Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
New report details ‘systematic’ rape and sexual violence during Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israel Political activist Mohammed Altooll: Hamas’s grip on Gaza weakens as the people rise against their oppressors U.S. Might Restart Striking Iran, Trump and Hegseth Warn Kuwait Accuses Iran of Trying to Infiltrate Its Territory Kremlin, Trump say Ukraine war nearly over after Zelenskiy casts doubt A Russian ship sank in mysterious circumstances. It may have been carrying submarine nuclear reactors to North Korea Hezbollah, Iranian hacktivists publish target list of IDF Egoz veterans as 'senior officers' Ahead of Trump-Xi summit, China warns on US arms sales to Taiwan AEI’s Michael Rubin: Albania is the world’s newest narcostate threat Mexico rejects CNN report on deadly CIA operations against cartels US war in Iran has cost $29 billion so far, Pentagon says CSIS’s Seth G. Jones: Is the United States Prepared for a War with China?In The News
Israel
Israel has sent batteries for its Iron Dome air defence system along with personnel to operate them to the United Arab Emirates, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Hamas militants and their allies raped, assaulted and sexually tortured their victims during and after the October 7, 2023 terror attack on southern Israel “to maximize pain and suffering,” a landmark new report has concluded. – CNN
Israel is waiting for President Donald Trump to decide whether to renew the strikes against Iran, or to end the operation and bring back the many U.S. military refueling aircraft currently stationed at Ben-Gurion Airport, preventing the airline industry’s recovery from the war. – Haaretz
A major forgery operation being run by a Palestinian gang in the West Bank was uncovered on Tuesday, with Israel Police and IDF troops arresting five suspects and seizing a large number of forged documents. – Jerusalem Post
A controversial bill aimed at creating a new civilian authority to oversee antiquities and heritage sites within the West Bank passed its first reading in the Knesset plenum overnight, between Monday and Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Israel entered the multi-front war it finds itself in now nearly three years ago with weakened domestic weapons-production capabilities, gaps in certain weapons stockpiles, and no full, budgeted policy for preserving domestic arms production lines, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman found in a report published Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF’s military prosecution filed two additional indictments against two suspects ranked Sergeant First Class for offenses linked with smuggling goods into Gaza, tax offenses, and other offenses, the military said on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sent a letter to Deputy Attorney-General Gil Limon demanding an immediate discussion to advance expelling illegal immigrants in southern Tel Aviv, as well as other parts of the country, Maariv reported on Sunday. – Jerusalem Post
Neville Teller writes: Among the Abraham Accords states, the UAE and Bahrain are emerging as front-line adopters of the new model. They openly normalize with Israel, quietly integrate Israeli air- and missile-defense, intelligence, and naval cooperation, and plug this into US-led multilateral drills and emerging regional defense schemes aimed squarely at Iran and its projectiles. By contrast, Morocco – and Sudan before the civil war – were “selective adopters,” taking Israeli UAVs, air-defense systems, intelligence and doctrine sharing, but applying them primarily to their own local rivalries like Algeria and Western Sahara. – Jerusalem Post
Mohammed Altooll writes: Local estimates suggest that the coming days may witness an expansion of influence by popular and tribal forces opposing Hamas, particularly in western Gaza neighborhoods. Sources familiar with the situation say the Civil Affairs Administration is currently conducting high-level coordination with military leadership operating inside Gaza in an effort to protect civilians and reduce humanitarian harm during any upcoming operations targeting Hamas positions or affiliated armed groups. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
The United States could end the month-old cease-fire and resume its attacks on Iran, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday, a day after Mr. Trump dismissed Tehran’s latest offer to end the war as “garbage.” – New York Times
Kuwait on Tuesday accused Iran of sending several members of its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to infiltrate a strategically important Kuwaiti island. – New York Times
With both Iran and the United States exerting control in and around parts of the Strait of Hormuz, securing safe passage for commercial ships — even those without Iranian links — remains opaque and difficult. – New York Times
Both Iraq and Pakistan have cut deals with Iran to ship oil and liquefied natural gas from the Gulf, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter, in a demonstration of Tehran’s ability to control energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. – Reuters
Iran has expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz into a “vast operational area” far wider than before the Iran war, according to a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy. – Reuters
Iranian parliamentary spokesman Ebrahim Rezaei said on Tuesday that the country could enrich uranium up to 90% purity, a level considered weapons-grade, if Iran is attacked again. – Reuters
Iran executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence service after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence, the judiciary’s Mizan news outlet reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
President Donald Trump should stop sending mixed messages about its intentions in the Iran war and instead “finish the job” of ousting Tehran’s Islamist regime, the son of Iran’s last shah said Tuesday. – Politico
Russia and Ukraine
The Russian drones slammed into the American-owned warehouses one after another. Each announced its arrival with an eerie whine. Then came the blasts, ripping through a vast grain terminal in southern Ukraine and lighting up the night sky. – New York Times
The Kremlin repeated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion that the war in Ukraine was almost over on Tuesday and U.S. President Donald Trump said the war’s conclusion was “very close,” perspectives not shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who said Moscow had no intention of ending it. – Reuters
Russia will deploy its new Sarmat strategic nuclear missile at the end of this year, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, describing it as “the most powerful in the world”. – Reuters
The Kremlin has released a video of Vladimir Putin driving in Moscow and meeting an old school teacher in a hotel lobby, after Western media outlets cited a European intelligence report as saying the Russian president spent weeks holed up in bunkers. – Reuters
Russian forces launched attacks in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday, killing at least six people, regional officials said, after the expiry of a U.S.-mediated ceasefire. – Reuters
The Kremlin played down a government economic growth forecast downgrade on Tuesday and gave no indication that it plans to punish officials for failing to boost growth, saying the government had taken the necessary measures to ensure economic stability. – Reuters
After years in which Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s wartime reputation withstood corruption allegations that swirled around his associates, the Ukrainian leader now faces a far bigger test: graft charges that have reached his own former right-hand man. – Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he had met the CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp, as Kyiv doubles down on the use of artificial intelligence to gain an edge in the war with Russia. – Reuters
A Russian cargo ship likely carrying two nuclear reactors for submarines, possibly destined for North Korea, suffered a series of explosions and sank in unexplained circumstances, about 60 miles off the coast of Spain, a CNN investigation has found. – CNN
Liron Rose writes: In many ways, the war itself has become one of the West’s last major unifying forces. But the larger issue extends far beyond Ukraine. If the war ends without a decisive Russian defeat, many countries will draw a powerful conclusion: It is possible to challenge the international order, use military force to change realities on the ground, absorb severe sanctions, and survive. China is studying that lesson in relation to Taiwan. Iran is studying it in the Middle East. Other authoritarian regimes are studying it as well. In that sense, the war in Ukraine may not represent the end of an era but the beginning of a new one – a world shaped less by Western dominance and more by long-term competition between rival powers and regional blocs. – Jerusalem Post
Hezbollah
Israeli troops are confronting a new threat in their fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon: camera-equipped explosive drones that feed live video back to their operators via a fiber-optic tether to evade detection and traditional signal-jamming defenses. – Washington Post
A target list of a few dozen IDF Egoz commando unit veterans and reservists was published by the Iranian regime-backed hacktivist group Handala on Sunday, which claimed that they had exposed the identities of 60 senior officers. – Jerusalem Post
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem announced that the terrorist group would not surrender and called for an end to the direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, in a written message to Hezbollah terrorists on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Tuesday that a ceasefire deal between the US and Iran would be the best chance to end Israel’s “aggression” against Lebanon. – Times of Israel
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday that its troops recently crossed the Litani River for a weeklong raid against Hezbollah, as the terror group’s leader rejected any attempt by Israeli and Lebanese officials to achieve its disarmament during upcoming peace talks in Washington. – Times of Israel
IDF troops continue operating South of the Forward Defense Line to destroy terrorist infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization, with the aim of removing threats to Israeli civilians. – Arutz Sheva
Gulf States
In a mechanized revival of the caravans of goods-laden camels that once sustained Arabian commerce, highways, railroads and ports in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman have been transformed into an emergency logistics lifeline, circumventing the Strait of Hormuz waterway. – Wall Street Journal
Saudi Arabia launched numerous, unpublicized strikes on Iran in retaliation for attacks carried out in the kingdom during the Middle East war, two Western officials briefed on the matter and two Iranian officials said. – Reuters
Trade between the United Arab Emirates and Syria more than doubled in 2025 and has further to grow, a UAE minister said on Tuesday, addressing a Damascus investment forum that signalled rapidly warming ties between the states. – Reuters
Middle East & North Africa
Authorities in eastern Libya say they have found and deported 120 migrants who were being held captive by people traffickers south of Benghazi, and have recovered the bodies of three other migrants from the Mediterranean shore. – Reuters
Islamic State claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack in eastern Syria that killed two Syrian army soldiers, the jihadist group’s first deadly operation against the Syrian government since February. – Reuters
Pakistan has indicated that Turkey and Qatar may join the nuclear-armed nation’s mutual defense cooperation pact with Saudi Arabia as the US-Iran war reshapes security alignment in the Middle East and South Asia. – Bloomberg
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) announced on Tuesday the extension of its Conflict Zone Advisory for Israeli airspace and several other nations across the Middle East and Persian Gulf, Globes reported. – Arutz Sheva
Korean Peninsula
South Korea is reviewing a phased contribution to efforts to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said on Wednesday, signaling support steps short of military participation. – Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday inspected several munitions factories and called for modernising production systems, tightening quality controls and boosting efficiency to strengthen the country’s military capabilities, state media KCNA said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Samsung Electronics and its union failed to reach a pay deal on Wednesday, heightening the risk of a massive strike that threatens not only chip production, the company’s standing, but also the health of the South Korean economy. – Reuters
South Korea is reviewing a phased contribution to efforts to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said on Wednesday, signaling support steps short of military participation. – Jerusalem Post
China
President Trump touches down here on Wednesday for a two-day summit with Xi Jinping, where he will be face-to-face with the Chinese leader for the seventh time, reuniting with a man who has become a pen pal of sorts. – Wall Street Journal
When President Trump arrives in Beijing this week for a summit with Xi Jinping, the Iran file will likely be on the agenda—whether or not either leader wants it there. – Wall Street Journal
The United States’ stance on Taiwan has rested for decades on a complex latticework of policies designed to support the island democracy while avoiding treating it officially as an independent country, a step that would enrage Beijing. – New York Times
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng started talks in South Korea on Wednesday to lay the groundwork ahead of this week’s summit of the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies in Beijing. – Reuters
China on Tuesday ramped up its rhetoric against Paraguay President Santiago Pena’s trip last week to Taiwan, saying he and his colleagues were “pawns to separatist forces” and had “ulterior motives” for sticking with Taipei. – Reuters
China reiterated its strong opposition to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan on Wednesday, calling on Washington to honour its commitments ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s arrival for a summit in Beijing. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he does not think he will need China’s help to end the war with Iran, even as hopes for a lasting peace deal dwindled and Tehran tightened its grip over the Strait of Hormuz. – Reuters
Bret Stephens writes: Rising nations, which is what China was under Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, have the luxury of being able to bide their time. Declining nations don’t. It tends to make them more inclined to gamble with their future. It’s why Putin invaded Ukraine after he realized the country was moving inexorably into the West’s orbit. It’s also why Xi will be powerfully tempted to seize Taiwan by invasion or blockade despite the enormous risks it poses not only to the world’s economy but also to his own. – New York Times
Robert D. Hormats writes: The United States and China are engaged in a multidecade economic, political, technological, and strategic competition. Managing this competition depends on the leaders clearly stating their objectives and accurately understanding what the other side has agreed to, and what it has not. If the summit ends with clarity and understanding, it will represent a step forward. But if it ends with different interpretations of key discussions, with disputes about the meaning of agreements, or with illusory claims of progress, the result will not just be a lost opportunity but added risk—leaving the relationship between the two superpowers worse off than it was going into the meeting. – Foreign Affairs
South Asia
Despite India facing economic headwinds, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party defied expectations with a stunning state election sweep — capped by a historic win in opposition stronghold West Bengal. – Bloomberg
Pakistan on Tuesday rejected a report claiming it had allowed Iranian military aircraft to park at its airfields, calling it “misleading” and saying such reports aim to undermine efforts to promote stability and peace. The Pakistani foreign ministry issued a statement responding to a CBS News report regarding the presence of Iranian aircraft the Nur Khan Airbase. – Al arabiya News
Shivshankar Menon writes: Rather than neutrality, the disordered world demands the opposite: the application of mind to issues to establish what is in India’s enlightened and common international interest, and to act accordingly. With its tradition of working across political divides and staying away from the constraints of blocs and alliances, India can work with other actors in the international system to build the plurilateral and bilateral links and agreements that are needed to continue the march of progress amid chaos. – Foreign Policy
Sumit Ganguly writes: If Pakistan fails, perhaps India could play a meaningful role in defusing tensions. During much of the Cold War and even beyond, Washington and New Delhi could afford to ignore each other as their relationship lacked economic, strategic, or diplomatic ballast. Despite the recent tensions that have characterized the partnership, its foundations remain fundamentally sound. The task before Rubio is to see if he can convince his interlocutors that they can still jointly build on this existing groundwork. – Foreign Policy
Asia
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on Tuesday expressed his thanks to the U.S. for its help in strengthening the island’s defences and said Taipei would not give in to pressure, ahead of a summit between the U.S. and Chinese leaders in Beijing this week. – Reuters
New Zealand will keep a tight rein on day-to-day spending in this year’s budget while increasing capital investment to strengthen infrastructure, defence and energy resilience, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said in a pre-Budget speech on Wednesday. – Reuters
The trading arm of Vietnam’s state oil company has urged the U.S. Navy to allow a crude oil tanker laden with Iraqi oil to sail through its blockade in the Middle East Gulf to provide a Vietnamese refinery with critical supplies, PVOIL said in a letter on Tuesday. – Reuters
Kyrgyzstan authorities have charged eight people, including powerful ex-security chief Kamchybek Tashiev, with plotting to seize power from President Sadyr Japarov, who has consolidated power in the historically volatile central Asian country. – Reuters
Thailand is poised to overhaul its liberal visa rules as the government ramps up a crackdown on foreigners who illegally run businesses or commit transnational crimes. – Bloomberg
Soaring costs for fuel due to the Iran war are leading panicked consumers in hard-hit Asia toward rooftop solar power, a likely windfall for China as the world’s largest provider of solar technology. – Associated Press
Europe
A line of tattooed, beefed-up men with bushy beards and American accents formed at the bakery in this tiny Bavarian town on a recent May morning. U.S. muscle cars are driven down the medieval streets here, where Americans outnumber Germans 2 to 1. – Wall Street Journal
Building bridges between the U.S. and Europe these days isn’t easy. Andrew Puzder, America’s envoy to Brussels, is trying. The challenges are enormous. Trans-Atlantic tensions have rarely, if ever, been this bad. There is a deep ideological divide between Trump administration officials and many in Brussels. – Wall Street Journal
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain staved off calls for his resignation on Tuesday, but he remains in deep political peril as he waits to see whether his Labour Party rivals will formally launch a challenge to his leadership. – New York Times
In recent months, Mr. Macron has moved to appoint close allies to head several of France’s most powerful state institutions, including the central bank, the national auditing authority and the Constitutional Council, the closest French equivalent to the Supreme Court. – New York Times
Britain said on Tuesday it would contribute autonomous mine-hunting equipment, Typhoon fighter jets and the warship HMS Dragon to a multinational defensive mission aimed at securing shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. – Reuters
A British man charged over an arson attack at a former synagogue in east London last week was in contact with someone using an Iraqi phone number shortly before the fire, prosecutors told a London court on Tuesday. – Reuters
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany must “pull itself together” or risk being left behind in a rapidly changing world, in a speech to trade unionists on Tuesday that sparked jeers, whistles and boos. – Reuters
German police said on Tuesday it had launched an investigation into the death of a member of the federal police’s special forces during a shooting exercise at a military training area in the northern town of Putlos . – Reuters
A 27-year-old man suspected of plotting a violent attack and of planning to join Islamic State in Syria or Mozambique had sought to target a Parisian museum and the Jewish community, though no specific target was identified, a source close to the investigation said on Monday. – Reuters
A top U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday the mandate of Bosnia’s next international peace envoy would be more limited, saying that the departure of the German politician currently in the role in June would mark the end of an era. – Reuters
Hungary will need to revise legislation restricting access to LGBTQ content after the European Union’s top court ruled they breached EU laws, justice minister nominee Marta Gorog said on Tuesday. – Reuters
A Dutch hospital has quarantined 12 staff members as a preventive measure after blood and urine from a hantavirus patient were handled without observing strict protocols, as medics around the world work to stop the spread of the outbreak. – Reuters
The European Commission is planning a first meeting with Taliban officials in Brussels on ways to deport some Afghan migrants, despite warnings from human rights groups that such engagement could endanger Afghans and violate core EU values. – Reuters
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has asked his government to boost cooperation and coordination with other EU countries “immediately” to prevent further spread of hantavirus. – Politico
Greece is protesting over an unexploded Ukrainian naval drone found in its waters, fearing the war could be spilling over to the Mediterranean as Kyiv’s forces hunt the opaquely-owned “shadow fleet” carrying Russian oil. – Politico
Spain won’t abandon its commitment to international law despite mounting criticism from the United States over its refusal to allow its air bases to be used for the Iran war, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares told POLITICO. – Politico
Romanian President Nicușor Dan said Tuesday he could nominate a new prime minister as early as next week, as Bucharest scrambles to rebuild a governing majority after the collapse of its centrist coalition last week. – Politico
Europe’s new law seeks to reduce its dependencies on countries including India and China for critical medicines and their ingredients, to diversify supply chains and incentivize European manufacturing amid growing geopolitical tensions. – Politico
Michael Rubin writes: What happens in Albania will not stay in Albania. Just as Lebanon descended into chaos, the willful targeting of Rama’s opponents and clean government advocates frustrates citizens who were once the most pro-American in Europe. Organized crime and the drug economy give criminals and terrorists a foothold in Europe. Just as Assad sponsored terrorists in Lebanon while seeking plausible deniability, Erdogan may soon do likewise in Albania. Albania may appear small, but Rama represents a gangrene that must be amputated lest its poison spread. – Washington Examiner
Lorenzo Termine, Gabriele Natalizia, and Laura Donnini write: Italy has moved closer than ever to closing a long-standing gap in its national security architecture. The new decree provides the procedure, the institutional anchor, and the promise of periodic updating. What it cannot provide on its own is strategic clarity. That will depend on whether Rome uses its first National Security Strategy not merely to coordinate crisis management, but to define how Italy understands its interests, ranks its priorities, and intends to act in an increasingly contested international environment. – War on the Rocks
Africa
President Emmanuel Macron of France opened an Africa summit this week in Nairobi, a city where almost no one speaks French. – New York Times
Nigeria has recently seen an increase of military strikes targeting jihadists and bandits. But Amnesty International said on Tuesday that the strikes were also killing dozens of innocent civilians. – New York Times
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faces impeachment proceedings over a scandal dubbed “Farmgate” in which thieves stole bundles of foreign cash from a sofa on his ranch. – Reuters
Ivory Coast’s Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) will send officials to the centre-eastern part of the country to calm tensions among farmers who protested last week over unsold cocoa stocks they say are rotting, despite a council pledge to buy the beans, a source close to the council told Reuters. – Reuters
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye is personally handling talks with the International Monetary Fund aimed at resolving a crisis stemming from the discovery in 2024 of previously unreported liabilities, his office said on Tuesday in statements published on social media. – Reuters
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was sworn in on Tuesday for a seventh term, extending his rule in the east African country into a fifth decade. – Reuters
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Monday that he will not resign from his position despite the establishment of an impeachment committee to reinvestigate allegations that he committed serious misconduct by hiding the theft of more than half a million dollars in cash, which had been stashed in a sofa at his game ranch. – Associated Press
The U.S. is cracking down on South Sudanese officials accused of undermining a fragile peace deal, announcing visa restrictions on Tuesday over alleged ceasefire obstruction and corruption that Washington claims fueled conflict. – Military.com
The Americas
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he would secure the release of all political prisoners in Venezuela. – Reuters
The humanitarian impact on civilians from Colombia’s armed conflict reached its worst level in a decade in 2025 due to increased hostilities and armed groups’ disregard for humanitarian law, an International Red Cross Committee report said Tuesday. – Reuters
A Peruvian prosecutor accused leftist presidential candidate Roberto Sanchez of financial crimes, local media outlet RPP reported on Tuesday, hours after electoral authorities said Sanchez was still on track to advance to the country’s presidential runoff vote. – Reuters
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday signed an executive order to eliminate federal taxes on foreign purchases worth up to $50, reversing course on a highly unpopular levy as he gears up to seek re-election in October. – Reuters
Tens of thousands of Argentines flooded the streets of major cities nationwide on Tuesday to protest funding cuts by libertarian President Javier Milei to the public university system that represents a near-universal point of pride in this crisis-prone country. – Associated Press
Honduran authorities on Tuesday arrested three people, including a powerful politician, accused of masterminding the 2024 assassination of an environmental leader, which became a symbol of government corruption and the ongoing perils of protecting the environment in the region. – Associated Press
Editorial: Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says she’ll return to the country this summer but she remains under threat of arrest—and at great risk of assassination. Ms. Machado gave Mr. Trump her Nobel Peace Prize, but she still can’t get the President to endorse a free election in Caracas. Ms. Rodríguez refuses to set an election date. This week Mr. Trump claimed that “Venezuela loves Trump.” Maybe so. But its people won’t love him for long if he keeps blessing Maduro 2.0. – Wall Street Journal
North America
The Dominican Republic said on Tuesday it had agreed to take third-country deportees from the United States, as the Caribbean nation sought to strengthen its ties with the Trump administration and join other Latin American countries that had struck such deals. – New York Times
Mexican authorities and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency rejected on Tuesday a CNN news story reporting that CIA operatives have directly participated in fatal attacks on cartel targets in Mexico over the last year. – Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Cuba is asking for help and “we are going to talk,” without providing any more information about U.S. plans. – Reuters
Cuba will announce new, variable fuel prices at the pump from May 15 to better reflect the “actual” costs of importing gas and diesel amid an ongoing U.S. fuel blockade, the Ministry of Finance and Prices said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis and his ruling Progressive Liberal Party were re-elected on Tuesday, making him the first leader to be elected to a second consecutive term in nearly 30 years. – Reuters
Residents of the Cite Soleil neighborhood in Haiti’s capital protested Tuesday, demanding government protection after gang violence forced hundreds of people to flee their homes over the weekend. – Associated Press
United States
The United States’ war in Iran has cost $29 billion so far, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday, an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided late last month. – Reuters
Greenland’s prime minister said on Tuesday that increasing the U.S. military presence in the Arctic territory was part of ongoing negotiations with Washington, as the United States’ desire to own or control the territory remains alive. – Reuters
President Donald Trump claims that America has increasingly profited from trade with China, largely playing down the tensions over rare earth minerals, tariffs and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence that could rupture relations between the world’s two largest economies. – Associated Press
Jill Goldenziel, Kathy Paradis, and Kathryn Bryk Friedman write: Russia and China have long engaged in lawfare against the United States and its allies and partners in the Arctic, and they will continue to do so. They are poised to exploit recent legal disagreements between the United States and NATO over Greenland. Therefore, now is the time for the United States and its allies and partners to advance national interests in the region by using every tool at their disposal, including an Arctic counter-lawfare strategy […] Maintaining freedom of navigation and legitimacy in the Arctic directly counters adversary objectives to control these strategic waterways and critical resources, protects U.S. trade, and pays lasting dividends for national security. Arctic border security will only be achieved if the United States defends the legal architecture that supports it. – War on the Rocks
Cybersecurity
The European Union could present new rules to tighten restrictions on minors’ use of social media platforms this summer, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said. – Wall Street Journal
When the Chinese start-up DeepSeek released its latest artificial intelligence model last month, it edged Beijing closer to a future that it has spent years trying to build. – New York Times
Meta Platforms on Tuesday lost its fight against an Italian regulatory order that it should compensate publishers for using snippets of their news articles after Europe’s top court sided with the Italian telecoms watchdog. – Reuters
Singapore must take action to attract leading AI firms and also build on its status as a major energy hub, a committee set up to chart new areas of growth and create jobs said in recommendations submitted to the government on Wednesday. – Reuters
U.S.-listed data centre company Equinix will create a new data centre in Kuala Lumpur with an investment of over $190 million, its fourth such facility in Malaysia, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. – Reuters
The head of the European Commission called on Tuesday for more protections for children against the “addictive designs” of social media platforms like TikTok, Meta and X, raising the possibility of an age limit on teens accessing them. – Reuters
Meta employees distributed flyers at multiple U.S. offices on Tuesday to protest the company’s recent installation of mouse-tracking software on their computers, according to photos of the pamphlets seen by Reuters. – Reuters
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang boarded Air Force One as a last-minute addition to President Donald Trump’s delegation Tuesday night for a highly anticipated summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. – Politico
The European Union is working to join a US-led initiative aimed at securing supply chains for artificial intelligence and semiconductors as competition with China intensifies. – Bloomberg
Microsoft addressed another triple-digit batch of vulnerabilities cutting across its various enterprise products, components and underlying systems. Yet despite the high number of defects, the vendor reported no actively exploited zero-days in this month’s Patch Tuesday update. – Cyberscoop
A large Pennsylvania pharmaceutical company said a ransomware attack has impacted critical systems used to ship, receive and manufacture products. – The Record
A rapidly spreading malware campaign has infected hundreds of software packages across major open-source registries, embedding credential-stealing code into development tools downloaded millions of times a week. – Cyberscoop
Michael Doran and Zineb Riboua write: A successful Negev base would serve as the prototype. Once proven, the model can be replicated with Britain, Japan, India and other trusted partners. In the contest to neutralize China’s espionage apparatus, Project Spire offers the foundation for enduring American primacy. By anchoring the first secure AI base in Israel, the Trump administration can accelerate breakthroughs and export an innovation model that allies can adopt. The path to victory begins with a strategic sojourn in the desert. – Wall Street Journal
Lionel Laurent writes: It may not be as flashy as Silicon Valley’s chatbots and AI agents but Europe’s chip industry has plenty of companies, from Infineon Technologies AG to STMicroelectronics NV, which might benefit from more reshoring, more investment and more cross-border mergers. Not so long ago, Germany was happy enough to see its robotics companies sold to Chinese buyers. Partnering up with a fellow “middle power” in Canada is less short-sighted than that, and avoids the Trump-serving tech bros of the US. Who knows, one day Berlin might even be ready to consider doing business with its neighbors in France. – Bloomberg
Dave Dewalt, Katie Gray, Mark Hatfield, Yoav Leitersdorf and Amir Zilberstein write: The defining characteristic of the current market is speed. The gap between companies that can adapt to these changes and those that cannot is widening quickly. For founders, that means balancing urgency with discipline – building AI-native products while staying focused on real customer problems. For investors, it means identifying teams that can execute in a rapidly changing environment and build companies that endure beyond the current cycle. – Cyberscoop
Defense
President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile-defense shield will cost as much as $1.2 trillion to deploy and operate, six times above current forecasts, according to a new estimate — and would still likely fail to stop an all-out attack. – Bloomberg
The defense sector has donated nearly $5 million to members of Congress via political action committees and individual donations so far this year, according to a new report by NOTUS. – Defense News
Six F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots from Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, received the Distinguished Flying Cross on May 5 for flying into heavily defended Iranian airspace during Operation Midnight Hammer, the June 2025 strikes that targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities.- Military.com
An audible click preceded the plumes of exhaust that the two Japanese anti-ship missiles left in their wake. The Type 88 missiles unfolded their wings and cruised toward the ship at a steady subsonic speed, finding their mark six minutes after launch. – USNI News
Editorial: The Pentagon wants to triple spending on drones to more than $74 billion. This would help bolster a drone manufacturing base while also investing in counter-drone systems. Ukraine offers lessons in innovation that the U.S. can learn from, not least the need to constantly iterate drone design and produce at scale. This spending will be wasted if Congress doesn’t encourage competition between the services while encouraging flexibility in procurement. Military dominance isn’t guaranteed without proper funding. From pummeling the Iranian military to the extraction of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, America continues to display military prowess across multiple theaters. Yet insufficient defense spending is also starting to take a toll. – Washington Post
Editorial: Weapons supplies to Taiwan have been slow, and the resulting backlog of deliveries is worth $21 billion even by conservative estimates. That’s ominous. We should not let the island nation’s defenses fall short of what is necessary to deter Chinese aggression. The Trump-Xi summit is an opportunity for the U.S. to deter China from starting a war, but it is also a reminder that American power is inseparable from American industry. Until the U.S. fixes its defense industrial base, the risk of war in the Pacific remains great. – Washington Examiner
Seth G. Jones writes: It should also exercise general direction over U.S. defense procurement and production; help determine the policies, plans, and procedures of federal departments regarding procurement and production; and establish priorities in the distribution of materials and services. The organization should include individuals with production experience from the private sector—people who have the understanding and experience to manufacture and produce hardware and software. The Iran war has once again highlighted deficiencies in the U.S. defense industrial base. If the United States does not move quickly this time, it may have to learn this lesson—the hard way—against China in the Indo-Pacific. – Center for Strategic and International Studies