Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
IDF says strike in southern Gaza killed Hamas operative who invaded Israel on Oct. 7 Gaza flotilla leader linked to Hamas sanctioned by US Treasury AEI’s Daniel J. Samet: The pro-Israel case against military aid U.S. seized Iran-linked oil tanker in the Indian Ocean Mediators see little progress in U.S.-Iran talks US sanctions 50 Tehran-linked entities in Iran, UAE and China WINEP’s Zohar Palti: Shifting from diplomatic urgency to strategic patience on Iran Exclusive: Russians covertly trained by China return to fight in Ukraine, sources say UAE says drone that hit near its nuclear plant was launched from Iraq Middle East Forum’s Amine Ayoub: Turkey’s strategy for long-term dominance in the Middle East China's Xi, Russia's Putin praise ties but see no energy headway at Beijing talks Top NATO official says 5,000 US troops to leave EuropeIn The News
Israel
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s hard-line finance minister, said on Tuesday that he had ordered the eviction of Palestinian residents of a West Bank hamlet after learning that the International Criminal Court prosecutor had requested a warrant for his arrest. – New York Times
Israeli forces opened fire on at least two vessels in an aid flotilla sailing towards Gaza on Tuesday, according to video footage and flotilla organisers, but Israel said no live ammunition was used and there were no casualties. – Reuters
The gap between funding pledges and disbursement for Donald Trump’s Gaza rebuilding plan must be closed urgently, the U.S. president’s “Board of Peace” has said in a report, identifying a potential cash crunch in a plan estimated to cost $70 billion. – Reuters
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday he was told the International Criminal Court prosecutor had sought a confidential arrest warrant against him, adding he would retaliate by waging a “war” on the Palestinian Authority. – Reuters
Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, will set up an embassy in Jerusalem soon, its ambassador said on Tuesday, after Israel became the first country to formally recognise the self-declared republic. – Reuters
A preliminary vote on Wednesday is planned to dissolve the Knesset, which would trigger early elections if ultimately passed into law, after the coalition failed to pass legislation codifying military conscription exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students. – Times of Israel
The military announced Tuesday that the Israeli Air Force struck and killed a Hamas operative a day earlier, after he crossed the so-called Yellow Line into IDF-controlled territory in southern Gaza and approached troops “in a manner that posed an immediate threat.” – Times of Israel
As US negotiations with Iran make little headway, Israel’s leaders are expecting and preparing to rejoin potential fresh US strikes on the Islamic Republic, Channel 12 reported Tuesday, as US President Donald Trump indicated his patience was running out. – Times of Israel
An IDF officer was killed in combat with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Tuesday morning, the military announced, as limited fighting continued with the Iran-backed terror group despite a newly extended ceasefire. – Times of Israel
A Gaza flotilla leader tied to an alleged Hamas front group, as well as leaders of a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-linked network, were sanctioned by the Department of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Daniel J. Samet writes: Unlike other American security partners, Israel can get by without a check from Uncle Sam. The Jewish state now has a higher per capita gross domestic product than Germany or Qatar. Assistance from Washington accounts for about 8% of Israel’s approximately $45 billion defense budget, a smaller share than before. Military aid to Israel, which Washington began supplying in significant amounts during the 1960s, has been a sound investment. The U.S. has financed a reliable ally that fights and wins wars against America’s enemies. Yet Israel no longer commands the affection of the American people as widely as it once did. Ending military assistance is a political imperative in changing times. – Wall Street Journal
Jose Lev Alvarez writes: Hamas still possesses scattered cells, surviving operatives, and political figures. What it no longer possesses is a unified military structure capable of directing sustained, organized warfare from inside Gaza. For the U.S., Abu Suhaib’s removal reduces the danger to U.S. personnel involved in ceasefire oversight, weakens a key opponent of regional stabilization, and further dismantles the military apparatus responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre, systematic aid theft, and repeated ceasefire violations. Hamas has not disappeared. But it has been decapitated. – Washington Examiner
Eric R. Mandel writes: Any future governance arrangement in Gaza must proceed from a sober assumption: Hamas will continue operating behind the scenes through intimidation, infiltration, and coercion. Ignoring that reality would constitute diplomatic and security negligence. Progress in Gaza, if it comes, will likely be incremental, measured in years, perhaps decades. Islamist radicalization was not created overnight; it developed over generations through political indoctrination, religious extremism, and educational systems that normalized violence. Long-term stability will require not only security enforcement but profound educational and institutional reform. – Jerusalem Post
Tzachi Hanegbi writes: In the first stage, intensified strikes against Hamas will likely be carried out from the air. Later, as IDF resources are shifted away from the Iran and Lebanon fronts, ground operations may also become possible. Of course, the way the confrontation with Iran ends will also affect Hamas’ ability to withstand pressure, though question marks remain over the steps the U.S. president will take. Still, the experience accumulated over long years of fighting requires avoiding overestimating the significance of eliminating Haddad. Over decades in which its senior figures were targeted, Hamas has proven its resilience. Preselected successors immediately stepped into the shoes of commanders and leaders who were eliminated, and the same happened during the Swords of Iron war. The conclusion is not to avoid eliminating mass murderers and their operatives, but to internalize that this action alone does not guarantee victory in the campaign. – Ynet
Iran
The U.S. seized an Iran-linked oil tanker in the Indian Ocean overnight, according to three U.S. officials, as President Trump threatens to resume military strikes on Iran. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump is confronting a challenge with Iran’s nuclear program that is partly of his own making: a mountain of highly enriched uranium that Tehran has refused to hand over despite two months of war. – Wall Street Journal
Iran’s position in talks with the U.S. to end the war hasn’t changed much from earlier iterations that failed to yield progress toward a deal, regional mediators and U.S. officials familiar with the terms said, raising questions about whether an offramp to the conflict can be found. – Wall Street Journal
Two Chinese tankers laden with oil exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, shipping data showed, brightening hopes that the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran may soon be resolved after positive comments from the U.S. president and his deputy. – Reuters
A U.S. military investigation into a strike at a girls’ school in Iran has been “complex” given that it was located on an active Iranian cruise missile base but the probe is approaching its conclusion, a U.S. military commander said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Two supertankers exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday while another is making its way out, after waiting in the Gulf for more than two months with 6 million barrels of Middle East crude oil onboard, shipping data on LSEG and Kpler showed. – Reuters
NATO is not drawing up any plans for a potential mission in the Strait of Hormuz and would need a political decision to do so, its top commander said on Tuesday, amid suggestions by some members that the alliance could play a role there. – Reuters
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday the United States and Iran have made a lot of progress in their talks and neither side wants to see a resumption of the military campaign. – Reuters
The US sanctioned over 50 entities, including oil and gas tankers as well as an Iranian foreign currency exchange, in its continued bid to get the Islamic Republic to agree to a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump threatened to resume strikes on Iran in the coming days as part of the push for a deal to end the war, after he said he had just called off a US attack. – Bloomberg
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent exhorted US allies to join the US in “aggressively” enforcing sanctions on Iran and other malicious actors and said there was “no room for excuses” for those who wish to crack down on terror financing. – Bloomberg
Europol, the official law enforcement agency of the European Union, announced on Monday that it had disrupted 14,200 online posts linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. – Jerusalem Post
The family of a British couple held in Iran after being accused of spying say the pair have gone on hunger strike to press for their release. – BBC
Iranian authorities held mass public weddings in Tehran for couples who signed up to a state-sponsored scheme declaring their readiness to sacrifice their lives in the war against the US and Israel. – Agence France-Presse
Iran’s parliament is reportedly preparing to debate legislation that would place a €50 million bounty on President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to statements from senior Iranian officials carried by state media. – Arutz Sheva
A newly disclosed American intelligence assessment has revealed that U.S. forces have identified at least 10 sophisticated naval mines lurking beneath the surface of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. – Arutz Sheva
US national security officials disclosed to The New York Times on Tuesday that a joint operation by Israel and the United States aimed to install former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the leader of a new government in Tehran. – Arutz Sheva
Heyrsh Abdulrahman writes: The Iranian regime understands this danger better than anyone. That is why it fears students, women protesting in the streets, journalists, and ordinary citizens demanding dignity more than it fears speeches from foreign leaders. A free Iran would fundamentally reshape the Middle East. It would weaken extremist networks, reduce regional instability, lower the risk of nuclear confrontation, and open the door to a far more stable future for millions across the region. The coming months may determine whether Tehran successfully tightens its grip once again or whether the pressure now building inside Iran finally becomes too great to contain. One thing is becoming increasingly clear: this may be the beginning of the end for Tehran. – Washington Examiner
Zohar Palti writes: Washington’s primary advantage in this confrontation is not just military superiority—it also lies in America’s structural economic power, global financial influence, alliance architecture, and capacity to sustain pressure over time without exhausting itself. These are the instruments of a superpower, and employing them in tandem presents a credible path to strategic success without requiring immediate military escalation. Conversely, a near-term decision to resume major military attacks inside Iran would likely fail to achieve its objectives given the regime’s current strategic conditions and mindset. For instance, some have proposed a limited strike against a significant Iranian energy target, but that is unlikely to change Tehran’s posture; if anything, it may spur further attacks on major Gulf energy targets. And a comprehensive strike against Iran’s broader energy and electrical infrastructure might produce dramatic effects, but it would also inflict severe damage on the population and further complicate the postwar environment. – Washington Institute
Russia and Ukraine
Russia is concerned by U.S. and European Union efforts to secure access to rare earths and critical minerals in Central Asia, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told Izvestia newspaper. – Reuters
China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. – Reuters
Ukraine blamed Russia on Tuesday for steering one of its drones into Estonian airspace where a NATO jet shot it down, the latest cross-border drone incident that has caused a political uproar in the Baltic states. – Reuters
Two people were killed and 19 injured in Russia attacks on Ukraine overnight, local officials said on Wednesday, while Ukraine sent drones to strike industrial areas in central Russia. – Reuters
Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukrainian northern Chernihiv and Sumy regions killed four people and injured several more, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Kyiv has said that the US is seeking the transfer of technology and access to intellectual property rights from Ukraine as part of a drone deal that is awaiting approval at the highest political level, a person familiar with the matter said. – Bloomberg
Ukraine has been fitting long-range attack drones with cheap unguided rockets, using them in the Russian rear to bombard strategic assets and suppress air defenses. – Business Insider
Ukrainian weapons makers say they have a selling point many defense firms farther from the battlefield can’t match: Their weapons are being tested, adapted, and used in modern combat every day. – Business Insider
Ukrainian troops are finding advanced antennas with stronger anti-jamming features on Russian decoy drones, a sign that the Kremlin is overcoming a shortage of the key component. – Business Insider
Margaryta Khostova and Amelia Hadfield write: The war is no longer defined by rapid offensives or decisive battles. It has become a contest of systems, of economic resilience, technological adaptation, and political endurance. Russia continues to escalate, but without achieving a breakthrough. Ukraine, by contrast, is learning to endure, and, increasingly, to shape the terms of that endurance. In such a war, victory is unlikely to come suddenly. It will emerge gradually, through the accumulation of small advantages and sustained pressure. For Ukraine, the task is clear: to keep fighting, to keep adapting, and above all, to keep winning one day more. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Joseph Epstein writes: Pashinyan is not a perfect leader. Yet for all his various faults, he is attempting to take Armenia out from under Moscow’s thumb. He deserves America’s support, and the diaspora organizations running interference for the Kremlin must be treated as exactly that. The West’s mistake on Ukraine was not ignorance, but disbelief. For years, Moscow shouted what it thought of Kyiv’s drift westward, and Western capitals minimized the rhetoric. Armenia now sits at the edge of the same pattern. The language is intimately familiar to anyone who listens, and the pressure campaign is already underway. The date is June 7. Washington has time to lock in the gains of the peace deal and anchor the South Caucasus in a Western orbit—but only if it understands that when the Kremlin repeats itself, it means it. – The National Interest
Middle East & North Africa
Thirty-five years ago, the oil fields of this desert sheikhdom the size of New Jersey went up in flames when Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invaded and drew the U.S. into the first Gulf War. – Wall Street Journal
The Middle East remained in tense limbo on Tuesday, a day after President Trump said he had postponed a major U.S. attack on Iran to give more time for diplomacy. – New York Times
A proposed U.S. pact with Saudi Arabia on its development of nuclear power lacks the strictest guardrails that Democratic lawmakers had urged, according to a U.S. State Department letter sent to one of the senators. – Reuters
The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday that six drones had been launched against it from Iraq in the past 48 hours, including one that caused a fire at a nuclear power plant in the Gulf state on Sunday. – Reuters
A 47-year-old suspect accused of overseeing one of the most notorious prisons in Libya was known as a ruthless torturer nicknamed “the angel of death” by detainees, prosecutors told judges at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday. – Reuters
One Syrian soldier was killed and at least 18 people were wounded by a car bomb that exploded on Tuesday outside a Defence Ministry building in Damascus, authorities said. – Reuters
A high-level people smuggler identified in a BBC investigation has been arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan. He was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking offences by officers of the Kurdistan Regional Security Agency and remains in custody as investigations continue. – BBC
Amine Ayoub writes: Turkey’s encirclement presents a problem that kinetic instruments cannot solve. Ankara is a NATO member, a G20 economy, and a candidate state for EU accession. Its construction conglomerates operate under commercial law. Its Brotherhood affiliates present as civil society organizations. Its drone ports are dual-use by design. Washington should work with Brussels to condition the lifting of Syrian sanctions on transparency requirements that prevent Turkish firms from monopolizing reconstruction contracts. Financial intelligence should be deployed to expose the documented overlap between AKP-linked business networks and Iranian sanctions evasion pipelines. – Jerusalem Post
Alissa Pavia and Kit Wheeldon write: Turkey’s shift towards pragmatism shows Ankara is capable of going beyond simple ideological alliances to embrace former rivals in pursuit of its own interests—a feat other regional powers like Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE routinely fail to achieve. After a decade of backing Islamists across the region, Turkey’s alliances today are not so dependent on an actor’s ideology. Previous rivals across the region, even those with deep historical grievances, such as Khalifa Haftar, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, are getting a second look. But Libya, in particular, shows Turkey’s newfound willingness to recalibrate pragmatism with ideology, creatively break down diplomatic barriers, and achieve foreign policy objectives. The successor state of the once-great Ottoman Empire is again on a trajectory of becoming a major regional power with meaningful, not marginal, leverage. – The National Interest
Korean Peninsula
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Wednesday said Israel had arrested South Korean nationals in international waters, calling the action “way out of line”. – Reuters
South Korea and Japan agreed on Tuesday to expand cooperation on LNG and crude oil supply, including on stockpiling and petroleum product swap arrangements, their leaders said. – Reuters
Management and union leaders at Samsung Electronics failed to reach a last-minute deal over wages Wednesday, raising prospects for a strike at the South Korean electronics giant that could rattle global semiconductor supplies and the country’s trade-dependent economy. – Associated Press
China
China agreed to purchase 200 Boeing jets and resume imports of some U.S. beef products, marking one of the clearest signs yet of easing trade tensions following last week’s summit between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. – Wall Street Journal
China and Russia’s leaders lauded on Wednesday the progress in their strategic ties, as they met in Beijing for talks where Moscow is expected to try to push forward a gas supply agreement that has been under negotiation for more than a decade. – Reuters
Russia is considering the possibility of joint projects with the United States and China, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, was quoted as saying by state media on Wednesday. – Reuters
US President Donald Trump denied reports that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, offered a bleak assessment of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including claiming that Vladimir Putin would regret invading his neighbor. – Bloomberg
Joseph Bosco writes: If they have already made their deal, Xi’s strong statements before and during their summit may have been intended for a larger audience — specifically the bipartisan U.S. Congress and the American public, which have been appalled by Beijing’s treatment of Tibet, East Turkestan (Xijiang) and Hong Kong. Moral considerations aside, Taiwan’s pivotal geostrategic position in the Indo-Pacific’s first island chain, and its unique role as the world’s preeminent supplier of high-end computer chips, make its security indispensable to European economies. Given Trump’s well-established unpredictability and growing unreliability as a security ally, Asian and European democracies need to begin urgent consultations and cooperation to fill as much of the security gap left by the Trump administration as possible. – The Hill
Christopher Walker writes: When they meet, Xi and Putin no doubt will take up ways to further their strategy of cleaving apart democratic allies. The Trump administration should recognize that it is squarely in the US national security interest to strengthen relationships with natural allies in the face of intensifying competition with the now mature China-Russia partnership. This includes setting aside the notion of accomplishing a “reverse Kissinger”. If anything, the inverse has occurred: a weakened Russia has cast its lot with China, along with Iran and other authoritarian regimes, against the United States and its natural allies. Absent a concerted approach from the democracies, the autocrats will forge ahead with their ambition to establish a different world order. – Center for European Policy Analysis
South Asia
Italy and India will seek to reinforce diplomatic and trade ties during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Rome by elevating their relationship to that of a special strategic partnership, an Italian government official said on Tuesday. – Reuters
A court in Pakistan has sentenced a man to death over the murder of a teen social media influencer that sparked uproar across the country. – BBC
Pakistan’s Senate has asked the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) to provide details about any officials allegedly linked to a cocaine-trafficking case after Karachi police arrested a woman accused of running a drug distribution network, according to police and Senate committee statements. – Jerusalem Post
Asia
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Wednesday that if he got the opportunity to speak to U.S. President Donald Trump he would say China was undermining peace and causing tensions in the region and that nobody has the right to “annex” the island. – Reuters
Maldivian authorities are investigating multiple possible factors behind the deaths of five Italian divers in a deepwater cave last week, including whether they descended far deeper than expected, a government spokesperson told Reuters. – Reuters
Thailand’s cabinet has approved new borrowing of 200 billion baht ($6.13 billion) to support a consumer subsidy scheme, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said on Tuesday, part of the government’s efforts to alleviate the impact of the Middle East war on the cost of living. – Reuters
The Philippine Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a petition by a senator to stop his arrest after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant over his alleged crimes against humanity. – Bloomberg
The United Nations’ atomic watchdog will assess Singapore’s ability to make an “informed decision” on the potential deployment of advanced nuclear energy technologies in the future, a government agency said Tuesday. – Bloomberg
UK citizens are among dozens of nationalities who will soon have to apply for a visa if they wish to stay in Thailand for more than 30 days. Tourists from 93 countries have been able to visit without needing a visa for 60 days since July 2024, as part of a government effort to boost the economy following the Covid pandemic. – BBC
Sheree Trotter writes: Anti-Zionism is not about criticism of Israel, its leaders, or its policies, all of which can be entirely legitimate and in which Israelis themselves vigorously engage. Anti-Zionism is an ideology that rejects the legitimacy of Jewish sovereignty altogether and assigns collective blame to Jews in relation to the existence of a Jewish state. In practice, anti-Zionism frequently functions not merely as opposition to Israeli policy, but as a moral framework through which hostility toward Jewish collective identity is expressed and legitimized. These ideas did not arise spontaneously on social media after October 7. – Jerusalem Post
Europe
Sweden has selected French-state controlled Naval Group to build four new navy frigates in a $4 billion deal, as the country seeks to bolster its defense capabilities and take on a larger share of NATO security commitments. – Wall Street Journal
Top economic policymakers from the Group of 7 nations agreed on Tuesday to work together to mitigate the impact of the war with Iran on global energy and food prices, even as fault lines emerged among them over how to ensure that Russia does not benefit from the conflict. – New York Times
The U.S. will pull more troops from Europe but the process will stretch over years to give allies time to develop capabilities to replace them, NATO’s top commander said on Tuesday. – Reuters
A British police force said on Tuesday it was investigating two allegations of child sex abuse following information that appeared in documents released by the U.S. Justice Department relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. – Reuters
A former Polish deputy government minister wanted on charges of misusing public funds may have left Hungary via Serbia, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said in an interview with private broadcaster TVN24 shown late on Tuesday. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump will attend the G7 leaders’ meeting in France in June, a White House official said on Tuesday. – Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Sweden for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers this week where he will discuss the need for “greater burden sharing” by the alliance, and then visit India, the State Department said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday told reporters a U.S. troop deployment to Poland had been delayed, but added it was not accurate to say the troops were being withdrawn from Europe. – Reuters
Deputies from Slovenia’s right-leaning Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) on Tuesday submitted their leader Janez Janša’s candidacy for prime minister after he managed to secure a potential ruling coalition. – Reuters
The US will pull 5,000 troops from Europe with more likely to follow in the long term, NATO’s top military commander said Tuesday, confirming an earlier announcement by President Donald Trump. – Bloomberg
Former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been named as suspect in an influence peddling case, leading the police to search his office. – Bloomberg
The Irish president is on the second day of her three-day official visit to London and Leeds. Connolly’s trip began on Monday with a visit to the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, London, where she said some Irish people were leaving Ireland because of a lack of housing. – BBC
Top European finance ministers privately pleaded with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to end his country’s war in the Middle East to prevent the conflict from dragging the continent deeper into economic calamity. – Politico
Alessandro Bertoldi writes: It is paradoxical that Italy’s leading trade union supports a political and ideological boycott of a company that employs hundreds in our country. Municipalities such as Rome, Monza, Pesaro, Florence, and Trento – all governed by the left – have joined the campaign, urging pharmacies to replace Teva products. This decision is not only unsound from an economic perspective but also risks the lives of patients who depend on these medicines. – Jerusalem Post
Stephen Cimbala writes: A more forward-leaning French military doctrine is not a walkabout from France’s commitment to European security. Nor is it a replacement for the US nuclear deterrent. Macron understands that in the realm of reality, not rhetoric, the United States cannot entirely separate itself from NATO—nor can NATO divorce itself from the United States. NATO, without the United States, invites nuclear coercion of Europe. The United States, without NATO, substitutes credible deterrence for political isolation and military autarky. The American and European pillars of NATO are, as the French might say, “condemned to succeed” together. – The National Interest
Africa
Health officials are rushing to contain a deadly Ebola outbreak in what is already one of the most dangerous corners of the world. In the two days since the World Health Organization declared the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to be a global emergency, confirmed cases have passed 500, with at least 131 deaths, one of the largest recorded Ebola epidemics in the region, according to Congo’s health ministry. – Wall Street Journal
A joint operation by the United States and Nigeria against Islamic State group fighters has killed 175 over the past few days, Nigeria’s military said Tuesday, while the head of the U.S. Africa Command said it showed the capabilities its forces could bring in Africa, home to the “epicenter of global terrorism.” – Associated Press
French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres on Tuesday accused South Sudan’s government of blocking humanitarian access to opposition-controlled areas and said all parties involved in an ongoing conflict in the impoverished country were exploiting aid for political and military ends. – Reuters
Rwanda’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Mozambique had secured the funds for Rwanda’s army to continue its deployment in the insurgency-hit and gas-rich Cabo Delgado province. – Reuters
Nigerian forces, working with the United States, have killed 175 Islamic State militants in a series of joint air and ground strikes in the country’s northeast in recent days, the Defence Headquarters said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Rwanda signed agreements on civil nuclear cooperation with the United States and U.S. company Holtec International on Tuesday, as it assesses the potential for deploying small nuclear reactors to boost its power supply and support economic growth. – Reuters
Nigeria’s anti-graft agency has arrested former power minister Saleh Mamman, days after a court sentenced him in absentia to 75 years in prison for laundering 33.8 billion naira ($24.65 million), its chairman said on Tuesday. – Reuters
A drone strike on a bustling market in central Sudan on Tuesday killed 28 people and wounded dozens more, a local rights group said, part of the war that has devastated the country since 2023. – Associated Press
The Americas
The U.S. is pursuing a second criminal investigation into ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, raising the possibility that he could face additional charges, according to a Justice Department official and another source familiar with the matter. – Reuters
Mexican authorities rejected a large water park planned by cruise company Royal Caribbean on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, Environment Minister Alicia Barcena said on Tuesday, following backlash from residents and environmental groups over the development’s ecological impact. – Reuters
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on Tuesday he spoke with Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz and was very concerned about escalating unrest in the South American country, where nationwide protests over austerity measures have sparked instability. – Reuters
Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast on Tuesday replaced the people who held two key roles in his government, naming Martin Arrau as security minister and Claudio Alvarado as spokesperson. – Reuters
Venezuela’s government plans to release from custody this week 300 people, some of whom have been detained for years for political reasons. – Associated Press
The Pentagon watchdog will evaluate whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out attacks on dozens of alleged drug-smuggling boats that have killed nearly 200 people in Latin American waters since early September. – Associated Press
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reclaimed his lead in Brazil’s presidential race as Senator Flavio Bolsonaro lost support amid revelations about his ties to a central figure in the country’s biggest banking fraud scandal, according to a new poll. – Bloomberg
North America
Cubans contending with widespread blackouts and growing desperation increasingly hope that a U.S. pressure campaign will lead to change on the island, even as the communist government projects defiance. – Wall Street Journal
Agnico Eagle has given the go ahead to a big gold project in Canada’s Arctic, tapping into elevated prices for the precious metal and the government’s ambitions to develop a region with increasing strategic importance. – Wall Street Journal
David Mora writes: Real success will depend less on the number of troops deployed, drugs seized, suspects captured, or kingpins taken down than on the Mexican government’s ability to uncover and dismantle the political and economic arrangements involving corrupt officials and white-collar operators that have allowed criminal groups to grow in power for decades. Those tasks will require the intelligence and prosecutorial capacities that Sheinbaum and García Harfuch are investing in, as well as political will. If Sheinbaum can marshal both while navigating internal political constraints and Trump’s hawkish interventionism, her administration could mark a turning point in the fight against organized crime in Mexico. She could be the president who not only takes the fight to criminal groups but also confronts the networks that sustain them. – Foreign Affairs
United States
President Trump’s handpicked House candidate defeated longtime GOP antagonist Rep. Thomas Massie, underscoring the president’s iron grip on the Republican Party and the dire political consequences for lawmakers who defy him headed into the midterm elections. – Wall Street Journal
Moments before President Trump postponed strikes on Tehran’s energy infrastructure in a morning social-media post on March 23, a spasm of trades hit the market during off-hours. More than $800 million worth of U.S. and international oil futures changed hands in a matter of minutes, according to LSEG data. – Wall Street Journal
The Senate on Tuesday agreed to take up a measure that would force President Trump to end the war in Iran or win authorization from Congress to continue it, after a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in pushing forward with a resolution the G.O.P. has managed to block for months. – New York Times
Editorial: The Obama Administration made plenty of outrageous settlements, including telling big banks to donate to outfits such as La Raza, a tactic that Republicans at the time rightly decried. Mr. Trump’s settlement fund is an astounding precedent, and if it proceeds it is sure to become a highlight reel of Trump Administration payments to Mr. Trump’s friends and allies. Imagine the fun Democrats will have documenting it all between now and 2028 as the worst kind of Washington political payoff. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rallied in Kentucky on Monday with Massie’s challenger — a completely inappropriate action for the leader of the Pentagon. “When President Trump needs backup, Massie wants to debate process,” Hegseth said. Massie often retorted on the stump that “a congressman, unlike a soldier, does not work for the commander in chief.” Unfortunately for Massie, too many GOP primary voters disagreed. Trump’s win in Kentucky follows Sen. Bill Cassidy’s ouster in Louisiana, where Republican voters punished him for his vote to convict Trump after his impeachment following Jan. 6, 2021. Two weeks ago, six Indiana GOP state senators lost primaries to Trump-backed challengers for voting against mid-decade redistricting. – Washington Post
Tom Tugendhat writes: The cure to what ails the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations’s militaries isn’t another exquisite platform. It’s an industrial base that can take an idea and turn it into a million in a year. That means pivoting civilian production lines to defense and giving contracts to the manufacturer that can deliver 100,000 drones a month, not the one that delivers a dozen platforms in a decade. The goal is no longer the perfect weapon. You build the best you can. Then build it again, 90% as good, at 80% of the cost, in 50% of the time. Then do it again and again, a thousand times more. That not only fills the armory; it creates a system to keep it full. In the Iran war, we’re equipping like the French at Agincourt when what we need is an army of archers. – Wall Street Journal
Cybersecurity
Singapore’s banks and financial firms should use artificial intelligence to create better jobs and train workers for higher-value roles, not just cut costs, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Wednesday. – Reuters
OpenAI will open its first applied AI lab outside of the U.S. in Singapore, the city-state’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information said on Wednesday. – Reuters
The United States has charged three senior employees of Telekom Malaysia (TM) for allegedly misappropriating over $20 million from the Malaysian state telecommunications firm, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday. – Reuters
US-based startup Fundamental, led by Israeli entrepreneur Gabriel Suissa, is expanding its footprint in Israel with the opening of a new engineering hub in Tel Aviv.- Times of Israel
An attack exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Huawei enterprise router software caused a nationwide telecoms outage in Luxembourg last year, according to multiple sources briefed on the matter, disrupting mobile, landline and emergency communications for more than three hours. – The Record
Microsoft said it took down a critical service that helped cybercriminals slip through defenses by making malware look like legitimate software. – The Record
Defense
Rocket maker Exquadrum isn’t particularly old in the business of defense contracting. But the 24-year-old company has still been around a year longer than Ethan Thornton, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dropout who is taking it over in an acquisition by his drone startup, Mach Industries. – Wall Street Journal
The Pentagon’s counter-drone task force announced a $500 million contract award Monday to Perennial Autonomy, a defense company known for developing an interceptor that has downed thousands of Russian one-way attack drones over the last two years in Ukraine. – DefenseScoop
Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo has officially been named as director of the Space Development Agency and the new portfolio acquisition executive for Space Force’s missile warning and tracking programs, the agency announced Tuesday. – DefenseScoop
Navy leadership’s recent decision to make the future Trump-class battleship nuclear-powered introduced a new twist in the saga of one of the service’s most controversial programs. – DefenseScoop
Will Thibeau writes: The Department of War still buys exquisite platforms at exquisite cost, and that is necessary, but it does not buy attritable mass at scale, does not buy the gun-based and directed-energy systems that engage Shaheds at hundreds of dollars per shot rather than millions, and does not buy interceptor drones at the $2,000 to $5,000 price point that Ukrainian manufacturers have demonstrated. The NSS calls for a national mobilization to close this gap, though it remains to be seen whether that call survives contact with the defense-industrial status quo, and the American posture in the Indo-Pacific, where the relevant adversary fields the world’s largest navy and the world’s deepest missile inventory, depends on the answer. – Fox News