Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
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Israel says it 'eliminated' two Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives tied to major funding network JPost Editorial: Israel’s security cannot hinge on unfinished US-Iran diplomacy Iran mediators offer plan to ease Lebanon, Hormuz tensions U.S., Qatar work to give Iran access to billions of dollars in frozen cash US and Iran conclude high-level talks in Switzerland, mediators say Iran's Revolutionary Guards set up covert Iraqi cells to attack Gulf neighbors, sources say IAEA says ready to help formulate ‘concrete steps’ towards implementing US-Iran deal WSJ Editorial: Iran and Trump blame Israel first Russia faces spreading fuel shortages after Ukrainian drones pummel refineries IDF troops corner 30 Hezbollah terrorists in Tebnit tunnel headquarters China slaps restrictions on dozens of U.S. companies ICC sets July vote on removing chief prosecutor Karim KhanIn The News
Israel
Israeli soldiers are free to act without restriction to eliminate threats in Lebanon, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday, adding troops remained in position in what Israel refers to as a security zone. – Reuters
The Israeli military said on Sunday that they “eliminated” Hussein Qadra and Mohammed Farra, operatives in the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. – Reuters
Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed at least 20 people on Saturday, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA said, one day after a ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect, aimed at halting months of escalating violence. – Reuters
Diplomatic niceties broke down at the United Nations on Friday when Israel’s ambassador and the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict became embroiled in a furious shouting match at a public hearing. – Reuters
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Gaza has reached more than 1,000 since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire last October, the enclave’s health ministry said on Thursday, as at least four people were reported killed in the latest strikes. – Reuters
Israel published a map on Thursday showing an expanded military control zone in southern Lebanon and said it would not rule out carrying out attacks beyond it, challenging the terms of a U.S.-Iran pact that calls for Lebanon’s sovereignty to be respected. – Reuters
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations warned Sunday that Iran’s continued efforts to exert influence in Lebanon through Hezbollah are a “warning sign” for broader diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, vowing that Israel will not remain “sitting ducks” in the face of attacks from the Iran-backed terror group. – Fox News
Israeli President Isaac Herzog warned Sunday that Iran-backed proxies are actively undermining prospects for peace as U.S. and Iranian officials reportedly prepare to discuss Israel-Hezbollah tensions during high-stakes talks in Switzerland. – Fox News
“We will give a decisive and painful response to the Zionist regime’s attack on the suburbs. This rabid dog must be disciplined and put in its place. Watch the sky of the occupied territories tonight,” Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for Iran parliament’s foreign policy and national security committee, wrote on X. – New York Post
A freed Israeli hostage has detailed the horrific sexual torment he suffered at the hands of Hamas terrorists, including being stripped naked and sadistically assaulted. – New York Post
When the privately funded Civil Commission on the Oct. 7 crimes against women, men, and children released its landmark report on May 12, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy felt something she had not experienced in a very long time: a deep sense of relief. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) have, in a joint statement on Sunday, unmasked five Hamas terrorists who have been directing “military actions” in Israel and the West Bank from Turkey. – Jerusalem Post
Israel filed a civil lawsuit on Thursday in Haifa Magistrate’s Court for about NIS 2m. against four terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who kidnapped and murdered IDF soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. – Jerusalem Post
Anduril, the world’s largest and most closely watched defense startup, has begun exploring the possibility of establishing operations in Israel. – Calcalist
Editorial: The United States remains Israel’s indispensable ally, and its effort to avert a regional conflagration deserves serious engagement. Yet partnership cannot mean Israel’s security policy is subordinated to the timeline of an American negotiation with Iran. The North has paid too high a price for that. A deal that protects shipping lanes but leaves Israel constrained against an armed Hezbollah is not yet a regional security agreement; it is unfinished diplomacy. Israel must ensure it is not asked to bear the risks when it has already failed on the ground. – Jerusalem Post
Seth D. Kaplan writes: Tehran built its influence through patience, political organization, partnerships, and networks. Israel’s response must be equally sophisticated. The next phase of this struggle will not be won solely by the country with the strongest military. It will be won by the country that best mobilizes a network of shared interests. Israel has already demonstrated that it can strike Iran. The harder task is building the coalition needed to outlast it. Wars are won by armies. Long struggles are won by strategy. – Jerusalem Post
Amit Segal writes: Gaza is today the quietest front; there are Israelis who probably tend again to underestimate the dimensions of the neighbors’ lust for murder and blood. The visit to the exhibition testifies to a satanic Nazi plan in its scope to kill Jews. The evidence regarding the Gazans themselves, who knew and enthusiastically encouraged Hamas, reminds us that they are the ones in the phrase “and their helpers.” It is worth remembering that the only ones in the Middle East besides the Israelis who democratically elected their leadership are the Gazans, who continue to support the Hamas terrorists they elected to this day. As with Germany 1945, Gaza 2026 needs to be treated in two ways: encouraging emigration and de-Nazification. – Arutz Sheva
Amine Ayoub writes: Israel must look past the shiny facade of Sisi’s international conferences and recognize the structural fragility of the Egyptian state. A regime that relies on foreign handouts, external crises, and absolute domestic terror to maintain power is not a pillar of stability. It is a liability. As Jerusalem navigates the complex post-war architecture of the region, it must maintain independent security control and absolute vigilance, recognizing that Cairo’s cooperation lasts only as long as the next international check clears. – Artuz Sheva
Ahmed Charai writes: Mr. Vice President, you may disagree with Israeli leaders. You may defend the President’s diplomatic choices. You may insist that America will not be dragged into another Middle Eastern war. All of that is legitimate. But do not humiliate allies in public. Do not treat Israel’s fears as political inconvenience. Do not reduce the Abraham Accords to yesterday’s achievement. Do not speak to front-line countries as if they were spectators in Washington’s domestic debate. The United States is greatest when it leads with confidence, not resentment; with clarity, not performance; with loyalty to its friends and firmness toward its adversaries. America’s allies are not an audience, and the Vice Presidency of the United States is not a podcast. – The National Interest
Iran
Iran and the U.S. agreed to the creation of a mechanism to ensure the termination of military operations in Lebanon, mediators said. – Wall Street Journal
In the days before Iran’s regime hanged Nasser Bakerzadeh, the 26-year-old spoke of the normal life he would never return to. Bakerzadeh dreamed of returning to run his mobile-phone store, he told fellow inmates in the main prison of Urmia, a city in Iran’s northwest. – Wall Street Journal
The war between the U.S. and Iran has exposed a painful vulnerability in the global economy: Disruptions at key chokepoints, like the Strait of Hormuz, can wreak havoc on international trade. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S. has unleashed more than 1,000 sanctions on Iran over the past 18 months as part of its wider campaign to squeeze Tehran into submission. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump’s deal with Iran will allow the Islamic Republic to sell its crude and fuels like diesel on the open market for the first time since 2018. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S. is working with Qatar on a plan to make billions of dollars in frozen funds available to Iran for humanitarian spending, another early financial incentive under the recently signed deal to end the war, people familiar with the matter said. – Wall Street Journal
In signing a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz this week, President Trump made a massive bet that doing so would lead to the agreement he covets: one that restricts Tehran’s ability to acquire a nuclear weapon. – Wall Street Journal
Iranian and American negotiators gave themselves a 60-day sprint to go from a loosely defined Memorandum of Understanding signed with a felt-tipped flourish by President Donald Trump on Wednesday to a final, full-fledged peace accord. – Washington Post
Uncertainty over the Strait of Hormuz remained on Sunday, a day after the U.S. and Iranian militaries offered conflicting accounts over whether the waterway was open to ships. – New York Times
The United States and Iran began negotiations to permanently end their war on Sunday, kick-starting a fraught process that aims to secure a broader deal within 60 days. The talks face the constant risk of being derailed by the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, and will focus heavily on Iran’s nuclear program. – New York Times
The first round of talks between high-ranking U.S. and Iranian officials in Switzerland ended Monday, mediators said, after a tense opening marked by Tehran’s announcement it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. President Donald Trump repeating his threats to resume attacks on Iran. – Reuters
Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing a source close to the negotiating team, reported on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz would not be reopened as long as a ceasefire in Lebanon was not respected. – Reuters
President Donald Trump on Sunday posted that the U.S. will resume attacks on Iran unless the Iranians can keep their Hezbollah allies in Lebanon from causing violence. – Reuters
The United States will continue to assess the Iran squad’s travel arrangements at the World Cup but for now the original plan remains in place despite the team saying they would lodge a complaint with FIFA, Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force for the tournament, told Reuters on Saturday. – Reuters
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has set up secretive new cells in Iraq to carry out attacks on Gulf countries that host American forces, bypassing established militia networks to avoid detection, eight Iraqi sources told Reuters. – Reuters
The U.S. military on Saturday denied Iran’s claims that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, saying the critical waterway remained open and that U.S. forces were monitoring the situation to ensure that continued. – Reuters
Emerging outlines of a deal between Washington and Tehran to end their war contain a stinging paradox: sweeteners to coax Iran into compliance may strengthen an adversarial force that the U.S. and its Western allies consider a terrorist organisation. – Reuters
France wants to play a role in talks dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme and will not approve the lifting of UN sanctions unless it is satisfied by the terms of a final accord, its foreign minister said on Friday. – Reuters
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday he had authorised a memorandum of understanding signed by the Iranian and U.S. presidents, despite holding a different view, after receiving assurances from President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior officials that Iran’s rights and the interests of the “Resistance Front” would be safeguarded. – Reuters
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Thursday that it was ready to begin defining the “concrete steps” that will need to be taken to implement a US-Iran deal. – Agence-France Presse
Iran has resumed loading crude from its Kharg island export terminal after a break of about six weeks, following the lifting of a US Navy blockade of its ports. – Bloomberg
Editorial: Mr. Trump came into office with a chance to restore American deterrence after the feckless Biden years. But he increasingly finds himself attacking allies while apologizing for adversaries. Taiwan is scolded for wanting weapons to defend itself against Mr. Trump’s friend in Beijing, Xi Jinping. Ukraine is lectured for not knowing that Russia has all “the cards,” as Mr. Trump put it. And now those dastardly Israelis are the scapegoat for defending themselves against Iran’s Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon. Peace through weakness never lasts for long. – Wall Street Journal
Mike Pence writes: This 60-day period should be used to secure what this agreement doesn’t yet provide: an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, an end to Iranian-backed terror, and an end to its half-century of warfare against the U.S. and Israel. If those reasonable goals cannot be achieved, Mr. Trump should let the armed forces finish the job. Now isn’t the time to trade leverage for promises. Whether at the negotiating table or by again unleashing the most powerful military in the world, now is the time to secure victory. – Wall Street Journal
Ryan Fayhee writes: Imprisoning foreign nationals has been a central tool of Iranian foreign policy since the Islamic Republic targeted the U.S. in 1979 by seizing more than 50 diplomats and embassy staff members and holding them for 444 days. In that light, the U.S. commitment to secure the release of Americans held in Iran is not only a humanitarian imperative but a test of diplomacy with Iran. The two sides have 60 days to reach a final agreement. If American negotiators can secure a lasting agreement on thorny issues such as the Strait of Hormuz and nuclear weapons, surely they can win freedom for Valizadeh and other Americans. – Washington Post
Michael Singh writes: Whatever longer-term agreement Washington and Tehran reach, an Iranian regime determined to dominate its region and control its people through force will be unfriendly to American interests and its regional partners. For all the administration’s talk of transforming relations with Iran, the real challenge will be containing it while rebuilding trust and cooperation with regional partners, like the Arab Gulf states, which bore the brunt of this conflict. This initial, bare-bones agreement may satisfy no one. But if it has a silver lining, it is that reopening the Strait of Hormuz will shift pressure away from the United States and onto Iran — putting Washington in a better position to demand the very concessions that critics suggest Mr. Trump should have obtained from this war in the first place. – New York Times
Salem Alketbi writes: Open talk of readiness revives an old political debate. Iran follows it. It knows its adversaries are preparing and is planning its own next war. Some argue that adversary readiness drives its arming. That view reverses cause and effect. The regime is rebuilding for its own expansionist motives rather than in response to a threat. Halting preparation will not halt Iran. It will read it as weakness, and push further. Laxity will not curb its aggression. It will give it a free hand. – Jerusalem Post
Russia and Ukraine
When Ukrainian emergency workers clambered onto a damaged structure above Reactor No. 4 at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, there were eerie echoes of 1986. – Wall Street Journal
Ukraine is pounding Russian oil refineries with long-range drone strikes, leading to restrictions on fuel sales, surging gasoline prices and huge lines of cars outside gas stations hundreds of miles from the front lines. – Wall Street Journal
Poland stripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of Warsaw’s top honor, a decision that stoked tensions between Ukraine and one of the country’s staunchest supporters in its battle against Russia’s full-scale invasion. – Washington Post
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accepted an offer from Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to help work for a peace deal in Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Friday. – Reuters
The CEO of UFORCE, a Ukrainian producer of attack drones, flew to Tokyo in April with a pitch for Japanese officials and defense contractors: build thousands of our drones to defend yourself and allies. – Reuters
Moscow shot down dozens of drones in the early hours of Monday and briefly suspended flights at airports, local authorities said, just days after Ukraine hit the Russian capital’s oil refinery again. – Reuters
One person was killed and three injured after Russia hit Ukraine’s southern Odesa region with an Iskander ballistic missile on Sunday evening, Oleh Kiper, the regional governor, said on Telegram. – Reuters
Ukraine’s stronger position in the war with Russia has yet to relieve the humanitarian crisis felt by millions of displaced Ukrainians and worsened by a plunge in aid spending, the head of the International Rescue Committee said. – Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Russian forces were preparing an impending massive attack on Ukraine and warned residents to take special care as Russian strikes in different regions killed at least six people. – Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that a week should be enough for Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to remove equipment from his country used by Russia in its attacks on Ukraine, adding a threat of Ukrainian action if Lukashenko did not do so. – Reuters
A Romanian man has been sentenced to 15 years in a Russian maximum security penal colony after being convicted of spying for Ukraine by helping Kyiv identify the location of sensitive air defence systems, Russia’s FSB security service said on Friday. – Reuters
The transport workshop of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in eastern Ukraine came under a massive drone attack late on June 18 and overnight, with at least 14 strikes recorded, the Russian-installed management said on Friday. – Reuters
The European Union has made a tentative bid to open a line of communication with Moscow so the continent is not sidelined in any potential talks to end Russia’s grinding war in Ukraine, officials said Thursday. – Associated Press
Ukraine targeted the Tyumen oil refinery in Russia’s Ural region, about 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) from the Ukrainian border, extending Kyiv’s campaign against Russia’s energy infrastructure. – Bloomberg
Rebeccah Heinrichs writes: The State Department has been pursuing strategic stability talks with Russia since the expiration of the New START treaty. The Pentagon’s decision to cancel the planned deployment of long-range strike weapons undermines those efforts without securing Russian concessions. The 2026 NATO Summit is approaching. Trump should embrace the alliance while encouraging allies to continue investing in defense, especially now that Ukraine has the momentum. The president rightly lauds the value of peace through strength. That means either rejecting calls from inside his own administration to retreat or embracing the excessive risk aversion that characterized his predecessor and led to more war. – Fox News
Tatiana Vorozhko and Dinara Khalilova write: Svitlana and Petro were fortunate, as leaving the occupied territories can be as dangerous as remaining in them. Cases of abuse, forced disappearances, and the separation of children from their parents are well documented. Svitlana now celebrates her life in Kyiv, where she and Petro are back working on the railway and helping their daughter with her baby. “The smile doesn’t leave your face, because you can talk freely, loudly, with anyone you want,” she said. Their old home has since been destroyed. The town they once knew has been devastated by war, occupation, and the bombing of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam. “Everything has been looted, everything has been stolen,” she said. “There is nothing.” – Center for European Policy Analysis
Ken Harbaugh writes: One afternoon, he obliged—a photograph taken inside the barracks, of himself and another soldier grinning for the camera. Behind them, pinned to the wall, was a map of the compound showing the unit’s position. The housewife did not exist. “She” was a middle-aged officer named Serhiy working for Ukraine’s military-intelligence directorate, part of a concerted effort to draw secrets from the men sent to occupy his country. “Serhiy was great at flirting,” his commander told me. “Guys in our team started asking him for dating advice.” Shortly after Achmad sent that photograph, the coordinates it revealed were struck by a Ukrainian drone. – The Atlantic
Hezbollah
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Sunday that Israel will not stay in Lebanon, adding that the group would respond to any violation from the Israeli side. – Reuters
Buried beneath a hilltop village in southern Lebanon, just kilometers from the Israeli border, the Hezbollah terror group built an underground drone “airbase” from which it launched Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles at Israel. – Times of Israel
The IDF cornered dozens of Hezbollah terrorists in a huge underground base consisting of a network of tunnels totaling over a kilometer in length in the village of Tebnit, on Sunday. – Jerusalem Post
Syria
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Saturday for an attack near the city of Manbij in Syria’s northeastern Aleppo province that the Syrian Defence Ministry said killed two soldiers. – Reuters
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday ruled out intervening militarily in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, after US President Donald Trump again suggested Damascus could get involved and expressed frustration with Israel’s fight against the Iran-backed terror group. – Agence-France Presse
Damascus is relying on the Assad-era Decree 66 to detain activists like Hassan Akkad, sources told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. – Jerusalem Post
Officials operating under the Assad regime allegedly removed organs from prisoners and transplanted them into ill members of families affiliated with the former regime, Syria’s Justice Ministry claimed last week. – Jerusalem Post
Turkey
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan ordered officials on Sunday to resume talks on reopening an Orthodox Christian seminary near Istanbul, an issue raised by U.S. President Donald Trump, who is expected to visit Ankara next month for a NATO summit. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he will go to Turkey and make another trip to China at some point in 2026. “We’re doing a lot of trips. We’ll be going to Turkey. We’ll be going at some point during the year back to China,” Trump said at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, as he unveiled the Boeing 747 plane gifted by Qatar that will join the Air Force One fleet. – Reuters
Turkey, ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara next month, is not only raising a security force larger than many alliance members’ militaries but also giving the Turkish capital a cosmetic makeover. – Bloomberg
German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said Turkey understands the European Union’s position that gas imported under new contracts with the bloc must not originate in Russia. – Bloomberg
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 17 in the Russian city of Kazan, with both sides emphasizing the expansion of bilateral ties and regional diplomacy. – Hurriyet Daily News
Stefan Ihrig writes: Erdogan has also been escalating his foreign-policy rhetoric. Long gone seem the days of his “zero problems with neighbors” policy. Nowadays, Erdogan stresses time and again that Turkey is bigger than its borders and that Ankara has a legitimate role in shaping the destinies of neighboring states. His rhetoric on Israel has reached new levels of assertiveness, veering into open hostility as he frames Israeli operations in Syria and Lebanon as existential threats to Turkey itself. Similarly, Ankara’s tone toward Greece frequently veers into the aggressive. All this is mainly to satisfy a base that he has been energizing on these topics for years. But it could be used for more. – Foreign Policy
Lebanon
The preliminary agreement between Iran and the United States had barely come into effect when it all nearly unraveled on Friday. And, for the second time in recent weeks, the issue that threatened to derail it was Lebanon. – New York Times
Abed Hachem rebuilt his home when it was damaged in a conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants in 2024, but is at a loss now that most of his village has been destroyed in Israel’s latest round of strikes. – Reuters
Rescue workers in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh said they believed their headquarters, clearly identified as a civil defence centre, would be safe from Israeli bombardment – until it was destroyed by an airstrike last month. – Reuters
The dust has barely settled in Tyre after weeks of Israeli airstrikes on the ancient city along Lebanon ‘s Mediterranean coast. – Associated Press
The economic consequences of Hezbollah’s decision to drag Lebanon into another war on behalf of Iran have the terrorist group’s Shi’ite supporters increasingly looking for ideological alternatives, according to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC). – Jerusalem Post
Gulf States
With the Strait of Hormuz gradually reopening, Gulf oil producers face a new test: how fast they can clear shipping bottlenecks and turn stockpiled crude into exports. – Wall Street Journal
Abu Dhabi-backed artificial intelligence investor MGX has been exploring buying Singapore-based data centre operator DayOne, three sources said, in what would mark a major step in its global expansion into the technology. – Reuters
Stock markets in the United Arab Emirates closed lower on Friday as investors turned cautious over fading prospects of a U.S.-Iran truce after talks were called off and Israel escalated attacks in Lebanon. – Reuters
Fifty-four people have been injured while 18 are missing after an explosion at Qatar’s core liquefied natural gas processing site of Ras Laffan on Sunday, authorities said. – Reuters
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan is best known as the defacto business chief of Abu Dhabi’s wealthy ruling family and the man at the helm of a $1.5 trillion empire. Behind the scenes, he has taken on another role: Diplomatic emissary charged with helping rebuild the United Arab Emirates’ relationship with Iran. – Bloomberg
Qatari strategic affairs adviser Ali Al-Thawadi was due to be front and centre this Friday at the signing ceremony for the US-Iran peace deal in Switzerland. The overnight cancellation of those talks poses a challenge to the securocrat, who has played a key role both on Iran mediation and for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. – Intelligence Online
Middle East & North Africa
The bodies of at least 15 migrants including a girl have washed ashore along Libya’s eastern Mediterranean coast over the past week after their boat was believed to have capsized, security, navy and medical sources told Reuters on Saturday. – Reuters
Iraq is preparing to export crude oil and naphtha through ports in Syria, Syrian and Iraqi energy officials and refinery sources said after the Iran war cut off its main Gulf shipping routes. – Reuters – Reuters
Jordan hanged on Sunday six men convicted of killing security personnel, a government official said, ending a nine-year moratorium on the use of the death penalty. – Agence-France Presse
Abdullah Hayek writes: Jordan’s war against narcotics trafficking is not merely Jordan’s war. It is a battle against transnational criminal organizations that undermine regional stability, fuel corruption, finance armed groups, and threaten American partners across the Middle East. Assad may be gone, but the criminal ecosystem he helped create remains. Helping Jordan defeat it is one of the smartest and most cost-effective investments Washington can make in the region’s security. – The National Interest
Korean Peninsula
Two vessels operated by South Korea passed through the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on a ceasefire agreement last week, Seoul’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on Monday. – Reuters
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to consider his proposal to prioritise halting North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes in the short term, while keeping denuclearisation as a longer-term objective. – Reuters
South Korea’s presidential policy chief said policymakers need to consider how gains from the country’s chip-led boom will spread through the broader economy, warning that excess liquidity has historically found its way into the property market. – Bloomberg
China
China imposed trade restrictions on dozens of U.S. entities including two rare earth producers, in a tit-for-tat retaliation against Washington’s recent decision to expand its military-linked company list. – Wall Street Journal
Late last month, Chinese navy ships, including large guided-missile destroyers, were positioned all around Taiwan. The map below shows their approximate positions, which were shared with The Wall Street Journal by security officials in the region. – Wall Street Journal
While the United States and Iran haggle over reopening the Strait of Hormuz and restoring oil exports from the Persian Gulf, China, the world’s largest oil importer, is not expected to quickly ramp up purchases from the region. – New York Times
The war in Iran has helped reshape the global electric vehicle market, giving Chinese automakers an opening across the developing world as soaring fuel prices push drivers towards electric vehicles, even as charging infrastructure lags behind a wave of imports. – Associated Press
China rejected criticism from Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi about the accuracy of its military spending, accusing Japan of using such arguments to justify the expansion of its own armed forces. – Bloomberg
Editorial: After the new limits take effect on July 1, enterprising Chinese nationals will seek more surreptitious ways to get their money out of the country. These may not generate the same returns on investment. The biggest losers will be Chinese entrepreneurs. Tech start-ups look overseas for seed money. By cutting off access to outside capital and global financial networks, the government risks stifling the innovation it is so desperate to encourage. Economies flourish when money and talent are allowed to gravitate toward the best ideas. – Washington Post
Gordon G. Chang writes: China has been supporting the North Korean nuclear program all along because that program gives it leverage over Washington. As Greg Scarlatoiu, president and CEO of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, told me, “For Xi, any thorn in the side of the United States, especially North Korea’s nuclear program, is appealing.” Beijing and Pyongyang are adept at fooling outsiders. China watcher Bill Triplett once told me that “Pyongyang and Beijing have operated one of the most successful denial and deception operations ever mounted.” Beijing’s apparent dropping of the denuclearization demand is not a reversal of long-standing policy; it is an affirmation of China’s long-standing support of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. – The Hill
Richard Haass and David Sacks write: But now, Washington must also hold off another line of attack from Beijing. An increasingly powerful, confident, and assertive China is attempting to squeeze Taiwan by persuading Washington to back away from Taipei one step at a time, beginning with delaying or canceling proposed arms sales. It is up to the Trump administration to stop playing into Xi’s hands—and to recognize that the surest way to prevent a conflict in the Taiwan Strait or a costly Chinese takeover of the island is to leave Beijing in no doubt about the United States’ commitment to Taiwan. – Foreign Affairs
South Asia
Afghanistan’s leader has ordered all civil servants and members of the country’s armed forces to stop bringing their smartphones to work as of Wednesday, the latest restriction on individual freedoms imposed by the Taliban government. – New York Times
Afghanistan said on Friday it had launched airstrikes on hideouts of Islamist militants in two Pakistani provinces, an assertion swiftly rejected by Islamabad, months after the neighbours engaged in their worst conflict in years. – Reuters
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will embark on his first overseas trip since taking office on Sunday, visiting Malaysia and China in a mission aimed at attracting investment, boosting overseas employment and signalling foreign policy priorities. – Reuters
A territory-wide shutdown in Pakistan-administered Kashmir has brought daily life to a standstill after the region’s deadliest unrest in years left at least 24 people dead in nearly two weeks of protests. – Reuters
Two roadside bombs in restive northwestern Pakistan killed at least seven people on Saturday, authorities said. – Associated Press
Divya Malhotra writes: For now, however, Pakistan appears to have emerged as the principal diplomatic beneficiary of the process. Yet diplomatic relevance is rarely without a price. Having benefited from Washington’s trust at a critical moment, Islamabad may eventually find that the conversation shifts from “what it can offer the US” to “what the US expects in return,” including on issues where Pakistan has long resisted external pressure. – Jerusalem Post
Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan and Rajesh Rajagopalan write: The American public has indeed become weary about the costs of the country’s internationalist policy. The wild swings in Trump’s foreign policy, seemingly driven more by personal moods than even transactionalism, point to the risks that India runs. It is not beyond the scope of possibility that Trump or another American administration would seek an accommodation with Beijing. Should this dire possibility come to pass, Asia would likely fall under China’s hegemony and India and other Indo-Pacific powers would need to learn to live in a very different world. But this is also a highly unlikely outcome because great powers do not willingly withdraw from regions vital to their power and prosperity. – War on the Rocks
Asia
Among the more eye-catching products in Tokyo’s new defense shopfront: a sleek and stealthy warship that can hunt submarines, deploy underwater drones and operate with a lean crew. – Wall Street Journal
Taiwan’s military will hold a five-day combat readiness drill this week, the defence ministry said on Sunday, as part of modernisation plans to shift its training focus to more realistic exercises simulating war, away from setpiece events. – Reuters
Indonesia will halt the government’s flagship free meals programme for children during school holidays and will also scale back the reach of the scheme, an official said late on Thursday, amid a drive to reduce pressure on the state budget. – Reuters
Australia said on Monday it will sell advanced radar technology capable of detecting long-range missiles to Canada under a A$2.5 billion ($1.75 billion) agreement, the country’s largest-ever defence export deal. – Reuters
Australian police seized a record 2,700 kg of cocaine hidden in underground bunkers at a property near Sydney, authorities said on Monday, in what they described as the country’s largest-ever cocaine bust. – Reuters
Police charged a third suspect on Friday with an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue that was allegedly directed by Iran. – Associated Press
Russia has freed 24 Filipinos who were detained for months without charges in a Siberian city, after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. raised concern for them in a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Philippine officials said Saturday. – Associated Press
Europe
The International Criminal Court has scheduled a vote for July 24 over whether to remove chief prosecutor Karim Khan from office, after the court’s oversight body found that sexual-assault allegations against him were credible and weren’t part of a plot to undermine the institution, according to diplomats and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. – Wall Street Journal
The peace between President Trump and European allies didn’t last long. Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blasted Trump on Friday after he told Italian media she had “begged” for a photo opportunity with him at the Group of Seven summit earlier this week. – Wall Street Journal
European leaders are seeking new powers to hit back at China over a flood of exports hammering their industries, as they weigh whether they are ready for a trade war with Beijing. – Wall Street Journal
President Donald Trump appeared to scoop Downing Street on Sunday, announcing that Prime Minister Keir Starmer would resign before any public statement from Starmer himself. – Washington Post
Protestors against political executions in Iran gathered in Paris on Saturday in defiance of a ban on the rally, at which police arrested 20 people, according to organisers. – Reuters
The wife of Spanish Socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez must stand trial on corruption charges and has been banned from going abroad, a judge ruled on Saturday. – Reuters
International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who has been accused of sexual misconduct, has been suspended by Britain’s independent regulator for court lawyers. – Reuters
Norway will open a consulate general in Greenland’s capital Nuuk, headed by a Norwegian diplomat, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Friday. – Reuters
Portugal’s centre-right government suffered its heaviest defeat since returning to power last May when parliament on Friday rejected its labour reform proposal, which had sparked two general strikes. – Reuters
Slovakia’s parliament backed the government on Thursday in a confidence vote triggered by a breach of the country’s legal debt limits, but the move sharpened debate over fiscal policy. – Reuters
European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to renew sanctions against Russia over its war against Ukraine for another 12 months, a spokesperson for the chair of the meeting said. – Reuters
Counterterrorism detectives in Scotland were investigating after five people were injured in attacks in Edinburgh that appeared to target Muslims, police said Saturday. – Associated Press
European Union nations on the bloc’s eastern flank are piling pressure on Brussels to speed up the approval of air-defense funding as more military drones stray into their airspace from Russia and Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter. – Bloomberg
The Norwegian government said on Friday it planned to ban all trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank as well as Jewish neighborhoods in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem. – Agence-France Presse
The Swiss government on Friday submitted a draft law to ban public displays of the swastika, Hitler salute and other Nazi signs, amid a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in the country. – Agence-France Presse
Editorial: The bond-market implausibility of a big-spending program and Mr. Burnham’s ideological flexibility could be an advantage. Labour’s only viable path now is reform, especially to reduce welfare rolls and speed up permitting approvals for new residential and commercial construction. That’s a worthy destination for the journeying Mr. Burnham. Otherwise Labour will find itself stuck in the same trap. At which point insurgent parties of the left (the Greens) and right (Nigel Farage’s Reform UK) will be as happy to challenge Mr. Burnham as they are to criticize Mr. Starmer. – Wall Street Journal
Maurizio Molinari writes: If the fusion of Draghi’s reform agenda and Merz’s bold leadership proved successful, Europe would not fall victim to geopolitical collusion among the United States, Russia, and China or to illiberal populism within its own borders. Instead, it would demonstrate that it can be a protagonist, and not a casualty, of the challenge to define a new international security order. It would ensure that it is able to sit at the table with other great powers in shaping the twenty-first century. Marrying Italian ideas with German strength can make Europe a capable political actor able to keep up with the accelerating course of history. – Foreign Affairs
Africa
The Trump administration will begin phasing South Africa out of a signature American program that has supported the prevention and treatment of H.I.V. in Africa for more than two decades, according to a statement issued by the State Department on Friday. – New York Times
Gunmen attacked the main airport of the West African country of Niger on Thursday morning for the second time this year. – New York Times
The Democratic Republic of Congo said on Saturday the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the country had risen to 956, including 247 deaths. – Reuters
A senior World Health Organization official said on Friday that 75 medics in the Democratic Republic of Congo had been infected with Ebola and 17 of them had died since the current outbreak started there. – Reuters
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday it would make available $107 million in emergency funding to strengthen its domestic and international response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. – Reuters
African and Caribbean nations on Friday demanded formal apologies from countries that benefited from transatlantic slavery, as well as debt relief and financial compensation, part of an increasingly forceful push for reparations. – Reuters
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party won another large parliamentary majority in this month’s elections, results released by the national election board on Sunday showed. – Reuters
The U.S. State Department announced visa restrictions targeting people it said were undermining peace in Ethiopia on Thursday, focused on hardliners in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and their immediate family members. – Reuters
Namibia said on Friday that Paris-based financial crime watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was removing it from its “grey list” of countries under special scrutiny to implement standards to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing. – Reuters
A Vietnamese man deported by the United States to South Sudan a year ago as part of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration agenda left for Vietnam on Friday, South Sudanese officials said. – Reuters
Dozens of countries including Britain, France and Germany raised the alarm at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday that Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces could imminently escalate an assault on the central Sudanese city of al-Obeid, possibly resulting in large-scale atrocities. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved a new arrangement for Sierra Leone worth about $211.5 million aimed at strengthening the West African nation’s ability to withstand climate shocks. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it had concluded a staff visit to Malawi where it held constructive discussions with authorities on the economy and policy priorities, although no deal was reached on new lending. – Reuters
Zambia said on Thursday it had agreed with U.S. agency Millennium Challenge Corporation to expand the use of a $491 million agriculture grant programme to support key critical minerals infrastructure. – Reuters
Zimbabwe lawmakers voted Thursday in favor of constitutional changes that would defer elections and extend the tenure of the country’s 83-year-old president from five to seven years. – Associated Press
South Africa started building a second temporary deportation center on Thursday to process the repatriation of Malawians after thousands protested earlier this year in Johannesburg and other parts of the country against illegal immigration that has fueled tensions between locals and foreign nationals. – Associated Press
South Africa’s public works and infrastructure minister called on law enforcement agencies to act against those responsible for violence against migrants, warning that the attacks are tarnishing the country’s international reputation. – Bloomberg
Zimbabwean lawmakers approved a controversial amendment to the constitution that will lay the ground for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his rule by two years. – Bloomberg
Equatorial Guinea’s President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo reappointed Manuel Osa Nsue Nsua as prime minister, four days after he and the rest of the central African nation’s cabinet resigned after failing to meet performance targets. – Bloomberg
Mahnaz Khan writes: A new US-Africa strategic partnership is being built. Still, hard work remains: a strategic vision that tells Washington where to focus, a trade architecture that gives African producers a genuine stake, and an investment model that turns policy into projects. For the first time, the pieces actually exist to deliver on that promise. The African partners are ready. The question is whether Washington has the discipline to pull them together and the commitment to build something durable enough to outlast administration shifts and congressional cycles. If the US government misses this opportunity, “trade, not aid” will join a long list of Africa strategies that promised more than they delivered. If it gets it right, the United States and Africa can forge real win-win partnerships that deliver on both sides of the Atlantic. – The National Interest
The Americas
Far-right populist Abelardo de la Espriella was narrowly elected president of Colombia on Sunday, setting the country on a collision course with the cocaine-trafficking networks and criminal gangs that have extended their reach across drug-producing regions. – Wall Street Journal
Venezuela has launched a U.S.-backed military campaign to target criminal groups in a lawless gold-mining region as it seeks to open the area to American investment. – Wall Street Journal
In one Latin American election after another, President Donald Trump has gotten exactly what he wanted. Right-wing, pro-Trump candidates have defeated leftists across the region, as the Trump administration has pursued the most aggressive U.S. intervention in Central and South America in decades. – Washington Post
Tensions soared in Bolivia on Saturday after President Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency, allowing security forces to begin clearing protesters’ roadblocks that have paralyzed the economy over the past 50 days and left at least 14 people dead. – Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has maintained his lead over opposition right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in the race for the October presidential election, a new poll by Datafolha showed on Saturday. – Reuters
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Friday reached a deal with the Bolivian Workers’ Confederation (COB), a step toward resolving a conflict that has paralyzed the country for 50 days. – Reuters
Chile’s foreign ministry said on Friday it was cooperating with a prosecutor’s investigation into the entry of Haitian minors under family reunification permits, after authorities found that some of the children later could not be located at the addresses provided for them. – Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has signed a decree allowing the government to freeze funds from companies operating illegal online betting platforms, with the money to be directed to public security actions, he said in a social media post on Friday. – Reuters
The administration of Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González is mired in a new political crisis, with allegations of public corruption, government interference and conflicts of interest. – Associated Press
Editorial: He also pledged to convene a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution as Mr. Petro had tried do. That pushed even skeptics of Mr. de la Espriella into his camp. Mr. de la Espriella lived in Miami for more than a decade, carries a U.S. passport and favors cooperation with the U.S. This will reverse Mr. Petro’s anti-U.S., pro-Cuba posture. Mr. Petro’s party has a plurality in Congress and Mr. de la Espriella will inherit woeful state finances. But it will be hard to do worse than Mr. Petro, and Mr. de la Espriella will benefit from the voter rejection of socialist failure. – Wall Street Journal
North America
Canada’s banking regulator is lowering the level of capital the country’s largest banks must set aside, a move aimed at boosting lending at a time when the government is seeking to lure investment to kick-start the economy. – Wall Street Journal
State prosecutors charged a journalist with terrorism over his reporting. A court ordered a columnist to delete an article linking a candidate to criminal networks. A judge barred a newspaper from mentioning a governor unless its content was reviewed by a court monitor. – New York Times
A search for a 19-year-old man wanted for firing shots at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto ended after he was arrested at the city’s major airport, the authorities said on Thursday. – New York Times
Canadian officials will meet their Mexican and U.S. counterparts on July 1 for the first trilateral meeting to review the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement, CTV News reported on Saturday. – Reuters
One crew member was killed and two more injured after a drone attack on a Panama-flagged ship in the Black Sea, Panama’s Maritime Authority (AMP) said late on Friday. – Reuters
Costa Rican authorities on Friday arrested man over a suspected death threat to President Laura Fernandez, the Central American country’s security ministry said. – Reuters
Cuban lawmakers unanimously approved sweeping reforms backed by the Communist Party and former leader Raul Castro that would privatize a vast swath of the country’s socialist economy in a bid to survive punishing U.S. sanctions. – Reuters
Canadian space technology firm MDA Space said on Friday it would buy U.S.-based Blue Canyon Technologies from RTX’s Raytheon business for $620 million in cash, expanding its footprint in the U.S. defense space market. – Reuters
Mexican authorities were working Friday to identify four bodies found on the outskirts of Mexico City as part of the search efforts to locate a married couple who disappeared in May while living in Chicago and Mexico. – Associated Press
United States
President Donald Trump left no ambiguity as to how he felt about the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. – Washington Post
Top White House officials on Thursday morning bade farewell to a jet that has carried U.S. presidents around the world for 35 years, as the Trump administration prepares to replace it with a Boeing 747 donated by Qatar to serve as Air Force One. – Washington Post
Joshua Claybourn writes: Congress should demand the full memorandum, the side understandings, the Treasury communications and the State Department verification assessment, all of which Inara requires. It should ask if any relief from statutory sanctions has already been given. If yes, the flouting of the law should be noted and the relief should be halted until the review is done. Should the need arise, lawmakers should pass emergency legislation to suspend the president’s power to waive sanctions on Iranian banking and oil without congressional approval. All of this is difficult, but the public has a right to know if this deal is checking Iran or buying time for it to fill its coffers. Americans have had enough of granting sanctions relief without review. Congress isn’t here merely to applaud the president. If his accord is sound and lawful, let him put it to the test. – Wall Street Journal
Eli Lake writes: For many mainstream Republicans, the new memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. and Iran is nothing more than American surrender. Sharp-tongued Louisiana Republican senator John Kennedy summed up this sentiment on Tuesday when asked if he believed Iran’s regime would abandon its nuclear ambitions during the 60-day negotiation period that starts Friday. “Unless you were homeschooled by a day drinker, no one’s confident that Iran is going to do anything,” Kennedy replied. To Vance, though, the doubters have it all wrong. The vice president argued that America wins either way with the agreement. “Either they get nothing, we’ve destroyed their nuclear program, and the Strait of Hormuz is open,” he told Fox News on Tuesday. “Or they fundamentally transform themselves, and that’s a big win, too.” – The Free Press
Cybersecurity
Since January, she has poured nearly all her life savings, roughly $47,000, into the stock market, lured by a global AI boom enriching tech powerhouses in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. – Wall Street Journal
Brazil’s government suspects a hacking attack triggered an unauthorized alert sent to cell phones across parts of the country early on Saturday. – Reuters
Toronto-Dominion Bank told some employees working in its financial crimes and risk management team that it would run software to track their work, prompting questions around consent and privacy in the workplace as the Canadian lender tries to increase productivity, according to a recording of a team call reviewed by Reuters and a document TD shared with employees. – Reuters
Telegram on Friday lost its bid to overturn an Indian government order temporarily banning the messaging app, with a New Delhi court ruling that the government’s actions, aimed at preserving the integrity of a key med school exam, were legal and reasonable. – Reuters
White House officials have for months delayed the release of a U.S. government report that outlines what it describes as significant vulnerabilities in the nation’s voting machines ahead of the November midterms, according to three sources familiar with the matter. – Reuters
Federal aviation officials are hoping to sharply reduce close calls on airport runways by using artificial intelligence — an effort that comes after a deadly runway crash in New York this year refocused attention on such incidents. – Politico
Aligning your message with the White House is standard political practice for tech companies trying to stay on the right side of fast-changing AI policies in President Donald Trump’s Washington. – Politico
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a new bill this week that seeks to prevent unauthorized deepfakes of American artists, performers and public figures. While the bill sailed through a committee voice vote, both Senators and outside groups say they’re worried it could become a tool for the powerful to quash free speech. – Cyberscoop
The Environmental Protection Agency has run artificial intelligence pilots on “everything,” but its chief information officer only wants subject matter experts to be using the technology at a high level. – Fedscoop
John Edwards, Britain’s Information Commissioner, announced his formal resignation on Friday after voluntarily stepping back from his duties in February amid a workplace investigation into unspecified conduct. – The Record
An international law enforcement operation has disrupted a malware network linked to the Russia-based cybercrime group Evil Corp, taking down more than 100 servers and disinfecting nearly 15,000 hacked websites used to spread malicious software. – The Record
Omri Raiter writes: States should be investing in data infrastructure with the same urgency as weapons development. Building governance frameworks before the next conflict, not during it. We must also acknowledge honestly that once decision cycles reach machine speed, the chain between intelligence, action and accountability will collapse under strain, and that we need brave and proactive governance to address it. The ones that don’t grasp this will find themselves, perpetually, a decision cycle behind. At machine speed, that is not a recoverable position. – Fox News
Jacob Leibenluft writes: The past quarter century has shown that sudden job loss—whether concentrated, as with the China shock, or widespread, as with the Great Recession—can have lasting repercussions for the country, including by fueling a backlash against democratic institutions and widening the audience for right-wing populism. To get ahead of the problem, political leaders need to act ambitiously now, both because effective programs take time to build and because the public rightly senses that a sufficient safety net does not yet exist. The fact that earlier efforts largely failed should temper any expectation that the task ahead will be easy, but it should also spur policymakers to do better this time. – Foreign Affairs
Defense
The Pentagon will conduct a six-month review of troop levels in Europe as it seeks to scale back its military footprint and shift more of the U.S. role at NATO to European allies, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told his counterparts in Brussels on Thursday. – Washington Post
The U.S. military attacked a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, killing three people, as the Trump administration wages a monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America. – Associated Press
The Army on Thursday launched a new Indo-Pacific command that combines traditional formations with some of the service’s cyber, space, unmanned systems and electronic warfare capabilities, the service announced Friday. – Military Times
LOGZONE, an Alabama-based logistics services provider, has agreed to pay more than $507,000 to resolve allegations that it misrepresented its compliance with Pentagon cybersecurity requirements while doing work with the Navy. – Defensescoop