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Iran war reflects a changed Middle East and a new Israeli military doctrine US moving fighter jets to Middle East as Israel-Iran war rages WINEP’s Matthew Levitt: Why Israel’s attack on Iran has been a success Trump calls for Iran to ‘surrender’ as he weighs military action Iran is preparing missiles for possible retaliatory strikes on U.S. bases, officials say WSJ Editorial: Iran is Trump’s deterrence moment Lebanon, eager to stay out of Israel-Iran war, warns Hezbollah not to join the fight US pulls out of two more bases in Syria, worrying Kurdish forces Center for a New American Security’s Adham Sahloul writes: America’s Middle East trap is China’s strategic windfall Former Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison: Trump can launch the Aukus Security Agreement to the stars Suspected Israeli hackers claim to destroy data at Iran's Bank Sepah Article by the White House showing President Donald Trump’s sustained stance against Iran gaining access to nuclear weaponsIn The News
Israel
Israel’s massive, ongoing assault on Iran highlights an extraordinary shift in Israeli military doctrine since Hamas, Iran’s Palestinian ally, attacked the country in October 2023. It is a change that has redrawn the power dynamics in the Middle East, unraveled Iran’s regional alliance and enshrined Israel as the dominant military force in the region. – Washington Post
Before launching its attack on Iran last week, Israel provided the U.S. with intelligence it deemed alarming: Tehran was conducting renewed research useful for a nuclear weapon, including on an explosive triggering system. – Wall Street Journal
European governments, increasingly frustrated with Israel over the Gaza war, are giving Israel more diplomatic leeway in its showdown with Iran—at least for now. – Wall Street Journal
Israel is running low on defensive Arrow interceptors, according to a U.S. official, raising concern about the country’s ability to counter long-range ballistic missiles from Iran if the conflict isn’t resolved soon. – Wall Street Journal
At least 51 people were killed and more than 200 injured by Israeli fire while they waited for aid near Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Tuesday, the Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement. – Washington Post
El Al, Israel’s national airline, said on Tuesday that it had received governmental approval to take back Israeli travelers stranded in Athens, Rome, Milan, Paris and Larnaca, Cyprus, starting on Wednesday, on the fifth day of deadly attacks between Israel and Iran. – New York Times
The U.S. military is deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes, bolstering U.S. military forces in the region as the war between Israel and Iran rages, three U.S. officials said. – Reuters
The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem will be shut from Wednesday through Friday due to the security situation in the region and to comply with Israeli guidance, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni sought to rally the Group of Seven leaders to support a ceasefire in Gaza, renewing the push amid an escalation of hostilities between Iran and Israel. – Bloomberg
US military involvement in the spiraling conflict between Iran and Israel risks spreading throughout the Middle East, the European Union’s top diplomat warned on Tuesday. – Bloomberg
Iran fired a pair of ballistic missile barrages at Israel early Wednesday, as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that “the battle begins” and called for showing “no mercy” toward Israelis. – Times of Israel
Overnight Tuesday, following Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) intelligence, IDF and Israel Border Police forces apprehended five terrorists in the Jenin area, Far’a and Tamun. – Arutz Sheva
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump overnight Tuesday amid ongoing Israeli strikes on Iran and growing speculation that Trump may authorize American involvement in the fighting, including an attack on Iran’s heavily fortified Fordow nuclear facility. – Ynet
Hal Brands writes: Yet an American air campaign against Iran’s nuclear program has never been easier, given that Israel has shredded the country’s air defenses. And if the US knocks out the Iranian nuclear program, even for a few years, a man who loves winning could claim to have won big on three crucial fronts. A president who started his second term by swearing off Middle Eastern wars has already gotten into one of them, against the Houthis. It would be a profound, if hardly inconceivable, irony if the stakes of the Iran-Israel war ultimately led him to join another. – Bloomberg
Jonathan D. Strum writes: That result would be welcomed by Europe, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and Egypt. […] Fordo is Iran’s most protected nuclear site, 20 stories below ground and set in a mountainous region northwest of the holy city of Qom. It is the one nuclear site that has not been targeted by Israel. Barring Iranian agreement to dismantle its entire nuclear program, the next step would be to seek regime change. Now is the time for Trump to act. – The Hill
Matthew Levitt writes: Iran likely is realizing that if Israel feels the need to attack again, it will. If nothing else, Operation Rising Lion underscores Israel’s post-Oct. 7 security doctrine: Israelis are no longer willing to hope for the best while enemies sworn to their destruction accumulate the weapons necessary to achieve that goal. If Iran thought this doctrine was limited to its proxies, it now should know better. – Boston Globe
Iran
President Trump issued bellicose threats against Iran and its leadership Tuesday, suggesting the U.S. might join Israel’s strikes and pivot away from seeking a diplomatic agreement to restrict Tehran’s nuclear program. – Wall Street Journal
Israel’s strikes on the regime and its nuclear program have driven a wedge into Germany’s 300,000-strong Iranian community, exposing a spectrum of hopes and fears for Iran’s future. One young woman who came to Berlin six years ago said the strikes filled her with optimism that the regime might fall. – Wall Street Journal
Iran has prepared missiles and other military equipment for strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East should the United States join Israel’s war against the country, according to American officials who have reviewed intelligence reports. – New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday repudiated Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s assessment that Iran has not been building a nuclear weapon, publicly contradicting his spy chief for the first time during his second term. – Reuters
Thousands of people were fleeing Tehran on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said they should leave the capital, while a source said Trump was considering options that include joining Israel in attacking Iranian nuclear sites. – Reuters
Former Iranian Economy Minister Ehsan Khandouzi has said that tankers and LNG cargoes should only transit the Strait of Hormuz with Iranian permission and this policy should be carried out from “tomorrow [Wednesday] for a hundred days.” – Reuters
Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cuts an increasingly lonely figure. Khamenei has seen his main military and security advisers killed by Israeli air strikes, leaving major holes in his inner circle and raising the risk of strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making process. – Reuters
An Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear complex at Natanz directly hit the underground uranium enrichment plant there, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday, revising its assessment after initially reporting it had been hit only indirectly. – Reuters
Iranian security forces on Tuesday arrested a “terrorist team” linked to Israel with explosives in a town southwest of the capital Tehran, Iranian state media reported. – Reuters
Iran arrested on Tuesday a foreigner for filming “sensitive” areas near the country’s Bushehr nuclear power plant for Israel, Iranian media reported. – Reuters
However, the longer Israel’s military operation goes on, the greater the realisation that Russia has much to lose from current events. “The escalation of the conflict carries serious risks and potential costs for Moscow,” wrote Russian political scientist Andrei Kortunov in business daily Kommersant on Monday. – BBC
In a large-scale overnight operation, the IAF struck a centrifuge production facility and multiple weapons manufacturing sites in the Tehran area, the IDF announced on Wednesday. […] While Israel hasn’t given up on striking Iranian nuclear sites and targets, this signals a shift in the IDF’s priority to ballistic missile targets that pose a direct threat to Israel. This is the first time that more IAF aircraft were used than the number of targets hit in Iran. – Jerusalem Post
CENTCOM Commander Gen. Erik Kurilla warned on June 10 that Iran was “mere steps” from reaching weapons-grade uranium as defined by the IAEA in a post that was reposted by the official White House X account “Rapid Response 47” on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: If the U.S. won’t help one of its strongest and most loyal allies finish the job of eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat in uncontested air space, the message to China will be that there is no chance the U.S. will defend Taiwan. Everyone will see it—from the Kremlin’s commissars to the Communist bosses in Beidaihe. But if Mr. Trump helps Israel enforce his own red lines against Iran’s nuclear program, he can send a message that American deterrence means something again. The Afghan fiasco, and the other failures of the Biden years, will recede that much further into history’s rear-view mirror. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: If Netanyahu’s goal is regime change in Iran, the United States must challenge the Israeli prime minister to explain how that might occur and what would come next — and Trump would have to ask himself what he would do to prevent Iran from collapsing into the sort of anarchy that breeds extremism and regional instability. For the moment, other outcomes, including urgent new nuclear negotiations, appear possible. But the window could close quickly. – Washington Post
Editorial: Harness every tool of American power, be it diplomatic, economic, covert, or militarized, to dismantle Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime before it can realize its vow to erase Israel and America from the map. Only then can the region breathe free of tyranny and terror, and the cancer of radical theocracy be excised once and for all. – Jerusalem Post
Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis (ret.) writes: Fordow is not just another enrichment site—it is a fortified monument to Iran’s deception and determination. The United States alone has the tools and reach to destroy it. This mission, if undertaken, must be precise, overwhelming, and independently verified. – Fox News
Afshon Ostovar writes: Whatever happens, the Iranian regime has doubtlessly lost its decades-long conflict with Israel. It will either have to give up its foundational political ideology and seek integration with the rest of the region through diplomatic and economic engagement, or it will need to double down on its beliefs, drawing further into itself. Ali Khamenei and the IRGC have lost; the regional status quo they established is finished. – Foreign Affairs
Russia and Ukraine
A day after President Trump signaled that Ukraine wasn’t a top priority, and following Russia’s deadliest attack on Kyiv in weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky left a summit of the Group of Seven industrial nations without the support he had hoped to rally. – Wall Street Journal
Canada dropped plans for the Group of Seven to issue a strong statement on the Ukraine war after resistance from the United States, a Canadian official told reporters on the sidelines of a leaders’ summit on Tuesday. – Reuters
North Korea will send thousands of military construction workers and sappers to Russia’s Kursk region to help rebuild it after a Ukrainian incursion that North Korean troops helped Moscow repel this year, a senior Russian security official said on Tuesday. – Reuters
A soon-to-be-released review by the International Monetary Fund of Ukraine’s debt sustainability is the next logical opportunity to restart broken-down talks over restructuring its GDP-linked warrants, said the country’s debt chief Yuriy Butsa. – Reuters
A senior Trump administration official is planning to travel to Belarus in the coming days to meet the country’s president, according to four sources briefed on the matter, as ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia remain deadlocked. – Reuters
Belkins Wille writes: There is a need to urgently identify more effective ways to enforce respect for international humanitarian law in Ukraine and elsewhere, including through prosecutions of war crimes. Commercial drone companies should also strategize with governments on what measures could be put in place to prevent or minimize occurrence of such unlawful use. The international community should not stand silently by. Failure to act could mean that Kherson becomes the blueprint for future wars — where civilians are hunted from above, not by accident, but by design. – The Hill
William Schneider writes: Russia’s successful deployment of the coercive threat of nuclear weapons use deterred the US from undertaking actions in Ukraine that it likely would have taken absent Russia’s coercive nuclear threat. This success emboldened Russia to announce an even lower threshold for nuclear use, which aims to reinforce the credibility of its coercive nuclear threats. Russia’s post–Cold War nuclear weapons and delivery system enhancements have increased its diplomatic and military flexibility and the strategic value of its alliance with China, Iran, and North Korea. – Hudson Institute
Syria
In the hours after Israel launched its most brazen attacks yet on Iran, Arab countries — many of which are no real friends of the Islamic republic — quickly condemned the Israeli aggression. Arab leaders denounced the Israeli strikes as “heinous attacks” and “violations of international law.” But amid the chorus of criticism, one key player in the region has remained notably silent: Syria. – New York Times
U.S. forces have pulled out of two more bases in northeastern Syria, visiting Reuters reporters found, accelerating a troop drawdown that the commander of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces said was allowing a resurgence of Islamic State. – Reuters
In a park overlooking Damascus, 25-year-old Khaldoun Hallak has spent the past few evenings with his friends, drinking yerba mate, snacking on nuts, smoking hookah pipes and watching the sky for missiles streaking overhead. – Associated Press
Middle East & North Africa
Two oil tankers were on fire after colliding in the Gulf of Oman, as maritime officials warned that navigational systems are being jammed in the Middle East as a result of the military operations by Iran and Israel. – Wall Street Journal
Lebanese authorities have warned the militant group Hezbollah to stay out of the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, as Lebanon’s military bolsters its presence in the south to prevent rocket fire that could drag the country into the fighting, according to senior Lebanese officials and Western diplomats. – New York Times
Organisers of a march to the Egyptian border with Gaza said on Tuesday that three participants were abducted by plainclothes officers in Cairo amid a wave of arbitrary detentions, deportations and abuse by security forces. – Reuters
The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, has warned of “uncalculated and reckless steps” that could spill out beyond the borders of Iran and Israel, according to a statement by the foreign ministry on Tuesday. – Reuters
Qatar’s gas production at the South Pars field is steady and supply is proceeding normally, it said on Tuesday, after the world’s largest gas field was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Saturday, prompting Iran to partially suspend its production. – Reuters
A member of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Al Jazeera Mubasher TV on Tuesday that the group will intervene to support Iran against Israel like it did in support of Palestinians in Gaza. – Reuters
Rising tensions in the Middle East will accelerate natural gas negotiations between Russia and China, with a decision likely this year, the head of a think-tank that advises the Russian government on China told Reuters. – Reuters
Turkey has claimed half of the Aegean Sea falls under its area of marine influence, escalating a territorial spat with Greece over where to put ocean conservation zones. – Politico
In Iraqi airspace, Iranian missiles and drones have crossed paths with Israeli warplanes, forcing Baghdad to step up efforts to avoid being drawn into the region’s latest conflict. – Agence France-Presse
At least 60 people were feared missing at sea after two deadly shipwrecks off the coast of Libya in recent days, the International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Adham Sahloul writes: U.S. leadership on display in the Middle East, the prevailing theater for American foreign policy over two decades, shapes outcomes well beyond the region, including Chinese and allied calculations about U.S. resolve in the Indo-Pacific. Trump would be prudent to learn from recent experience, including that of his first administration: Every Middle East crisis that consumes American attention and resources hands Beijing strategic advantages. – War on the Rocks
Korean Peninsula
South Korea’s new President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to deepen a relationship prized by Washington and closely watched by China and North Korea, as the pair met for their first summit. – Reuters
South Korea’s central bank said on Wednesday that U.S. tariffs were likely to exert downward price pressure domestically as more Chinese goods might be sent to neighbouring countries rather than the U.S. because of Washington’s levies. – Reuters
After years of delay, South Korea has ratified the Hague Adoption Convention, an international treaty meant to safeguard international adoptions, highlighting a significant policy shift decades after sending tens of thousands of children to the West through an aggressive but poorly regulated adoption system. – Associated Press
China
Israel hasn’t attacked Iran’s energy export hubs so far. If it does, China could find itself cut off from a flow of cheap oil. – Wall Street Journal
A Pentagon review of the multibillion-dollar deal for the United States and Britain to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines has unsettled a key ally as China ramps up its naval ambitions for regional dominance. – Washington Post
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will visit China from Tuesday, looking to foster trade ties and woo tourists and students, although thorny issues of security and defence will figure on his agenda in meetings with top leaders. – Reuters
China and Central Asian countries are willing to improve road and railway connectivity, and will look to open more direct flights to and from China as they agreed to enhance exchanges, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. – Reuters
As Beijing asserts itself amid global trade tensions, it is playing an ace it has kept up its sleeve for decades: control over the flow of minerals Western countries desperately need to fuel their green, digital and defense ambitions. – Politico
South Asia
The leaders of India and Canada held on Tuesday what they called a productive first bilateral meeting since then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi in 2023 of involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist. – Reuters
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi maintained in a conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump late on Tuesday that a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after a four-day conflict in May was achieved through talks between the two militaries and not U.S. mediation, India’s senior-most diplomat said. – Reuters
President Donald Trump is expected to meet Pakistan’s army chief for talks as the US considers supporting Israeli airstrikes on Iran — a partner of the government in Islamabad. – Bloomberg
Ashley J. Tellis writes: To be sure, a narrower U.S.-Indian relationship centered on interests, not values, will not be a disaster for either country. But it would represent shrunken ambitions. The transformation of the bilateral ties between the two countries after the Cold War was once conceived as a way to help improve and uphold the liberal international order. Now, that relationship could be largely limited to trying to constrain a common competitor, China. And if so, neither India nor the United States nor the world at large will be the better for it. – Foreign Affairs
Asia
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday the country would commence negotiations on a security and defence partnership with the European Union, and was also hopeful of a “symbolically important” trade deal. – Reuters
Taiwan completed the maiden sea trial for its first domestically developed submarine on Tuesday, a major step in a project aimed at strengthening deterrence against the Chinese navy and protecting vital sea lanes in the event of war. – Reuters
Taiwan sealed a partnership deal on Tuesday with U.S. and German-based Auterion for drone software battle-tested in Ukraine to help strengthen the island’s defences against growing military threats from giant neighbour China. – Reuters
Thailand held trade talks with the United States on Wednesday and plans to submit a proposal on Friday, a top commerce ministry official said, as tariffs pushed industrial sentiment to an eight-month low. – Reuters
Indonesia’s Bali airport saw dozens of flights canceled because of a volcanic eruption nearby, stranding holidaymakers and threatening the area’s key tourism industry. – Bloomberg
A group of US lawmakers held a rare publicly disclosed meeting with Taiwan’s top defense official, a discussion that risks spurring China to step up its military intimidation of the democracy. – Bloomberg
Amid the escalating Israeli–Iranian confrontation, Azerbaijan has underscored its commitment to neutrality and warned against any use of its territory for third-party attacks. – Jerusalem Post
Scott Morrison writes: For polar orbits, Australia also has Whalers Way in southern Australia. Both launch corridors provide secure and commercially viable solutions for allied and dual-use payloads. These are the launchpads of deterrence in the space age. Establishing a Pillar III would ensure that space, the ultimate high ground, is secured by free nations, not our enemies. America and Australia have stood shoulder to shoulder on land, at sea and in the skies. Now we must do the same in orbit. – Wall Street Journal
Keith B. Richburg writes: But ASEAN is typically stymied by the group’s principle of operating only by consensus among all the members, and an Asian preference for so-called quiet diplomacy. For now, the situation remains tense. Local residents on the Thai side are building bomb shelters and conducting evacuation drills. Both sides say they don’t want war. But it’s worth asking: Where is ASEAN when you need it? – Washington Post
Europe
The European Union’s executive arm proposed a sweeping ban on imports of Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027, a major step in the bloc’s efforts to sever its energy ties with Moscow. – Wall Street Journal
The European Union wants to ramp up defense capabilities by loosening its knot of regulations covering everything from sustainable finance to merger enforcement. – Wall Street Journal
Britain announced new sanctions on people and groups it said were linked to Russian finance, energy and military operations on Tuesday, including two UK residents it accused of sending high-end electronics to Moscow for the war in Ukraine. – Reuters
Denmark is willing to invest more in Greenland and grant the Arctic island greater authority over its foreign policy affairs, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The UK is looking to restrict the number of visas it gives to countries which refuse to sign returns agreements with Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, as his government pursues more assertive measures to reduce levels of net migration. – Bloomberg
Jeremy Shapiro writes: Do Americans trust Europeans to command the alliance? Do Europeans trust themselves to command, and can they trust one another to agree on who should be the commander? If the answers to those questions are no, then the future of the NATO alliance will be bleak. After all, how can Europeans lead if they can’t even take command? A NATO that evolves into a partnership of equals, however, will be stronger, more cohesive, and more resilient in the face of future threats. The time to start that evolution is now. – Foreign Affairs
Michael Peck writes: NATO was originally formed to keep the Soviets out of Western Europe, and while NATO did support US operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in a less-contested era, there is good reason why the alliance has centered on the European region for 75 years. The biggest contribution that NATO could make to Asian security is to restrain Russia. If Putin is victorious in Ukraine, this will only reinforce the perception that the West is weak and embolden China and other nations to take advantage. For NATO, charity begins at home. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Africa
A Kenyan police officer has been arrested over the shooting of an unarmed civilian on Tuesday during protests in the capital Nairobi touched off by the death of a blogger in police custody, a police spokesperson said. – Reuters
The Trump administration has given 36 countries, most of them in Africa, a Wednesday deadline to commit to improve vetting of travelers or face a ban on their citizens visiting the United States. – Associated Press
J. Brian Atwood writes: An increase in immigrants will give Trump something to talk about for the rest of his term, but some voters may find it curious that his own policies have increased the flow of migrants. Cutting aid to Africa, eliminating trade access to U.S. markets and taxing remittances is a triple whammy for African nations. These actions mean that Trump is writing off what will soon be 28 percent of the world’s population and assuming that this won’t come back to haunt the American people. – The Hill
The Americas
Canadian officials are considering requirements that would compel government-funded infrastructure projects and defense-procurement agreements to use domestically made steel and aluminum, according to Industry Minister Melanie Joly. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump is breathing life into a $10 billion project to alleviate congestion at the country’s busiest border crossing for trade between the U.S. and Mexico. Trump this month issued a presidential permit to Austin, Texas-based Green Corridors to build an 165-mile elevated “guideway” for self-driving shuttles to haul freight between Laredo, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico. – Wall Street Journal
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday said she had a “very good” phone call with her U.S. counterpart Donald Trump. – Reuters
An Argentine judge on Tuesday put former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner under house arrest to serve out a six-year sentence for corruption in a case that has effectively brought down the country’s most prominent politician in recent decades. – Reuters
United States
Leaders from some of America’s biggest trading partners traveled to the Group of Seven industrial nations summit in Canada this week hoping for deals with President Trump. They left empty-handed. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump’s escalating threats against Iran and public flirtation with joining Israel’s bombing campaign against the country have reawakened a long-dormant debate on Capitol Hill about clawing back Congress’s power to declare war. – New York Times
Texas has stopped putting new money toward building a U.S.-Mexico border wall, shifting course after installing only a fraction of the hundreds of miles of potential barrier that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott set out to construct four years ago. – Associated Press
Michael Sobolik writes: Beijing’s unrestricted warfare demands a nuanced response from Washington. For universities that carelessly compromise US national security, the rule of law. For PRC students doing the work of the CCP, swift legal action. For Chinese nationals fleeing totalitarianism and experiencing freedom, welcome and inclusion. America’s values dictate nothing less, even – perhaps especially – in the middle of a cold war. – Spectator World
Cybersecurity
A dozen Latin American countries are collaborating to launch Latam-GPT in September, the first large artificial intelligence language model trained to understand the region’s diverse cultures and linguistic nuances, Chilean officials said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The world’s three best-selling makers of bitcoin mining machines – all of Chinese origin – are setting up manufacturing footholds in the United States as President Donald Trump’s tariff war reshapes the cryptocurrency supply chain. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump will extend a June 19 deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of short video app TikTok for 90 days despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown absent significant progress, the White House said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Taiwan joined a yearslong US campaign to curtail China’s technological ascent when it blacklisted the country’s AI and chipmaking champions, an unprecedented step that may signal a resurgent effort to isolate its powerful neighbor’s semiconductor sector. – Bloomberg
To analyze information it gathered, Israel used the latest artificial-intelligence, or AI, technology, said an intelligence officer involved with selecting individuals and sites to target. He said AI was used to help Israelis quickly sift through troves of data they had obtained. – Associated Press
The organizations representing critical networks that keep the lights on, the water running and transportation systems humming across the U.S. are bracing for a possible surge of Iranian cyberattacks. – Politico
Iran’s cyber command ordered top officials and their security teams to avoid IT equipment connected to telecom networks in a sign they fear digital disruption from Israel. – Politico
An anti-Iranian government hacking group with potential ties to Israel and a track record of destructive cyberattacks on Iran claimed in social media posts on Tuesday that it had destroyed data at Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah. – Reuters
Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel. – Times of Israel
A Cambodian hacktivist group has ramped up cyberattacks against Thai entities following a flare-up in a long-running dispute between the two countries over contested border areas. – The Record
Congress should use renewal of an expiring terrorism insurance program to create a federal backstop for cybersecurity insurance, according to a report out Tuesday that tries to thread many difficult needles to bolster an industry that its author says isn’t developing fast enough. – CyberScoop
Defense
The best shot at knocking out the most fortified part of Iran’s nuclear program comes down to a giant U.S. bomb that has never been used in war. […] Military analysts said the large bunker buster has the best chance of getting through to targets like the Fordow uranium-enrichment facility, which Iran buried under a mountain. Its existence has driven speculation that the U.S. could get involved in Israel’s attack. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S. Army has nearly tripled its production of 155mm howitzer shells since the Ukraine war began, millions of which have been sent to that country’s front lines. It’s going to miss its goal of making 100,000 per month by October, but likely by just a few months. – Defense One
The Pentagon is redrawing its military combatant command responsible for defending the U.S. homeland to include Greenland as the Trump administration signals it wants control of the Danish territory. – Defense News
Following the cancellation of an Army helicopter program and a loss in another, Lockheed Martin is chasing a European competition to sell its internally developed military rotor technology, and plans to partner with companies on the continent to produce the aircraft here in Europe if successful. – Breaking Defense
Lorenz Vargas writes: Real integration means planners who understand sensor constraints, tasking timelines, and contested environments. It means shifting the mindset — from assuming sensors to fighting for them, from availability to access, from presence to precision. This doesn’t require sweeping reform. It requires structure, repetition, and command attention — and recognizing that full integration is a leadership opportunity, not just a technical fix. In a theater shaped by terrain, weather, jamming, and delay the side that sees first still shoots first. And the sensor won’t see unless the plan tells it what to look for. – War on the Rocks