Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Kushner in Israel as trapped Hamas fighters issue bedevils Gaza truce progress Yemen’s Houthi rebels signal that they’ve stopped attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping Middle East Forum’s Amine Ayoub: Why Israel must veto foreign forces in Gaza IAEA inspectors visited Iranian nuclear sites last week, foreign ministry says Iran seeks 'peaceful nuclear deal' with US, official says Kremlin says active preparations underway for Putin visit to India Syria joins coalition against Islamic State as nation’s leader visits Trump Syria foiled Islamic State plots on President Sharaa's life, sources say As Iraqis vote for a parliament, U.S. presses to rid country of Iran's influence China hatches plan to keep U.S. military from getting its rare-earth magnets Thailand halts ceasefire deal with Cambodia previously heralded by Trump Senate passes measure to end government shutdownIn The News
Israel
U.S. mediators met Israel’s prime minister on Monday with attention turning to the second, far more complex, phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and the immediate problem of a standoff over a group of Hamas fighters still holed up in tunnels. – Reuters
The United Arab Emirates does not yet see a clear framework for the proposed international stability force in Gaza and, under the current circumstances, will not take part, a senior Emirati official said on Monday. – Reuters
Released Israeli hostage Bar Kupershtein says he managed to survive two years in a cramped Hamas tunnel in Gaza with no sunlight, little food and regular beatings, by clinging to his belief that he was in God’s hands the entire time. – Reuters
Yemen’s Houthi rebels signaling they’ve stopped their attacks against Israel and shipping in the Red Sea as a shaky ceasefire holds in the Gaza Strip. – Associated Press
An Israeli startup developing lab-grown milk raised $20 million from a fund in the United Arab Emirates, marking a rare investment from the Persian Gulf into Israel since the start of its war with Hamas. – Bloomberg
Israel’s military chief called on Monday for a “systemic investigation” into the failures that led to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, as the government dragged its feet on establishing a state commission of inquiry on the matter. – Agence France-Presse
A revised draft of the UN Security Council resolution outlining the “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” is set to be circulated by the US for the review on the UN security council members. – Jerusalem Post
Israel should seek to overthrow the Iranian regime before the end of US President Donald Trump’s administration, a senior official told Israeli public broadcaster KAN News on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
The Knesset plenum advanced the death penalty for terrorists bill in its first reading on Monday evening. – Jerusalem Post
The prosecution filed a motion on Monday seeking the permanent confiscation of 50 foreign-flagged vessels that attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF killed two Palestinian terrorists, who were spotted crossing Gaza’s Yellow Line and approaching Israeli soldiers, the military said on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
Israel’s new embassy in Estonia will officially open on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry confirmed. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will inaugurate Israel’s new diplomatic home in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital. – Jerusalem Post
Israel Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested a Tel Aviv resident on suspicion of contacting an Iranian handler and spying on behalf of Tehran, a joint statement confirmed on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
Likud MK Ariel Kallner’s proposal to turn the so-called Al Jazeera Law — which permits the closure of foreign media outlets in Israel under certain conditions — into permanent legislation passed its first reading in the Knesset on Monday, with 50 lawmakers voting in favor and 41 against. – Times of Israel
As officials from around the world gathering in Brazil for the United Nations COP30 climate conference, only three mid-level officials will be on hand to represent Israel, a tiny fraction of the sizable delegations dispatched to previous editions of the annual confab. – Times of Israel
Amine Ayoub writes: If the U.N. or any external actor seeks to help Gaza recover, they must do so on terms that respect Israel’s fundamental right to defend itself. That requires clear, enforceable safeguards, contributors acceptable to Israel, and a command structure that eliminates intelligence gaps rather than creating them. Anything less risks substituting international illusions for real security-and that would be neither peace nor justice for Israel. – Arutz Sheva
Neomi Neumann writes: Hamas will not disarm voluntarily and will likely manipulate this issue, including through the use of “rogues” and the concealment and repurchase of weapons. Therefore, policy must be designed to constrain its room to maneuver and undermine its ability to maintain military dominance in Gaza. […] At the same time, Turkey and Qatar must continue to apply pressure on Hamas to show flexibility, while Egypt must act through its own mechanisms—mediation and the imposition of clear conditions to contain and limit Hamas’s influence. – Washington Institute
Iran
Inspectors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog IAEA visited Iranian nuclear sites last week, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, according to state media, a week after the IAEA urged Iran to “seriously improve” cooperation. – Reuters
Iran wants to reach a “peaceful” nuclear agreement with the United States to resolve a decades-long dispute, but will not compromise its national security, the deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said on Tuesday. – Reuters
More than 20 Olympic medallists, coaches and other international athletes, including the tennis player Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies, have signed a letter calling for a halt to the execution of a boxing champion and coach, who is on death row in Iran. – The Guardian
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed Israeli allegations that Tehran attempted to assassinate the Israeli ambassador to Mexico, calling the claim “ridiculous.” – Jerusalem Post
Israel should seek to overthrow the Iranian regime before the end of US President Donald Trump’s administration, a senior official told Israeli public broadcaster KAN News on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
Russia and Ukraine
The main anti-corruption agencies in Ukraine announced on Monday that they had uncovered a major corruption scheme in which contractors of the state-owned nuclear energy company had been forced to pay hefty kickbacks. – New York Times
The Kremlin said on Monday it was “actively preparing” for President Vladimir Putin to visit India before the end of the year and hoped it would be a substantive trip. Putin is due to visit India in December according to the Kremlin. He last went there in December 2021, just a few months before ordering troops into Ukraine in February 2022. – Reuters
The Kremlin said on Monday it wanted the Ukraine war to end as soon as possible but that efforts to resolve it had stalled. – Reuters
Ukraine’s Kyivstar (KYIV.O), is ramping up measures to keep its network online as Russian strikes strain the country’s power grid, CEO Oleksandr Komarov said on Monday. – Reuters
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had foiled a plot by Ukrainian and British spies to tempt Russian pilots to steal a MiG-31 jet armed with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile for $3 million, state media reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he wants to order 25 Patriot air defense systems from the United States, as Ukraine desperately tries to fend off relentless Russian aerial attacks that have brought rolling blackouts across Ukraine on the brink of winter. – Associated Press
A Russian national is set to plead guilty to several charges at the end of the month for his role as a participant in multiple Yanluowang ransomware attacks. – The Record
Valerii Zaluzhnyi writes: Ukraine does not reject peace. We reject capitulation disguised as peace. A just settlement must restore our territorial integrity, ensure accountability for war crimes and guarantee that no aggressor will ever again threaten Europe from Moscow. Anything less would betray not only Ukrainians but the principles that keep the free world safe and free. Ukraine will fight on every front — military, political and diplomatic — until justice and security are restored. We will not let exhaustion replace conviction or allow lies to erode truth. Our strength lies not only in our soldiers but in our clarity of purpose: peace through victory, not illusion. – New York Post
Syria
Syria has joined the U.S.-led mission to defeat Islamic State, U.S. officials said, after President Trump and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met at the White House on Monday. – Wall Street Journal
Six years after the night raid in the sleepy northwestern Syrian village of Barisha, Rashid Muhammad Kaseer still shudders at the memory of the clattering helicopters overhead. – New York Times
Syria has foiled two separate Islamic State plots to assassinate President Ahmed al-Sharaa, two senior officials said, adding a personal dimension to the leader’s plans to join a U.S.-led coalition to fight the militant group that he has long battled. – Reuters
Syria recently signed a political cooperation declaration with the Global Coalition to Defeat Islamic State, the Syrian information minister said in a post on X post on Monday. “The agreement is political and until now contains no military components,” he said. – Reuters
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a Monday interview with Fox News that Syria would not at this time enter into talks to join the Abraham Accords, but that perhaps US President Donald Trump’s administration would help in making such negotiations possible. – Jerusalem Post
Iraq
From rooftops to lampposts, campaign posters compete for every inch of Baghdad’s streets. There are pictures of politicians wearing hard hats and slogans vowing “strength and prosperity.” – New York Times
Lukoil (LKOH.MM), declared force majeure at its Iraqi oil field, sources told Reuters on Monday, and Bulgaria was poised to seize its Burgas refinery, as the Russian company’s international operations buckled under the strain of U.S. sanctions. – Reuters
Ta’aliq — “to hang” in Arabic — is Iraqi slang for the torture device that hoists victims into the air, their hands handcuffed above their heads. Akrab, or “scorpion,” is the more painful version, when the hands are first forced together behind the back. – Associated Press
Lebanon
Hannibal Gaddafi, youngest son of Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi, was released on Monday after almost a decade of detention without trial in Lebanon over the disappearance of a Shi’ite Muslim cleric, Lebanon’s National News Agency said. – Reuters
The IDF killed three Hezbollah terrorists in several airstrike operations in southern Lebanon, the military said on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
Hanin Ghaddar, Robert Satloff, and Ehud Yaari write: Those could entail losing U.S. aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces, losing U.S. backing of international support for Lebanon’s economy and losing U.S. willingness to restrain Israel from disarming Hezbollah “the hard way.” To be sure, even incremental steps toward peace will be an uphill climb in a country long dominated by Iran’s chief regional proxy. But there is a rare opening to explain to ordinary Lebanese the benefits that could come from diplomacy with Israel. With all the complications on the Gaza front, maybe Lebanon-Israel peace will give Trump another shot at that Nobel Prize. – Washington Institute
Middle East & North Africa
The United Arab Emirates could conclude negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement with the central African state of Chad by the end of the year, the Gulf state’s trade minister said on Monday. – Reuters
Kuwait is negotiating a major battery storage project with a discharge capacity of up to 1.5 gigawatts and total energy storage of between 4 and 6 gigawatt-hours, in a bid to ease chronic power shortages, a senior electricity ministry official said on Monday. – Reuters
A team from the international crime watchdog FATF will evaluate Turkey this month after removing it from its “grey list” last year for progress made in fighting money laundering and the funding of terrorist activity, five sources said. – Reuters
A packed field of parties is contesting Egypt’s parliamentary election but those set to dominate the chamber agree on most issues of substance, including their staunch support for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. – Reuters
Korean Peninsula
South Korea’s coast guard launched a search on Monday after reports that nine crew members were missing when a Chinese fishing vessel capsized off the country’s west coast, an official said. – Reuters
South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Tuesday it has delayed a decision again on Google’s request for permission to export map data, saying it will make a final ruling once the company submits additional documents. – Reuters
Two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung met and announced they had resolved months of negotiations over tariffs and security issues, the two sides have yet to release any agreement on paper. – Reuters
China
China plans to ease the flow of rare earths and other restricted materials to the U.S. by designing a system that will exclude companies with ties to the U.S. military while fast-tracking export approvals for other firms, according to people familiar with the plan. – Wall Street Journal
China has tightened controls on fentanyl precursor chemicals that the United States has said contributed to the flow of the powerful synthetic opioid to American shores. – New York Times
King Felipe VI will start the first state visit to China by a Spanish monarch in 18 years on Tuesday as Madrid pursues the most active courtship of Beijing within the European Union. – Reuters
China is willing to resume exchanges with Canada and cooperate in various fields, its foreign minister said to his Canadian counterpart without specifying the sectors, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
China has intensified its competition with the US for influence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing’s recent gains in the regional contest are “undeniable,” former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said. – Bloomberg
A tanker carrying US-sanctioned Russian liquefied natural gas and masking its location was spotted near China, according to SynMax, suggesting Beijing is stepping up its efforts to buy the fuel. – Bloomberg
Antonia-Laura Pup writes: Thwarting China’s involvement in Ukraine’s reconstruction is a strategic imperative for the United States and its European allies. Recognizing this imperative is relevant not only to maintain our competitiveness in the context of great power competition but also to preserve the rules-based international order. China should not be allowed to both enable the Russian aggression that has destroyed Ukraine’s infrastructure and industry and then be allowed to profit, financially and diplomatically, from its reconstruction. – The National Interest
South Asia
Indian police are probing a deadly car blast in the capital Delhi under a law used to fight “terrorism”, an officer said on Tuesday, as forensic experts sought evidence to establish the cause of the first such blast in the city in more than a decade. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday the United States was getting close to reaching a deal with India that would expand economic and security ties between the two countries, boost U.S. energy exports and promote investments in key U.S. sectors. – Reuters
Pakistan’s powerful army chief will be given an expanded role and the remit of the Supreme Court will be curbed under constitutional changes passed by the upper house of parliament on Monday, a move the opposition says will undermine democracy. – Reuters
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that all those responsible for the car blast in Delhi will be brought to justice. Modi was speaking during his visit to Bhutan. The explosion near the historic Red Fort on Monday evening killed at least eight people and injured 20. – Reuters
Andy Mukherjee writes: If nothing else, Larissa Nery’s unwitting entry into the battlefield will add to calls for greater transparency. Although his presentation fell short of proving that the Brazilian hairdresser’s picture was indeed used to steal 22 votes from Congress, Gandhi has nonetheless raised a significant doubt about the health of India’s electoral democracy. – Bloomberg
Asia
Thailand has suspended efforts to implement a ceasefire with Cambodia formalized during President Donald Trump’s trip to Asia last month after several Thai soldiers were injured in a land mine explosion in a disputed border area. – Washington Post
He oversaw the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people. He siphoned off billions of dollars of wealth from state coffers. And while widespread economic discontent led to the end of his strongman rule in Indonesia, he never faced criminal prosecution. – New York Times
Japan’s industry ministry is seeking changes to the law so that public money can be used for investment in the nuclear power sector and in electricity grids, the Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
Taiwan’s chip industry has become an indispensible part of the global economy and strengthens Taiwan’s defence in the face of threats, former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told the Berlin Freedom Conference on Monday. – Reuters
Malaysian and Thai authorities on Tuesday resumed their search for dozens of people missing at sea, days after a boat carrying members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority sank near the border between the two countries, killing at least 21. – Reuters
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will visit Australia on Wednesday for the first time since taking office last year. – Associated Press
Europe
Europe is now caught somewhere between war and peace. In recent weeks, drones appearing mysteriously above airports and halting flights have made headlines. Those are just the tip of the iceberg. – Wall Street Journal
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was convicted of conspiring to seek campaign funds from the regime of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, was released from prison on Monday, three weeks into a five-year sentence. – Wall Street Journal
British pro-Palestinian commentator Sami Hamdi, who is being held by U.S. immigration authorities, is set to be released, his family said on Monday, a fortnight after he was detained midway through a national speaking tour. – Reuters
French anti-terrorist prosecutors have launched a new investigation into Salah Abdeslam, the only convicted perpetrator of the 2015 Paris attacks, on suspicion he sneaked a flash drive holding jihadist content into his prison cell. – Reuters
Top-level resignations from the BBC over the editing of a speech by President Donald Trump have blown the lid off wider tensions at the British broadcaster over how it is run and whether it still commands public trust in its journalism. – Reuters
The United States is working with Switzerland on a deal to lower the 39% tariff rate it faces on exports to the U.S., President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, but said he had not yet settled on a new rate. – Reuters
Switzerland will rejoin a roster of European Union-related programs including Horizon Europe after a deal signed on Monday that could unlock a wave of research funding from the bloc. – Bloomberg
Editorial: At a time when zero-sum geopolitics is on the rise, Europe has a chance to show that liberal democracy and cross-border partnership can work better. The latest polls in France and Germany suggest right-wing populists could win the next elections outright, giving them much more influence over the EU’s two most powerful countries. Europe’s leaders should see this trend as the warning sign that it is — and act accordingly. – Bloomberg
Adrian Wooldridge writes: It needs more use of local correspondents, particularly in the North and Midlands. It needs to bin its dog-eared rolodex of talking heads and find some more interesting people. And it needs to stop talking down to its audience. Davie’s resignation means the BBC is now looking for a new director general: not only one of the hardest jobs in a divided country but also, for that very reason, one of the most important. – Bloomberg
Elmira Bayrasli writes: Dodik is now likely to push harder to destabilize Bosnia’s institutions. He may work with Bosnian Croat leaders to dismember Dayton by carving out an autonomous Croat entity. Or he may double down directly on his secessionist agenda for Republika Srpska. Either way, the result will be a win for Putin and a loss for Bosnia and the EU. – Foreign Policy
Africa
It was difficult to find the women, let alone broach such a delicate topic. We’d been investigating a pattern of abuse of Kenyan women who had moved to Saudi Arabia to work as housekeepers and nannies. We’d become accustomed to accounts of stolen wages, rapes and beatings. Autopsy reports described burns, broken bones and mysterious falls. – New York Times
Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, a daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of inciting violence during riots in 2021 in which more than 300 people were killed. – Reuters
The African Union has called for an urgent international response, including intelligence-sharing, to address worsening security conditions in Mali, where insurgents are imposing a fuel blockade and kidnapping foreigners. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund has discussed various options with Senegal to address the country’s “significant debt vulnerabilities,” a spokesperson for the fund said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Australia’s corporate regulator said on Tuesday it has sued AVZ Minerals and two of its directors, alleging the miner failed to disclose an escalating legal dispute with the Democratic Republic of the Congo over its stake in a lithium project. – Reuters
Ethiopia is set to be confirmed on Tuesday as host of the COP32 climate summit in 2027, the president of this year’s COP30 gathering told Reuters. – Reuters
Nigeria’s anti-graft agency said on Monday a warrant has been issued for the arrest of former petroleum minister Timipre Sylva over allegations of conspiracy and dishonest conversion of $14.86 million. – Reuters
U.S. Vice President JD Vance has called off a visit to Kenya planned for later this month after his expected trip to the G20 summit in South Africa was cancelled by President Donald Trump, the East African nation’s government said on Monday. – Reuters
Armed men in Mali killed a TikTok influencer who had posted videos in support of the West African nation’s military, authorities said Monday. – Associated Press
Walter Russell Mead writes: At home, he hopes that the natural sympathy of many American Christians for their African fellow believers can provide political backing for a more engaged Africa policy than most America firsters would instinctively support. As a bonus, support for beleaguered foreign Christians can blunt some of the attacks from the groyper right against his support for Israel. Mr. Trump is almost certainly nowhere near dispatching Marines to Nigeria. But foreign policy and Africa will likely play a larger role in his second term than many of his supporters and critics thought possible last year. – Wall Street Journal
The Americas
The first thing to know about Chile’s presidential election this coming Sunday is that it pits a card-carrying communist against a candidate of the far right. The second thing to know is that this isn’t another example of political polarization tearing a society apart. – Wall Street Journal
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Canada’s Niagara region this week to join the Group of Seven foreign ministers’ meeting, his office said. – Reuters
Ecuador has moved 300 high-risk inmates to a new maximum-security prison on the country’s coast, including former Vice President Jorge Glas, President Daniel Noboa said on Monday, a day after 31 prisoners were killed in a riot in the south. – Reuters
Cuba’s top court said on Monday former Economy Minister Alejandro Gil would go on trial for espionage and corruption on Tuesday, ratcheting up intrigue in one of the highest-profile corruption cases in the communist-run country in decades. – Reuters
Brazil’s central bank on Monday released long-awaited rules for trading virtual assets, including cryptocurrencies, that will extend existing rules against money laundering and terrorism financing to virtual-asset service providers. – Reuters
The governor of Colombia’s Arauca province said Monday that he survived an assassination attempt while traveling between two towns in the country’s eastern plains. – Associated Press
Felipe Krause writes: Combined with better intelligence, forensic capacity, and community-based prevention, international investigations should treat organized crime as a governance challenge rather than a theatrical enemy. As families in Rio de Janeiro wait to identify their dead, the question facing Brazil is not so much how to end the war on drugs, but how to end the political economy that it created. The country’s violence is not chaos. It is a system, and it is one that has lasted far too long. – Foreign Policy
United States
The Republican-led Senate late Monday passed a spending package to end the record-long government shutdown, with Democrats providing enough votes to move the measure across the finish line. – Wall Street Journal
Working as a New York state aide, Linda Sun and her husband had a late-model Ferrari and paid cash for a $3.6 million Long Island mansion and a $1.9 million condo in Hawaii. How did she manage this on a government salary that never exceeded $145,000? – Wall Street Journal
At a secret gathering in May, south of London, the head of Britain’s domestic security service asked Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, for help. – New York Times
The US Supreme Court declined to reconsider its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, turning away an appeal by a former Kentucky county clerk who was ordered to pay $360,000 for defying the ruling. – Bloomberg
A Texas man was arrested last week in Florida after he allegedly launched a volley of antisemitic death threats against several prominent US conservative activists. – Times of Israel
A judge on Monday allowed the continued deployment of more than 300 West Virginia National Guard members to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., as part of President Donald Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities. – Military Times
Cybersecurity
Current and former military officers are warning that adversaries are likely to exploit a natural flaw in artificial intelligence chatbots to inject instructions for stealing files, distorting public opinion or otherwise betraying trusted users. – Defense News
Legislation to end the federal government shutdown includes a provision that would extend an expired cybersecurity information sharing law through the end of January. – CyberScoop
Researchers aren’t very concerned about the dozens of undisclosed F5 vulnerabilities a nation-state attacker stole during a prolonged attack on F5’s internal systems. Yet, the heist of sensitive intelligence from a widely used vendor’s internal network resembles previous espionage-driven attacks that could pose long-term consequences downstream. – CyberScoop
New York’s algorithmic pricing law took effect Monday, requiring companies disclose when they use consumers’ personal data to set prices. – The Record
Defense
When President Trump recently announced his support for South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine in the U.S., he singled out the place where he wants it built: a historic shipyard in Philadelphia. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S. military killed six people on Sunday in two more strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday. – New York Times
The Pentagon wants its overhauled cadre of executives in charge of major acquisition programs to have enough flexibility and power to take calculated risks and focus on delivering new weapons speedily. – Defense News