Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Trump's Gaza plan on hold as Iran war pauses disarmament talks, sources say Iran’s leadership signals it is still in control and able to fight Iran says oil blockade will continue until attacks end, Trump threatens heavier strikes Trump says war against Iran is 'very complete,' CBS News reports WSJ Editorial: Iran isn’t winning this war Trump says he discussed Ukraine and Iran conflicts with Putin Lebanon seeks direct talks with Israel to end Hezbollah fighting France is sending a large naval force to the Middle East Bloomberg’s Karishma Vaswani: Why US strikes on Iran will harden North Korea's nuclear resolve Australia to send missiles to UAE, deploy military surveillance aircraft US to designate Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization, State Department says Two charged in ISIS-inspired attack outside NYC mayor’s homeIn The News
Israel
Talks to advance President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war have been on hold since last week when the U.S. and Israel jointly attacked Iran, sparking a broader Middle East war, three sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations said. – Reuters
The Israeli military on Monday said that it was unaware of any clash with Hezbollah fighters in eastern Lebanon, after the Iran-backed Lebanese group said it had fought Israeli soldiers approaching from Syria. – Reuters
Israel says a man was killed in an Iranian missile attack, raising the country’s death toll from the war to 11. – Agence France-Presse
Israel’s military said it struck targets in central Iran on Monday, including internal security command centers and missile launch sites, in the first raid since the Islamic republic appointed a new supreme leader. – Agence France-Presse
Despite Iran’s 75% reduction in ballistic missile launchers, the IDF believes that Tehran can continue its barrages on Israel for an extended period, the military said. – Jerusalem Post
Israel’s relations with Middle Eastern countries are progressing as the war with Iran advances, The Jerusalem Post has learned. – Jerusalem Post
In the second week of Operation Roaring Lion, the Defense Ministry announced a series of major developments for the country’s accelerated efforts to strengthen its military capabilities. – Jerusalem Post
The first flights operated to repatriate Israelis who were stranded in Dubai for more than a week landed on Monday at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. – Times of Israel
Editorial: The reality is that there is no perfect solution during wartime. Israel must jumpstart the economy as much as possible, but allowing students to return to school is irresponsible and dangerous. As the war continues with no end in sight in the short term, Israelis not only need to remain vigilant and resilient but also united. We can’t afford cracks in society at this critical juncture. At the same time, the government, which is elected for exactly these reasons, must be creative in its efforts to enable the country’s inhabitants to live as ‘normal’ a life as possible during wartime. – Jerusalem Post
David Ignatius writes: Israel wants to avoid a repeat of the 1982 ground invasion all the way to Beirut, which many Israelis came to view as a bad mistake. […] “We won’t drag the U.S. into an endless war,” the official said. “Israel is a reliable ally,” not a burden, he argued. Trump has set his course for the annihilation of the Iranian regime. He speaks about creating a new Iran that reflects that country’s yearning for freedom and modern life. But he doesn’t appear to have anything approaching a plan for achieving this worthy goal. And he’s going to have to answer the Iraq War-era question I heard reprised this weekend: Tell me how this ends? – Washington Post
Iran
After 10 days of punishing airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel, Iran’s leadership is battered but showing signs it is still in control and able to fight. Senior Iranian political figures, while hunted from the air and limiting their appearances in public, are regularly posting messages that reflect recent developments and project unity and defiance. – Wall Street Journal
The Iran conflict is rocking energy markets and threatening to squeeze the global economy, but beyond the immediate crisis lies a staggering economic prize—unlocking the oil industry in a nation with one of the world’s largest proven reserves. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, well into its second week, has now involved at least 12 nations, with economic and political shocks reverberating around the world. Neither side has achieved its strategic objectives so far, and both boast that they can outlast the other. – Wall Street Journal
As Mojtaba Khamenei assumes power in Iran, the clerical establishment is framing the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as martyrdom for Islam and casting the new supreme leader as heir to the Islamic Republic’s legacy of resistance. – Wall Street Journal
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday they would not let any oil be shipped from the Middle East if U.S. and Israeli attacks continue, prompting President Donald Trump to say the U.S. would hit Iran much harder if it blocked exports. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he was “disappointed” that Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his slain father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the supreme leader of the country. – Reuters
Almost half of Iran’s uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons-grade, was stored in a tunnel complex at Isfahan and is probably still there, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump thinks the war against Iran “is very complete” and that Washington was “very far ahead” of his initial four to five week estimated time frame, according to a CBS News interview with him. – Reuters
Iranians living abroad could have property confiscated and face other legal penalties if they express support for the United States and Israel, the Iranian prosecutor general’s office said on Monday. – Reuters
Oil prices fell on Tuesday after hitting an over three-year high in the prior session as U.S. President Donald Trump predicted the war in the Middle East could end soon, easing concerns about prolonged disruptions to global oil supplies. – Reuters
A U.S. intelligence assessment completed shortly before the United States and Israel launched a war in Iran had determined that American military intervention was not likely to lead to regime change in the Islamic Republic, according to two people familiar with the finding. – Associated Press
Iran’s new supreme leader bought two luxury flats costing £35m yards from the Israeli embassy in London, it has emerged. – The Telegraph
President Trump told The Post on Monday that he’s “nowhere near” ordering US troops into Iran to safeguard nuclear material at Isfahan — as he kept his cards close on how he plans to handle the country’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. – New York Post
Iran on Monday accused European countries including France of creating the conditions that led to the United States and Israel attacking the Islamic republic and triggering a war. – Agence France-Presse
“I don’t think the question of talking with Americans or negotiation with the Americans once again would be on the table,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told PBS News Hour in an interview on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency published a report on Monday promoting speculation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have been killed or wounded, reviving the kind of wartime rumor that has repeatedly spread online during the current Israel-Iran conflict. – Jerusalem Post
Iran will only launch missiles with warheads weighing over one ton, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force commander Majid Mousavi said on Monday, according to Iranian opposition outlet Iran International. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: It would make no sense to leave so many loose ends, from missiles and production facilities to nuclear sites at Pickaxe Mountain and the Isfahan tunnels. There’s also little reason to leave standing any IRGC or basij bases. Even if the regime survives the bombing, it’s in the U.S. security interest to give Iranians the best chance to retake their country. Mr. Trump doesn’t need the regime to fall to call Operation Epic Fury a success. But stopping now amid some short-term economic discomfort would be a victory for the mullahs. They can’t be allowed to conclude that shutting down oil flows is their passport to survival now and in the future. – Wall Street Journal
Walter Russell Mead writes: Alternatively, the Americans could reopen the Gulf as a new Iranian government more focused on developing the country than on dominating its neighbors emerges. This would be a major victory for the Trump administration. Most likely is an in-between scenario in which the U.S. largely clears the Gulf but the current regime survives. Operation Epic Fury would in that case be remembered as the Mother of All Lawnmowers, solving nothing fundamental but preserving a fragile balance of power in a vital part of the world. Mr. Trump was never much of a student, but the school of war has set him an exam that he can’t afford to fail. Let us hope he manages to pass. – Wall Street Journal
Victoria Coates writes: Iran is, after all, a country, not a piece of crockery in a store, and President Trump’s mission is not nation-building. It is to give the American people the opportunity to go through the next half-century freed from the deadly threat of the Islamic Republic, especially if that regime were to acquire a nuclear weapon. It would be even better to go through that period with a prosperous and secure partner in what the new Iran becomes. And that future will ultimately be for the people of Iran to secure. – Fox News
David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, Spencer Faragasso, and the Good ISIS Team write: Some of that activity occurred during the last weeks of November 2022, when it was entirely blocked by significant piles of earth. […] It should be noted that this activity continued after the Esfahan tunnels were blocked by significant earth movements using numerous dump trucks. It appears that the earthen piles seen in recent images are just excavated material from the base of the water system ramp. Thus, while we cannot establish whether this site has any relation with the enriched uranium stockpile as was suggested in the NYT article, there is no reason to believe that this site is physically connected by an underground passageway to the Esfahan nuclear related tunnel complex. Moreover, it looks to us like a rain runoff water catchment recovery system with a small qanat next to it. – Institute for Science and International Security
Russia and Ukraine
When relentless Russian bombing cut the power and heat to Radoslava Kabachiy’s apartment in Kyiv’s historic center in late January, she did what Ukrainians have done for centuries when Moscow attacks: headed for the village. – Wall Street Journal
President Volodymyr Zelensky, with tired eyes, deep worry lines and a beard flecked with gray, boarded a train on Thursday night in Kyiv to visit his troops in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting has been fiercest. It seemed a lonely journey. – New York Times
Ukraine is ready for new U.S.-backed peace talks with Russia “at any moment”, but its partners’ attention is currently focused on the Iran conflict, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday, saying that the U.S. had asked to postpone an upcoming meeting. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters he had a “very good call” with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East. – Reuters
Hezbollah
Israeli forces advanced in southern Lebanon on Monday, entering new territory as part of a stated effort to expand a military-controlled buffer zone, as Israel stepped up its campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. – New York Times
Amid the increasing rocket fire from Hezbollah, Israeli officials estimate that the group is preparing for a prolonged campaign, an Israeli source told The Jerusalem Post. – Jerusalem Post
Sirens sounded Monday evening in central Israel and the Shephelah region following rocket fire from Lebanon, which was launched without prior warning. […] The Hezbollah terrorist organization said in an official statement: “We attacked the satellite communications station belonging to the communications and cyber defense corps of the Israeli enemy army, in the Elah Valley in central occupied Palestine.” – Arutz Sheva
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member MK Ariel Kallner (Likud) said on Monday in an interview with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News that Israel must act decisively against Hezbollah and deal with the organization in the same way it confronts Iran. – Arutz Sheva
Iraq
Germany has temporarily pulled staff from its embassy in Baghdad out of Iraq because of heightened security risks amid the conflict in the Middle East, a foreign ministry spokesperson said late on Monday. – Reuters
An airstrike on Monday hit a base belonging to the Hashed Al-Shaabi coalition in northern Iraq, according to officials from the former paramilitary alliance, which includes pro-Iran factions. – Agence France-Presse
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani welcomed on Monday the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s new supreme leader after his predecessor and father was killed in US and Israeli strikes. – Agence France-Presse
From their hideouts in the Iraqi mountains near Iran, leftist Kurdish rebels say they are ready to fight the Islamic Republic, but hope for an uprising before they intervene, with or without US support. – Agence France-Presse
Turkey
A ballistic missile launched from Iran entered Turkish airspace on Monday and was shot down by NATO defenses, the Turkish defense ministry said in a statement. It was the second time in six days that Turkey announced the interception of a missile from Iran. – New York Times
The top political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey clashed with the head judge of a mass trial for him and hundreds of other defendants on corruption charges, just minutes after the first hearing began on Monday. – New York Times
The U.S. government agreed to resolve its long-running criminal prosecution of Turkish state-run lender Halkbank (HALKB.IS), saying the accord furthers Washington’s interest in curbing support for Iran. – Reuters
Lebanon
Syria’s military said in a statement early on Tuesday morning in the Middle East that artillery shells fired from Lebanon had landed near a town about 20 miles west of Damascus, the capital. – New York Times
Escalating hostilities have forced nearly 700,000 people to flee their homes in Lebanon over the past week, a U.N. agency said on Monday, as the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah entered a second week. – Reuters
Lebanon’s parliament extended its own mandate for two years on Monday, a statement from the speaker’s office said, pushing back elections that were meant to take place in May of this year. – Reuters
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for internationally mediated direct negotiations with Israel and a truce that would halt Israeli attacks on his country and extricate it from yet another Middle East conflict. – Bloomberg
The EU’s top diplomat called Monday for a 2024 ceasefire to be upheld to prevent Lebanon from “sliding into chaos,” saying Israel’s “heavy-handed” response to Hezbollah attacks was further destabilizing the region. – Agence France-Presse
Gulf States
Oman has spent years cultivating a reputation as a quiet mediator in a turbulent Middle East, maintaining diplomatic ties with both Tehran and Washington and frequently serving as a vital backchannel between the United States and Iran, including in the days before U.S.-Israeli strikes hit Iran. – New York Times
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Monday about avoiding a wider conflict in the Middle East, Carney’s office said. – Reuters
The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva called on Monday for a de-escalation of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and a return to negotiations. – Reuters
Kuwait held a military funeral on Monday for two interior ministry officials it said were killed “while performing their duty”. The state – which hosts U.S. military installations and has come under Iranian drone and missile fire during Tehran’s war with Israel and the U.S. – said the two men died early on Sunday, but did not go into further details. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia began oil output cuts, becoming the latest Gulf producer impacted by the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran that has halted ship traffic in the region, sending crude prices up nearly 30% on Monday to $119 a barrel and prompting G7 countries to consider releasing emergency oil stocks. – Reuters
Iran launched new attacks Tuesday at Gulf Arab countries as it keeps up pressure on the region, while five pro-Iranian militants were killed by an airstrike in northern Iraq. – Associated Press
Kuwait’s emir on Monday condemned Iran’s attacks on his country, where 12 people have been killed so far, as Tehran strikes out at the Gulf in response to US-Israeli attacks. – Agence France-Presse
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani condemned Iran’s strikes on Gulf countries as a “dangerous miscalculation,” warning that the escalation could destabilize the region and send shockwaves through the global economy. – Arutz Sheva
Middle East & North Africa
The Trump administration has ordered more U.S. diplomats to leave the Middle East, an indication of the ongoing security threat posed by Iran’s retaliatory attacks more than a week into the conflict. – Washington Post
France will send 10 warships to the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Strait of Hormuz, where oil tanker traffic has been choked off by the war with Iran, in addition to the two ships already deployed to the Mediterranean, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday. – New York Times
Egypt raised prices on a wide range of fuel products on Tuesday, the petroleum ministry said, as the region continues to reel from rising global oil and gas prices and the disruption of Middle East output from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. – Reuters
Algeria’s parliament on Monday approved an amended law criminalizing French colonial rule, removing earlier provisions that called for official apologies and broad reparations from France after Senate demanded the changes. – Agence France-Presse
Renad Mansour writes: Instead, they have driven many actors to embed themselves more deeply within domestic political and economic systems while leaving smaller, more militant factions to carry forward the transnational confrontation. The result is a network that may be less capable of regional escalation but is also more fragmented, still durable, and less predictable. As the axis shifts from expansion to survival, the challenge for the United States is not only deterring attacks but managing a landscape of fragmented actors whose incentives to escalate or restrain themselves increasingly diverge. In this sense, the survival mode of the axis of resistance does not signal its disappearance. Rather, it points to a more diffuse and uncertain phase of confrontation in the years ahead. – War on the Rocks
Korean Peninsula
South Korea cannot stop U.S. forces in Korea from redeploying some weapons, President Lee Jae Myung said on Tuesday, after reports that some U.S. Patriot missile defence systems were being sent to the conflict in the Middle East. – Reuters
North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said U.S.-South Korea military drills that began this week were a “provocative and aggressive war rehearsal” that would harm regional stability, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
Karishma Vaswani writes: This will require a measure of trust on both sides, and the ability to manage Kim’s penchant for changing his mind, as he has done in previous meetings with Trump. Any new framework would have to be resilient enough to withstand that volatility. A continued US military presence on the peninsula and the expansion of missile tracking capabilities with Japan, which also sits within North Korea’s range, could also help. Kim’s lesson from the Iran strikes will be simple: Autocrats without nuclear weapons are sitting ducks, while states who develop them them have protection. That belief will only reinforce his paranoia, and his determination to expand his arsenal — making the Korean peninsula harder, not easier, to stabilize. – Bloomberg
China
China’s exports surged far more than expected in the first two months of the year, delivering a strong boost to the world’s second-largest economy and highlighting its continued reliance on overseas demand. – Wall Street Journal
With oil prices surging and the conflict in the Middle East intensifying, the economic stakes for China are rising. The cost of oil on Monday hit levels not seen in four years, one week after the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran, an ally and financial partner to China. – New York Times
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday called for a ceasefire in the Gulf region as soon as possible, stressing that the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Gulf countries should be fully respected, according to statements from his ministry. – Reuters
A summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping this month is unlikely to create room for even a limited reset of business and investment ties, five people briefed on preparations said. – Reuters
China warned Japan of consequences after it allowed a rare visit by Taiwan’s No. 3 official, accusing Tokyo of fanning “provocations” as tensions between the top Asian economies continue to simmer. – Bloomberg
Robert Peters writes: This is a China that is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, building intercontinental ballistic missile silos such that it now has more than the United States, and fielding a nuclear force that can hit targets from Japan to Guam to Australia. That China is plausibly carrying out secret nuclear explosive tests — and lying about them — should be sobering for everyone, but particularly for the United States. China seems to be preparing to fight, and potentially win, a nuclear war. The U.S. needs an updated military posture and forces to ensure it never does. – Washington Post
South Asia
Pakistan’s navy has launched a maritime security operation to protect shipping lanes and energy supplies as regional tensions threaten key sea routes, the military said on Monday. – Reuters
India has no plans to join International Energy Agency (IEA) initiative to release strategic oil reserves, a government source said on Monday, as global oil prices surged amid supply fears due to the Iran conflict. – Reuters
Indonesia has entered an agreement with India to procure the BrahMos missile system, its defence ministry spokesperson Rico Ricardo Sirait told Reuters on Monday. – Reuters
Despite what it called a humanitarian “disaster” in Afghanistan, the U.S. said on Monday international assistance to the country should be evaluated, given Taliban “intransigence” and its exclusion of the female population from basic rights. – Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday censured Afghanistan over its detention of American citizens, a move that could lead to a ban on U.S. passport holders traveling to the country. – Reuters
Asia
Australia has granted humanitarian visas to five members of the Iranian national women’s soccer team after the players were labeled “traitors” by Iran’s state media for declining to sing the country’s national anthem at their opening game in the Asian Cup tournament. – New York Times
The escalating crisis in the Middle East has dramatically changed the outlook for Asian central banks, with the huge supply shock posing a difficult trade-off between underpinning growth and countering inflation. – Reuters
Takuma Hashimoto was three years old when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011, triggering nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant just an hour’s drive from his home. – Reuters
The International Energy Agency (IEA) called for a coordinated release of emergency oil reserves during an online meeting with Group of Seven finance ministers on Monday, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told a briefing. – Reuters
Japan should operate all of its available nuclear power plants to offset the impact of the Iran war on electricity bills, Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of a Japanese opposition party, said on Monday. – Reuters
When police detained an Indonesian teenager accused of bombing his high-school campus in Jakarta in November, he had a life-size toy rifle inscribed with “welcome to hell” and the names of white supremacist mass killers. – Reuters
Vietnam’s trade ministry has called on local businesses to encourage their employees to work from home as part of efforts to save on fuel amid supply disruptions and price surges triggered by the Iran war. – Reuters
An order for four advanced U.S.-made MQ-9B “SkyGuardian” drones is on track and hasn’t been affected by the war in the Middle East, Taiwan’s air force said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Australia will deploy a military surveillance aircraft to the Middle East and send missiles to the United Arab Emirates but will not put troops on the ground in Iran, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Editorial: Australian officials can’t protect the players’ families. But at least the federal police can ensure the women have a chance to express their fears and wishes about returning home in private, and through a government-provided interpreter if needed. James Cockayne, an Australian anti-slavery official, tells us there are “concerns that the women are being accompanied by chaperones and minders from the Iranian regime who are controlling their ability to move and speak freely.” Under Australian anti-trafficking laws, it’s illegal to coerce another person to exit the country against their will. Australian authorities can also help the Lionesses by going after Iranian government agents who sought to control these soccer players during their visit. – Wall Street Journal
Natalie Arbatman writes: No neighboring country possesses greater cultural ties, geographic proximity, or political influence inside Iran than Azerbaijan. If Iran enters a prolonged political transition after the war, Baku will play an important role in stabilizing Iran’s northern regions, managing cross-border commerce, and helping reconnect a postwar Iran to regional trade networks. That is the deeper meaning behind Washington’s use of the word “partner.” Sustaining the partnership requires diplomatic engagement and continued investment in the corridors. Rhetoric, in this region, is tested quickly. – National Interest
Europe
Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats party in Britain, called on King Charles III to cancel his state visit to the United States in protest of what Mr. Davey calls President Trump’s “illegal war” against Iran. – New York Times
Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams appeared at London’s High Court on Monday for a civil lawsuit which aims to hold him liable for Irish Republican Army bombings in Britain, a case which could affect the prominent republican leader’s legacy. – Reuters
The EU must be prepared to project its power more assertively as it can no longer rely on a “rules-based” system against threats and must determine if its institutions and systems help or hinder its credibility, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday. – Reuters
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday’s election in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg was a “bitter” result for his conservatives but would not affect the government in Berlin as he again ruled out cooperating with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). – Reuters
Norwegian police are searching for a suspect seen on surveillance footage after a weekend explosion at the U.S. embassy in Oslo, investigators said on Monday, with a possible link to the Iran war among the lines of inquiry. – Reuters
Britain wants major economies to agree to release emergency oil reserves as the escalating Iranian crisis sends energy prices soaring and increases the risk of higher inflation, finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Monday. – Reuters
NATO began its biennial drills in the Arctic on Monday, this time placing more emphasis on the role of civilians in supporting the military, at a time of high tension over U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to take over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark. – Reuters
The EU will sign defence partnerships with Australia, Iceland and Ghana in the coming days, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday. “There are many other interested countries knocking at our door,” Kallas added in a speech in Brussels. – Reuters
Hungary’s government will introduce a price cap on gasoline and diesel at fueling stations beginning at midnight local time, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Monday. – Associated Press
Belarusian journalist Pavel Dabravolski was convicted Monday of treason and sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security prison, activists said, the fifth media worker to be jailed in two weeks in a relentless government crackdown on freedom of the press. – Associated Press
As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages to the east and the US piles on pressure to spend more on the military, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has been focusing on a very different agenda. – Bloomberg
Sweden will amass stockpiles of essentials like fuel, food and power generators in case of crises or war in a further sign of the Nordic state’s increasing concern about conflict spreading to the region. – Bloomberg
Slovenia’s center-left party of Prime Minister Robert Golob all but closed the gap behind the country’s nationalist opposition, a new poll showed with just two weeks before a tight parliamentary election. – Bloomberg
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni plans to fast-track a new law decree to tackle the spike in energy prices resulting from the war in the Middle East, Italian media including La Stampa report. – Bloomberg
British prosecutors charged a UK-resident with crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Syria, linked to his role putting down demonstrations in April 2011, police said on Monday. – Agence France-Presse
Africa
Immigrant rights advocates filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to stop U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from next week ending legal protections that allow nearly 1,100 Somalis to live and work in the United States. – Reuters
Madagascar’s President Michael Randrianirina, who seized power in October, has dismissed his prime minister and the entire cabinet on Monday, his spokesperson said in a statement. – Reuters
Islamist militants killed at least 12 soldiers and three civilians in coordinated overnight attacks in northeast Nigeria, military sources and residents said on Monday, as attacks on armed forces intensify. – Reuters
The U.S. is nearing a deal with Mali that will allow Washington to resume flying aircraft and drones over the West African country’s airspace to gather intelligence on jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda, according to one current U.S. official and a former U.S. official. – Reuters
The Trump administration is designating the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a specially designated global terrorist and intends to designate it as a foreign terrorist organization effective March 16, the U.S. State Department said on Monday. – Reuters
The Americas
Venezuela’s ruling party-controlled National Assembly on Monday approved a mining law expected to open the sector to private and foreign investment, the latest salvo in a package of U.S.-backed changes to the still-sanctioned country’s economy. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday Cuba is in “deep trouble” on a humanitarian basis and that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was dealing with the issue which may or may not be a “friendly takeover.” – Reuters
Colombia’s ruling party, the left-leaning Historic Pact, emerged from Sunday’s elections as the strongest political force in the incoming Senate, analysts said on Monday, although its failure to secure an absolute majority means it will need to form coalitions and may struggle if Colombia’s divided right wing wins the presidency. – Reuters
Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad is expected to step down by the end of next week to run for governor of Sao Paulo state as pushed for by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, four sources told Reuters on Monday. – Reuters
A 48-year-old senator calling for a military offensive against cocaine cartels has a strong shot at becoming Colombia’s first female president. – Bloomberg
Argentina has issued a new arrest warrant for an Iranian official in connection with the 1994 AMIA Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires, at the same time that the alleged mastermind was named the new head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. – Arutz Sheva
North America
Explosive drone strikes by Haitian security forces targeting gangs have killed over 1,200 people, including 43 adult civilians and 17 children, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Tuesday, adding that operations have ramped up in recent months. – Reuters
A group of just over 20 Cuban university students staged a rare, hours-long protest at the University of Havana on Monday, angry over class disruptions amid a U.S. oil blockade that has contributed to a near collapse of Cuba’s electrical grid. – Reuters
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to visit Norway on Friday where he will observe a NATO exercise before visiting the United Kingdom, his office announced Monday. – Associated Press
Cuban officials are preparing to withdraw the nation’s medical brigade from Guyana after it moved to provide full salaries to doctors and nurses from the island instead of sending most of the payments to the Cuban government. – Associated Press
“The writing was on the wall with the Bondi Massacre, and I see the exact same pattern in Canada,” Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, MK Sharren Haskel, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday after Toronto saw three shooting attacks on synagogues in one week. – Jerusalem Post
Canadian Member of Parliament Melissa Lantsman criticized Prime Minister Mark Carney for retracting his support for the US and Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran. – Arutz Sheva
United States
Six Democrats in the U.S. Senate on Monday said they are embarking on an intensified campaign for public hearings on the Iran war, with top Trump administration officials testifying under oath and to take steps to interrupt regular Senate business if Republicans resist. – Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a bid by President Donald Trump’s administration to dismiss a challenge by environmentalists to the U.S. Air Force’s practice of detonating hazardous waste explosives on a beach in Guam. – Reuters
The US told its Group of Seven partners that Russia sanctions relief would be temporary as it reacts to spiking energy prices amid the war in Iran, the European Union’s economy chief said. – Bloomberg
Federal prosecutors charged two men for allegedly bringing improvised explosive devices to a protest outside the mayor’s residence in New York, in what authorities described as an act of “ISIS-inspired” terrorism. – Bloomberg
The US may have intercepted an encrypted transmission intended for Iranian sleeper cells or covert operatives, ABC News reported on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: The bigger worry, though, is that there might be a security lapse that makes this failure to fund DHS look in retrospect like the height of partisan recklessness. In addition to airport security screeners, DHS includes the Coast Guard (which has personnel who support the U.S. Navy in Bahrain), the Secret Service, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Democrats insist they won’t restore DHS funding without an overhaul of ICE, but they are running a big risk if there is a successful terror attack. After the attempt in Manhattan, the wisest move for Mr. Schumer would be to quit posturing and pass the bill. – Wall Street Journal
Cybersecurity
Canada said Monday it is formally reversing its decision to shut down TikTok’s unit in the country on national-security grounds. – Wall Street Journal
Russian-backed hackers have launched a global cyber campaign to gain access to Signal and WhatsApp accounts used by officials, military personnel and journalists, two intelligence agencies in the Netherlands warned on Monday. – Reuters
TikTok and video platform YouTube are in discussions with Indonesia’s government about its plan to block social media access for children under 16 starting later this month, company officials said on Monday. – Reuters
Brian Fishman writes: All of these dynamics demand our attention. AI increasingly has its own agency, both in the sense that agents are able to make judgments formerly limited to human beings and in the sense that these new capabilities will reshuffle all human choices, including those around political violence. But it is also true that human beings maintain agency of their own to pursue political and ideological ends, sometimes using violence. Those strategies will continue to exist in a world of AI-enabled tactics. – War on the Rocks
Defense
The Pentagon burned through $5.6 billion worth of munitions during the first two days of its military assault on Iran, according to three U.S. officials, a figure that underscores the deepening alarm among some on Capitol Hill over the speed at which U.S. forces have eaten into the scarce supply of America’s most advanced weaponry. – Washington Post
As the war with Iran rages, the US Department of the Air Force (DAF) has reached a new agreement with Northrop Grumman Corp to expand production capacity for the B‑21 Raider, a move officials say will speed delivery of the nation’s next‑generation stealth bomber fleet. – Jerusalem Post
The National Armaments Consortium is expanding its collaboration with academia, industry and the military in an effort to quickly standardize drone fuzing technology, which its leaders say is a critical component to the Pentagon’s push to pump out lethal unmanned aerial systems. – DefenseScoop