Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Why Israel is sitting out the latest U.S. bombing campaign in Iran Iran shows its ballistic missiles are still a force to reckon with With his latest threats, Trump signals to Iran that he is willing to escalate US military says its latest strikes on Iran have ended, marking 11th successive night of attacks Iran secretly submitted proposal for 10-day ceasefire while under intense US strikes WSJ Editorial: Trump target acquired: Pickaxe mountain If Ukraine can make this big gun, Patriot missiles may be next Zelensky ousts Ukraine’s military commander as major shake-up continues Trump meets with Lebanese leader, pledges support for peace efforts with Israel Trump approves landmark nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia in big win for kingdom Pakistan seeks $10 billion fund from US after mediating Iran talks, source says Hegseth says Iran war has cost $37.5 billion, defends request for moreIn The News
Israel
Israel is sitting it out as the U.S. conflict with Iran heats up again, a posture that suits Washington, its Arab allies—and for now Israel itself. – Wall Street Journal
Eight-year-old Ruba Saadeh spends her days confined to the tent she shares with her family in Gaza, her body dotted with inflamed red blisters as chickenpox sweeps through overcrowded camps like the one they live in. – Agence France-Presse
The embassies of a dozen Western countries — some allies, some leading critics — on Monday called on Israel to change its policies on incarceration for Palestinian prisoners, arguing that Israel is not meeting its responsibilities under international law. – Agence France-Presse
Three days after the Israeli Air Force intercepted a drone near the Syrian border, the IDF is still trying to determine who sent it. – Jerusalem Post
On March 26, the IDF said that naval intelligence had assisted with assassinating Iranian Naval Chief Alireza Tangsiri in the port city of Bandar Abbas, with eliminating key Iranian naval cruise missile production sites, and Iranian sites related to submarines and other underwater threats. – Jerusalem Post
Israeli officials believe US President Donald Trump is preparing to significantly escalate the American military campaign against Iran, according to two Israeli officials. – Jerusalem Post
The United Nations’ human rights office on Tuesday condemned Israeli strikes in Gaza that it said had killed at least 57 people, including six children, in the past week. – Times of Israel
Editorial: That long memory is how Israel has survived and how we manage to carry on amid the atrocities of October 7. In her interview, Buchshtab-Kirscht also recounted what she said to her fellow captive Tal as they began their short walk to the awaiting Red Cross and their freedom: “Keep your head up. We’re going to walk through this as two strong women, together.” Today, some two and a half years later, it’s all the more imperative for all of us to take a few moments to get off the breathless news treadmill and reflect on the pure evil events of that day – and more importantly, on the heroism of Rimon Buchshtab-Kirscht, whose advice we could all take a moment to internalize. – Jerusalem Post
Tully Weisz writes: Israel’s natural allies in this fight – Taiwan among them – are small, technologically capable democracies who understand exactly what it means to be targeted by a much larger adversary’s information machine. That is a partnership waiting to be formalized, not merely discussed on a conference stage. Israel and Taiwan are, as Ambassador Lee put it, geopolitical mirrors: small democracies with outsized enemies, forced to punch above their weight to survive. On seven fronts, Israel has shown the world what that looks like. On the eighth, it’s time to admit that Taiwan has already written the playbook – let’s start adopting it. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
With deadly attacks on an air base in Jordan, Iran has proved that it retains a significant missile and drone arsenal that still threatens American forces and the U.S.’s regional allies, despite President Trump’s claim to have “totally destroyed” Iran’s military. – Wall Street Journal
The four U.S. soldiers killed in recent days during renewed hostilities with Iran were all assigned to air defense units, assuming the risk of staying on vulnerable bases to protect others from incoming ballistic missile and drone attacks. – Washington Post
President Trump threatened on Tuesday to accelerate the war with Iran by returning the conflict to where it began, with a bunker-busting attack on one of the country’s nuclear facilities. – New York Times
“CENTCOM assets targeted Iranian military operations centers, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone storage facilities, and military logistics infrastructure to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The strikes lasted about 75 minutes late on Tuesday, according to the U.S. military. – Reuters
CMA CGM will impose an emergency fuel surcharge following the renewed escalation of hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz effective August 1, the French shipping firm said in a notice posted on its website. – Reuters
After 10 days of exchanging strikes with the US over control of the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway, Iran’s leaders may appear to have three choices. None offer a clear route to victory. – BBC
A six-person subcommittee in the Supreme National Security Council was behind the “on the spot” decisions made while negotiating the now-defunct Memorandum of Understanding with the United States, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Asriran, admitting that he has never met Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. – Jerusalem Post
It was Tehran that initiated the proposal now being advanced by mediators for a 10-day ceasefire between the United States and Iran, two sources familiar with the negotiations told The Jerusalem Post. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: The technical question of how much U.S. bombs could achieve is important. But even if the facility can’t be destroyed, it still would be worthwhile to set it back or block access to the site. Given the core objective in play, the President would also be justified in taking a risk to launch a Special Forces operation. The same applies for Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile. This goes to the heart of what the U.S. is still trying to do in Iran. Central Command has attacked for 10 consecutive nights, striking some 1,000 targets. No doubt this has softened up the Iranian presence near the Strait of Hormuz, but Iran is still able to strike commercial vessels, and traffic is depressed. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Before anything else, the US needs to decide what its strategic goals are. The first priority remains a nuclear deal. While the details will require hard bargaining, the broad outlines are clear: removal or down-blending of Iran’s near-weapons-grade uranium, limits on enrichment, and intrusive international inspections. Threats such as Iran’s missile arsenal and proxy network will need to be addressed regionally. Meanwhile, rather than threatening to charge Gulf allies for US military support, the administration ought to be assembling a broad coalition to make clear that extortionate tolls won’t be tolerated — and that any attempt to impose them will only deepen Iran’s isolation. – Bloomberg
Hugh Hewitt writes: But as every member of the military will tell you, the enemy gets a say in when the fighting ends. The decisive victory of the American military won’t be concluded until Iran stops its aggression on international shipping. It may not do so for a long while yet. The “cup of poison” isn’t anything Vahidi wants to accept or the regime mouthpieces want to acknowledge. But President Trump is pursuing the right strategy to make its sipping inevitable. America must honor its fallen and care for their families as well as the wounded and their families. But we pray for this spring and summer of war to end before the fall arrives. It was a necessary battle, and further devastation of Iran is not something the president or any American should want, but that choice is with Vahidi. – Fox News
Masih Alinejad writes: He’s right. The world is not paying enough attention. While diplomats negotiate, bombs fall, and flimsy ceasefire agreements are signed, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been running a quiet, systematic execution campaign against the young people who dared to stand up for their freedom. And they are using the world’s distraction as cover. During the war, President Donald Trump publicly urged the Islamic Republic’s leaders to stop executing protesters. He even said they promised they would. But we Iranians knew better. We knew that the regime was only buying time to turn mass arrests into mass executions. That is exactly what has happened. – The Free Press
Russia and Ukraine
Ukraine has struck an agreement to manufacture a howitzer designed by defense giant BAE Systems BA 1.81%increase; up pointing triangle, a deal that provides a potential blueprint for Kyiv’s goal to produce other Western-designed weapons, including Patriot missiles. – Wall Street Journal
President Volodymyr Zelensky ousted the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces on Tuesday, days after abruptly dismissing the country’s defense minister, who won praise as the architect of Ukraine’s increasingly successful long-range drone assaults on Russia. – Washington Post
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine announced on Tuesday that Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, a decorated fighter, would be the new commander in chief of the country’s armed forces. – New York Times
EU ambassadors will meet on Wednesday in the hopes of reaching a compromise with Greece and passing a 21st package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, EU diplomats said. – Reuters
A Russian guided-bomb attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least three people on Tuesday and injured more than a dozen, regional officials said. Seven floors of a nine-storey apartment block were engulfed by flames after the attack, the regional military administration said on the Telegram app. – Reuters
Britain’s new defence minister Wes Streeting on Tuesday said it was “irresponsible” for Russia to have conducted a live-fire weapons exercise off the English coast. – Reuters
Another attack on the warehouses of Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, has injured several people, said the head and co-founder of the company on Wednesday. The attacks on a company so central to the consumer economy appear to mark a widening of Kyiv’s strategy of using long-range drones to disrupt Russia’s war effort and pressure the Kremlin to make peace. – Reuters
Ukraine has recaptured 700 sq km (270 sq miles) of its territory this year, outgoing Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Wednesday, confirming he was leaving the top military job. – Reuters
Another attack on the warehouses of Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, has injured several people, said the head and co-founder of the company on Wednesday. – Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday named a young major general, Mykhailo Drapatyi, as the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s military after days of street protests, marking the biggest shake-up in the country’s military leadership since its war with Russia began. – Reuters
Russia has captured a large number of Ukrainian drones and may be planning to use them against NATO or to stage a false flag attack, Polish defense minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said, adding to earlier warnings of a potential escalation. – Defense News
Hanna Notte writes: Without Trumpian intercession, Russia must fight on in Ukraine. The cost is mounting: an estimated 1.4 million Russian battlefield casualties, Ukrainian drones that now reach deep into Russia and a sputtering economy. Yet having made the whole country subservient to the needs of his calamitous war, Mr. Putin understands that its result will determine Russia’s global reputation. “Our friends, neighbors and our adversaries and enemies are all keeping a close eye on the way it unfolds,” his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, recently reminded an elite gathering in Moscow. For all the jeopardy of the war, Mr. Putin has gambled on outlasting the West. In a world that harbors a seemingly undepletable well of admirers and adherents, along with countless enablers and facilitators, his bet may yet pay off. – New York Times
Marc Champion writes: As Fedorov said in his combative note, reform of the military into a corps structure — which aims to band together multiple brigades and delegate operational decision-making and resources to the best commanders — had stalled under Syrskyi. Where carried out properly, the difference in battlefield outcomes has been clear. But these successes remain exceptions. Drapatyi’s task will now be to change that. Ultimately, the two Ukraines that Syrskyi and Fedorov represent must cooperate if they are to stay one step ahead of Moscow in fighting this new kind of asymmetric war. By replacing Syrskyi with Drapatyi and restoring Fedorov to his post, Zelenskyy has made that possible again. – Bloomberg
Lesia Bidochko and Andreas Umland write: The Ukrainian successes in striking Russia’s energy infrastructure and military-industrial complex will not produce a Russian military collapse. […] The key question is whether Ukrainian strikes with new long-range weapons can progressively reduce Russia’s ability to sustain and generate combat power faster than Moscow can adapt to the innovation cycle. For Europe, the challenge is greater than simply helping Ukraine somehow prevail. It is to recognize that the future character of warfare and structure of European security are being written in Ukraine today. Against this background, the European Union has to ensure that the institutions and policies tasked to preserve the sovereignty of its member states and of the European project as a whole evolve as rapidly as the changes on the Ukrainian battlefield demand. – The National Interest
Lebanon
The United States supports efforts to mediate a deal between Lebanon and Israel, President Donald Trump said in a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday, amid shaky efforts to restore Lebanese control over its southern territory following an Israeli military incursion. – Washington Post
President Trump said he was ordering his administration to allow direct flights from the United States to Lebanon, ending a prohibition that has been in place since Hezbollah hijacked a flight in 1985. – New York Times
Israeli forces fired shots near Lebanese Army troops on Tuesday, both sides said, raising tensions as they took the first steps in a new U.S.-brokered plan to transfer control of occupied areas to Beirut after months of war. – New York Times
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will appeal to Donald Trump to make a United States-brokered plan to disarm Hezbollah work, get the Israeli military to withdraw from its positions in Lebanon, and dispel fears of a long-term occupation. – Newsweek
David Ignatius writes: “Give us the tools and we will finish the job,” Aoun said at the embassy event, echoing Winston Churchill’s plea for American support against Nazi Germany. Aoun should now have more of the tools he needs. He’s a tough leader, but he’s fighting in an arena that could suddenly become a firepit. This time, America won’t send in troops. It will be on Aoun. People who, like me, have dreamed that Lebanon can somehow regain its sovereignty want to believe that Aoun is truly ready for this battle. But we won’t know for sure until Lebanese troops are in their first firefight with Hezbollah. Wrestling this battered country back from ruin won’t be easy, but I’m rooting for the Lebanese bull. – Washington Post
Yemen
A large cargo ship bound for Saudi Arabia was turned back Tuesday by Houthi rebels in Yemen, one of six vessels that reversed course as the Iran-aligned group began enforcing its announced Red Sea blockade, according to ship-tracking data and analysis by the maritime firm Lloyd’s List. – Washington Post
As the U.S. war with Iran spilled across the Middle East over the past five months, Yemen largely stayed on the sidelines. That was until Monday, when the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, which controls a significant part of Yemen, declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally. – New York Times
A Houthi threat to impose a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea could significantly widen the Iran war and strain a U.S. military already focused on stopping Tehran’s attacks across the region, current and former U.S. officials said. – Reuters
Gulf States
President Trump has formally approved a landmark agreement with Saudi Arabia that will provide the country with a civilian nuclear program and potentially open the door to uranium enrichment in the kingdom’s territory, according to administration officials. – Wall Street Journal
Saudi Arabia’s The Helicopter Company on Tuesday signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Canada’s Bombardier for a fleet of up to 60 business jets. – Reuters
Iranian strikes damaged a desalination plant in Kuwait over the weekend, raising concerns in the Gulf that more of such vital infrastructure may come under fire as the conflict in the region escalates. The Iranian military has in the past warned it would launch attacks on desalination plants and other infrastructure in the Gulf region if the U.S. follows through on threats to target its fuel and energy infrastructure. – Reuters
Jim Geraghty writes: Accepting the donated plane was a terrible idea. A whole lot of people, on both sides of the aisle, warned that it was a terrible idea. Only the president’s vanity drove this decision. The best thing to do would be to give the plane back to Qatar with a Post-it note that says “Thanks, but no thanks.” (Trump wants to transfer the plane to his presidential library after he leaves office.) Boeing says new American-built replacements for Air Force One should be ready by 2028. Making do with the older planes until then is suboptimal. Still, it is better than the U.S. president flying around in a Qatari plane while gushing about how the Qataris build better planes than Americans do and waving away concerns about antimissile systems. – Washington Post
Middle East & North Africa
The resurgence in hostilities between the United States and Iran has put desalination plants under renewed threat across the Persian Gulf region, where tens of millions of people rely on such facilities for drinking water. – New York Times
Egypt is in talks with energy majors including Shell, TotalEnergies, and BP to buy 15 to 18 cargoes of liquefied natural gas per month for at least three years, three trading and industry sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. – Reuters
President Donald Trump on Wednesday plans to attend the dignified transfer of four U.S. service members killed in the Middle East. Trump will be at Dover Air Force Base when the remains of the troops killed in action are returned to their families, the White House said. – Associated Press
Turkey’s ousted opposition leader Ozgur Ozel on Tuesday said he would form a new party, two months after a controversial court ruling removed him from his post. – Times of Israel
Korean Peninsula
Rain lashed a flimsy wooden boat as it tossed through a churning sea, its engine straining against the swell. Under the cover of a stormy night three years ago, the vessel was fleeing North Korea. – New York Times
South Korea’s Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan headed to Washington on Wednesday for talks with senior U.S. officials on trade and investment cooperation, as Seoul braces for a U.S. announcement of additional tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act. – Reuters
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday a “significant” amount of data appeared to have been exposed in a cyberattack on a government-run diplomatic academy, as authorities examine potential involvement by foreign state-backed hacking groups. – Reuters
The people orchestrating North Korea’s IT worker scheme are funneling money through a web of front companies and intermediaries, including sanctioned entities, that partly fund Russia’s war effort against Ukraine, DTEX said in a report Tuesday. – CyberScoop
China
Chinese artificial-intelligence developers are racing to raise money through share offerings or loans, believing they need a bigger war chest to keep up with U.S. competitors. – Wall Street Journal
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday during a regional gathering led by the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN, where top diplomats voiced concern about renewed Middle East hostilities and tension in the South China Sea. – Reuters
The United States and China will hold talks over AI in September, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the rival superpowers grapple with how to mitigate the risks posed by each other’s increasingly powerful frontier models. – Reuters
Michael Sulmeyer writes: Simply scanning for vulnerabilities will not be enough. While patching is necessary, it is insufficient: defenders must do more than patch more, better, and faster. The coming flood of AI-discovered flaws will overwhelm any patching regime, and for many aging systems, no patch will ever come. The United States needs to emphasize redesigning defenses so that even a successful intrusion cannot produce a catastrophic physical result. This kind of resilience means ensuring that operators can keep critical services running in a degraded, manual mode until systems are restored. – Foreign Affairs
South Asia
They flocked to New Delhi by the thousands. Young Indians demanding accountability from their government for a flawed education system, hoping for a promise or a signal from those in power that would reassure them about their futures. – New York Times
At least 23 people died and more than 80 others were injured in flash floods that struck a province in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, local officials said, adding that the death toll would likely rise as dozens remained missing. – New York Times
Pakistan has asked the United States for a $10 billion exchange stabilization facility, according to a source briefed on the matter, which, if approved, could provide a lifeline for the cash-strapped South Asian economy. – Reuters
Indian defence engineering company Paras Defence and Space Technologies said on Wednesday that its semiconductor unit would invest 62 billion rupees ($643.79 million) to set up a chip packaging and testing facility in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. – Reuters
A suspected gas explosion collapsed part of a tunnel under construction at a hydropower project in India’s northeastern Himalayan state of Sikkim, leaving at least 12 people dead and 13 missing, officials said Tuesday. – Associated Press
Ilan Alon writes: Pakistan has long sought to position itself as a pivotal regional power and a reliable security partner for the Islamic world. That ambition carries responsibilities as well as benefits. If Islamabad wishes to maintain its strategic influence, it must ensure that its security guarantees are perceived as more than diplomatic rhetoric. History teaches that deterrence depends less on military capability than on political resolve. States rarely challenge commitments they believe will be honored. They frequently test those they suspect will not. Pakistan’s response in this moment will therefore resonate far beyond its relationship with Saudi Arabia. It will shape how allies, rivals and investors assess the country’s reliability for years to come. – Ynet
Asia
The chief of the Indonesian agency overseeing President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme said on Wednesday she had resigned, citing health reasons, the second leadership change at the beleaguered government body in just over a month. – Reuters
Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called on Vietnam to release a former business executive and four other people over their roles in the publication and promotion of a book about Ho Chi Minh that allegedly contained anti-state content. – Reuters
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau met with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale to discuss deepening ties and signed a letter of intent to return the Peace Corps to the islands after more than 25 years, the State Department said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Indonesia’s parliament passed a law on Tuesday to enable the foundation of international financial centres designed to boost foreign investment in banking and wealth management, and bolster economic growth. – Reuters
New Zealand and the Philippines have formed a comprehensive partnership, New Zealand foreign minister Winston Peters said on Tuesday. “New Zealand and the Philippines are close friends and trusted partners on the world stage – and today we turn this friendship into concrete action,” Peters said. – Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Wednesday that Iran’s demand to control and collect tolls in the Strait of Hormuz would threaten the world’s economy and the principle of freedom of navigation, even in Asia. – Associated Press
Europe
France passed a landmark law on Tuesday restricting access to social media for anyone under 15, the first European country to do so, and the latest in a wave of countries acting against what they view as malign effects of such services on minors. – New York Times
The European authorities canceled a multiyear grant to the Venice Biennale on Tuesday because of Russia’s participation, saying that its inclusion in the major art event despite its war in Ukraine was inconsistent with European principles. – New York Times
Moldova’s parliament approved a new government led by Prime Minister Vasile Tofan on Tuesday, after he laid out his cabinet’s programme, pledging to revive the economy while keeping the country on its European course. – Reuters
Member states of the International Criminal Court will vote on Friday on whether to fire chief prosecutor Karim Khan for alleged sexual misconduct in a case that has damaged the tribunal’s credibility at a time when the U.S. has ramped up its attacks on the court. – Reuters
Facing a choice between upsetting businesses and a public opinion backlash, the Polish and Hungarian ruling centrists are opting for curbs on foreign labour — something economists warn may hurt the two countries’ growth prospects. – Reuters
EU ambassadors will meet on Wednesday in the hopes of reaching a compromise with Greece and passing a 21st package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, EU diplomats said. – Reuters
New U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham gathered his Cabinet for its first meeting on Tuesday and vowed to take a “one-team approach” despite purging allies of predecessor Keir Starmer from the government. – Associated Press
German government leaders will study an offer by French President Emmanuel Macron to cooperate on the French-Italian SAMP/T air defense system, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius confirmed on Tuesday. – Defense News
Africa
Foreigners have been forced out of their homes and businesses. Some have been physically attacked. Tens of thousands have fled the country. – New York Times
On a clear morning last October, Nozie Khoza and her brigade of self-proclaimed patriots stood at the entrance of a public health clinic in Johannesburg on a quest to shape South Africa in their image. – New York Times
The Trump administration’s cuts to the largest global H.I.V. program last year resulted in sharp drops in both prevention efforts and treatment for the people most at risk from the disease, according to the first large survey of organizations that had received the funds. – New York Times
The head of Africa’s top public health agency said he had written to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking him to lift Ebola-related travel restrictions on Uganda since the country has reported no new infections in about a month. – Reuters
Gabon’s government is expecting a wider deficit and has budgeted for a Eurobond issuance this year, a document published on Tuesday shows, laying out financing plans that could complicate a new programme with the International Monetary Fund. – Reuters
The United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday it is “extremely saddened” after nearly 150 people died or went missing from boats off Mauritania last week while trying to make their way to Europe. – Associated Press
The U.N. food security report, released Tuesday, found global hunger has eased modestly in recent years, but projected more than 500 million people could still face chronic hunger by 2030. Africa is expected to bear the largest share of that burden. – Associated Press
The Americas
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and prosecutors with the U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday proposed a June 2027 start date for Maduro’s U.S. criminal trial on drug trafficking charges. – Reuters
Chile’s lower house approved most of a major reform bill on Tuesday, pushing forward President Jose Antonio Kast’s plan to boost investment in the world’s top copper producer. – Reuters
Puerto Rico’s governor announced Tuesday that her embattled chief of staff, Francisco Domenech, and deputy chief of staff, Itza García, are stepping down next month as they deny corruption allegations. – Associated Press
One of the survivors of a ferry that capsized in Guyana over the weekend with as many as 179 people aboard said she lost four of her grandchildren in the chaotic disaster and that the ship seemed to sink in an instant. – Associated Press
Venezuela confirmed on Tuesday that three people died of infections of hantavirus, but stressed there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in the South American country, which has rarely reported cases of the rodent-borne disease in humans. – Associated Press
Michael Rips writes: The operation is already in violation of international law; any attempt by the United States to sidestep arbitration would make it blatantly illegitimate by the United States’ own laws, too. Whatever the outcome of arbitration, it is that process that will give legitimacy to the case, vindicate the principles of international law and in that way reduce the potential for future conflict between the two nations — an outcome that might frustrate President Trump, but which would have greatly pleased Mr. Taft, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan. – New York Times
North America
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he and President Trump agreed Tuesday to accelerate trade talks in an effort to resolve friction and avoid a new 50% U.S. tariff on a series of goods. – Wall Street Journal
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on the international community to join forces to prevent Nicaragua from canceling elections as President Daniel Ortega cements his family’s decadeslong grip on power. – Wall Street Journal
Mexico’s health minister on Tuesday said no evidence has yet indicated that a lettuce farm in Guanajuato, Mexico, is the source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak in the United States, despite a Food and Drug Administration conclusion linking the farm to the investigation. – Washington Post
The U.S. on Tuesday sent a humanitarian flight to Cuba, the State Department said, the first part of a new $100 million assistance commitment that comes alongside U.S. moves to increase pressure on the island’s communist-run government. – Reuters
U.S. security officials are planning for closer ties with a private military company in Haiti run by Erik Prince, a close ally of President Donald Trump, a top U.S. military adviser told Congress on Tuesday, as rights groups raise alarm over civilian deaths from drone strikes linked to the firm. – Reuters
Canada has canceled a planned joint celebration with the U.S. to mark the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, citing trade threats from President Donald Trump. – Reuters
U.S. and Mexican trade negotiators launched a third round of bilateral talks on Tuesday to try to revise the North American trade agreement, just as President Donald Trump said he would impose new duties on Canada. – Reuters
A Mexican man who was struck and killed by a tractor trailer in Florida after running from federal immigration officers was vacationing in the U.S. and had a tourist visa, according to a Mexico official and a group assisting his wife. – Associated Press
The Spanish hotel chain Meliá said Tuesday it will completely shutter its operations in Cuba, dealing a blow to the tourism industry on the Caribbean island grappling with strict sanctions and an energy blockade imposed by the United States. – Associated Press
A Cuba-bound cargo plane carrying food and hygiene kits left Miami on Tuesday under U.S. efforts to give direct assistance to the island’s residents while continuing to pressure their government. – Associated Press
Canada will be part of a European-led program to develop a next-generation fighter jet, a move that snubs the United States and its competitor aircraft that President Donald Trump unveiled last year. – Newsweek
Editorial: Many hospitality businesses have also been harmed by a decline in Canadian tourism. A study in March found that the tourist dropoff has cost between 14,000 and 42,000 jobs in the U.S. markets most exposed to Canadian tourism. Northern border areas have also suffered from a decline in cross-border trade. That may be why Mr. Trump is justifying his tariffs as retribution for Canada’s treatment of U.S. autos and dairy, which are key industries in the Midwest. But Canada is the second largest U.S. trade partner after Mexico, and Mr. Trump’s tariffs are complicating cross-border supply chains, raising costs and creating uncertainty for business. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: The Canadian wildfires introduced an unexpected wrinkle. On Sunday, Trump suggested Canada should be forced to “pay us damages” for “poisoning our air” with smoke. Canada is far from a model ally, but Trump’s approach clearly has backfired and boosted anti-American voices north of the border. Just as the fog from the fires has lifted, so too can this spat. Trump and Carney spoke Tuesday by phone and agreed to intensify negotiations. Both countries will lose this fight if they can’t find a way out, regardless of who started it. – Washington Post
United States
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced bipartisan scrutiny in the Senate on Tuesday as frustrated lawmakers pressed him to explain the Trump administration’s strategy for the war in Iran amid renewed hostilities. – Washington Post
James Woolsey Jr., a Rhodes Scholar and lawyer who led the CIA and the rest of America’s intelligence community for two troubled years during the Clinton administration, as the nation’s spy services struggled to adapt to the post-Cold War era, died Tuesday at his home in Washington. He was 84. – Washington Post
The House passed a stopgap bill to fund the government into December in an effort to avoid another government shutdown weeks before the midterms, but the effort faces an uphill climb in the Senate. – Washington Post
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged Tuesday that he can’t have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested despite promising to do so during his mayoral campaign. – Fox News
The House on Tuesday rejected an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would codify President Trump’s executive order preventing transgender individuals from serving in the military. – The Hill
Bret Stephens writes: The truth — that the current vice president is by far the worst person ever to hold the office (move over, Aaron Burr, John C. Calhoun and Spiro T. Agnew); that he thinks, probably correctly, that there’s no political downside in today’s Republican Party to talking like a guy who thinks Dan Brown novels are works of nonfiction; and that it’s equally OK for a person who, by his own admission, has access to all U.S. intelligence to tease the possibility of deep-state conspiracies of the sort his political base is likely to believe. […] The truth — that Vance’s interview with Rogan (as close as politics gives us to a national cancer diagnosis) was a blip in the news cycle, because crazy today is every day, and our capacity to feel shocked diminishes with every asinine utterance coming from the vice president’s mouth, to say nothing of that of his boss. The truth is that the demons are here. We elected them. – New York Times
Cybersecurity
Artificial intelligence software in testing by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI breached security controls, accessed the internet and hacked another tech firm to obtain answers to questions probing its cybersecurity skills, OpenAI said on Tuesday. – Washington Post
Alphabet’s Google has successfully connected a new transatlantic subsea cable to Sines in Portugal, it said on Tuesday, adding another U.S.-Europe data route as demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services surges. – Reuters
A “serious software error” at New Jersey’s department of motor vehicles led to around 6,600 non-US citizens being registered to vote, with “fewer than 400” of them wrongly casting ballots, the state’s governor said. – BBC
The Trump administration is signaling that it may clamp down on Chinese open-source AI models that are the talk of the industry. On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US government is looking into whether popular open-source AI models from Chinese-based companies stole the intellectual property of their US competitors. – Business Insider
After a year and a half spent downplaying calls for AI safety regulations, the Trump administration has sharply reversed course, embracing a level of government scrutiny of frontier AI systems before public release–a far stricter stance than the Biden administration took. – CyberScoop
Kenya is investigating a cyberattack that temporarily defaced the president’s official website with an anti-government message demanding a ransom of five bitcoins (about $330,000). – The Record
Defense
An American manufacturer will for the first time begin producing drone boats designed and battle-tested by Ukraine as the Pentagon seeks to expand its arsenal of autonomous weapons. – Wall Street Journal
The Pentagon on Tuesday released the name of a U.S. soldier killed in the past week in the war in Iran and the name of another soldier “believed to have been killed in action” as the conflict continues. – New York Times
The Senate Intelligence Committee approved Jay Clayton on Tuesday as President Trump’s pick to oversee the U.S. intelligence community, clearing a key hurdle that may install Mr. Clayton in the job by the end of the week despite evaporating support from Democrats. – New York Times
The Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday it had tentatively decided to ban the import of some foreign-produced military-grade drones, including swarming drones and drones with infrared technology. – Reuters
The House voted 215-214 Tuesday night to make approval the default when qualified service members and Pentagon civilian employees ask commanders for permission to carry personal firearms on military installations. – Fox News
Hanwha Philly Shipyard has been tapped to build two Missile Range Instrumentation Vessels for the Pentagon to the tune of $2 billion, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought announced Friday. – Defense News
Last month, the Defense Department wrapped up another round of the Drone Dominance competition, a $1.1 billion program aimed at strengthening the domestic drone industry to supply commercially developed drones to the military. – Defense News
The weapon’s barrel points towards a drone in the sky. It briefly adjusts and then fires, with smoke rising where the round shoots. But instead of a service member resting a finger on the trigger well in preparation for the next shot, in video footage of the Bullfrog weapons system, a hulking, metal machine tilts the weapon just slightly, refocusing itself. – Defense News
Solid rocket motor manufacturer X-Bow Systems is launching what the company hopes will be a much-needed remedy to the ongoing conundrum of combating cheap drones with multimillion-dollar interceptors. – Defense News
The U.S. intelligence community needs to devote more resources to protecting American artificial intelligence companies from foreign espionage, former officials told the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, arguing that China will use a range of intelligence-gathering techniques to steal proprietary AI technology and advance its own military and economic goals. – Defense One
Robert Yon writes: The threat environment that made this architecture necessary is no longer theoretical. From the Strait of Hormuz to the U.S. Pacific Command, adversaries are investing in the precise capabilities designed to disrupt sustainment, fracture visibility, and exploit delay between detection and decision. The technology to close those gaps already exists, and the operational need is visible. What remains is the decision to connect these systems deliberately, under a unified architecture with the processes and authorities to move at the speed the threat demands. – Defense News