Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Trump adds new Israel hurdle to Saudi nuclear deal Mossad foils Iranian plot to infiltrate terror cell into Israel, target senior officials Satellite images show Iran is rebuilding. Fast. Iran rejects U.S. cease-fire deal presented by Iraqi leader Trump vows to punish Iran and Houthis for attacks in Red Sea Iran flew IRGC commanders, missile gear to Yemen's Houthis, sources say WSJ Editorial: Iran plays the Houthi card Drone attacks on Russia's biggest online retailer bring war home to middle class South Korea shifting to ‘peace first’ North Korea policy, retains denuclearisation goal US sanctions target Muslim Brotherhood official and Hamas-linked entities Trump unveils new tariffs designed to withstand legal scrutiny New warnings that Russian operatives are targeting the emails of US nuclear scientists and defense contractorsIn The News
Israel
President Trump said the fate of a landmark agreement to provide Saudi Arabia with a civilian nuclear program was contingent on the kingdom normalizing relations with Israel, adding a condition to the deal that could complicate its path forward. – Wall Street Journal
Two Israeli banks will halt working with their Palestinian counterparts in the coming months citing risks of associating with possible terrorism financing and money laundering, Israeli officials said, fuelling concerns of a Palestinian economic crisis. – Reuters
Thousands of Jews, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir among them, entered the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem to mark the Tisha B’Av fast on Thursday. Some of them openly prayed, in a continued erosion of what until the past few years had been a longstanding status quo at the site. – Agence France-Presse
Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Iran on Thursday that any attack on Israel would draw a devastating response, following a high-level security consultation attended by Israel’s senior military and defense leadership. – Jerusalem Post
The Mossad and Shin Bet on Thursday announced that they have busted a global Iranian terror network using a new proxy-by-proxy tactic. According to a statement by the agencies, until recently, Iranian terror masterminds would try to directly recruit foreigners to perpetrate terror against Israel or Jews worldwide. – Jerusalem Post
A 29-year-old Nazareth man was indicted on Thursday after prosecutors alleged that he repeatedly tried to contact Hamas and sought the terrorist group’s help to attack National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. – Jerusalem Post
Ramat Gan, Eilat, and Karmiel opened all their public bomb shelters after municipal assessments found that the risk of Iranian missile fire over the weekend had increased and was no longer negligible, representatives from these municipalities said on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Greece’s Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA) on Thursday approved a new €3.5 billion package of defense procurement contracts, including significant orders for Israeli missile defense and drone technologies. – Jerusalem Post
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli called on Thursday for the immediate closure of the Turkish Consulate in Jerusalem after the release of a new strategic study alleging that Ankara is pursuing a long-term campaign to expand its influence in the city through political, civil, and ideological channels while supporting Hamas. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: Yet, the one level of leadership that has not been subjected to meaningful scrutiny is the political echelon itself. The victims of October 7 deserve better. The bereaved families deserve better. And every Israeli deserves a government that views the need to uncover the truth behind the country’s darkest day as a national obligation rather than a political inconvenience. Israelis have waited long enough for answers. In this upcoming election campaign, every candidate hoping to form the next government must make clear that establishing a probe into October 7 is their highest priority. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
Iran has quickly rebuilt infrastructure damaged during the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign over recent months, from missile bases nestled deep inside mountains to bridges, ports and production facilities, according to Israeli and Western officials and a review of satellite imagery. – Wall Street Journal
Iran on Thursday rejected a cease-fire proposal from President Trump that was carried to Tehran by the Iraqi prime minister, according to Iranian and Iraqi officials. The failed mediation effort came as Mr. Trump was threatening to escalate the war and target Iran’s critical infrastructure. – New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint. – Reuters
Iran flew Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, military advisers and missile- and drone-related equipment into Yemen this month, according to four sources, in a move that suggests Tehran is seeking to strengthen the ability of its Houthi allies to threaten Red Sea shipping. – Reuters
The U.S. military said late on Thursday it completed its latest round of strikes on Iran that marked a 13th consecutive night of American attacks. – Reuters
The number of tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz fell to just one on Thursday, the lowest level since May 7, according to shiptracking data, amid ongoing shipping risks in the Middle East and as oil prices surged back to $100 a barrel. – Reuters
Britain said on Thursday its armed forces were ready to protect the country from any attack after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a warning over allowing U.S. bombers to fly from UK bases. – Reuters
Vahid Baniamerian’s family only found out he was going to be executed when Iranian state media reports flashed on their phones, saying the supreme court would review his death sentence. – Agence France-Presse
The Islamic Republic’s plan to increase truck trade with Pakistan to 2,000 vehicles per day will “ease the squeeze” of the United States’ blockade of the Strait of Hormuz “without coming close to neutralizing it,” counterterrorism analyst Roger Macmillan told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s threat against all infrastructure in the region is a “dangerous escalation in rhetoric,” Bahraini analyst Ahmed Alkhuzaie warned The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: Suckered or not, the Houthis are underscoring a larger lesson of the war: What happens in the Strait of Hormuz won’t stay there. Even weak terrorist groups can inflict damage on global shipping, and conceding Hormuz to Iran will encourage others to try. The President is understandably reluctant to re-engage militarily in Iran. There are political costs in committing weeks or months of naval and air power to opening the Strait, and risks of escalation. But the Houthis are making clear that ceding Hormuz to Iran will be a damaging precedent for global commerce and American deterrence. – Wall Street Journal
Hal Brands writes: To contest Chinese aggression in the Western Pacific, the US should field a vast arsenal of anti-ship missiles to be fired from strongpoints along the First Island Chain, which runs from Japan to the Indonesian archipelago. The US and its friends can use aerial drones, unmanned underwater vehicles and other autonomous systems to turn the Western Pacific into a killing field for a Chinese invasion fleet. None of these shifts are easy: Obstacles ranging from intellectual inertia to defense-industrial weaknesses have, for years, stood in the way. But the Iran conflict is a summons to urgency for a country whose way of war is unraveling. The US military must adapt before those weaknesses are exposed in an even bigger, more bruising fight. – Bloomberg
Russia and Ukraine
When a string of Russian strikes on military training grounds last year killed 12 Ukrainian soldiers, the general who commanded them did something unusual: He took responsibility and resigned. – Wall Street Journal
For four years, the Kremlin sought to shield Russians from the fallout of the war in Ukraine, maintaining a veneer of normality in everyday life and ensuring that affluent city dwellers could still enjoy the conveniences of a 21st-century economy. – Wall Street Journal
European Union countries agreed Thursday to impose another round of energy and banking sanctions on Russia, as they look to keep up pressure while Ukraine tries to build on recent gains after more than four years of grinding war with Moscow. – Washington Post
Before he became president, Volodymyr Zelensky played Napoleon in a comedic film that portrayed his character as a headstrong idiot who refused to change course even as he led his army to ruin. As president, Mr. Zelensky has been the opposite of his depiction of the French general — being, perhaps, flexible to a fault. – New York Times
Leading Russian online retailer Wildberries halted operations at one of its warehouses following a Ukrainian drone attack overnight on Thursday, as Kyiv broadens its campaign against a company at the heart of Russia’s consumer economy. – Reuters
Russian-controlled Crimea has installed public street phones for emergency calls to the police and ambulance service, providing an alternative to mobile communications that are often jammed as the territory comes under frequent Ukrainian attacks. – Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the United States remains prepared to play a “constructive role” in helping bring an end to the war in Ukraine, following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of an ASEAN gathering in Manila. – Reuters
Ukraine’s fired defense minister said Thursday he has rejected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s efforts to persuade him to rejoin the government in a different role where he could continue fighting Russia’s more than 4-year-old invasion. – Associated Press
Laura Loomer, an ardent ally of President Donald Trump with a reputation for incendiary social media commentary, sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday after a dramatic turnaround on the war that could have political reverberations back in Washington. – Associated Press
Joseph Webster writes: Finally, victory in Ukraine, and enabling its drones for exports, would deter adversaries elsewhere. Beijing is surely noting Ukraine’s successful drone strike campaign against Russia’s shadow fleet, and pondering whether variants launched from Taiwan could render a quarantine, blockade or invasion intolerable. If Russia is defeated, Ukraine’s drone capabilities would help the free world deter other adversaries, from the Persian Gulf to the Taiwan Strait. President Trump has an opportunity to quickly resolve up to two wars and potentially prevent a third one. If he can prevent Russia from obtaining gasoline imports, and thereby ramp up pressure on Russian consumers, he may be able to bring Putin to the negotiating table. In so doing, Trump would provide a coda to Graham’s legacy: peace in Ukraine, and perhaps beyond. – The Hill
Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet write: Even North Korea is reeling. Its soldiers for sale have died in Ukraine and its artillery and munitions have been proven marginal. Putin, once seen as a hedge against Xi’s domination of Southeast Asia, is now only a weakened junior partner to Beijing. Need evidence? Xi has rejected Putin’s hopes of a Siberia 2 gas pipeline to generate badly needed revenue. Beijing has reportedly told Moscow to “stop raising the subject altogether.” So much for their much-vaunted “no-limits partnership.” World War III is not yet won. But Ukraine is putting victory in the West’s grasp — if only Washington and Brussels will seize it. – The Hill
Saudi Arabia
The potential of a United States deal to allow a nuclear enrichment program in Saudi Arabia has stoked longtime fears of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. – New York Times
Two Chinese supertankers carrying a combined 4 million barrels of Saudi Arabian oil exited the Red Sea via the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Thursday, shipping data showed, apparently escaping a blockade on shipments of Saudi oil by Yemen’s Houthi militias even as other Saudi vessels came under attack. – Reuters
The U.N. nuclear watchdog is aware of a U.S.-Saudi plan to ask it to carry out verification work in relation to the nuclear cooperation deal they are discussing, but has yet to receive a request from them, it said on Thursday. – Reuters
Gulf States
Dubai-based DP World said it will develop two new maritime terminals in Fujairah on the United Arab Emirates’ eastern coast, expanding its logistics network in a move that will help reduce the country’s reliance on the Strait of Hormuz. – Wall Street Journal
For some three decades, Jordan has been an important base for American military operations around the Middle East. Now, Jordan is paying a price. Over recent days, Iran has stepped up its airstrikes against the kingdom, targeting U.S. military forces there. – New York Times
Most Gulf stock markets ended higher on Thursday, as investors turned their attention to corporate earnings, although escalating regional tensions limited gains. – Reuters
Sirens sounded in Jordan’s capital city of Amman on Friday morning, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported. Tasnim said that the sirens were triggered by an Iranian missile attack on a US military base in Jordan, claiming that the attack targeted the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a key hub for US military activities. – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
A new front in the Middle East war has opened up with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis threatening Red Sea shipping, throwing a dangerous new variable at the U.S. and its allies and piling more pressure on the global economy. – Wall Street Journal
Two of Iraq’s border crossings were attacked on Thursday during the latest round of hostilities overnight in the Middle East, according to officials and videos on social media verified by The New York Times. It was not immediately clear who launched the attacks. – New York Times
OPEC+ oil-producing countries will likely agree a further hike in output targets from September when they meet on August 2, three sources said, even though the Iran war is again hindering some of its members from pumping more. – Reuters
A series of explosions broke out near a military base hosting U.S. forces in northern Iraq, hours after the U.S. military said it had wrapped up its 13th night of strikes against Iran. – Associated Press
Egypt sees a path for the US and Iran to de-escalate tensions after about two weeks of tit-for-tat attacks and resume peace talks, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said, as Cairo pushes for a diplomatic solution along with key mediators. – Bloomberg
Korean Peninsula
For decades, South Korea was an example of the United States’ unyielding stance on nuclear nonproliferation. In the 1970s, the United States pressured South Korea, a steadfast ally with whom it shared nuclear technology, to give up a clandestine nuclear weapons program. – New York Times
South Korea is abandoning a “denuclearisation first” policy in favour of a “peace first” approach towards North Korea, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said on Thursday, while retaining the eventual goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. – Reuters
South Korea’s financial regulator said on Friday it is bringing forward the implementation of increased deposit requirement for retail investors to trade single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to July 31 to address market volatility. – Reuters
A South Korean court on Friday ordered SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his former wife Roh Soh-yeong 944 billion won ($640 million) in a divorce-related property division case, lower than a previous 1.38 trillion won award that had drawn scrutiny of his stake in the group’s holding company. – Reuters
China
Last summer, top Chinese chip developer Huawei Technologies held a closed-door briefing for the country’s technology czar to introduce its latest artificial-intelligence chips. The company laid out a plan for rivaling American behemoth Nvidia and said China could become self-sufficient in some critical areas of AI within three years. – Wall Street Journal
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasised security cooperation in separate meetings with his Belarusian and Uzbek counterparts, his ministry said in two statements released on Friday. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will discuss artificial intelligence with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visits the United States on September 24. – Reuters
China is seeking opinions from companies, business associations and local governments on proposed reciprocal tariff cut arrangements with the United States on about $30 billion in trade, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Thursday. – Reuters
Ezra Jin Mingri was inside a detention center in southern China on the morning of July 3, worrying that he would likely spend at least 15 years behind bars. The 57-year-old Chinese Christian pastor had even previously wondered whether he would live to see freedom again. – Associated Press
Teams searching the rubble of last week’s landslide in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing found three additional bodies in recent days, bringing the death toll to 11 with 50 people still missing, Chinese authorities said Thursday. – Associated Press
Chinese officials are seeking clarity from Washington on what the US expects from upcoming artificial intelligence talks, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Trump administration escalates pressure on China’s fast-rising AI sector. – Bloomberg
The foreign ministers of China and Japan met in person for the first time since their countries became locked in a dispute over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan. – Bloomberg
Editorial: One olive branch China could extend in return for relaxed sanctions is the release of former Hong Kong newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai. He was unjustly sentenced to 20 years in prison in February after a sham trial on bogus charges of sedition and colluding with “foreign forces.” In Communist parlance, that means the U.S. Earlier this month, China released prominent underground church pastor Ezra Jin after lobbying from Trump. That shows Xi is capable of pragmatism, if not compassion. If the easing of Hong Kong sanctions is part of a behind-the-scenes diplomatic effort to win tit-for-tat concessions from China, it may well be a step worth taking. But the 7.5 million people who live in Hong Kong knew freedom and hunger for its return. The U.S. need not accept their fate. – Washington Post
Logan Wright writes: Threats from China are now contingent, time-limited, and more deterrable than inexorable. Beijing’s capacity to execute long-term economic and industrial plans is impaired by the decay within the country’s fiscal and financial systems, and China’s decision to stick with its decaying economic model rather than change course is shortening its time horizons even more. The United States thus has a real but urgent opportunity to focus on the near-term threat of deindustrialization and, in so doing, mitigate the intensity of strategic competition in the next decade. The consensus in Washington that China presents a long-term challenge to U.S. economic primacy will not change overnight. But the sooner that consensus does change, the better positioned the United States will be. – Foreign Affairs
South Asia
A prominent Indian activist ended his hunger strike on Thursday after 26 days of fasting to demand the education minister’s resignation over a series of botched entrance exams. But India’s young protesters are continuing what has grown into a wider fight against corruption, poor job prospects and the government’s mismanagement of the education system. – New York Times
Narendra Modi, the powerful and acutely image-conscious prime minister of India, is suddenly facing a political problem he had not anticipated on entering his 13th year in office. – New York Times
Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin, a former ally of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, will resign on Friday halfway through his term, his spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday, days after Hasina said she was returning home from exile to surrender following a court conviction. – Reuters
At least 82 people have died after heavy rains across northeastern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan this week, authorities said, as flooding caused widespread damage to farmland, infrastructure and public facilities. – Reuters
Pakistan’s push to convert some of its diplomatic goodwill with the Trump administration into economic support has drawn skepticism from economists, who say fresh financing will do little to address the reforms that Islamabad has long avoided. – Reuters
India’s Coforge said on Friday it had secured a five-year contract worth more than $230 million with a major European client, without naming the customer, for an AI-led business transformation program. – Reuters
India restarted passport, visa and other consular services across Australia on Thursday via outsourcing giant VFS Global, ending a 23-day freeze triggered by a legal dispute. – Bloomberg
Pakistani military chief Asim Munir leveraged a joint oil transport venture with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Ahmad Vahidi to secure an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia under which Tehran agreed to halt attacks against the Gulf kingdom, three officials familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel this week. – Times of Israel
Asia
A Russian spy at the center of a secret operation to smuggle high-tech weapon components into Russia has left Japan after his activities were disclosed by The New York Times, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official said on Thursday. – New York Times
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reassured Asian allies that a U.S. pursuit of positive ties with Beijing did not mean they were being abandoned, as top diplomats joined a regional security gathering on Thursday held amid an escalating Middle East conflict. – Reuters
Malaysia’s ambassador to the United States was summoned by the U.S. State Department to explain Kuala Lumpur’s position on Israel, state media reported, citing the country’s foreign minister. – Reuters
After leapfrogging Singapore to become the region’s fastest-growing data centre hub, Malaysia is facing intensifying scrutiny as the resources debate that has complicated the industry’s growth spreads to emerging Asia. – Reuters
Vietnam faces higher U.S. tariffs than peers and risks a further erosion of competitiveness in the clothing sector, as the largest exporter of apparel to the U.S. is excluded from a mechanism that could cut U.S. duties on some textile imports. – Reuters
The Philippine Coast Guard on Friday accused its Chinese counterpart of firing water cannon at government vessels near a disputed shoal for a second day, in the third confrontation between the two countries in the South China Sea this week. – Reuters
Vietnam is planning to force social media platforms to ban users under 16 from posting content, commenting or reacting to posts, according to a draft decree reviewed by Reuters, joining a growing international push to curb the use of social media by minors. – Reuters
The participation of Myanmar leaders in top meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is “still far off”, the Philippines’ foreign minister said on Thursday. – Reuters
Malaysia has asked the U.N. refugee agency to temporarily stop registering new refugees in the country, as it builds a domestic system to manage asylum-seekers, the foreign ministry said on Thursday. – Reuters
Australia intends to plow more funding into a government-run shipyard in preparation for building nuclear-powered submarines, as the nation moves to upgrade its navy and expand domestic shipbuilding capacity. – Bloomberg
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet pledged to step up a crackdown on transnational online scam networks, but warned the criminal syndicates are adapting by fracturing into smaller, decentralized cells across the region. – Bloomberg
Asian officials are seething about the regional impact of the ongoing U.S. war with Iran — dismay that lay just underneath the smiles and staged photo ops at meetings of South and East Asian officials this week. – Politico
Ya-Ping (Abby) Le and Jeffrey D. Schwartz write: The first Taiwanese Maccabiah delegation belongs to this same story. Sport creates bonds that official meetings alone cannot. Its participation showed that the Jewish Diaspora community in Taiwan may be small yet flourishing. Taiwan is not just a distant island country, but a free and diverse society ready to meet Israelis on the field, in the laboratory, at the Shabbat table, and in the work of defending our shared democratic values. Also, for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Israel, its mission is to turn our potential into opportunities, and turn opportunities into actual cooperation and fruitful outcomes. From Taipei to Jerusalem, that friendship is already flourishing and will continue to grow in the years ahead with our joint efforts. – Jerusalem Post
Europe
As U.S. defence companies descended on Britain’s Farnborough Airshow this week hoping to tap Europe’s military spending boom, they encountered increased concern among customers about reliance on American suppliers. – Reuters
United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Turk, an outspoken critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s conduct in Gaza, faces opposition from both countries to a second four-year term ahead of a potentially contentious vote on Friday, diplomats told Reuters. – Reuters
Spanish former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Thursday that €1.3 million ($1.5 million) of jewellery seized by police as part of an investigation was a personal gift he received years ago and was never intended for financial gain. – Reuters
A Czech military helicopter crashed in the east of the country on Thursday, killing one of the five soldiers on board, the army said. The crash happened at an army base in Namest nad Oslavou, 180 km (112 miles) southeast of Prague, it said in a statement. – Reuters
British police apologised on Thursday for a “missed opportunity” to possibly stop a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue last year, as an associate of the attacker was jailed for helping carry out earlier reconnaissance on a UK defence site. – Reuters
Spain on Thursday nominated Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz to head the United Nations labour agency, potentially making her the first woman to lead the organisation, as it faces a financial crisis over U.S. non-payments. – Reuters
The Italian government introduced measures it says are devised to combat youth crime, as it continues to sharpen its law-and-order agenda ahead of a general election next year. – Bloomberg
A key ally of Friedrich Merz has ignited a major political debate by suggesting the chancellor’s centrist conservatives should break a taboo and cooperate with the country’s most popular party: the far-right Alternative for Germany. – Politico
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would exclude South Africa from the next G20 summit in Miami, saying it would be “in no one’s interest.” – Politico
Andy Burnham has spent the first 48 hours of his premiership picking a new top team. Some of the biggest winners? Sharp critics of the man he ousted. The former Greater Manchester mayor has brutally culled key allies of his predecessor Keir Starmer — just days after he pledged to end a culture of factionalism in the governing Labour Party. – Politico
Eugene Kontorovich writes: The ICC isn’t good at putting away dictators, but it is excellent at self-preservation. The European Union has a quasireligious attachment to the ICC and will exert pressure to keep states from quitting, as it successfully did with Hungary. Given that it takes a year for a country’s announced exit to become effective, the ICC’s defenders will try to wait out the Trump administration. If Mr. Rubio is serious about his new policy, he will have to act quickly to implement measures such as institutionwide sanctions and penalties on member states. – Wall Street Journal
David Ignatius writes: Trump’s retreat from the brink was facilitated by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. After their meeting late on Jan. 21, Trump said he had reached “the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland” and was withdrawing the new tariffs. U.S. and Danish diplomats have been hammering out the details of this “framework” ever since. Gen. Guillot told Congress in March that he had “very productive” discussions with Denmark and Greenland. He said his planned three bases will include space systems for missile defense, facilities for U.S. fighter jets and tankers, and ports for Special Operations forces. Has the Greenland war been averted? Probably, but with Trump it’s never over until it’s over — and even then it’s not over. – Washington Post
Africa
Judges at the International Criminal Court terminated proceedings against the former leader of an armed group in Darfur on Thursday after prosecutors withdrew the charges against Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain. – Reuters
South Africa’s Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo has resigned as the chair of the board of directors of state-owned asset manager the Public Investment Corporation, he said on Thursday. – Reuters
The U.N. human rights office on Thursday called for an investigation into reports of the torture and killing of surrendering Malian soldiers during an ambush of a military convoy by insurgents and separatists, saying such actions would amount to a war crime. – Reuters
A merchant ship hijacked in Yemeni waters in the Gulf of Aden last week is now being held by Somali pirates, two residents of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region told Reuters on Thursday. – Reuters
Armed bandits riding motorcycles killed at least 24 farmers and wounded several others in an attack on remote farming villages in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state, residents told Reuters on Thursday. – Reuters
A group of companies including TotalEnergies SE warned that Madagascar’s plans to nationalize fuel imports could put them and their customers at risk of trading and using sanctioned oil. – Bloomberg
South Africa’s deputy finance minister quit as the chairman of a state-owned firm that oversees $220 billion of government pensions, days before he faced being removed from the post. – Bloomberg
The Americas
The Brazilian government on Thursday rejected the tariffs imposed by the United States on the South American nation and another 59 trading partners related to forced labor, calling the move “arbitrary” and “unjustified.” – Reuters
Trinidad and Tobago businessman Dominic Hadeed and his wife Genevieve Hadeed were released from prison on Thursday after being held for nearly a month without charges over allegations they were involved in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and other senior government officials. – Reuters
Venezuela’s oil ministry has told partners of state energy company PDVSA that it will maintain the July 28 deadline it had set to migrate oil and gas contracts to a new legal framework approved in January, rushing executives to complete the negotiation of terms, four sources close to the talks said. – Reuters
Two earthquakes that rocked Venezuela on June 24 caused $19.6 billion in direct physical damage, but the cost of rebuilding could be twice that much or more, the World Bank said in an early assessment released on Thursday. – Reuters
The Ashaninka Indigenous people — who recovered their territory in the Brazilian border with Peru from settlers three decades ago, established and sustained their own governance, and grew crops while protecting the forest — have long been a success story for communities across the Amazon. But now, their way of life is under a violent threat. – Associated Press
Brazilian air force investigators on Thursday published their findings about the 2024 Voepass airplane accident that killed 62 people after it spiraled into a crash outside metropolis Sao Paulo. – Associated Press
Former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife will go on trial on drug trafficking charges next June, a judge said Wednesday, as their lawyers continue to object to the U.S. military action that snatched them from power. – Associated Press
Chile President José Antonio Kast accepted the resignation of Deputy Finance Minister Juan Pablo Rodríguez after a routine drug test returned an initial positive result. – Bloomberg
Alfredo Ferrero writes: In this sense, Latin America increasingly qualifies, shifting rightward with recent election victories by Keiko Fujimori in Peru, Jose Antonio Kast in Chile and Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia. An electoral map guarantees nothing, but political affinity lowers friction and removes roadblocks. It is this convergence of factors that has enabled the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. will reclaim its position as the principal ally for Latin American governments, who now, more than ever, are willing to share the burden of regional security and stability. But every repositioning of this magnitude needs someone to connect its pieces and, perhaps most importantly, to lead its purpose — and that role has fallen to Rubio, who has proven equal to it. – The Hill
North America
A large investment firm and a Canadian uranium mining and enrichment company made a big bet three years ago on nuclear power by acquiring Westinghouse, an energy company that had fallen on hard times. Now, that wager is proving prescient. – New York Times
U.S. and Mexican officials said on Thursday they will meet for a fourth round of negotiations to revamp the North American trade pact in September, after talks this week exposed disagreements over changes to automotive content rules and other issues. – Reuters
Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday that the country will “see no change in the effective tariff that Mexico pays,” after the U.S. government announced it would impose new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on 60 trading partners as of Friday. – Reuters
Canada will do whatever it takes to defend itself in a trade war with the United States, including possible retaliatory measures, Prime Minister Mark Carney told a meeting of provincial premiers on Thursday after the U.S. announced new tariffs. – Reuters
Hundreds of boxes of humanitarian aid from the U.S. are being distributed in two towns near the Cuban capital, the Catholic Church organization in charge of the distribution said Thursday. – Associated Press
Manuel Botom Uz was just four years old when he and his siblings were attacked by the Guatemalan army in his Indigenous community in Quiche, in northwest Guatemala, in 1982 during the height of the country’s armed conflict. – Associated Press
Nicaragua’s lawmakers said they will carry out a plan by President Daniel Ortega to abolish elections in the Central American country, prompting renewed criticisms Wednesday by the international community. – Associated Press
Pastor Lander Saintelus doesn’t have to imagine what the end of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians will look like. He has watched the effects unfold inside his own community in New Bedford for months. And they have only intensified. – Associated Press
Haiti remains mired in a lawless miasma even as the US is threatening to force hundreds of thousands of people who fled the Caribbean nation back home, after the Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump can terminate their special immigration status. – Bloomberg
The US Treasury Department announced sanctions against more than 50 people and businesses linked to the Jalisco Cartel, which has been accused of trafficking fentanyl and other illegal drugs into the country from Mexico. – Bloomberg
Guatemala will recognize Jerusalem’s City of David and the heritage uncovered at the archaeological site as part of its national inheritance and foundational ideals during a ceremony on Friday morning, the City of David Foundation announced. – Jerusalem Post
Russel Honoré writes: If the United States genuinely wants to reduce regional instability and unauthorized migration, it must stop pursuing policies that deepen Haiti’s emergency. Congress should enact a durable legislative solution for Haitian T.P.S. holders, and the Trump administration should remove unnecessary barriers preventing Haiti from building the security capacity every sovereign nation requires. It is still possible for Haiti to move from crisis toward sovereign democracy. And Washington can still choose to be a strategic partner of Haiti rather than an architect of its collapse. – New York Times
Juan Pablo Spinetto writes: Cuba is in free fall, Nicaragua’s relations with Brazil have been frozen for two years. Just last week Managua severed ties with Italy after refusing to extradite a former Red Brigades guerrilla convicted in the kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978. Only China and a weaker Russia, which operates a military facility in the country, remain on Ortega’s side. In particular, Central American countries, which have long been too accommodating toward the regime for fear of the economic, migratory and political consequences, should take the lead in forcing change in Nicaragua. That is the best way to draw the US and the rest of the hemisphere into a coordinated response. A country whose rulers openly reject elections has no place in this neighborhood. – Bloomberg
United States
The House of Representatives’ trade oversight committee maintains a compilation of all U.S. trade statutes. More than 1,400 pages, it is an authoritative reference among trade experts and attorneys. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S. will impose tariffs ranging from 10% to 12.5% on its major trading partners as part of a new set of duties that the Trump administration says are designed to combat forced labor. – Wall Street Journal
Merging companies will get a shortcut to ending antitrust investigations under a Justice Department change meant to make the government review process less burdensome for businesses. – Wall Street Journal
During a recent meeting in the Oval Office, he launched into a tirade against Iranian leaders, calling them scumbags and lunatics, and unleashing a series of expletives, according to a person who heard the comments. – Wall Street Journal
Oil prices roared back Thursday to crack the $100-a-barrel mark, an inflation-triggering threshold that threatens to bedevil the U.S. economy while putting pressure on Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. – Wall Street Journal
The House passed a measure to halt the war in Iran on Thursday, as Democrats mounted a last-minute bid to constrain the escalating conflict before lawmakers left Washington for a month-long recess. – Washington Post
Diplomats from around the world are gathering at United Nations headquarters in New York on Friday to decide whether to permanently remove the embattled chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. – Associated Press
The six candidates vying to lead the United Nations stressed the importance of restoring the credibility of an organization in crisis during a restrained debate Thursday, one week before the selection process formally starts. – Agence France-Presse
Michael Ehrenstein writes: The lesson for Israel is simple: Do not assume that today’s allies will remain so tomorrow. Parties change, coalitions shift, and new voices emerge. Constant vigilance is not pessimism; it is a necessity. The lesson for Americans is equally critical: Antisemitism must be condemned, plain and simple. It must be confronted even when it arises from within one’s own camp, not just when it comes from political opponents. Cruz has shown that this is possible. Others, as Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, and independents alike, must follow his lead. The fight against antisemitism will not be won by one party defeating another. It will only be won when decent people from all political sides refuse to tolerate it, wherever it appears. – Jerusalem Post
Eli Lake writes: It was no bombshell. The Times had already reported concerns that the new Qatari-gifted jet would not be properly retrofitted with the security gear necessary in the timeline the president had demanded to start using it. Nevertheless, the latest piece prompted the Justice Department to pull out all the stops. Not only did the DOJ subpoena the phone records of the Times reporters themselves, it also subpoenaed the phone records of two spouses of the reporters and one of the journalist’s mothers. The mother is a mental-health professional who has a right to keep her clients private. One of the spouses is a general counsel for a major law firm. – The Free Press
Ben A. Vagle and Stephen G. Brooks write: Pax Silica should be just the start. Washington and its allies could adopt that model to eviscerate China’s capacity for economic coercion in other important areas, such as pharmaceuticals, batteries, and drones. And they can go further than just circumventing China’s chokepoints by working jointly to constrain China’s mercantilism and building the capacity to coordinate sanctions that could be levied against China in a moment of crisis. Together, the United States and its partners have a huge store of untapped economic power that can protect U.S. and allied interests. The question is whether leaders in Washington are willing to use it. – Foreign Affairs
Brett D. Schaefer writes: The Trump administration sees value in many parts of the United Nations system, but it wants UN organizations to focus on core purposes, increase efficiency, and enhance transparency and accountability. It has made clear that US support and participation will be based on the extent to which international organizations support US interests, and that US financial contributions will be linked to implementation of such reforms. UNHCR responded to US reform leverage in ways much of the UN system has not. Unfortunately, that positive response has been overshadowed by the high commissioner’s decision not to appoint the preferred US candidate as his deputy—a decision that has been poorly received by the Department of State. This reaction is overwrought, and the dispute over the appointment should be outweighed by the reforms embraced by UNHCR, a valuable partner of the United States. – The National Interest
Cybersecurity
In a decision likely to intensify trans-Atlantic trade tensions, European Union regulators on Thursday hit Google with a $1 billion fine for illegally undercutting competition through its dominance as a search engine. – New York Times
For months, Chinese chip manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) had been hiking prices on Huawei, one of the country’s biggest technology companies. The chipmaker held firm when Huawei demanded relief from the escalating costs, according to two people familiar with the matter. – Reuters
The United States and more than a dozen allied nations said on Thursday, that Russian hackers stole emails from users of the Zimbra email program without having to fool them into opening an attachment or clicking a link. – Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday announced a new visa restriction policy that he said would target individuals responsible for or complicit in cybercrime and cyber-enabled crimes. – Reuters
A group of Russian hackers has spent the last year targeting nuclear scientists, defense contractors, and government employees in a cyber-espionage campaign, according to private-sector researchers and warnings from spy agencies released Thursday. – CNN
Concerned that the programs’ growing sophistication could induce emotional dependency and addiction, China last week banned minors from using AI companions and imposed additional requirements on platforms to prevent misuse. – CNN
An Australian energy company serving nearly 5 million customers announced Thursday that it suffered a data breach and that it is working with federal agencies to investigate. – The Record
The federal government has expanded a warning that it issued in April about attacks on internet-facing operational technology (OT) by hackers affiliated with the Iranian regime. The initial advisory focused on programmable logic controllers (PLCs) from manufacturers Rockwell Automation and Allen-Bradley. – The Record
Robert Pasnau writes: The challenge we face is the same challenge we have always faced, the task of finding meaning in the information available to us. A machine can collect, compare and collate tremendous amounts of information, but it can’t do the thing that matters most of all—decide what has genuine value for human lives. For an LLM, every question you ask is important and insightful, or so it will tell you. In truth the machine has no idea what is important. It lies with us to decide which questions matter most. But harnessing the power of AI could put us in a position to answer them. – Wall Street Journal
Jason Hsu writes: OpenAI and Anthropic’s business is the “frontier”: the hardest, highest-value work, offered to customers that want the best model available and will pay for it. That is not the business an open-weight model takes, where finances or data-sensitivity factor in more heavily. For many U.S. customers, the frontier model keeps the hard work moving, and something cheaper — and easier to tinker with — sits underneath it. The frontier lab gets paid either way. The only question is whose model is underneath. It should be an American one. – New York Times
Defense
On Wednesday, the Pentagon reported on its casualties website that a total of 18 American service members had been killed during the war in Iran. By Thursday, the Defense Department had lowered that number, reporting that 14 American troops had been killed in the war. – New York Times
Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday to provide “a full and accurate accounting” of all U.S. troops killed or wounded in the Iran war. – New York Times
The United States deployed a B-1 long-range bomber to strike Iran on Tuesday, in a significant escalation since the renewal of the conflict 12 days ago, sources told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
The Marine Corps is offering early separations in an effort to meet budget restraints that determine the size of the force, USNI News has learned. Under the Voluntary Enlisted Early Release Program, which was also offered in Fiscal Year 2025, first-term Marines who have separation dates on or before Sept. 30 can apply to leave the service earlier, according to a Marine Corps policy released July 1. – USNI News
The Defense Department announced a multibillion-dollar deal with Oracle on Thursday that will consolidate all of the company’s software, services and licenses used across the Pentagon under a single contract vehicle. – DefenseScoop
A new executive order issued by President Donald Trump this week authorizes the Pentagon to use artificial intelligence capabilities to map vulnerabilities in the department’s supply chains. – DefenseScoop