Fdd's overnight brief

Israel

Israel sold more weapons to other countries in 2024 than ever, government officials said on Wednesday, even as it fought on multiple fronts in the longest war in its history. – New York Times

Israeli security forces in the southern Gaza Strip recovered the bodies of two Israeli Americans who were killed in the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli military said in a statement on Thursday. – New York Times

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate and unconditional cease-fire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and the resumption of full-scale humanitarian aid deliveries to the enclave. – New York Times

A member of Israel’s right-wing coalition threatened to quit the cabinet on Wednesday and support an opposition motion to dissolve parliament tabled for next week, piling pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. – Reuters

Israel has carried out its first airstrikes in Syria in nearly a month, saying it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel and holding interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible. – Reuters

The Israel-backed body leading aid distribution in the Gaza Strip said Wednesday its distribution sites would not be opening Thursday morning, due to maintenance and repair work. – Times of Israel

The Israeli government has set aside hundreds of millions of shekels to fund the new humanitarian aid mechanism in the Gaza Strip, Kan news reported Wednesday, contradicting government officials who have insisted that Israel has no part in its funding. – Times of Israel

Mediators are optimistic that Hamas will soon submit an updated hostage deal proposal that will be closer to what US special envoy Steve Witkoff presented last week, three sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Wednesday. – Times of Israel

There has been a recent uptick in drone usage by Hamas within Gaza, the military said on Thursday after an IDF soldier was moderately wounded and another lightly wounded in the northern Gaza Strip in a drone attack. – Jerusalem Post

The military has decided to release from active reserve duty some of the members of emergency standby squads in communities near the Lebanese border, the IDF said on Wednesday. – Jerusalem Post

Eighty-eight trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including flour and food, were transferred on Wednesday, via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, into the Gaza Strip, COGAT reported. – Jerusalem Post

The IDF on Wednesday warned Gaza civilians against returning to the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, IDF Arabic Spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on Twitter/X. – Jerusalem Post

Underground infrastructure in Khan Yunis was attacked multiple times on Wednesday. It is being investigated whether high-ranking Hamas officials were under the rubble. – Jerusalem Post

Filipp Piatov writes: Within the alliance of the CDU and its Bavarian sister, the Christian Social Union, Mr. Merz’s pivot is alarming. Several ministers privately expressed concern over the rhetorical escalation and the possible halt in arms deliveries, reminding Mr. Merz of his commitment to Israel’s security—a pledge he long described as immutable. If such internal appeals don’t help the German chancellor understand the nature of Israel’s war against Hamas, he might consider asking the American president why the allies didn’t suspend their offensive into Nazi Germany in early 1945 for humanitarian reasons. – Wall Street Journal

Johnnie Moore writes: It is time to stop rewarding failure and start building the future. Not in Geneva or New York, but in Ashkelon, Khan Younis, and Ramallah—where outcomes matter more than press releases. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation isn’t perfect. But it is honest. And for those who have grown rich, powerful, and respected by keeping Palestinians poor, hopeless, and angry—that’s the real threat. We say: good. Let them be afraid. To those in the humanitarian community who truly care and have witnessed press and U.N. attacks on our relief efforts: we choose the high road. You’re good people who, like Gazans, recognize authentic work. – Fox News

Felice Friedson writes: Blame Hamas for failing to free Palestine. Blame them for closing the door to opportunities that might have saved their people from homelessness and despair. Also blame Hamas for launching an international propaganda campaign that fuels terror around the world. When “Free Palestine” becomes a battle cry instead of a humanitarian appeal, it is up to Palestinians first – and the global public next – to reject and defeat the malign actors working to destroy society. It is long past time for the United States to shut down the Hamas murder machine. – Jerusalem Post

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner writes: If Canada wants to be a force for peace, it must begin by recognizing the difference between those who commit atrocities and those who try to stop them. October 7 made that difference painfully clear. It’s not too late for Ottawa to reverse course. But until it does, Canadians should know: their government’s “neutrality” isn’t neutral. It’s a reward for Islamic terror — and a betrayal of the values it falsely claims to uphold. – Jerusalem Post

Aluf Benn writes: The United States will cut its own path when it comes to the region and beyond. But it will stand by Israel when it comes to the Palestinians, and it will continuously protect the country. Netanyahu has had to accept, however grudgingly, that Trump will no longer bow to his requests on Iran. But just like all his predecessors, Netanyahu retains a free hand in Gaza and the West Bank. He can move ahead with his plans to destroy and depopulate the former and to annex territory in the latter. He ultimately might not take these measures, thanks to broader international pressure or shifts in domestic public opinion or because he strikes a deal to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia. But he will still have ravaged Gaza with American consent. – Foreign Affairs

Russia and Ukraine

With its devastating drone assault on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, Ukraine’s SBU security service pulled off the kind of spectacular operation that has long fed the mystique of top spy agencies like Israel’s Mossad. The SBU has transformed during the three-year war into the sharp tip of Ukraine’s spear after decades of being maligned as corrupt, shot through with traitors and more focused on chasing political opponents than security threats. – Wall Street Journal

President Trump said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him he would have to respond to Ukraine’s recent attack, dampening the prospects for immediate peace between Moscow and Kyiv. – Wall Street Journal

Ukraine’s surprise Sunday strike that used relatively inexpensive drones to knock out a significant portion of Russia’s long-range bomber capability was arguably the single largest blow to Moscow in its three-year war on its neighbor and a stunning display of asymmetric warfare. – Washington Post

European nations are increasingly optimistic that they can support Ukraine financially and militarily against Russia even if President Trump decides to wash his hands of the conflict, as he often threatens, and instead focuses on normalizing relations with Moscow. – New York Times

A Russian drone attack damaged apartment buildings in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, injuring 17 people, while killing five in the northern town of Pryluky, regional governors said early on Thursday. – Reuters

Russian aircraft were damaged but not destroyed in a June 1 attack by Ukraine, and they will be restored, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with the state news agency TASS. – Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to the recent Ukrainian drone attacks, the U.S. President said. – Reuters

Ukraine’s allies voiced willingness to pay for defence manufacturing by Ukrainian companies in allied countries, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said on Wednesday after meeting Western counterparts at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group. – Reuters

Ukraine’s president on Wednesday urged Western backers to speed up deliveries of air defense systems to counter Russian missile strikes and to help boost weapons production. – Associated Press

The US is refusing to provide air defenses to back the “reassurance force” the UK and France are planning in a postwar Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said. – Bloomberg

Russia is catching up to Ukraine in drone production thanks to greater financial resources, production lines far from the front lines and especially help from China, a senior Ukrainian official told POLITICO. – Politico

The EU is ready to team up with the U.S. to impose simultaneous sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin to pressure him toward peace negotiations, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in an interview. – Politico

Max Hastings writes: Perhaps the most significant fact about Ukraine’s drone strike on Russian bomber bases is that Kyiv’s claim that it gave Washington no prior warnings seems plausible. The Administration simply couldn’t be relied upon, to withhold this vital operational secret from Moscow. Many other nations feel the same way. The Trump administration’s conduct has destroyed trust, the most precious commodity among friends. This won’t readily be restored. – Bloomberg

Sergey Maidukov writes: War’s winners and losers are decided on the battlefield. More than three years in, what do we see? Russia, which Trump falsely called “20 times” the size of Ukraine, spends months taking yards of ground, littering the soil with corpses. Yes, numbers matter, but conviction matters more. There was unwavering conviction in that soldier’s words. That’s why I believe him and not politicians who imagine they hold all the cards. The battlefield is not a gaming table. The real winner will wear military camouflage, sweaty and bloody, with the yellow and blue emblem of Ukraine, existing as long as soldiers believe in victory. – The Hill

Edward Fishman writes: Just as the EU oil embargo on Iran helped spur action in Washington a decade and a half ago, major new EU sanctions on Russia could do the same today. Instead of waiting around for Trump, Brussels should advance new penalties on Russia’s energy sector. Even unilateral EU measures would tighten the screws on Moscow—and could prompt Washington to follow suit. Most important, the EU should seize the more than $200 billion in Russian sovereign assets that are already frozen in Europe and channel them into support for Ukraine. Combined with hard-hitting oil sanctions, such a move would force Putin to reconsider his long-standing belief that time is on his side—that Western resolve will crack if he just waits long enough. – Foreign Affairs

Turkey

Turkey will press European allies which plan to sharply ramp up their defence spending to ease restrictions that now require most of that money to be spent in the EU, Defence Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters on Wednesday ahead of a NATO meeting. – Reuters

Turkey is training and advising Syria’s armed forces and helping improve its defences, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defence Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters. – Reuters

Tom Barrack, US President Donald Trump’s envoy for Syrian affairs and US Ambassador to Turkey, has arrived in Israel to meet with senior Israeli officials on Wednesday. The discussions will focus on the situation in Syria and the ongoing tensions between Israel and Turkey. – Jerusalem Post

Middle East & North Africa

The evening of May 6, an F/A-18 Super Hornet was coming in for a landing on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea. An onboard mechanism to slow down the fighter jet failed, and the $67 million aircraft slid off the carrier’s runway and into the water. It was the third fighter jet that the Truman had lost in less than five months, and came hours after President Trump surprised Pentagon officials with the announcement that the U.S. had reached a truce with the Houthis in Yemen. – Wall Street Journal

Iraq’s oil ministry said on Thursday it holds the Kurdish regional government (KRG) legally responsible for the continued smuggling of oil from the Kurdish region outside the country. – Reuters

The United Nations rights office called on Wednesday for a independent investigation into the discovery of mass graves at detention centres in Libya’s capital Tripoli. – Reuters

President Donald Trump is nominating Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to take over as the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, the Pentagon said Wednesday. If he is confirmed, it would mark just the second time that a Navy admiral has held the job. – Associated Press

Natalie Gonnella-Platts and Jessica Ludwig write: The United States and the global community must continue supporting Afghan civil society while listening to and amplifying diverse Afghan voices to show the Taliban that we do not recognize their voice as the only one that matters for Afghanistan’s future. And most importantly, we must acknowledge that the Taliban’s extremism, corruption, and brutality pose a global security threat with far-reaching implications. We have an obligation to resume and continue protections and pathways to safety for at-risk Afghans—especially for those who stood by the United States, risking their own lives for the safety and security of all and for a brighter future for their own country. – National Interest

China

As Pakistan and India exchanged strikes last month, bringing the nuclear-armed nations to the brink of all-out war, regional diplomats worked quietly to end a different conflict — with help from China. – Washington Post

China was already scoring wins in its rivalry with the United States for scientific talent. It had drawn some of the world’s best researchers to its campuses, people decorated with Nobel Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” grants and seemingly every other academic laurel on offer. – New York Times

Security was tight in Hong Kong and activists faced pressure from police on the 36th anniversary of China’s bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, which Taiwan and the United States said must never be forgotten. – Reuters

Some European auto parts plants have suspended output and Mercedes-Benz is considering ways to protect against shortages of rare earths, as concerns about the damage from China’s restrictions on critical mineral exports deepen across the globe. – Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump called China’s Xi Jinping tough and “extremely hard to make a deal with” on Wednesday, exposing frictions after the White House raised expectations for a long-awaited phone call between the two leaders this week. – Reuters

China issued warrants Thursday for 20 Taiwanese people it said carried out hacking missions in the Chinese mainland on behalf of the island’s ruling party, while separately banning dealings with a Taiwanese company whose owners mainland authorities called “hardcore Taiwan independence supporters.” – Associated Press

China and India have approved the construction of the largest capacity of new coal-fired power plants in a decade, as the world’s two most populous nations seek to bolster energy security, according to the International Energy Agency. – Bloomberg

President Xi Jinping said China will hold a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II on Sept. 3, an event that’s expected to bring his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Beijing. – Bloomberg

Asia

The United States and Vietnam will hold a new round of trade talks by the end of next week, the Vietnamese trade ministry said on Thursday, after Hanoi submitted a document responding to U.S. trade requests. – Reuters

The Chinese embassy in the Philippines urged the European Union to stop “provoking trouble” in the South China Sea on Thursday, and advised Manila not to “fantasise” about relying on outside forces to resolve disputes in the waterway. – Reuters

Hal Brands writes: It’s hard to overstate how jarring that would be for Japan. It recovered from World War II under American patronage and protection. Japanese officials know that the regional balance will buckle if Washington pulls back as Beijing surges forward. For decades, the alliance with America has been the bedrock of Japanese foreign policy. If that alliance ever falters, drastic measures — like building nuclear weapons — might be the requirement of Japan’s survival. – Bloomberg

Africa

Five members of a United Nations convoy carrying humanitarian supplies to an embattled city in southwestern Sudan were killed in an attack that injured other aid personnel and burned many of the trucks, the organization said this week. – New York Times

Ivory Coast opposition leader and former Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam has been excluded from the country’s final list of presidential candidates, rendering him ineligible to contest an October election, a party official said on Wednesday. – Reuters

Nigeria’s defence chief on Tuesday called for the country’s borders with its four neighbours to be completely fenced to curb the entrance of armed groups amid escalating insecurity. – Reuters

The World Bank said on Thursday it would resume funding to Uganda, nearly two years after the global lender suspended new financing to the country in response to an anti-LGBT law that imposes penalties including death and life imprisonment. – Reuters

Sudan’s former prime minister on Wednesday dismissed the military’s moves to form a new government as “fake,” saying its recent victories in recapturing the capital Khartoum and other territory will not end the country’s two-year civil war. – Associated Press

North America

Canada is going to wait before enacting any further retaliation against the U.S. over higher steel and aluminum tariffs because negotiators representing Ottawa and Washington are in talks on a new bilateral economic-and-security deal, Prime Minister Mark Carney said. – Wall Street Journal

Mexico will announce measures next week if there is no agreement reached with the United States on the steel and aluminum tariffs announced, president Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday. – Reuters

A visiting senior Cuban official on Tuesday accused the Trump administration of ratcheting up tensions between Washington and Havana and expressed concerns that the U.S. was trying to provoke a military confrontation. – Reuters

Cybersecurity

Google signed an agreement with Chile on Wednesday to deploy an undersea fiber optic cable connecting South America with Asia and Oceania, a first-of-its-kind project that aims to cement the South American country’s status as a major digital hub. – Associated Press

As the U.S. continues to up the ante in questioning transatlantic ties, calls are growing in Europe to reduce the continent’s reliance on U.S. technology in critical areas such as cloud services, artificial intelligence and microchips, and to opt for European alternatives instead. – Politico

Microsoft did not stop or suspend its services to the International Criminal Court, the company’s President Brad Smith said, following reporting that it canceled the email address of the court’s chief prosecutor targeted by American sanctions. – Politico

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Andrew Ferguson on Wednesday said that under his tenure the agency will “aggressively” enforce a newly formalized and tougher rule designed to protect children’s privacy online and, notably, called on Congress to strengthen relevant federal laws. – The Record

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) said it hacked into the internal systems of Russia’s major state-owned aircraft manufacturer Tupolev, days after Ukraine launched surprise drone assaults on Russian air bases. – The Record

The cybercriminal operation known as “The Com” is tricking companies into giving them widespread access to a popular Salesforce tool, allowing them to steal sensitive data and move through other parts of the organizations, according to researchers from Google. – The Record

Newly emerged malware called Acreed is gaining ground in the Russian cybercriminal market and is expected to become the go-to infostealer for hackers, following the recent takedown of Lumma stealer, according to a new report. – The Record

A bipartisan coalition of more than 260 state legislators from all 50 states on Tuesday sent a letter to Congress opposing a provision in the federal budget reconciliation bill that would impose a 10-year ban on state and local regulation of artificial intelligence. – Statescoop