Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Israel strikes Lebanon in one of largest attacks since cease-fire Israel arms Palestinian militia to counter Hamas Iran orders material from China for hundreds of ballistic missiles Israel assured U.S. it won't strike Iran unless talks fail Bloomberg’s James Stavridis: Could US and Israel destroy Iran’s nuke program? Yep, here’s how Trump says Russia and Ukraine may need to ‘keep fighting’ before making peace Russia launches broad assault on Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine North Korea's warship launched after botched first attempt, KCNA says After Trump and Xi Speak, U.S. and China agree to revive trade talks Pakistani man convicted of smuggling Iranian missile parts headed to Houthi rebels WSJ Editorial: Donald Trump’s new friend in Germany Qatar presents draft peace proposal to Congo and M23 rebels, source saysIn The News
Israel
Israel’s military said it was targeting an underground drone facility in southern Beirut on Thursday, in one of its largest strikes on Hezbollah assets since a cease-fire was agreed to in November. – Wall Street Journal
Israel is arming a small Palestinian militia that controls a slice of territory in southern Gaza as part of a plan to build up local resistance to Hamas, offering a glimpse into its postwar vision for the Strip. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S backed-Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said on Friday that all its aid distribution sites in the enclave were closed and a reopening date would be announced later, urging residents to stay away from these sites “for their safety”. – Reuters
The head of Hamas in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, said in a pre-recorded speech on Thursday the group had not rejected the latest U.S. proposal for a ceasefire with Israel but demanded changes that would secure the end of the war in the enclave. – Reuters
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday condemned the country’s banks that have refused to provide services to Israeli settlers sanctioned by the European Union and warned they may have to pay compensation to them. – Reuters
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul criticized Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip at a press conference with his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar in Berlin on Thursday, again calling for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into the enclave. – Reuters
US Envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday said that Hamas must accept the current ceasefire proposal to ensure the remaining hostages are returned. – Jerusalem Post
The people who fired at civilians attempting to disrupt the distribution of aid were members of Hamas, a Gaza resident told a Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories officer in new recordings revealed by the IDF on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that he would decide “in the next couple of days” whether to take concrete steps against Israel over the war in Gaza, during a press conference with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who again accused Israel of premeditated genocide in the Strip. – Times of Israel
Defense Minister Israel Katz responded on Friday to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s condemnation of Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut’s Dahiya neighborhood, asserting that peace in Beirut is contingent upon Israel’s security. – Artuz Sheva
Editorial: Leadership must, at some point, deal with the question of Israel’s Jewish nature and democratic aspirations. Those questions haven’t even been properly asked in the political arena. Only the fires have been put out – and lately at the last minute. Perhaps a silver lining of these times is that it brought these issues more into the limelight. With the coalition currently scrambling for survival, perhaps now is the time to ask the harder questions and begin to look for answers. – Jerusalem Post
Melanie Phillips writes: By demonizing Israel in this despicable way, the British and other Western governments are also putting their own Jewish communities at greatly increased risk. This is all a nightmare for Diaspora Jews. Israel, which before Oct. 7 unwisely allowed itself to bask in its growing power, has now painfully learned the lesson that Diaspora Jews must now confront. The only people who will protect and defend the Jewish people are the Jews themselves. – Arutz Sheva
Zach Goldberg writes: We need our moral language to retain its clarity and gravity, not to mention its anchoring in legal and historical reality. Once terms like genocide and ethnic cleansing become routine descriptors for controversial wars or asymmetric conflicts, they lose their power to name the world’s most unspeakable crimes. That erosion weakens our ability to recognize and respond to real genocides when they occur—and distorts our understanding of those that already have, while diminishing the agency and true horror of genocidal actions. – Tablet
Iran
Iran has ordered thousands of tons of ballistic-missile ingredients from China, people familiar with the transaction said, seeking to rebuild its military prowess as it discusses the future of its nuclear program with the U.S. – Wall Street Journal
President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump that he was ready to use Russia’s close partnership with Iran to help with negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme, the Kremlin said on Thursday. – Reuters
Western nations are planning to table a resolution at a meeting of the U.N.’s nuclear agency that will find Iran in non-compliance with its so-called safeguards obligations for the first time in 20 years, a senior western diplomat said Thursday. – Associated Press
Israel has reassured the White House that it won’t launch an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities unless President Trump signals negotiations with Iran have failed, two Israeli officials with direct knowledge tell Axios. – Axios
James Stavridis writes: Re-opening the Strait of Hormuz would likely pull in America’s European and Gulf allies. But having lost control of its decimated proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis — Iran has few moves left on the chessboard. It’s said that Iran’s progenitor, the Persian Empire, was one of the first societies to play the game of chess. If Tehran blows this chance to negotiate with the US, it is headed to a very dark endgame indeed. – Bloomberg
Russia and Ukraine
Ukraine’s audacious drone attack wounded and embarrassed Moscow, but it also exposed a threat to Kyiv’s Western allies: Low-cost, high-tech strikes can deliver an increasingly potent punch to even the most heavily defended world powers. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump said Russia and Ukraine might need to “keep fighting” before either side is ready for a cease-fire. Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said he has resigned himself to further warfare because neither Moscow nor Kyiv were ready to make peace, his bluntest acknowledgment yet that his attempt to halt the three-year-old conflict has fallen short. – Wall Street Journal
Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones across Ukraine early Friday, killing at least four people and damaging buildings in Kyiv, the capital, two days after Moscow vowed retaliation for Ukraine’s recent audacious assault on Russian strategic bomber bases. – New York Times
International monitors at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine heard repeated rounds of gunfire that appeared to be aimed at drones reportedly attacking the site’s training centre, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said on Thursday. – Reuters
Ukraine’s government has criticised a decision to take billions of euros of Russian wealth frozen in Europe and hand it to Western investors, warning that it weakened Europe’s stand against Moscow. – Reuters
The English Court of Appeal has refused jailed Russian tycoon Ziyavudin Magomedov permission to appeal against a decision that threw out his $14 billion lawsuit against Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and other firms, the company said. – Reuters
Russia sees little chance of saving its last nuclear accord with the United States, due to expire in eight months, given the “ruined” state of relations with Washington, its top arms control official said in an interview published on Friday. – Reuters
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. writes: Faced with strange and worrisome new challenges, Washington’s first impulse evidently is to serve up disinformation to the American people. The U.S. government seems hardly more resistant than the Russian government to this information-age temptation. As we fan ourselves back to consciousness after Ukraine’s exciting drone attack, it pays to notice that we’ve been part of the story all along. – Wall Street Journal
Mykola Hryckowian writes: A deeper US-Ukrainian defense partnership doesn’t require sending American troops to the front and doesn’t mean endless funding. If Ukraine can innovate to a strategic stalemate against the so-called second-largest army in the world, just imagine what the US could achieve by integrating and scaling those same capabilities. Ukraine’s war is not America’s war, but it is America’s warning. We’ve been here before. The Spanish Civil War was a proving ground for World War II, and Ukraine is our early warning system now. If we miss this moment, we won’t get another. – National Interest
Syria
During his first term, President Trump included Syria in a series of travel bans targeting mostly Muslim-majority nations, branding refugees from the war-ravaged country as requiring “extreme vetting” to protect national security. – New York Times
Visiting EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica said on Thursday that a €175 million (nearly $183 million) package for Syria was a “clear message” of support for its reconstruction. – Agence France-Presse
Syrian fighter pilot Ragheed Tatari was 26 when he was arrested. Now 70, the country’s longest-serving political prisoner is finally free after Bashar Assad’s fall, seeking justice and accountability. – Agence France-Presse
Reps. Cory Mills and Marlin Stutzman write: Hearing al-Sharaa and the Syrian government express an interest in being a stabilizing force in the region for peace and prosperity is a moment in time we must consider carefully, and why we applaud President Trump’s decision to lift the sanctions on a war-weary Syria. […] We believe huge investments are waiting to rebuild this great nation. With Trump at the helm, this could be a monumental moment for unexpected peace in the Middle East. – The Hill
Middle East & North Africa
Red Sea marine traffic has increased by 60% to 36-37 ships a day since August 2024, but is still short of volumes seen before Yemen’s Houthis began attacking ships in the region, according to the commander of the EU’s Aspides naval mission. – Reuters
Ghana said on Thursday it views a Moroccan autonomy plan as the sole basis to settle the Western Sahara dispute within the framework of the UN, aligning itself with a growing number of Western, African and Arab countries that back Rabat’s position on the dispute. – Reuters
A mother and three children died Thursday when a fire broke out in a 13-story apartment block in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkiye’s Kurdish-majority southeast, local officials said. – Agence France-Presse
Korean Peninsula
South Korea’s right is looking to remake itself after a massive defeat in this week’s snap presidential election that left it with little power to challenge the ruling Democratic Party. – Reuters
North Korea has launched a warship that was damaged in May upon its attempted first launch, state media KCNA reported on Friday. After restoring the balance of the 5,000-tonne destroyer earlier in June, it was launched on Thursday and is now moored at a pier, KCNA said. – Reuters
South Korea’s liberal-led legislature overwhelmingly passed bills Thursday to launch special investigations into former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law in December and criminal allegations against his wife, targeting the ousted conservative a day after his liberal successor took office. – Associated Press
Karishma Vaswani writes: With North Korea’s nuclear weapons program now widely seen as irreversible, sentiment has shifted dramatically. Polls consistently show that over 70% of citizens support developing their own nuclear deterrent. South Korea’s new president will need to balance their desires with the alliance with Washington. The Trump administration’s unpredictability is forcing Lee to take decisive action to protect his citizens, with or without America’s lead. – Bloomberg
China
China and the United States agreed on Thursday to hold more trade talks in hopes of breaking an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals that has begun to threaten the global economy. – New York Times
What do a Chinese commencement speaker at Harvard, an actress posting selfies and a trainee doctor at a Beijing hospital have in common? Not much — except that they’ve all found themselves at the heart of fierce online debates in China about privilege and inequality. – New York Times
Automakers and their suppliers are facing shortages due to restrictions on Chinese exports of rare earths, minerals and magnets, an issue that has forced some to shut down production of certain models. – Reuters
The U.S. declined to label China a currency manipulator in a new Treasury report released Thursday, but accuses Beijing of standing out among America’s major trading partners for lacking transparency in its exchange rate policies. – Associated Press
South Asia
A Pakistani man was convicted on Thursday for his role in smuggling Iranian missile components bound for Houthi rebels, after being captured in a military operation last year that resulted in the deaths of two Navy SEALs, the Justice Department said. – New York Times
Indian and U.S. officials are holding high-level talks this week, aiming to finalise tariff cuts in sectors such as farm and automobiles as part of an interim deal, two government sources said, with an announcement likely later this month. – Reuters
The Trump administration has moved to end deportation protections the United States granted to thousands of Nepalese people after a 2015 earthquake devastated the country, according to a government notice posted on Thursday. – Reuters
Fatima, a 57-year-old Afghan women’s rights defender waiting in limbo in Pakistan for her U.S. visa to be processed, had her dreams shattered overnight after President Donald Trump included Afghans among those banned from entering the U.S. – Reuters
India will start counting its vast population in a mammoth exercise starting next year. The first census in 16 years will be conducted digitally and include controversial questions about caste for the first time since independence. – Associated Press
A senior Pakistani official said India has lowered the threshold for future military action between the two arch-rivals, adding that India’s use of a nuclear-capable missile during the latest conflict has made the situation more precarious. – Bloomberg
Asia
New Zealand’s Parliament on Thursday suspended three opposition lawmakers over their performance of the haka, a traditional Māori dance, as a protest while the body was considering a contentious bill last year. – New York Times
A Japanese company had hoped that the second time would be the charm for putting a robotic lander on the moon. But it appears to have failed again. – New York Times
Australia will not relax its strict biosecurity rules during tariff talks with the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday ahead of a possible meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at this month’s G7 summit. – Reuters
Australia offers a secure alternative supply for critical minerals vital to industry, its trade minister Don Farrell said on Thursday, in the face of rising concerns about Beijing’s dominance of the sector. – Reuters
Thailand called on Cambodia to engage positively in efforts to settle a longstanding border dispute, stressing on Thursday it did not recognise the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice after its neighbour said it would refer the issue to the World Court. – Reuters
The Philippines and United States militaries have sailed together in the South China Sea for a seventh time to boost interoperability between the two sides, Manila’s armed forces said on Thursday. – Reuters
Europe
European leaders are maneuvering to ensure the region doesn’t return to dependence on cheap Russian gas, worried about the leverage it would give the Kremlin. – New York Times
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a surprise victory in a fiercely fought by-election for the Scottish parliament on Friday after one of the most bitter election campaigns in the country’s recent history. – Reuters
Germany needs up to 60,000 additional troops under new NATO targets for weapons and personnel, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday, as the alliance beefs up its forces to respond to what it sees as an increased threat from Russia. – Reuters
Slovakia’s parliament, in a thinly attended session, approved a resolution on Thursday calling on the government not to vote in favour of new sanctions on Russia, raising questions over the country’s future stance on European sanction packages. – Reuters
Denmark will not yield to “unacceptable” pressure from the United States for control of semi-autonomous Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday, warning Greenlanders’ right to self-determination was at stake. – Reuters
A Hungarian government minister said on Thursday that a new transparency bill targeting foreign-funded groups must not be used for political prosecution and should contain safeguards, highlighting differences within the ruling party over the plan. – Reuters
A Swedish appeals court on Thursday found one man guilty of being a member of a terrorism organisation for swearing loyalty to the Islamic State, upholding the verdict of a lower court, while the conviction of three others were overturned. – Reuters
Poland’s President-elect Karol Nawrocki plans to cooperate with Prime Minister Donald Tusk on some issues, he said in his first interview after Sunday’s election. – Bloomberg
French President Emmanuel Macron has asked his ministers to come up with responsive measures after a “government-commissioned” report determined that the Muslim Brotherhood poses a danger to “the fabric of society and republican institutions” in France. – Fox News
Editorial: Mr. Merz instinctively understands the importance of U.S.-German ties and leads a traditionally pro-American Christian Democratic party. Mr. Trump was able to undo some of that damage on Thursday. Disagreements are inevitable, but this is too important a relationship, at too important a time, to founder on one-upmanship. Mr. Trump seems to recognize this, and so does Mr. Merz. Perhaps it’s the beginning of a productive, if not always beautiful, friendship. – Wall Street Journal
Africa
Chad suspended visa issuance to U.S. citizens on Thursday after its nationals were included in a U.S. travel ban targeting 12 countries, President Idriss Deby said in a Facebook post. – Reuters
Islamist militants hit two more military installations on Wednesday and Thursday, Mali’s army said, the latest in a quick spate of attacks that the insurgents say have killed hundreds of soldiers and underscored their gains. – Reuters
Qatar has presented a draft peace proposal to Congo and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels after months of mediation in Doha, and the two sides will consult their leaders before resuming talks, a source briefed on the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday. – Reuters
Mauritius aims to halve its budget deficit to 4.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the fiscal year that starts in July, its prime minister said on Thursday, adding that urgent changes were needed to improve the health of public finances. – Reuters
Burundi is holding elections for the National Assembly and local councils that have excluded the main opposition in one of the world’s poorest nations. – Bloomberg
The Americas
The remains of Judih Weinstein, a Canadian citizen who was taken hostage by Hamas during its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, have been returned to Israel, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on Thursday. – Reuters
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and French leader Emmanuel Macron disagreed on Thursday over the EU-Mercosur free trade deal, with Lula urging Macron during a visit to Paris to sign off on a deal that angers French farmers. – Reuters
An effort by Chilean President Gabriel Boric to expand abortion rights in the final months of his administration could finally give him a progressive legacy after three years in office but it is an uphill task that Latin American conservatives are hoping will fail as they seek to reverse gains for the abortion rights movement in the region. – Reuters
Bolivian Senate leader Andronico Rodriguez is eligible to run in the nation’s presidential elections later this year, a constitutional court confirmed on Thursday, while former President Evo Morales remains out of the running. – Reuters
The U.N. food agency is appealing for $46 million for the next six months to help about 2 million Haitians in dire need of food, including 8,500 at the worst catastrophic level of hunger. – Associated Press
Suriname will swear in its first female president after an usually complicated electoral process, with analysts saying investors have little to fear from a change in government in the newly oil-rich nation. – Bloomberg
Lee Hockstader writes: When Washington tried to transform it into a full-fledged U.N. force last fall — an effort that might have unlocked additional funding and personnel — Russia and China blocked it in the Security Council. Tough-minded decisions could have averted Haiti’s collapse. Instead, feckless international hand-wringing left fertile ground for pandemonium. Haiti has become an object lesson in the consequences of apathy. – Washington Post
Arturo McFields writes: The U.S. will have to take preventive measures and redouble diplomatic, commercial and security efforts to successfully deal with its main trading partner. It will not be an easy task. Fortunately, the Trump administration does not hesitate or evade challenges. The policy of “peace through strength” remains the best means to successfully face the new commercial and security challenges in Mexico. – The Hill
United States
Boston Consulting Group said it fired two North American partners involved in an Israeli-American effort to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza. The consulting giant terminated the two unnamed partners after an internal investigation found they didn’t disclose details about the pro-bono project during a client vetting process. – Wall Street Journal
President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban announcement has spread fear and uncertainty among those affected and is expected to trigger chaos and disruption to travel and daily life, especially for communities already facing precarious circumstances. – Washington Post
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday that the United States would impose sanctions on four judges on the International Criminal Court as retaliation for investigations of the U.S. military and arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. – New York Times
A federal jury in Texas on Thursday acquitted the first migrant tried for entering one of the new military zones on the U.S.-Mexico border, marking a legal challenge to the Trump administration plan to raise penalties for illegal crossings. – Reuters
The Trump administration is facing a new legal challenge to its arrangement with El Salvador to send migrants — and potentially US citizens — to a mega-prison infamous for its dangerous and unsanitary conditions. – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing Serbia and other Balkan nations to take in migrants deported from the US, according to people familiar with the matter. – Bloomberg
Editorial: Where this stops nobody knows, but we’ll lay odds that Mr. Musk isn’t going to have his electric-vehicle subsidies restored in the big, beautiful bill. We hope he doesn’t lose his space and other contracts that have forced NASA and the Pentagon to raise their game on rockets and much more. The shame is that Mr. Musk tried to shake up a government that needs it. His methods were mercurial, and the results disappointing, but no one wins a divorce as nasty as this one. – Wall Street Journal
Douglas Murray writes: It is also an effort to dissuade violent criminals and terrorists from thinking this country is an entirely safe space to operate from. But there is a cost to committing crimes. And there are costs for carrying out acts of terrorism. If one of those costs is inconvenience to your loved ones, then perhaps you should think twice about it first. Because the sympathies of the American public have been stretched quite far enough. – New York Post
Cybersecurity
OpenAI is seeing an increasing number of Chinese groups using its artificial intelligence technology for covert operations, which the ChatGPT maker described in a report released Thursday. – Reuters
Federal authorities on Thursday said they seized $7.74 million from North Korean nationals as they attempted to launder cryptocurrency obtained by IT workers who gained illegal employment and funneled the wages to the North Korean regime. – Cyberscoop
National cyber director nominee Sean Cairncross faced questions from senators Thursday morning about how someone with no cyber experience or background could take over a role previously held by cybersecurity experts. – The Record
A cyberespionage group with suspected ties to Iran has been targeting Kurdish and Iraqi government officials in a years-long cyber espionage campaign, according to a new report. – The Record
Ukrainian police, with assistance from Europol, have arrested a 35-year-old man accused of hacking into thousands of user accounts at an international hosting company and using its infrastructure to illegally mine cryptocurrency, authorities said Wednesday. – The Record
Researchers say they have uncovered new evidence linking a long-running threat actor known as Bitter to the Indian government. The group has been involved in cyber-espionage operations targeting government and defense organizations across Asia, Europe, and South America. – The Record
Defense
The Air Force estimates it will cost less than $400 million to modify a luxury aircraft gifted from the Qatari government into President Donald Trump’s flying command center, according to the service’s top civilian official. – Defense News
After the Navy canceled an initial solicitation for the service’s future Landing Ship Medium over unexpectedly high bids, Navy and Marine Corps officials say an overhauled version of the program is back on track and on the verge of starting Block 1 construction. – USNI News
Editorial: While the US may still want to pursue elements of the program, it should not be afraid to discuss its future as part of broader arms-control talks. In the meantime, Golden Dome presents a good opportunity for the world’s preeminent space powers to build trust and avoid a conflict. They’d be foolish to waste it. – Bloomberg