Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Renewed Israel-Lebanon ceasefire is already under strain 'Turning a new page': Israel to open first ever embassy in Slovenia Trump says he does not need deal with Iran to get enriched uranium UN nuclear watchdog says it’s been unable to inspect Iranian facilities Iran, Russia sign $25 billion nuclear cooperation deal as Tehran presses ahead amid US talks JPost’s Eric R. Mandel: We cannot miss this opportunity to open Hormuz permanently Real-Time satellite intelligence is making Ukraine’s drone strikes deadlier than ever Zelenskiy, in open letter, invites Putin to talks to end the war Hidden chemical weapons sites emerge in Syria amid fragile security transition China's Xi to visit North Korea in push for deeper ties Exclusive: Satellite images show suspected structure at disputed South China Sea atoll, but later gone Somali military and opposition-allied militias trade fire ahead of anti-government protestsIn The News
Israel
Israel and Lebanon’s renewed ceasefire came under pressure within hours of its agreement, as Israel and Hezbollah militants exchanged fire on Thursday and both sides cast doubt on the extent of their participation in the agreement. – Wall Street Journal
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox extremists in Israel staged a violent riot outside the home of a top judge on Wednesday night in protest against the country’s military draft, shocking many Israelis and adding to a fraught atmosphere ahead of national elections. – New York Times
An explosive drone snaked between the hills of southern Lebanon before striking an Israeli armored personnel carrier. Two days later, another slammed into a tank. Three days after that, a third pounded into a missile-defense system. – New York Times
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday promoted Brig.-Gen. Guy Markizeno, Israel Katz’s secretary, to become his military secretary. – Jerusalem Post
Three people were killed overnight on Thursday night in two separate incidents in two different Arab-majority towns. In Yafia, two men in their 30s were fatally shot. Magen David Adom paramedics reported treating the two men for penetrating wounds shortly before declaring that both men had both died at the scene. – Jerusalem Post
Israel is planning to open an embassy in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, for the first time, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced in a Thursday X/Twitter post. – Jerusalem Post
Captain Eitan Shmuel Lemberg, aged 21, from Mishmar HaShiv’a, was killed in combat in southern Lebanon, the IDF announced on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF disclosed on Thursday that the personal command vehicle of IDF Northern Command chief Maj.-Gen. Rafi Milo was struck by a Hezbollah drone while he was visiting sub-commanders in southern Lebanon. – Jerusalem Post
The Israeli Air Force and Israeli Navy carried out strikes in the Gaza Strip overnight into Thursday, killing top commanders in Hamas’s general security mechanism, the military announced. – Times of Israel
Hamas operative Ibrahim Hilu was charged Thursday in Israeli court for holding the body of slain soldier Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul in the Gaza Strip for over a decade on behalf of the terror group. – Times of Israel
As Israel’s gas exports to Egypt and Jordan have stopped and restarted three times since October 2023, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, known as SOCAR, has moved into every layer of Israel’s energy business at once. – Ynet
Editorial: Congress could retaliate, and the bill poses problems for U.S. firms that have flocked to Ireland for tax purposes. They are required by U.S. law not to comply with such a boycott. Even attesting to the Irish that they don’t do any of the banned trade would be a U.S. violation. Many in Europe seek to go even further in singling out Israel, and the rogue International Criminal Court is there to twist the law and facts to help. In the Democratic Party’s leftward slide, they see permission to attack. – Wall Street Journal
Rami Simani writes: But along the way, and this was the holy grail he was pursuing, Trump succeeded in drawing all the supporters of the axis of evil, Qatar, Turkey and Pakistan, into tacit support for the idea that if they want an agreement with Iran to be signed, they must support the Abraham Accords. In both cases, Israel and the free world benefited. If, as seems likely, no agreement is signed, then those countries will not enter into peace agreements with Israel. But the very fact that Trump made the statement, and that they tacitly accepted it, is the achievement he sought, one that will yet change the world order. If an agreement is signed and those countries join the Abraham Accords, then, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to paradise. – Ynet
Iran
Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French author whose graphic novel series “Persepolis” introduced millions of readers to the struggles of ordinary Iranians during the turbulent years around the Islamic Revolution, has died at 56. – New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said that Washington did not need a deal with Iran to get enriched uranium from the country. – Reuters
The U.N. nuclear watchdog has been unable to inspect nuclear facilities in Iran affected by the war last June according to a confidential report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog circulated to member states and seen Thursday by The Associated Press. – Associated Press
The UK and France have finalized plans to lead a multinational mine-clearing mission in the Strait of Hormuz within days of an agreement between the US and Iran to reopen the waterway, according to people familiar with the matter. – Bloomberg
Iran and Russia have signed a sweeping $25 billion nuclear cooperation agreement to expand Tehran’s civilian nuclear infrastructure, deepening strategic ties between the two countries even as negotiations with the United States continue over efforts to curb the Islamist regime’s nuclear activities. – Algemeiner
Erfan Fard writes: If such a belief becomes deeply institutionalized inside the IRGC and the broader revolutionary-security establishment, the region may confront a more dangerous form of ideological escalation – one less constrained by traditional calculations of cost, deterrence, and diplomatic compromise. And once states begin interpreting geopolitics as divine destiny, the Middle East enters a far darker and far more unpredictable phase. The greatest danger is not that the Islamic Republic survives wounded, but that it survives convinced it forced the United States to retreat – transforming strategic survival into ideological, and ultimately divine, vindication. – Jerusalem Post
Eric R. Mandel writes: The choice is ours, now. This is a moment that demands strong leadership. The president deserves significant credit for creating the opportunity for meaningful change with Iran. We need to stop acting as though we are desperate for a deal when, in reality, Iran is weaker today than at any point since the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. We cannot mistake a weakened adversary’s desperate attacks on shipping lanes and Gulf allies for genuine strength. The only question now is whether the president’s rhetoric on Iran will finally translate into sustained and tangible action. We will know in 60 days if the MOU is signed. – Jerusalem Post
Russia and Ukraine
The small unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, stationed about 10 kilometers from the front line in the country’s southeast, knew there was something afoot in a building obscured by thick tree cover. The spring foliage hid its outline but not the signals from the electronic devices within. – Wall Street Journal
In the early days of President Trump’s second term, members of the Russian elite were full of hope that the new administration would fundamentally reset relations with Russia, pushing Ukraine out of mind and engaging in lucrative business deals. – New York Times
The House voted on Thursday to approve new aid for Ukraine and impose a fresh round of sanctions targeting the industries fueling Russia’s war economy, after 18 Republicans defied their leaders to join Democrats in support of a bill that runs counter to President Trump’s agenda. – New York Times
Russia-U.S. talks on economic and energy issues continue despite a pause in Ukraine peace negotiations, President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev told Reuters on Thursday, adding he spoke to U.S. counterparts a day earlier. – Reuters
President Vladimir Putin stuck to his hardline stance on the war in Ukraine on Thursday and said his troops were advancing on the battlefield every day, but he also said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposals for peace could end the fighting if Kyiv was ready to compromise. – Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy published an open letter to President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in which he proposed the two leaders meet to agree an end to more than four years of war, warning that Kyiv stood ready to fight on otherwise. – Reuters
President Vladimir Putin faced two rival outlines of Russia’s future on Thursday as he hosted his premier annual investment conference with the war in Ukraine unabated. – Reuters
Russia accused NATO on Thursday of squeezing Serbia “like a boa constrictor”, citing a joint military exercise taking place there as evidence of an attempt to subjugate the country. – Reuters
A Western European initiative to bring Russia into peace talks with Ukraine risks increasing the pressure on Kyiv for concessions, according to Ukraine’s former top diplomat. – Bloomberg
Marc Champion writes: What Armenians want now that Nagorno-Karabakh is lost is not to reject Russia, but to end a colonial-style relationship that precluded their genuine independence and sovereignty. That means diversifying political and economic partnerships beyond their former Kremlin masters, something independent states are allowed to do, but vassals aren’t. Armenia’s leaders know full well that Russia still accounts for more than 35% of their trade, the EU just 11.8%. They know membership’s a distant, perhaps even unreachable, prospect, whereas they’re already in Putin’s alternative union. But so long as the only response from the Kremlin to bids for autonomy is threats, embargoes and “active measures,” Putin will go on driving them away. – Bloomberg
Alexander Kolyandr writes: What is unfolding in Russia is not a cyclical fluctuation, but a deliberate, state-directed redirection of the economy toward war production. The longer this continues, the harder it becomes to reverse. Skills and capital locked into defense production do not easily migrate back to civilian manufacturing. […]The pattern in the output data — deindustrialization in construction, metals, refining, and consumer goods; rapid expansion in transport equipment, electronics, and munitions — reflects decisions made not by markets but by the state. Those decisions are now being reinforced by a further surge in military spending that will be deployed without parliamentary scrutiny, funded by a combination of opaque budget reallocation and increased borrowing at rising yields. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Gulf States
Saudi Arabia’s energy minister met his Russian counterpart on Thursday and called for stabilization in the energy sector, as the Iran and Ukraine wars cut oil output from the two top OPEC+ producers and send prices soaring. – Reuters
Gulf stock markets ended mixed on Thursday after Israel and Lebanon agreed to implement a ceasefire, fueling optimism about a broader deal to end the U.S.-Iran conflict, although regional tensions persisted. – Reuters
Elie Podeh and Elad Giladi write: A prevalent view, particularly in Washington, holds that normalization is inevitable and that Saudi Arabia is simply the next domino to fall. This view is simplistic and misleading. Saudi Arabia is not waiting to join a process designed elsewhere. As the region’s most influential Arab and Muslim state, its choices will shape the trajectory of normalization far beyond its own borders. It operates according to its own logic – one that prioritizes flexibility, manages risk, and avoids irreversible commitments in conditions of uncertainty. Moments of crisis have, in the past, produced Saudi diplomacy. This may be one of them. But any new initiative will not follow the logic of the Abraham Accords – it will redefine it. – Jerusalem Post
Andrew Leber writes: While the United States and Iran drift halfway between war and peace, however, the UAE will likely continue to seek closer security ties with Israel and redouble its efforts to secure U.S. favor. But in its pursuit of safety, the UAE is incurring needless risks. It is antagonizing its immediate neighbors, and those neighbors may ultimately decide they can live without the UAE. Regional cooperation is what will elevate Abu Dhabi’s global position in the long run. Without it, the UAE faces a future not of strategic autonomy as it craves but of dependence on political decisions made in the United States and Israel. – Foreign Affairs
Middle East & North Africa
Hundreds of Libyan demonstrators blocked off the office of the U.N. refugee agency in the capital Tripoli on Thursday during a protest against migrants who have travelled to the country in search of work or passage to Europe. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that oil prices are currently only about 3% higher than levels used in its baseline global growth forecast in April, but physical spot prices remain volatile and global reserves continue to fall. – Reuters
OPEC expects robust oil demand growth and is not changing its estimates, Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said on Thursday at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, despite the Middle East conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz. – Reuters
Over a decade after Syria agreed to dismantle its formidable chemical arsenal, international inspectors have uncovered scores of previously hidden chemical weapons materials as the country enters a fragile new phase marked by a shifting security landscape. – Defense News
Amine Ayoub writes: A ceasefire text that demands the impossible is more useful than one that demands the achievable, because its failure is guaranteed, its political cost falls on the violator, and it legitimizes the next round of strikes before they happen. The ceasefire that began on June 3 will not hold. The IDF already told us so on June 4. The question is not whether it collapses. The question is what Israel will have built in southern Lebanon by the time the next agreement is drafted. At the current pace, the answer is a new security reality that no paper deal will reverse. – Arutz Sheva
Korean Peninsula
The last time China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, traveled to North Korea, that country’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, was reeling from sanctions and failed nuclear talks with the United States. – New York Times
Nvidia (NVDA.O), CEO Jensen Huang said on Friday that he sees robotics as the next major sector in South Korea. He was talking to reporters after arriving at Gimpo airport in South Korea on a flight from Taiwan. – Reuters
South Korea’s labour minister called on the country’s major tech firms to share the spoils of their massive windfall profits, warning that unprecedented chip-sector gains stemming from the AI boom risked widening a gap in inequality. – Reuters
China
Shares in London-listed financial groups with a large presence in Asia fell on fears that new rules would curtail mainland Chinese investors’ use of Hong Kong bank accounts. – Wall Street Journal
Chinese authorities have spent decades scrubbing details of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square from the country’s memory — most recently deploying artificial intelligence to erase any trace of the massacre from the Chinese internet. – Washington Post
Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea from June 8 to 9, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday, his first trip in nearly seven years as Beijing looks to reassert ties with Pyongyang. – Reuters
The Taiwanese and Chinese Coast Guards were engaged in another tense standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands at the top of the South China Sea on Friday, Taiwan said, the second time in a fortnight that this has happened. – Reuters
Chinese authorities snuffed out efforts to mark Thursday’s anniversary of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, in a further tightening of a yearslong campaign to erase what happened from public memory. – Associated Press
Francesca Ghiretti writes: China is unlikely to either collapse or transform overnight. Instead, the most plausible scenario is a prolonged process of adaptation to slower growth, tighter political control, and more cases in which security trumps efficiency. Such a process is familiar in history and is likely to drag out over a long period. In both the British Empire and the Soviet Union, decline driven by the failure to address structural weaknesses unfolded over decades, not years. And China today, similar to each of these examples, faces a dynamic and powerful challenger in the United States, even as both contemporary superpowers have their own internal set of constraints and pressures. – Foreign Affairs
Rob Pierce writes: If left unencumbered by US pressure, China’s distant-water fleet will continue to unlawfully extract resources, weaken the resolve of states like Ecuador and Peru to counter Chinese malign influence, and ultimately diminish US influence in its own hemisphere. By unleashing the Coast Guard and empowering nations to take concrete steps to address China’s predatory fleet, the United States can better protect our hemisphere against our primary global competitor and demonstrate its refocused commitment to securing our hemisphere as outlined in the National Security Strategy. – The National Interest
South Asia
India and Venezuela sought to boost their ties in the energy sector on Thursday with New Delhi saying that Caracas sees it as a preferred partner in the sector at a time global oil supplies have been disrupted by the Middle East crisis. – Reuters
Bangladesh said on Thursday it had foiled several attempts by India to force people into the country over the previous 24 hours, reviving a dispute over alleged undocumented migration and clouding efforts to improve ties between the South Asian neighbours. – Reuters
US President Donald Trump expressed confidence that Washington and New Delhi will strike a long-awaited trade agreement after negotiators wrapped up a fresh round of talks this week. – Bloomberg
Asia
Japan aims to defend the yen’s credibility by strengthening its economy, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said, as the currency faces renewed selling pressure amid continued Middle East tensions. – Wall Street Journal
The Indonesian dancers, dressed in resplendent red and gold silks, swayed in rhythm to the beating drums and the piercing wail of woodwind instruments. Pointing a dagger to their throats, they jumped, stomped and knelt down. – New York Times
Years before the war in the Persian Gulf, executives in boardrooms across Japan were discussing a development they feared posed a growing risk to Asia’s energy supplies. – New York Times
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling coalition will face a test of its public support amid signs of internal tensions after two states this week called snap elections, as speculation mounts over an early national poll. – Reuters
Brunei’s ruler announced a major cabinet reshuffle on Thursday, creating new key portfolios and appointing two of his younger sons as ministers, in a sign of potential succession planning in the tiny oil-rich sultanate. – Reuters
Satellite images obtained by Reuters confirmed the presence of a structure at the entrance of the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea last week, though later imagery suggests it is no longer there. – Reuters
Vietnam’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that the U.S. Trade Representative’s conclusion that it had failed to curb trade in goods made with forced labour does not fully or accurately reflect Vietnam’s mitigation efforts. – Reuters
A Yazidi woman has alleged she shared a bedroom with a woman accused of enslaving her in Syria and was repeatedly raped and beaten by the woman’s father, police told a court on Thursday. Zeinab Ahmad, 31, applied for bail in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on two slavery charges. The hearing resumes Friday. – Associated Press
Japanese officials who visited Moscow last week met commodity exporters along with Russian government representatives in a rare high-level commercial contact between their countries since President Vladimir Putin ordered the 2022 full scale invasion of Ukraine. – Bloomberg
Europe
Thousands of Albanians are protesting a luxury resort planned for a pristine strip of the Mediterranean coastline and backed by President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. – Washington Post
The nose gear on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner operated by Lufthansa collapsed while the plane was parked at Frankfurt Airport in Germany on Thursday. Several workers who were on the plane were injured, the airline said. – New York Times
Two sailors peered through binoculars from the bridge of the naval vessel as it patrolled the Irish Sea on a still morning in early May. As they scanned the horizon, Lt. Cmdr. Maria O’Callaghan, the captain, pointed to a series of lines on a navigation display, indicating underwater power cables and gas pipelines that stretch between Ireland and Britain. – New York Times
French billionaire Pierre-Edouard Sterin used his first appearance before lawmakers on Thursday to lay out his campaign to bring free-market and conservative ideas into power, less than a year before France’s next presidential election. – Reuters
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday said Elon Musk should stop interfering in British politics, after the billionaire X owner posted on his platform about a murder that has triggered a public outcry and protests. – Reuters
Slovenia’s parliament on Thursday approved Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s centre-right government, which has pledged tax cuts, targeted spending and an anti-corruption drive. – Reuters
After Ukraine said it will make the Gripen the backbone of its air force, the Swedish fighter jet is finally set to be tested in the role it was designed for: confronting Russia. – Reuters
Pope Leo XIV is delving into the hotly contested issue of migration by visiting two flashpoints — Spain’s Canary Islands in the Atlantic next week, and Italy’s Lampedusa island in the Mediterranean in early July. – Associated Press
Leaders from across the European Union and the Balkans are gathering in Montenegro on Friday to discuss expanding the bloc to include countries in the region, seen as a key area in countering security and economic threats posed by Russia and China. – Associated Press
If you’re looking for a newspaper in Yerevan, the Armenian capital lying in the shadow of the Caucasus mountains between Turkey and Azerbaijan, a copy of the Wyoming Star might not be what you’d expect to find. – Bloomberg
The crowd of about 30 loyalists, one dressed as a clown, waited eagerly for their hero to arrive at the Warsaw court. To the waving of red-and-white Polish flags and the sound of patriotic music, Grzegorz Braun emerged from a black Volkswagen van. – Bloomberg
European Union’s trade envoy told his Chinese counterpart to address the “unsustainable” trade imbalance between the two economies, as the bloc weighs new restrictive measures against Beijing. – Bloomberg
Hungary said it will back a full year’s extension of the European Union’s sanctions against Russia in a major reversal from its previous role in stonewalling the process, according to people familiar with the matter. – Bloomberg
Key nations tasked with selecting the next special envoy to Bosnia and Herzegovina are at odds over whom to appoint to the role and what kind of weight it should carry, according to people familiar with the matter. – Bloomberg
Romanian President Nicusor Dan nominated his adviser, Eugen Tomac, as prime minister in a bid to end a political crisis and tackle one of the European Union’s widest budget deficits. – Bloomberg
Is the British Crown guilty of genocide? That is the question being weighed by an Australian appellate court that could soon rule on whether His Royal Highness King Charles III can be prosecuted for such a grave crime. – New York Sun
Andrew Doyle writes: In 2022, Olivia Pinkney, then chief constable, declared that “being anti-racist, ethical and inclusive is top of our agenda.” One might argue that this was an inevitable “overcorrection” for the police racism of the past, and yet there is nothing remotely “correct” about an outcome that disobliges officers from fulfilling their primary duty. The officers who disbelieved Nowak and unthinkingly accepted the false allegations of his murderer are the products of a law enforcement system that is overtly and indisputably ideological. The infantile smearing of those who expect equality before the law as “far right” or “racist” is no longer an effective strategy. A police force that serves without fear or favor is surely not too much to ask. – Washington Post
Enrique Dans writes: Europe has a historic opportunity. While it lacks reserves of oil or gas, it does have industrial capacity, engineering, technology, regulation, and talent. It can stop acting as a captive customer of fossil empires and become a leader of a distributed and electrified energy system. It can substitute imports for local investment, volatility for stability, and geopolitical dependence for technological autonomy. The last century can be understood by following the trail of oil. Whether Europe should buy Russian or American gas is the old, fossil, 20th-century question. The 21st will be understood by following the trail of electrons. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Valbona Zeneli and Giovanni Renoldi write: Europe possesses the scientific depth, the industrial heritage, and the human capital to compete. What it lacks is the architecture to convert those assets into enterprises of global scale: integrated capital markets, regulatory coherence, and institutions capable of binding innovation to commercialization without losing momentum. The cost of delay is now visible in the data, in the concession of competitive positions, and the deepening of strategic dependencies with each year that reforms remain incomplete. In the political economy of the 21st century, scale marks the boundary between the capacity to innovate and the capacity to lead. Europe must choose which side of that boundary it intends to occupy. – The National Interest
Africa
Four days ago, Mozambican immigrant Lado Amido answered a knock at his door in the South African town of Kleinmond. Outside, an angry crowd told him foreigners such as him had to leave. They went door-to-door delivering the same message. – Reuters
Residents attacked an Ebola burial team in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province this week, forcing responders to abandon a coffin and raising fears of further transmission, the health ministry said. – Reuters
The Malian government said Thursday it was offering financial rewards for information on the whereabouts of suspected militants wanted for their role in attacks targeting the nation’s people and assets. – Reuters
Nigeria’s Dangote Petroleum Refinery has ramped up crude processing to 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) during a performance test by process licensors, exceeding its nameplate capacity of 650,000 bpd and marking a significant operational milestone, the company said on Thursday. – Reuters
Government troops and militias allied with the opposition exchanged fire overnight and on Thursday morning in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, damaging property and forcing some civilians to flee, residents told Reuters. – Reuters
South Africa will send envoys to other African countries and around the world after a spate of xenophobic attacks targeting immigrants from other nations on the continent, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday. – Reuters
Gunmen have abducted at least seven students of a polytechnic in Zamfara State in northwest Nigeria, police said on Thursday, the latest incident highlighting insecurity in the region. – Reuters
Every day for the past week, Aline Kasiwa has fed her sick mother, helped her drink and washed her clothes, all while fearing she could catch the Ebola virus as eastern Congo is plagued by one of the fastest-spreading outbreaks of the disease on record. – Associated Press
Anthony Banbury writes: The mission response team did not know its ultimate needs yet but understood that a shortage of resources would slow the response and lead to more deaths. The team threw everything it could acquire at the crisis. The people, governments and health care workers of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone should get the greatest credit for ending the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak. But without massive international assistance, their efforts would not have produced the same results. To end the current crisis, those on the front lines of the Ebola response need a similar level of help. – Washington Post
The Americas
On X, Argentine President Javier Milei has said a former finance minister belongs in the Soviet Gulag, mocked a prominent businessman after his company lost a government contract and labeled critics “traitors,” “parasites” and worse. – Wall Street Journal
The right-wing candidate in Colombia’s presidential race campaigned as a patriot and son of the country’s Caribbean coast, wearing a straw hat and his nation’s yellow soccer jersey. – New York Times
The Pan American Health Organization said on Thursday it is stepping up efforts to help countries across the Americas to strengthen their preparedness for Ebola, although the risk of the disease remains low in the region. – Reuters
The U.S. designation of Brazil’s Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) as foreign terrorist organizations, effective Friday, could disrupt cooperation against drug and arms trafficking, Brazilian sources said. – Reuters
Left-wing congressman Roberto Sanchez is striking a more pragmatic tone ahead of Peru’s June 7 presidential runoff against conservative frontrunner Keiko Fujimori, after earlier plans to overhaul the mining sector rattled investors. – Reuters
Colombia’s leftist presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda said in a video on Thursday he would seek consensus for national reforms if he were to be elected in a second round on June 21, backing away from the possibility of a so-called constituent assembly to create a new constitution as he attempts to appeal to centrist voters. – Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz in a call on Thursday that the Trump administration was ramping up emergency assistance and support to help with food and medical shortages amid weeks of social unrest and mass protests in the South American country, the department said. – Reuters
Nicolas Maduro has added a lawyer who represented hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs at trial to his defense team, court records showed on Thursday, as the ousted Venezuelan president prepares to fight the U.S. drug trafficking charges he faces. – Reuters
In May 2015, the grisly killing of a pregnant 14-year-old girl named Chiara Páez by her 16-year-old boyfriend triggered massive protests in Argentina that evolved into a generation-defining movement throughout Latin America under the motto of “ Ni Una Menos,” or “Not One Woman Less.” – Associated Press
North America
The Trump administration’s campaign to force Cuba’s economic unraveling achieved key gains this week, when three international hotel chains and a bank that processes Visa and Mastercard transactions withdrew business from the communist nation to avoid violating new U.S. regulations. – New York Times
On a recent afternoon in Cuba, the temperature climbed and anxiety grew among the residents of a Havana street. Their focus was an improvised dump site on the sidewalk with rotting food scraps, torn bags, cardboard and rubble. Swarms of flies and stray cats gathered around the trash whose stench wafted on the breeze from the nearby sea. – Associated Press
The United States imposed sanctions Thursday on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife and three other individuals, in the latest move by the Trump administration to pressure the island’s leadership that drew immediate condemnation from Havana. – Associated Press
European companies from Spanish hotels to German shipping lines are ending their Cuban operations as Washington on Friday moved to intensify its decades-old embargo, expanding its focus from the regime in Havana to EU business ties to the island. – Politico
Prime Minister Mark Carney warned this week that Jewish Canadians are being “brutally targeted,” while also announcing a new anti-racism council that reportedly includes two members with troubling views on the Jewish state. – Fox News
Carlos Bravo Regidor writes: Ms. Sheinbaum can still take charge of this moment. She could use U.S. pressure as leverage to start serious anticorruption investigations, remove compromised officials, disrupt local protection networks and force her party to accept changes it might otherwise resist. […] Not because the United States demands it, but because Mexicans need it. For too long, Mexico has postponed the struggle against cartel power, outsourced it to Washington or confined it to a hunt for top kingpins. It can and should reclaim that fight, even if doing so means Ms. Sheinbaum must confront parts of her own party. If she fails, Mexico may face something worse than an externally imposed reckoning: no reckoning at all. – New York Times
United States
John Bolton, who served as national security adviser to President Trump during his first term, has reached a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to unlawfully retaining classified information, according to people familiar with the matter. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump said he plans to nominate Todd Blanche to be attorney general, giving a show of confidence to his former criminal defense lawyer, who has refocused the Justice Department to benefit the president’s allies and target his critics. – Wall Street Journal
While the Trump administration has reluctantly retreated from its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” the Justice Department is signaling a willingness to work through other legal channels to pay allies of the president who claim the government targeted them for political reasons. – Wall Street Journal
A California businessman accused of supplying American computer networking equipment to customers in Iran, including organizations tied to the country’s nuclear and military programs, is facing a conspiracy charge, the U.S. Justice Department said. – New York Times
An American journalist who has lived in China since 2010 and worked for several state media organizations there pleaded guilty in a U.S. court Thursday to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government, the Justice Department said. – Associated Press
A House panel with jurisdiction over tax policy is readying legislation to address the taxation of cryptocurrencies for release as early as Friday, before a hearing early next week. – Bloomberg
The Middle East Forum, in a report on Northwestern’s Qatari campus, warned that the partnership “is not just an academic collaboration, but a strategic effort by Qatar to influence U.S. higher education.” Through financial investment, faculty exchanges, and governance arrangements, Qatar is “shaping both the ideological climate and policy decisions at Northwestern,” the think tank stated. – New York Sun
Editorial: Mr. Bolton continues to be under a death threat from Iran, and he must pay for his own security after Mr. Trump removed his government protection at the start of his second term. Iran hacked his AOL account in 2021, after he had left the government, and Mr. Bolton voluntarily reported that to the FBI. Iran could have him killed by criminal mercenaries in prison for as little as a pack of cigarettes. These pages have gladly published Mr. Bolton’s writing over the years, and we will again. As we said at the time of its publication, it was bad political form to publish his book while Mr. Trump was still in office. But no one outside the Trump acclamation chorus believes that John Bolton would have been prosecuted had he written a book that was favorable to Donald Trump. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Even though he’s a longtime associate of terrorist mastermind Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheik” — and also volunteered with an al Qaeda-linked group in Bosnia and at a Hamas-friendly hospital in Gaza. Helping him over the top were endorsements from “Squad” Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), plus lefty Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). […] Here in New York City — whose mayor boycotted the Israel Day Parade — Claire Valdez and Brad Lander are working anti-Israel obsessions to quite possibly capture other safe Dem seats. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed leads in Democrats’ Senate primary after appearing with Piker and publicly struggling not to condemn the killing of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Meanwhile, long-Nazi-tatted Graham Platner is trying to regain his mojo in Maine’s Senate race by pretending incumbent Sen. Susan Collins is owned by Israel. What will it take for Sen. Chuck Schumer and other sane Democrats to stand up to the haters? If they don’t move fast, the antisemites will soon be purging them. – New York Post
Cybersecurity
Canada, a global hub for artificial intelligence research and home to some pioneers of the technology, on Thursday announced plans to position itself as a leader among middle powers vying to build sovereign A.I. capability. – New York Times
Thailand’s consumer watchdog said it will sue Meta’s (META.O), Facebook for allegedly allowing scammers to use the platform to defraud users through adverts and for failing to protect consumers, the Consumer Council said on Thursday. – Reuters
A bipartisan pair of U.S. House lawmakers released draft legislation on Thursday that would prohibit states from regulating the development of artificial intelligence models, a move praised by tech firms but criticized by consumer rights advocacy groups. – Reuters
The Pentagon’s newest cyber organization, the Defense Cyber Defense Command (DCDC), is working to build out a framework for how to respond to cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in the homeland, according to a military official. – Breaking Defense
Government agencies, cybersecurity companies and threat researchers are pouring resources into studying how fast-developing AI tools can be wielded by malicious actors to hack into victim organizations. – CyberScoop
House Democrats criticized a draft Republican Department of Homeland Security spending bill Thursday that they said would cut funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency by $250 million. – CyberScoop
The Trump administration is considering a technology executive at Palantir to run the federal civilian cybersecurity agency, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer at Palantir Technologies, has emerged as a lead contender for the long vacant Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) director role, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the administration’s search. – The Record
Russia is seeking to designate two hacker groups, Belarusian Cyber Partisans and Silent Crow, as extremist organizations and ban their activities in the country. The groups have previously claimed responsibility for cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure and government institutions in Russia and Belarus. – The Record
Jason Blazakis writes: Old versions are retired. Companies change guardrails, alter models and reshape AI personalities overnight. What happens when an AI-worshipping extremist logs in one morning and discovers that the entity he believes to be God has been taken offline or overwritten—in his eyes, killed? Aum Shinrikyo followers carried out the subway sarin attack because they believed the apocalypse was already under way. The next such science-meets-fanaticism attack may be carried out by these new cults of AI followers who believe their emerging god is under threat. The intelligence community should be studying these movements now, before mass-casualty attacks begin. The Zizians have already revealed the violence, zealotry and growing psychosis that makes such attacks probable. – Wall Street Journal
Tom Rogan writes: The problem is that Israel, much more than other close allies such as the U.K. or Australia, has made just these kinds of deals in the past. […] Ask any FBI counterintelligence agent and they will tell you the same thing. Congress should not reject this proposal out of hand. Bounded by necessary safeguards, bolstered U.S.-Israeli technology sharing offers the prospect of better protecting both nations in an increasingly dangerous world. But just as Israel and every other nation pursues their own interests first and foremost, so must the U.S. do the same. – Washington Examiner
Anda Bologa writes: The European Commission knows the current setup fails. Its newly proposed Digital Omnibus package attempts to simplify the rules by allowing users to set their privacy preferences once via their browser, operating system, or digital wallet, theoretically eliminating the need for banners on every single webpage. […] Europe was right to champion digital privacy, but the execution has alienated users and penalized the firms least able to bear the cost. By focusing on actual, not theoretical threats, we can protect citizens, rescue independent journalism, and finally slay the Cookie Monster for good. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Defense
The Pentagon is expected to cancel a plan to send Tomahawk missiles to Germany partly because officials are concerned Russia will view it as an escalation, a startling reversal of a long-planned agreement with one of America’s biggest allies. – Politico
House authorizers want a Navy study that assesses how pursuing the nuclear-powered Trump-class battleship program could affect the shipbuilding and nuclear industrial base. – USNI News
The Pentagon launched a website this week to support a new initiative that helps servicemembers, military spouses and civilians explore jobs and career development opportunities. The effort is part of what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is calling Project Patriot Pipeline. – DefenseScoop
Ryan D. McCarthy writes: The character of warfare is changing through technology. But its fundamental nature is not. Borders and populations still matter, as do synchronized fire, maneuvering and logistics. To realize the potential of the Army’s initiatives, the Defense Department and Congress must prioritize Army investments and support its service leaders as they confront obstacles, whether budgetary, bureaucratic or political. Because the history is clear: Time and again, the United States has declared “never again” to large-scale land wars — only to find itself unprepared for the next ground campaign. – Washington Post