministers reach an agreement in September, Guterres’ mistaken ideas will become difficult to derail. That would be dangerous. Russia and China should not be given any room to hijack the UN to impose their authoritarian vision on the Internet. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Emily Harding and Suzanne Spaulding write: The federal government should also think across borders. Canada and Mexico are clear partners given shared resources, but allies like the United Kingdom are also grappling with building resilient systems. The war in Ukraine has demanded resilience in Europe, from Kyiv recovering several times from concerted Russian cyberattacks to Europe-wide communications systems like Viasat coming under attack. European powers discovered how resilient they could be in the face of Russia using fuel deliveries for leverage as well. The United States has much to learn from their recent painful experiences. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Defense
As NATO debates the future for Ukraine, Germany has vowed to surge weapons supplies to Kyiv after signing off on a €700 million ($769 million) military aid package covering air defense equipment, infantry fighting vehicles, main battle tanks and artillery ammunition. – Breaking Defense
Ahead of their official deployment to Afghanistan, the two were attending a memorial service for the most recent commander of the base, who had been killed by a roadside bomb that exploded nearby, Brown recalled in an interview with Defense News. That commander wasn’t the first soldier to die there or the last. – Defense News
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and three other Democrats are urging the Pentagon to “fully review” L3Harris Technologies’ pending acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne, arguing the latest instance of industry consolidation would harm the defense-industrial base. – Defense News
Israel’s Elbit Systems has won a $114 million contract to provide two long-range patrol aircraft to an undisclosed Asian-Pacific customer, who many observers believe could be the Philippine air force, which has long searched for such platforms. – Defense News
The facility — America’s oldest working arsenal — is nestled by the Hudson River in upstate New York and serves as the only U.S. Army facility able to produce the large caliber cannon tubes critical to tanks, artillery systems and mortars. – Defense News