Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Trump says U.S. plans to cut off military aid to Israel by end of year Iran turns to guerrilla tactics in bid to reassert grip on Strait of Hormuz On cusp of renewed war, more Iranians are calling for nuclear weapons US has no immediate plan to strike Iran, Trump tells FT NATO’s new defense plan would mean strikes deep inside Russia WSJ’s Holman W. Jenkins Jr.: Trump’s new run at Ukraine peace Syria says it foiled Hezbollah plot to attack Homs oil refinery North Korea fires multiple missiles in fourth weapons launch in a month, Seoul says Greenland parliament ratifies security deal reached with Trump Poland beefs up security at border with Russia Once a haven for guerrillas, Venezuela now helps U.S. attack them Democrats sweep to control of congress in rebuke of TrumpIn The News
Israel
President Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. would cut off military aid to Israel by the end of the year, suggesting the phaseout of grants to the U.S. ally could occur much faster than expected. – Wall Street Journal
Israel has shared intelligence with the United States asserting that Iran is considering the use of chemical weapons against its adversaries, information met with alarm by some American officials and deep skepticism by others, according to U.S. and regional officials. – New York Times
A group of senior Israeli ex-military officials helped Palestinian farmers on Tuesday to harvest olives, in a gesture of solidarity amid an upsurge in militant settler violence targeting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. – Reuters
Israel’s election commission said Wednesday it has found no fraud in last week’s vote, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to discredit the results. – Associated Press
Israel’s election has brought a longstanding clash over the country’s identity to the forefront, forcing a reckoning over whether the Jewish state can embrace its 2 million Arab citizens amid their lawmakers’ emergence as a powerful political force. – Bloomberg
IDF Military Advocate-General Maj.-Gen. Itay Offir revealed for the first time on Tuesday that the MAG Corps has filed “a fair number of indictments” against IDF soldiers relating to their conduct in Gaza. – Jerusalem Post
A month after passengers stopped a co-pilot from allegedly carrying out a suicide attack at Ben-Gurion Airport, survivors say they have received no official assistance, despite suffering psychological trauma and struggling to return to normal life. – Jerusalem Post
Six Palestinians from the Jenin area in the northern West Bank were arrested for attempting to build rockets to launch at Israel, the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police announced on Tuesday. – Times of Israel
Editorial: Discussions advanced to phase out the aid over several years, starting at the end of 2026. That’s why the President’s statement on Tuesday that it would all end in two months caught Israelis unaware. Did Mr. Trump misstate the point? Or did he deliberately put it in the way he felt would be most politically advantageous? The President may think it will help him, perhaps with young voters or the very online segment of his base, to be seen cutting off Israel. This augurs poorly for the Jewish state, even if it would rather tear off the Band-Aid with Mr. Trump, and map out a more sustainable relationship, than have a hostile Democratic President end aid as punishment after 2028. – Wall Street Journal
Or Horvitz writes: A new government could work to rebuild support across party lines and among Americans alienated by its predecessor’s policies. The close relationship between Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has partly obscured the strain in Israel’s broader American ties. Clearer public diplomacy, backed by substantive policy changes, could help repair them. A successor would still confront anti-Zionism and antisemitism, even as it addressed criticism of specific Israeli policies. The next government will have little time for a honeymoon. It must seize these diplomatic openings while preserving the security Israelis demand. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
Iran is using everything in its arsenal to try to stop the flow of oil leaving the Strait of Hormuz, resorting to guerrilla tactics to shore up the regime’s fast-eroding position in the conflict and pile pressure on the Trump administration in deadlocked negotiations. – Wall Street Journal
Oil futures settled lower Tuesday in a choppy session, with concerns about U.S. strikes on Iranian targets cushioned by continued diplomatic efforts to bring the U.S. and Iran to a conflict settlement. – Wall Street Journal
From pulpits at Friday prayers to street rallies, Iranian clerics and officials are increasingly urging the country’s leaders to reverse their longtime pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons. – New York Times
Iran and the United States are still far from a deal to end their war, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday, as US President Donald Trump declined to rule out a resumption of US combat operations after the elections in the United States. – Reuters
The United States has no immediate plans to strike Iran, President Donald Trump told the Financial Times. In an interview with the FT on Tuesday, Trump suggested he was content with the state of the stand-off with Iran. – Reuters
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said four oil tankers were destroyed after striking naval mines while trying to traverse a route described as prohibited south of the key waterway of the Strait of Hormuz. In a statement, the elite corps said the tankers were still ablaze, and added that two other vessels had been seized. – Reuters
Qatar said on Tuesday it remained hopeful that a deal could be reached between the United States and Iran as both sides review proposals put forward by mediators, including Doha. – Agence France-Presse
Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator in talks with the United States, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Tuesday that the ball was in Washington’s court to “prevent war.” – Agence France-Presse
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that a return to war would benefit “no one,” hours after reported US strikes on an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz. – Agence France-Presse
William A. Galston writes: While acknowledging that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “has become an adversary,” especially in its “adversarial role with Israel,” he declared that Iran is “a theocracy. It’s not an evil regime.” Really? For decades, this regime has inflicted waves of murderous repression on the country’s own citizens whenever they dared to demand freedom and democracy. The most recent crackdown, in January, resulted in the death of at least 7,000 protesters, and perhaps more than 30,000. I’m all in favor of a realistic foreign policy that sees the world as it is and pursues goals that we have the power to achieve. Regime change in Iran may well be beyond our reach. But there is a line between realism and moral indifference that U.S. officials should not cross. – Wall Street Journal
Russia and Ukraine
Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are forcing NATO to rethink how it would counter a Russian attack—including by taking off the gloves and striking far inside Russian territory. – Wall Street Journal
A Russian airstrike killed at least 31 people, with nearly 50 more missing, at a school in southern Ukraine where humanitarian aid was being handed out on Monday, local authorities said. – Wall Street Journal
Russia must show it is serious about a ceasefire and peace agreement with Ukraine at talks scheduled for next week in Abu Dhabi, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday as he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Berlin. – Reuters
Russia will hold three-way peace talks with Ukraine and the United States in Abu Dhabi from November 10-11, the Kremlin confirmed on Tuesday. Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, will serve as Moscow’s chief negotiator at the talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. – Reuters
Ukraine set fire to a major oil refinery in the Russian city of Yaroslavl in an overnight drone attack, the regional governor said, after the Russian military said it had downed 856 enemy drones across the country. – Reuters
Russia has hit two power stations in Ukraine’s regions of Kyiv and Zhytomyr, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram on Wednesday, keeping up nearly daily strikes on its neighbour’s energy facilities amid falling temperatures. – Reuters
Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will face a different Donald Trump if the US president emerges weakened from the midterm elections, a new political reality that may have a major impact on Russia’s war in Ukraine. – Bloomberg
The European Commission is preparing a more cautious roadmap for Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations, setting out limited targets for progress in 2027 while avoiding any commitment to a membership date, according to a document obtained by POLITICO. – Politico
Holman W. Jenkins Jr. writes: A fusillade of “deal” proposals from the U.S., in the meantime, keeps channels open, maintains an atmosphere of activity and movement, fosters uncertainty and hope in Mr. Putin’s domestic public. Mr. Trump may not be invested in Ukraine quite the way you wanted him to be. But neither was Joe Biden or the Europeans, though they hid it better. Priority one has always been keeping the war contained and preserving a modicum of stability in U.S.-Russia relations. Mr. Trump’s outsider act may not be a performance for all seasons but it does have a certain utility in these particular circumstances. In a parallel universe where this asset was married to a consistent, farseeing effort, the war might already be over. – Wall Street Journal
John P. Walters writes: The West needs a strategy that meets the reality of the Putin threat—to remain in power, he must keep Russia at war. He cannot agree to stop his aggression in Ukraine and in Europe. He is both dangerous and weak—he will not win in Ukraine or Europe. The fact is, “we have the cards.” An effective Western strategy will demonstrate that Putin cannot win in Ukraine and punish his malign campaign against Europe by weakening Russia using maximal sanctions—focusing on Putin and his oligarchs—and, if necessary, hybrid countermeasures. It is also time to reach out to influential Russians watching all this, who may be willing to help Russia escape Putin’s strategic failure. – The National Interest
Lebanon
Syrian security forces have arrested members of a cell linked to Lebanese Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah accused of planning to attack the Homs oil refinery in central Syria, state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
Lebanon’s sectarian tensions have resurfaced following a series of incidents and claims that have reignited divisions between the country’s religious communities. – Jerusalem Post
Israel has asked the Lebanese government to deploy troops to set up roadblocks in areas where Hezbollah operatives live in order to prevent the terrorist group from joining the fray if war resumes with Iran, Israeli television reported Monday, citing a security source. – Times of Israel
Assaf Orion writes: On the longer-term diplomatic front, major breakthroughs should not be expected until a new Israeli government is formed. Yet that should not prevent the parties from making important progress on implementing their commitments in the existing pilot zones—namely, Lebanon can clear its first zone by fully and visibly disarming and dismantling Hezbollah; Israel can prepare its reciprocal troop redeployment; and donors can ready their funds and plans for local reconstruction. Yet nothing is likely to progress unless Washington pushes Beirut to start doing what needs to be done. – Washington Institute
Middle East & North Africa
In the marble-floored atria of a five-star hotel in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, military officers in full regalia mingled with ambassadors and political analysts last weekend, swapping business cards and chatting over plates of tiramisù infused with Arabic coffee. – New York Times
Turkish authorities ordered the detention of six people, including the former Capital Markets Board deputy chair, as part of the investment fund investigation, broadcaster NTV reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
Fighting and access restrictions in and around the Yemeni city of Taiz have left more than 13,000 pregnant women without essential healthcare and are leading to more miscarriages, the United Nations Population Fund said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Jordanian prosecutors on Tuesday charged three men with terrorism-related offenses over a deadly gun attack last month on a church in the kingdom’s south. – Agence France-Presse
A decade ago, the Daesh group broadcast its crimes as it recruited radicals from around the world and imposed a brutal system of oppression across swathes of Syria and Iraq. – Agence France-Presse
Yemen’s internationally recognized government said Tuesday that 21 Iranian and Hezbollah operatives are overseeing Houthi military operations, including operational planning, command and control, and weapons development. – Al Arabiya
Korean Peninsula
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed at a summit on Tuesday to expand cooperation in nuclear energy and defence, including on one of Turkey’s biggest power projects, Lee said. – Reuters
Tesla has misled tens of thousands of South Korean customers by marketing driver-assistance software that the company knows cannot be legally used in most of its vehicles in the country, according to a complaint an advocacy group plans to file with a consumer protection agency on Thursday. – Reuters
North Korea fired multiple missiles on Wednesday toward the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s Defence Ministry said, marking Pyongyang’s fourth such weapons launch in a month. The South Korean military detected the missiles that were fired from the Sondok area, an eastern coastal region of North Korea, the ministry said. – Reuters
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called on Tuesday for the creation of a powerful government-wide cybersecurity body to coordinate functions scattered across agencies, pointing to limitations in the current capacity to protect critical systems. – Reuters
China
The U.S. has tried for years to cut off its adversaries from the world’s financial system. But money from places such as Iran and Russia has kept on flowing—in large part thanks to banks in China, people familiar with the activity say. – Wall Street Journal
China’s stock market has just entered bear-market territory, with the blue-chip index down more than 20% from its June peak. Morgan Stanley is warning of another 10% to 15% decline before things bottom out. State-backed funds have rushed in to buy, but the intervention looks more like a Band-Aid than a cure. – Wall Street Journal
As the prospect loomed of renewed attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel following Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections, Beijing scrambled to mount a flurry of Middle East diplomacy. – Washington Post
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met separately with officials from Thailand, Laos and Myanmar on Tuesday, as the world’s second largest economy moves to expand relations with its Southeast Asian neighbors. – Reuters
Beijing wants to work with Moscow to bolster strategic communication and mutual trust in the military field, China’s top general told Russia’s Defence Minister Andrei Belousov on Tuesday, according to the Chinese Defence Ministry. – Reuters
China and the Philippines pledged to maintain dialogue and communication despite strained ties, as both countries offered their own account of a recent call between their foreign ministers. – Reuters
A Hong Kong court is set to hand down a sentence to prominent pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong Thursday for his second conviction under a Beijing-imposed national security law that has effectively stifled the city’s democracy movement. – Associated Press
South Asia
A federal court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to put dozens of Afghan immigrants on a plane and send them back to Afghanistan, where many fear they will face persecution by the Taliban. – New York Times
Air quality deteriorated sharply in parts of northern India and adjoining Pakistan on Tuesday, with the onset of pre-winter smog making Lahore the world’s most polluted city and authorities in Delhi imposing curbs to fight the toxic haze over the capital. – Reuters
The International Court of Justice will rule on 19 November in its landmark case against the government of Myanmar, which is accused of committing genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya, the court said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Indian naval forces freed an Iranian fishing boat and its crew of 20 hijacked off Somalia after an operation lasting more than 48 hours, India’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday. – Associated Press
In a major push to strengthen its naval capabilities, India signed a $5.7 billion contract with domestic companies Monday to build eight next-generation, corvettes that will undertake anti-submarine, anti-surface and coastal defense operations. – Defense News
Asia
Five people, including two children, have been rescued in the South Pacific after drifting more than 3,000 miles in a small boat for months. – Washington Post
After disembarking more than 200 passengers who had paid tens of thousands of dollars to live on board for years, the Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship departed Cambodia early on Wednesday. – Reuters
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto sacked his chief of staff on Wednesday for what his office said could be treason, a day after his arrest alongside two top police officers on suspicion of wiretapping the president, his ministers and others. – Reuters
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s government has agreed to a December 7 to 11 schedule for its first censure debate in parliament, an official said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Indonesia’s military is deploying more than 20,000 troops and personnel to the capital, Jakarta, officials said Wednesday as authorities investigate an alleged illegal wiretapping operation targeting the country’s president that has led to the detention of three senior police generals. – Associated Press
New Zealand’s governing National Party has seen its lead narrow in a key opinion poll just four days from a general election. National rose 1 point to 30% from 29% last week, according to the 1News Verian poll published Tuesday. The main opposition center-left Labour Party rose 2 points to 29%. – Bloomberg
Lin Chia-lung writes: When it comes to the technology underpinning AI, Taiwan is not an adversary of the United States but its most trustworthy partner. In every layer of the AI “cake,” Taiwan and the United States have developed—and can continue to expand—a productive and mutually beneficial partnership. Taiwan is a force multiplier for the United States in artificial intelligence: it has the capability, reliability, and values necessary to support the United States’ technological ambitions. If Washington wants to compete effectively in AI, Taiwan is indispensable. – Foreign Affairs
Europe
Tensions were already running high in France when a gunman opened fire from a car in the town of Trappes, killing a young Black man and severely injuring a schoolgirl on her way back from the local swimming pool. – Washington Post
Spain’s transport minister announced his resignation on Tuesday evening, nearly a week after the deadliest train crash in a decade killed nearly 70 people and raised doubts about the country’s once-vaunted rail system ahead of national elections. – New York Times
Poland has launched a “special operation” involving counterterrorism police, intelligence officers and beefed-up border security on its northern frontier with Russia, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday, calling it a response to “disturbing movement” that could be preparation for “armed incursions.” – New York Times
Bomb threats targeted at least 7 planes in Europe on Tuesday, briefly disrupting flights as the local authorities carried out security checks at several airports. – New York Times
Greenland’s parliament on Tuesday ratified the Arctic island’s security agreement struck earlier this year with US President Donald Trump, although some opposition party members questioned the deal’s economic value. – Reuters
Britain and the European Union are set to agree a scheme allowing young EU citizens and Britons to live in each other’s countries for up to three years, although an agreement on student tuition fees is not expected for another six months. – Reuters
Sweden’s parliament’s speaker said on Tuesday he had asked Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the Moderates party, to try to form a new cabinet despite losing his right-wing coalition’s majority in the September election. – Reuters
After seven strikes on cargo ships near NATO members Romania and Bulgaria last month, the US-led military alliance said it would deploy maritime patrol aircraft, radars and drones to bolster its eastern flank in the Black Sea. – Reuters
Detentions, resignations, switching of sides, attempts to destroy evidence of wrongdoing. News has been coming in at such a pace in the wake of former Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic’s electoral defeat on Oct. 25 that a website dubbed “system breakdown” has been set up anonymously, with AI feeding information in real time. – Associated Press
The UK’s cybersecurity chief warned that Britain faces what could prove to be an unprecedented increase cyberattacks in the coming months and urged “willfully blind” businesses to come to terms with the risk. – Bloomberg
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has denied proposing a return to free movement of people with the European Union, as his ambition to begin a conversation about potentially reversing Brexit surfaced concerns within his cabinet. – Bloomberg
Premier Giorgia Meloni’s last budget before Italian elections just took an even more populist twist as attention shifts to a small measure targeting the rich. – Bloomberg
Poland’s political crisis deepened on Tuesday as nationalist President Karol Nawrocki launched a bitter attack on pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk amid a furor over the politicization of judges at the country’s Constitutional Tribunal. – Politico
Montenegro and Albania’s defense ministers want NATO to send experts to help them counter growing Russian disinformation, as Moscow steps up hybrid attacks across Europe. – Politico
The European Commission will host talks on Wednesday with representatives from the United States, Ukraine and key European allies on Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and economic future, Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho confirmed Tuesday. – Politico
A legal battle over a ban on Palestine Action activists resumes Wednesday as co-founder Huda Ammori takes her fight against the government’s designation of the group as a terrorist organization to Britain’s highest court. – Agence France-Presse
France has opened a judicial investigation into a war crimes complaint over an Israeli strike on a residential building in Lebanon in 2024, lawyer Clemence Bectarte told AFP on Tuesday. – Agence France-Presse
Tom Rogan writes: And that contingency is the paramount conventional U.S. national security concern. The naval inadequacy of the U.K., America’s closest ally, is thus undermining the special relationship. Put simply, Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government needs to get a grip. It needs to throw money at the Royal Navy, now. It needs to stop pretending that hard naval power can be built around cheap unmanned systems. And most of all, it needs to find a way to get, and keep, its attack submarines at sea. – Washington Examiner
Miłosz Manasterski writes: Washington should care. Poland spends a larger share of its economy on defense than any other NATO member. In September, President Donald Trump credited “the bold leadership of my friend, Karol Nawrocki” for progress toward a new U.S. Army base in Poland. The man next in line is one the U.S. ambassador cut off in February. Frank Underwood’s genius was that he never looked like he was seizing power. He just made sure that when the moment came, his people held the keys. On Friday night in Warsaw, someone changed the locks. – Washington Examiner
Africa
South Africans vote in municipal elections on Wednesday, with anger over corruption, crime and failing public services threatening to deal another blow to the African National Congress. – Reuters
A constitutional amendment to create state police forces in Nigeria won approval from 28 state legislatures, surpassing the threshold needed for constitutional change and moving the plan closer to becoming law, the National Assembly said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Kenya’s government should tackle corruption to boost economic growth and raise incomes, the World Bank said on Wednesday, as it raised its growth forecast for this year after a stronger-than-expected first half. – Reuters
Attackers killed at least eight security personnel in an ambush on a police convoy in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state on Tuesday, local vigilante officials told Reuters, in a region where kidnappings and attacks are common. – Reuters
A former deputy military chief in Uganda has been arrested over allegations of planning to destabilize parts of the country, according to the military. – Associated Press
The Americas
U.S. military drones struck a camp belonging to leftist guerrillas inside Venezuela, killing more than two dozen fighters in an operation carried out with the cooperation of a Venezuelan government that for decades had welcomed the insurgents, said people in Washington and Venezuela familiar with the operation. – Wall Street Journal
Paraguay’s central bank head submitted his resignation on Tuesday at President Santiago Peña’s request, as authorities launched resolution proceedings for digital lender ueno. – Reuters
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and his Venezuelan counterpart, Oliver Blanco, met on Tuesday in Madrid on the sidelines of the 30th Ibero-American Summit, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a post on X. – Reuters
Brazil is ending its year-long presidency of the UN climate process with roadmaps aimed at curbing deforestation and accelerating a shift away from fossil fuels to help governments deliver on past climate agreements. – Reuters
Brazil’s Senate approved on Tuesday legislation that strengthens the government’s power to fight criminal gangs, in another win for reelected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has touted the changes as key to tackle one of his nation’s biggest problems. – Associated Press
North America
Recent trade talks between the U.S. and Canada have yielded encouraging results although major hurdles remain to be cleared, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday. – Wall Street Journal
When an ambush outside Port-au-Prince left an armored vehicle in flames and four Salvadoran military-aviation technicians missing two weeks ago, the initial response from El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele’s was to send a rescue mission. – Wall Street Journal
Haiti’s prime minister spoke publicly on Tuesday for the first time since four Salvadoran aviation technicians went missing last month, prompting El Salvador to deploy more than 2,000 troops to the troubled Caribbean country as scrutiny over their operations intensifies. – Associated Press
Canada won’t allow Russian athletes to participate in a major hockey tournament that begins next month in Alberta, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, rejecting the decision of a sports tribunal. – Bloomberg
United States
Over three days in late October, populist candidates friendly with President Donald Trump fell short in elections in Brazil, Serbia and Israel. What followed were claims of vote-rigging straight from Trump’s playbook. – Washington Post
The war in Iran is deeply unpopular with Americans. Recent polls indicate as many as two-thirds of voters disapprove of President Trump’s handling of the eight-month conflict, which has driven up prices and depleted U.S. ammunition stockpiles. – New York Times
President Donald Trump acknowledged that the war in Iran played a role in Republicans’ losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, as Democrats prepared to take control of both the US House and Senate and challenge his legislative agenda. – Reuters
US first lady Melania Trump will host representatives of Russia and Ukraine at the White House on Thursday and deliver remarks on the ceasefire in Oleshky, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday. – Reuters
Democrats won control of both chambers of the US Congress in a midterm election landslide that amounted to a rejection of President Donald Trump following widespread voter discontent with the economy and the war in Iran. – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump congratulated Democrats for doing “a good job” after the party inflicted devastating defeats on his Republican allies, winning back both houses of Congress and picking up several governors’ mansions. – Bloomberg
David Ignatius writes: As for the Democrats, despite their successes Tuesday, “they seem ill-equipped to parlay their victories into what the country desperately needs — a fresh governing philosophy that could undergird a new political coalition that can begin the process of bringing the country back together,” contended Merry. Democrats appeared headed for an overwhelming victory Tuesday night that would give them the chance to rebuild a governing majority. But in their way stands Trump, whose thirst for control will probably only increase as he begins a two-year path toward the exit. – Washington Post
Tom Rogan writes: Trump will certainly want his ballroom secured before the new Congress takes office. The Supreme Court may have to weigh in on numerous matters before the year is out. The top line? Trump will be stung by what he will regard, though never admit, as a humiliating rebuke. His character and record suggest he will now make every effort to ensure that Americans and the world know he retains a very great and personal power. Even if that power is not used wisely. – Washington Examiner
Cybersecurity
One store in Germany found that temperatures in its fridges climbed to above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, forcing it to throw out a dumpster’s worth of yogurt, mozzarella balls and other dairy products. […] The wave of apparent cyberattacks affected at least a half-dozen more countries in Europe, spurring investigations across the continent and illustrating how even mundane physical infrastructure is susceptible to hacking. – Wall Street Journal
Singapore Airlines said on Tuesday that about 46,000 booking records may have been affected by a cybersecurity incident involving Amadeus its reservation technology provider. – Reuters
Delaware-based defense and aerospace company has settled a case with U.S. agencies over government allegations that the firm neglected its cybersecurity obligations in its contracts. – Cyberscoop
Authorities arrested seven people allegedly involved in an investment fraud scheme that claimed potential victims in more than 50 countries, Europol said Tuesday. Officials said the operation caused estimated losses of at least $4.5 million. – Cyberscoop
Early reports of ballot scanner malfunctions in Westchester County, New York are a sign of the challenges election officials will face in the current online information environment as voters head to the polls Tuesday on the final day of voting. – Cyberscoop
Defense
The U.S. Air Force is asking the defense industry whether it can deliver a new cruise missile intended for Ukraine. Potential contractors are asked to detail their capabilities to provide the Extended Range Attack Munition, a small, air-launched standoff missile intended for mass production. – Defense News
The U.S. Marine Corps and Navy will be conducting a technology demonstration for a Marine battlefield cargo drone early next year. The event, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 5, 2027, in Huntsville, Alabama, will allow contractors to display their drones for the Increment II the Marine Corps’ Tactical Resupply Unmanned Aircraft System, or TRUAS, program. – Defense News
Advanced Acoustic Concepts, a US defense subsidiary of the global defense giant Thales Group, has secured a $53.9 million contract with the US Navy to deliver at least two remote mine hunting (RMH) modules aimed at bolstering sailor safety when tracking mines. – Breaking Defense