Fdd's overnight brief

Israel

Israel launched a wide-ranging attack on Iran’s nuclear program and military leadership overnight, killing the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and striking dozens of targets in an operation that pushes the region into a new conflict with uncertain consequences. – Wall Street Journal

The United Nations said on Thursday that there was a full internet blackout in the Gaza Strip, likely due to military activity damaging the last cable into the enclave, that has paralyzed aid operations. – Reuters

Israel has fully coordinated with Washington on Iran and notified the United States before its strike on Iranian targets, state broadcaster Kan quoted an Israeli official as saying on Friday. – Reuters

A unit of Gaza’s Hamas-run police force said it killed 12 members of an Israeli-backed Palestinian militia after detaining them early Thursday. An Israel-supported aid group, however, said the dead were its aid workers, eight of whom were killed when Hamas attacked their bus. – Associated Press

Israel on Thursday said it deported six more activists who were detained when it seized an aid boat bound for the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. – Associated Press

Internal Hamas documents show the group has been “systematically exploiting” the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza throughout the ongoing war in order to fund its terror activities, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday, citing captured papers. – Times of Israel

The IDF, early Friday morning, surrounded all Palestinian cities in the West Bank immediately after it preemptively struck Iran. – Jerusalem Post

Militant group Hamas condemned fresh Israeli attacks against Iran on Friday, warning of escalation that could spread throughout the Middle East. – Newsweek

Editorial: Going after Israeli ministers while ignoring this isn’t virtuous; it’s hypocritical. And it should be called out as such.We commend US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for rejecting the sanctions and making it clear they are anything but constructive. As he put it, the sanctions “do nothing to promote a ceasefire in Gaza, bring the hostages home, or end the war.” Then he added, “We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is.” Sound advice, indeed. – Jerusalem Post

Russia and Ukraine

Ukraine and Russia exchanged another group of ill and severely wounded servicemen on Thursday, officials from both countries said. – Reuters

Foreign ministers from large European countries said on Thursday they were ready to step up pressure on Russia, “including through further sanctions” involving the energy and banking sector, to weaken Moscow in its war with Ukraine. – Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he planned to attend the Group of Seven summit in Canada next week and hoped to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the meeting. – Reuters

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were gradually pushing Russian forces out of the border Sumy region, where Moscow has established a foothold in recent weeks. – Reuters

Lynne Tracy, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, will soon leave her post, her embassy said on Thursday, after serving through one of the most tense and difficult periods in relations between Moscow and Washington. – Reuters

NATO is expanding its satellite surveillance capacities to scan large swaths of land, enabling the alliance to monitor military movements in Ukraine and on Russia’s borders with its eastern members, top commander Pierre Vandier said. – Bloomberg

Middle East & North Africa

Oil prices surged Friday after Israel launched a wide-ranging attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, rattling markets and sending investors fleeing into safe-haven assets. – Wall Street Journal

Egyptian authorities have deported dozens of foreign nationals who arrived in Egypt to take part in a pro-Palestinian march and dozens more face deportation, the organisers and airport and security sources said on Thursday. – Reuters

Airlines cleared out of the airspace over Israel, Iran and Iraq and Jordan on Friday after Israel launched attacks on targets in Iran, Flightradar24 data showed, with carriers scrambling to divert and cancel flights to keep passengers and crew safe. – Reuters

Qatar recently submitted a proposal drafted with Hamas regarding a hostage deal based on the outline by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, two people familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. – Jerusalem Post

Mohammed Mahmoud writes: Without sustained support for food security, clean water, and public health, many people in North Africa living in poverty face increased risks of hunger, disease, and mortality. Agricultural productivity could decline, rural communities may suffer, and gains in child nutrition risk being reversed. In the absence of these stabilizing forces, the region could experience growing social and economic pressures. Looking forward, North African nations will need to strengthen domestic capacities and forge new partnerships to fill the gap left by US aid, or risk falling further behind in meeting development goals. – Middle East Institute

China

China has issued advisories to its citizens in Israel and Iran of the “complex and severe” security situation in those countries on Friday, adding a warning to those in Israel to prepare for possible missile and drone attacks. – Reuters

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with the European Central Bank (ECB), including on reforming the international monetary system, Premier Li Qiang told ECB President Christine Lagarde at a meeting in Beijing on Thursday. – Reuters

China on Thursday affirmed a trade deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, saying both sides needed to abide by the consensus and adding China always kept its word. – Reuters

The high-level negotiations over China’s export controls of rare earths is giving U.S. businesses some relief, even though it may be only for now. – Associated Press

China’s national security authorities in Hong Kong and the city’s police launched their first publicly known joint operation, raiding the homes of six people on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security. – Associated Press

Asia

The Pentagon is reviewing a defense pact with the U.K. and Australia, throwing into doubt a strategic partnership that aims to give Australia nuclear-powered submarines and deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific. – Wall Street Journal

Australia plans to significantly boost surveillance of Pacific Islands territorial waters, spending A$477 million ($310.72 million) on aerial patrols for illegal fishing fleets, tender documents viewed by Reuters show, as China takes steps towards sending its coast guard to the region. – Reuters

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has petitioned the International Criminal Court to allow his interim release to another country, his lawyer said in a filing, citing his advanced age and a vow not to flee or commit any further crimes. – Reuters

Just off the small Taiwan fishing port of Wushi on its Pacific coast, a Taiwanese company is testing what could eventually be a powerful but unglamorous new weapon in the island’s military arsenal – sea drones. – Reuters

Every evening at around 10 p.m., automatic gunfire echoes through the tiny village in Armenia, locals say – the sound of Azerbaijani troops firing into the night sky from their positions across the border, high above. – Reuters

Australia foreign minister Penny Wong said on Friday she was alarmed by the escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran, after Israel said it had struck dozens of targets inside Iran. – Reuters

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will visit China and Europe next week, meeting with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang and leaders of the European Union, the government said in a statement on Friday. – Reuters

The U.S. Interior Department said on Thursday it was publishing a request for information and interest to explore the potential for seabed mineral leasing offshore American Samoa. – Reuters

A Taiwanese court sentenced the Chinese captain of a ship to three years in jail on Thursday after finding him guilty of intentionally damaging undersea cables off the island in February, in a case that alarmed Taiwan officials. – Reuters

Editorial: This isn’t the conduct of an Administration that believes the Pacific is its “priority theater,” as Mr. Hegseth recently claimed in Singapore. Aukus is intended to pull Australia into a closer alliance to keep the Pacific safe for Western interests as China builds a blue-water navy. Let’s hope the Administration wraps up a perfunctory review and starts explaining how America plans to keep its Aukus word. – Wall Street Journal

Africa

Protests erupted in the Kenyan capital Thursday over the death of a blogger in police custody, reigniting long-standing public anger over police brutality. – Washington Post

China will negotiate and sign a new economic pact with Africa that will get rid of all tariffs on the 53 African states it has diplomatic ties with, it said, a move that could benefit middle-income nations. – Reuters

The number of people displaced by war and persecution around the world climbed above 122 million this year due to a failure to resolve multi-year conflicts such as those in Sudan and Ukraine, the U.N. refugee agency said on Thursday. – Reuters

The United States is pressing for swift progress in peace negotiations between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with a senior U.S. diplomat underscoring an “extremely aggressive timeline” for a potential agreement as early as June or July. – Reuters

The U.S. State Department’s top official for Africa, Troy Fitrell, will retire in mid-July, a State Department spokesperson said on Thursday, adding the Africa bureau’s number two, Jonathan Pratt, will step into the role. – Reuters

Latin America

Clashes between anti-government protesters and authorities in Bolivia have left at least four first responders dead, the country’s justice minister said on Thursday. – Reuters

Peru is weighing sending what it considers highly dangerous foreign inmates to prisons in El Salvador, the prime minister said on Thursday, potentially following in the footsteps of the U.S.’ deportations of migrants to the Central American nation. – Reuters

Google sued Chile-based LATAM Airlines in U.S. federal court on Thursday, seeking a declaration that Brazilian courts cannot force the tech giant to take down a YouTube video in the U.S. that accused a LATAM employee of sexually abusing a child. – Reuters

The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that it welcomed recent measures taken by Argentina’s central bank and finance ministry ahead of a visit by the Fund to the country later in June. – Reuters

President Javier Milei of Argentina received the $1 million Genesis prize in Jerusalem on Thursday in recognition of his support for Israel as it faces a mounting international isolation over the war in Gaza. – Associated Press

A wave of terror attacks across Colombia is stirring fears of regression to the dark days of the 1990s, when cocaine cartels and guerrillas made the Andean nation the most violent on Earth. – Bloomberg

Arturo McFields writes: Iran’s sad, opaque tour of Latin America confirms that this is a good time to put an end to its terrorist regime. A drone factory and the presence of terrorist groups in Cuba and Venezuela should be a matter of deep concern and action. This grave threat cannot continue to be ignored. […] Iran has fewer allies and is economically devastated. Its allied militant groups are being defeated by Israel. Now is a golden opportunity to put an end to a fundamentalist regime that has brought misery to its people and terrorism around the world. – The Hill

Cybersecurity

A second Italian journalist was recently targeted by software made by U.S.-owned surveillance company Paragon, internet watchdog group Citizen Lab said, raising new questions about a surveillance scandal that has already led Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government and Paragon to part ways. – Reuters

The majority of justices on Brazil’s Supreme Court have agreed to make social media companies liable for illegal postings by their users, in a landmark case for Latin America with implications for U.S. relations. – Associated Press

A Belarusian hacktivist group known as the Cyber Partisans is no stranger to scrutiny from cybersecurity researchers. So when Kaspersky, a Moscow-based cybersecurity firm, published a detailed report last week dissecting the group’s alleged tools and tactics, the hackers were unfazed. – The Record

The discovery of new infrastructure linked to Predator spyware suggests the surveillance technology is still finding new customers despite its backers facing rounds of U.S. sanctions since July 2023. – The Record

Adam Segal and Sebastian Elbaum write: Otherwise, Washington will face the worst possible outcome: a superior competitor with increasing economic and military power enabled by AI, and a domestic AI industry unable to keep up, handicapped by its inability to build on Chinese models if necessary. Finishing second is not a death knell for U.S. AI, but refusing to adapt to compete would be. – Foreign Affairs