Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Biden envoy told aid groups Israel too close an ally for US to suspend arms WSJ Editorial: Biden’s pre-election threat to Israel Iran says it will respond ‘decisively’ if Israel attacks, asks UN to intervene Bloomberg’s Javier Blas: Saudi Arabia and Iran become unlikely bedfellows MEI's Arash Ghafouri and Alex Vatanka: Key takeaways from new polling on Iran’s foreign policy and regional role US targets sanctions evasion network tied to Hezbollah Israel strikes at Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, hitting city building U.S. strikes Houthi weapons sites in Yemen, deploying B-2 bombers North Korea, longing for battle experience, eyes Ukraine North Korea calls South Korea 'hostile state' indicating constitution change WSJ Editorial: China test drives a Taiwan blockade Iranian hackers are going after critical infrastructure sector passwords, agencies cautionIn The News
Israel
Members of the United Nations Security Council met Wednesday to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and every member called on Israel in speeches to consistently allow aid into northern Gaza and drastically scale up assistance to the rest of the enclave. – New York Times
A day after the United States said it had told Israel that a failure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza could prompt a cutoff of military supplies, one of the starkest U.S. warnings since the war began, there was no official response from the Israeli government. – New York Times
Israel’s defence minister on Wednesday called French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to ban Israeli firms from exhibiting at a naval arms show “a disgrace” and accused Paris of implementing a hostile policy towards the Jewish people. – Reuters
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that two projectile launches that crossed from the northern Gaza strip were intercepted, shortly after it reported sirens in Nir Am and Sderot in southern Israel. – Reuters
In his final months in office, President Joe Biden is signaling new willingness to use U.S. military assistance to Israel as both a carrot and a stick to influence its high-stakes confrontation with Iran and Iran-backed militant groups. – Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss expanding humanitarian aid to Gaza, three officials who attended the discussion said, with aid likely to increase soon. – Reuters
The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency is close to a possible breaking point for its operations in the Gaza Strip due to increasingly complicated conditions, its head said on Wednesday. – Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday and discussed Israel’s operations in Lebanon and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza after a letter earlier this week to Israel from Washington that urged improvement of Gaza’s humanitarian situation. – Reuters
The United States is watching to ensure that Israel’s actions on the ground show that it does not have a “policy of starvation” in the northern Gaza Strip, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council on Wednesday. – Reuters
The top U.S. official working on the humanitarian situation in Gaza told aid groups in August that the U.S. would not consider withholding weapons from Israel for blocking food and medicine from entering the enclave — a rare admission by someone in the administration. – Politico
Editorial: Hamas broke off hostage talks weeks ago. As White House spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday, “I wish I could tell you that there are fresh negotiations at hand. There aren’t, but that’s because Mr. [Yahya] Sinwar,” Hamas’s leader, “has shown absolutely zero interest in continuing that discussion.” The Biden-Harris answer is to send him another aid bailout—and then wonder why the Gaza war continues. Israel’s military has resisted taking charge of aid distribution directly, but it may have no other choice. – Wall Street Journal
Iran
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi landed in Cairo late on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian officials, the first such visit in years as part of a Middle Eastern tour amid concerns of a wider confrontation in the region with Israel. – Reuters
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned UN chief Antonio Guterres that Tehran is ready for a “decisive and regretful” response if Israel attacks his country in retaliation to the almost 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1. – Agence France-Presse
Iran-linked militias in Iraq have launched about 40 attacks involving missiles, drones or rockets on Israel in the past two and a half weeks, the latest escalation in a largely clandestine proxy battle fought across a swath of the Middle East. – The Guardian
Iran suffered an oil leak just a few miles from Kharg Island, its top export terminal in the Persian Gulf, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing a local shipping official. – Bloomberg
Iran ‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that new Western sanctions against Iran were “hostile action” and would not help to resolve regional tensions, state media reported. – Agence France-Presse
Taliban authorities are looking into allegations that dozens of Afghan civilians were killed and injured by Iranian border forces while trying to enter that country from Pakistan illegally. – Voice of America
Javier Blas writes: Both sides have not revealed if a deal is on the table, but reading between the lines it looks like both sides have, at the very least, an understanding. As such, I won’t expect that Riyadh will open its skies to the Israeli air force nor that Tehran will put its neighbor’s vast oil fields on the target list. The Middle East often makes for unlikely bedfellows. Nothing puts aside differences like money. And for Saudi Arabia and Iran, money is oil. – Bloomberg
Shay Khatiri writes: The U.S. must accept that, due to its own policies, a war between Iran and Israel became inevitable. But this moment also represents the most significant opportunity for the greatest change in the region since 1979. To ensure that this change benefits both regional stability and American interests, the U.S. must fully support Israel’s military actions while strategically leveraging the fallout to encourage regime change in Iran. – The Hill
Arash Ghafouri and Alex Vatanka write: Iran’s brain drain is a result of a number of principal factors. The repressive political system that tolerates little dissent has always been a driver behind emigration across social classes. But the recent widening of the gap between Iran and other economies — thanks also to sanctions — has made emigration doubly attractive. Senior specialists that aspire to engage professionally with counterparts around the world find Iran’s isolation and lack of integration with the global economy to be a huge hurdle. Reducing this gap is a colossal challenge that will take years to rectify. – Middle East Institute
Arash Ghafouri writes: Most of the population also believes that Iranian officials do not care about solving the issues that matter to Iranian youth (76 percent). Moreover, just a slim segment of respondents say that officials listen to the needs and ideas of young people (23 percent). Additionally, just 31 percent completely or somewhat agree with the statement that “Iran’s political system welcomes Iranian youth with diverse beliefs to peruse high level government employment.” Fifty-one percent have the opposite view. – Middle East Institute
Russia & Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a broad description of his five-point “victory plan” to Ukraine’s lawmakers on Wednesday, describing the first step as an immediate and unconditional invitation to join NATO and the last as an offer to replace U.S. troops in Europe with Ukrainian units after the war — suggestions sure to incense the Kremlin, which has long used the threat of NATO to justify its invasion. – Washington Post
NATO chief Mark Rutte said he was aware of the details of Ukraine’s “victory plan” that was presented by the country’s president on Wednesday, and that he was in touch with the alliance’s member countries on the next steps. – Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin will host a summit of BRICS leaders next week, seeking support in his standoff with the West from the expanded group that now represents about a third of global economic output. – Reuters
Russia is seeking to convince BRICS countries to build an alternative platform for international payments that would be immune to Western sanctions when it hosts the group’s leaders at a summit next week. – Reuters
The Kremlin suggested on Wednesday that many European countries were starting to face difficulties when it came to mobilising their military-industrial industries to help Ukraine. – Reuters
Russia on Wednesday denounced a “victory plan” presented by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, saying he was trying to push NATO into a direct conflict with Moscow. – Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will attend a NATO defence ministers’ meeting on Thursday, according to NATO’s revised agenda published late on Wednesday. – Reuters
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday about efforts to surge security assistance to Ukraine and announced a new $425 million military aid package, the White House said. – Reuters
As Russian forces grind their way towards the strategic supply hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, they are also approaching a coking coal mine that fires the country’s vital steel industry. – Reuters
Russian forces captured two villages in eastern Ukraine – Krasnyi Yar in Donetsk region and Nevske in Luhansk region, Russian state-run news agency TASS cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying on Wednesday. – Reuters
Ukraine is asking for a NATO membership invitation before Joe Biden leaves the White House, arguing it would be a fitting legacy for the U.S. president, a senior Ukrainian diplomat said. – Reuters
Ukraine called on its allies on Wednesday to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang after it said North Korea had become a de facto participant in the war in Ukraine on Russia’s side. – Reuters
A Russian military officer who had recently returned from fighting in Ukraine has been assassinated in what looks like an organised hit in a village in the Moscow region, the TASS state news agency reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
Australia will give 49 of its aging M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine months after Kyiv requested the redundant fleet, Defense Minister Richard Marles said Thursday. – Associated Press
Leaders and top officials from an international group founded to counter Western alliances met in Pakistan’s capital Wednesday, with Moscow and Beijing announcing they will boost cooperation. – Associated Press
Maria Domanska writes: Even if Russia never signs on to Western interests and goals, aggression and war crimes do not have to remain part of its foreign policy. Change is possible, but it will require long-term, coordinated efforts of the democratic West in the face of the biggest security threat since 1945. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Olga Lautman writes: Holding Russia’s Western and undercover enablers accountable is critical to dismantling these networks. The implications of inaction are profound and the resilience of Western democracies hinges on our ability to confront and counteract the relentless onslaught of Russian disinformation and malign influence operations. – Center for European Policy Analysis
Hezbollah
The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday on what it described as a Lebanon-based sanctions evasion network that funnels millions of dollars to Hezbollah. – Reuters
Israel has a right to target Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah even as it may be hiding in civilian buildings in Lebanon, but should do so in a way that protects civilians, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Israeli Navy officials say that Hezbollah still has a functioning naval arm that possesses anti-ship missiles and potentially naval ballistic missiles as well. – Jerusalem Post
Lebanon
For years, a helpful, middle-aged man lived in the basement apartment of a seven-story residential building on a hillside. Some neighbors in Ain el-Delb said they knew that he was connected to Hezbollah, the militant group. But they said they didn’t think he was important enough to be an Israeli target. – Wall Street Journal
Israeli airstrikes hit a municipal building in southern Lebanon, killing the city’s mayor and at least 15 others, according to state media, during an air raid that Israel said was targeting Hezbollah. – Wall Street Journal
At dusk, the parking lot of Tripoli’s Quality Inn is packed with cars and families milling about. Children’s shouts fill the air, reminding some of better times, when the hotel hosted weddings and birthdays parties. – New York Times
European Union countries that contribute to U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL in Lebanon have no intention of pulling back from the south of the country despite Israeli calls to do so, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said. – Reuters
The 16 EU countries contributing to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon believe its rules of engagement need to be more effective, the Italian defence ministry said on Wednesday, although that hinged on Israel stopping its operations. – Reuters
Joumana Haddad writes: The world’s criminality and inhumanity as these concurrent tragedies unfold leave me deeply shocked. At the highest governing levels, there’s no urgency to remedy this situation — just empty promises and condemnations to appease guilty consciences. I don’t know if we can afford hope. The darkness feels endless. Where can hope come from? Cynicism prevails in global politics. Every moment here feels borrowed or reminds us of life’s fragility. Every breath feels like an act of defiance. Perhaps our only hope is us. – New York Times
Marc Champion writes: It is not and should not be up to Israel to make the call on whether to end the UN mission in Lebanon. That’s for the Security Council to decide. Unifil certainly failed to enforce its key mandate of expelling armed Hezbollah fighters from areas bordering Israel, yet it was never given the power to do so. This has been a collective failure of states, with all too much blame to share around. Those bearing responsiblity include the UN Security Council members making the decisions on Unifil’s mandates, Iran, Lebanon itself, and last but by no means least, Israel. – Bloomberg
Gil Troy writes: Similarly, Hezbollah terrorists Sopranoed your country, hiding behind Lebanon’s legitimacy and its parliamentary system, to wreak havoc. It’s in their nature, too. That’s why we need your help explaining to the world that the first step in our shared road to liberation from these psychopaths begins with the international community guaranteeing a sweeping Hezbollah – and Iranian – defeat. It’s for our sake, certainly. But for your sake, too. – Jerusalem Post
Arabian Peninsula
The U.S. military conducted airstrikes in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Houthis, targeting five underground weapons storage sites, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement late Wednesday. The strikes were carried out by B-2 Spirit bombers, marking the first use of these strategic stealth bombers against the Houthis. – Washington Post
Qatar’s prime minister said on Wednesday that there had been no conversations or engagement with any parties for the last three to four weeks to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia’s Manara Minerals is closing in on a deal to buy a minority stake in Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals’ (FM.TO), Zambian copper and nickel assets, three people familiar with the details told Reuters. – Reuters
The European Union held its first summit with the Gulf states on Wednesday, part of EU diplomatic courting ofless familiar friends as it seeks new economic allies and enlists international support to isolate Russia. – Reuters
Michael Singh writes: A U.S.-Saudi defense treaty could help to ameliorate this dynamic in the Middle East, both by tightening the bonds between Washington and one of its most important partners in the region and by putting those partners in a better position to address crises on their own. Some may worry that the treaty would trap the United States in the Middle East. In reality, a closer bilateral partnership on defense could over time limit Chinese inroads in the region, bolster Riyadh’s and other partners’ capacities to act without U.S. intervention, and even bring Saudi Arabia deeper into common efforts to tackle global challenges. – Foreign Affairs
Middle East & North Africa
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Wednesday replaced his powerful spy chief, who played an instrumental role in brokering cease-fire and hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas. – Wall Street Journal
Any solution to the rapidly expanding regional conflict that has spread to Lebanon and beyond hinges on a resolution of the original crisis in Gaza, a senior Hamas official said on Wednesday. – Reuters
An Israeli strike targeting Syria’s Mediterranean port city of Latakia early on Thursday resulted in fires breaking out there, Syrian state news agency SANA reported. – Reuters
Noam Raydan writes: The trade patterns that have emerged since early 2024 due to the Houthi attacks are expected to remain until 2025 and even beyond. The precise trends will depend on the trajectories of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, since the Houthis have linked their maritime campaign to both. While attacks in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden dropped in September and October compared to previous months, the region remains a very high-risk area for shipping. The Houthis even have the ability to expand their activities, particularly drone attacks, to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. – Washington Institute
Kenneth M. Pollack writes: It’s possible to conjure black swan events—such as an Iranian-backed terrorist attack on Israel that kills hundreds or thousands of Israeli citizens—that could cause one side or the other to try to do more damage to the other in return. But the far more likely prospect is that even a wider conflict would remain constrained by the limitations of distance, diplomacy, and strategy that have shaped the war that is already underway. – Foreign Affairs
Korean Peninsula
Ukraine and South Korea are raising concerns over the growing military alliance between Russia and North Korea, which they say now has boots on the ground in occupied Ukraine and continues to ship missiles and artillery shells to Russia. – Wall Street Journal
The war in Ukraine is providing North Korea’s military with something it has long hoped for: opportunities to test its new weapons and its officers’ preparedness for modern warfare, analysts and officials in South Korea said on Wednesday. – New York Times
South Korea will prepare stronger measures in a bid to prevent overseas leaks of business secrets amid intensifying competition for advanced technologies, the finance minister said on Thursday. – Reuters
North Korea has designated South Korea a “hostile state”, its state media said on Thursday, confirming that its national assembly had amended the constitution in line with their leader’s vow to drop unification as a national goal. – Reuters
Russia is training in Siberia a battalion of 3,000 North Korean soldiers to fight in Ukraine, multiple Ukrainian sources say. Dubbed “the Buryat Battalion,” the Korean People’s Army soldiers are training in Buryatia, a Russian republic whose Mongolian-ancestry inhabitants share linguistic and cultural affinities with Koreans. – New York Sun
China
The large-scale military drills China held this week were aimed at demonstrating its potential to choke Taiwan’s access to food and fuel and block the skies and waters from which the United States and its allies would presumably approach in coming to the island’s defense. – New York Times
Alongside its most high-profile tactic—sending a message of military dominance—China is employing what Taiwan says is an expanding army of hackers, diplomats, prosecutors and celebrities in its effort to persuade Taiwan to submit to Beijing. – Wall Street Journal
China is building its capacity to rapidly turn military drills into a full-out attack, a senior Taiwan security official said, providing the Taipei government’s assessment of the strategic intent behind Beijing’s war games around the island this week. – Reuters
China’s Premier Li Qiang proposed closer three-way ties with Russia and Mongolia at a meeting on Wednesday with counterparts from his neighbours held on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, state media said. – Reuters
A China-led 10-state regional group criticised what it called protectionist trade measures on Wednesday, part of an intensifying standoff between Beijing and Western countries over tariffs on Chinese products. – Reuters
Editorial: All of which underscores the urgent need to buttress deterrence against a blockade or invasion. This means more civil defense training and military spending in Taiwan, and faster U.S. weapons delivery. It also means rebuilding U.S. military forces in the Western Pacific, especially long-range missiles. The next U.S. President could easily face a Taiwan crisis. – Wall Street Journal
James Holmes writes: Once upon a time, Beijing went out of its way to allay anxieties roused by its power and ambition. Then it stopped. Its new charm offensive would prove likewise perishable, to be jettisoned once the party felt at liberty to resume its campaign for sovereignty within the nine-dashed line. In short, China might muffle its territorial claims for a time for the sake of expediency. It will never forswear them. – National Interest
Dylan Motin writes: This does not imply that even limited attacks against the Chinese mainland would be without consequences. Although Moscow did not escalate to the nuclear level, attacks within Russia might have hardened the Kremlin’s and the Russian people’s resolution to prosecute the war. It also retaliated by harming Western interests elsewhere. Limited attacks against China would surely come with retaliations, but hopefully not nuclear. – National Interest
South Asia
Britain said on Wednesday India’s cooperation with Canada’s legal process was “the right next step” in the ongoing diplomatic row between the two countries, adding that it had full confidence in Canada’s judicial system. – Reuters
Indians in Punjab, worried that plans to work, study or visit families in Canada will be jeopardised by this week’s tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats over the murder of a Sikh separatist, are urging both governments to reduce the tension. – Reuters
A meeting between the U.S. and India on a probe into a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist on American soil was productive, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday, adding Washington was satisfied with India’s cooperation. – Reuters
Asia
Japan’s ruling party may lose its majority in the lower house, according to media polling ahead of the Oct. 27 election, meaning it would likely have to rely on coalition partner Komeito to stay in power. – Reuters
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sent an offering to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, his office said on Thursday, drawing criticism from South Korea which views the shrine as a symbol of Japan’s militaristic past. – Reuters
Indonesia’s incoming leader Prabowo Subianto briefed his would-be ministers on Wednesday on economic and geopolitical issues ahead of his Sunday inauguration, his spokesperson said, as his cabinet assessments continued. – Reuters
Any deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons to Japan in the framework of an “Asian NATO” would lead to a collapse in regional stability, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Editorial: Yes, this is a climate conference, and global warming is a problem that affects all countries and demands common effort, regardless of politics. But these facts do not require lending prestige and legitimacy to unsavory regimes on an annual basis. A better approach might be picking a permanent host country with strong environmental credentials and democratic commitments — Costa Rica, say — and ending this cycle once and for all. – Washington Post
Europe
Indra Sistemas IDR is set to embark on a merger-and-acquisition campaign in a bid to strengthen its position as a defense contractor in Spain, its executive chairman said. – Wall Street Journal
Behind a high metal fence close to the edge of Europe, Italy’s far-right government is rolling out what it says could be a model for solving one of the West’s most politically charged problems: illegal migration. – Washington Post
European airlines urged Brussels on Wednesday to do more to secure a level playing field in the industry, complaining that Chinese rivals enjoy a huge cost advantage because they can fly over Russia and do not face extra environmental costs. – Reuters
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Moscow would retaliate against Norway over Oslo’s decision to cut Russian diplomatic staff. – Reuters
Britain is considering sanctioning Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over comments they made about civilians in Gaza and West Bank settlers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday he would protect his country’s eastern border, dismissing criticism that a plan to temporarily stop accepting asylum applications violated human rights. – Reuters
President Joe Biden will depart on Thursday for a trip to Germany, after rescheduling a visit last week because of Hurricane Milton striking the U.S., the White House said on Wednesday. – Reuters
William H. Hill writes: Georgia was once moving on an enthusiastic pro-Western path but now seems to be sliding back into Moscow’s orbit. This may not now appear to be the most likely outcome in Moldova. But it is a dangerous enough one that Chisinau and its Western supporters must work hard to avoid it. – Foreign Affairs
Africa
A fuel tanker overturned late on Tuesday in Nigeria’s northern state of Jigawa after the driver lost control of the vehicle, spilling petrol which exploded and killed at least 147 people, police and state emergency services said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Kenya’s senate began impeachment hearings against Kenya’s deputy president on Wednesday, hours after a court said the proceedings were constitutional, clearing the way for a vote on his dismissal this week. – Reuters
Kenya is in discussions with the United Arab Emirates for a $1.5 billion commercial loan with an 8.25% interest rate and a seven-year tenor, Finance Minister John Mbadi said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Mozambique’s ruling party Frelimo was leading provisional election results in all 11 provinces on Wednesday, while opposition parties cried fraud and one called for a strike. – Reuters
The Americas
A former top public security official in Mexico on Wednesday was sentenced to more than 38 years in U.S. federal prison for accepting millions of dollars in bribes to allow Sinaloa cartel narcotics traffickers to operate with impunity under his watch. – Washington Post
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau comes under increasing fire for his handling of foreign meddling in Canada, he went on the attack on Wednesday, criticizing both the country’s main opposition party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. – New York Times
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday some members of the official opposition Conservative Party could be involved in foreign interference and alleged the party was not taking the matter seriously. – Reuters
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday India made “a horrific mistake” by thinking it could interfere as aggressively as it allegedly did in Canada’s sovereignty. – Reuters
A wooden fence, warped and battered by a crashing vehicle, is the only sign on this quiet dirt road of the six migrants killed by Mexican soldiers who opened fire on a pick-up truck here earlier this month. – Reuters
Canada on Wednesday notably toughened its tone with Israel, condemning Israeli strikes on civilian infrastructure in Gaza and United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon and demanded the attacks stop immediately. – Reuters
Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes instructed the government to request the extradition of 63 Brazilian nationals currently in Argentina who are linked to an alleged 2023 coup attempt, the court said on Wednesday. – Reuters
The prime ministers of India and Canada could benefit politically in the short term from the unprecedented expulsion of top diplomats from each country, analysts said on Tuesday. – Reuters
After Canadian tax authorities revoked the charitable status of the Ne’eman Foundation in August, the organization, which distributes funds to various causes in Israel, began instructing prospective donors to contribute through another recently formed Canadian charity. – Times of Israel
In a rare move, the Israeli government has released a detailed report singling out Canada as a hotbed of antisemitism since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. – National Post
United States
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hoped the ongoing violence in the Middle East might simmer below the surface in the final weeks of the presidential race, but fresh Israeli military offensives are making that virtually impossible, U.S. officials and campaign aides say. – Washington Post
An outspoken pro-Israel professor at Columbia University has been temporarily barred from campus, a university spokesperson said Wednesday. – Associated Press
Latino and Hispanic voters are viewed as a critical, up-for-grabs bloc this election cycle […] These voters were bombarded with Spanish-speaking mis- and disinformation in the final weeks of the 2022 and 2020 elections, and some Latino groups are sounding the alarm again this year. – CyberScoop
Cybersecurity
An influential Chinese industry group called for a cybersecurity review of Intel’s products, threatening to embroil the chip maker in a new round of U.S.-China tension over technology as it contends with other big challenges in its business. – Wall Street Journal
The batteries inside the weaponised pagers that arrived in Lebanon at the start of the year, part of an Israeli plot to decimate Hezbollah, had powerfully deceptive features and an Achilles’ heel. – Reuters
Russia is using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to ramp up disinformation campaigns against Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official told Reuters on Wednesday on the sidelines of a cyber conference, branding them a global danger. – Reuters
Two Sudanese nationals were indicted by US prosecutors for their alleged participation in a group known as “Anonymous Sudan” that conducted cyberattacks against US government agencies, airports and a major hospital in Los Angeles. – Bloomberg
If your remote employee insists on using their own devices, won’t show up on webcam and frequently changes their payment services, you may have accidentally hired a North Korean operative. – CyberScoop
Iranian hackers are aggressively trying to crack passwords in the health care, government, information technology, energy and engineering sectors, an advisory from U.S., Canadian and Australian cyber agencies said Wednesday. – CyberScoop
The United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has “already responded to 50% more nationally significant incidents compared to last year,” its new chief executive announced on Wednesday. – The Record
Federal law enforcement in Brazil arrested a hacker allegedly behind several brazen, high-profile cyberattacks. – The Record
The Russian military prosecutor’s office is reportedly pushing for prison sentences of up to 6.5 years for four people linked to the hacking group REvil. – The Record
Hackers have targeted the devices of Ukraine’s draft-aged men with MeduzaStealer malware spread through Telegram, researchers have found. – The Record
Nick Benequista writes: The draft cybercrime convention can still be rejected if fewer than 40 states are willing to ratify on the floor of the U.N. It could, albeit with great effort, still be amended to provide meaningful safeguards against cybercrime without criminalizing journalism. But for either of those outcomes, the convention would have to receive a great deal more attention. Journalists, who are among those with the most to lose, can help by asking their governments to declare their stance on the draft treaty. – The Hill
Defense
The Army’s annual exercise focused on refining its Positioning, Navigation and Timing capabilities, called PNTAX, will widen its aperture in future years, the Army’s new All-Domain Sensing Cross Functional Team lead told Defense News. – Defense News
The Army plans to choose next spring one winner out of four vendors competing to build the base platform for its Robotic Combat Vehicle, or RCV, according to Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, program executive officer for ground combat systems. – Defense News
Two industry teams competing to design a Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle replacement have completed preliminary design reviews, clearing a hurdle ahead of the next milestone in 2025, Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, Army program executive officer for ground combat systems, said. – Defense News
RTX Corporation, the defense contractor formerly known as Raytheon, agreed Wednesday to pay more than $950 million to resolve allegations that it defrauded the government and paid bribes to secure business with Qatar. – Defense News
The Army has launched a new way for soldiers at any level to glean valuable lessons from the combat-tested, seasoned enlisted leaders in its ranks. – Defense News
Nicholas Judson and Craig Poulin write: Current approaches to mission assurance are ill-equipped to address surprise during degraded operations and contingency scenarios. Chaos engineering for national defense provides an alternative vision and a way to understand and manage the inherent complexity of infrastructure under stress. To prepare for when operational capability is most essential — when “the balloon goes up” — the Department of Defense can minimize the risk of fundamental surprise through deliberate experimentation. In preparing for future conflicts, complexity cannot be eliminated — so it must be embraced. – War on the Rocks
Jeffrey Reeves writes: Admiral Paparo’s “prevail” concept represents a bold evolution in U.S. military operations in the Indo-Pacific. As China continues to assert its influence, the United States must be prepared not only to deter but to win conflicts decisively if necessary. However, for this model to succeed, it must be paired with diplomatic finesse and careful communication with regional partners to ensure that military readiness does not come at the cost of long-term stability. – National Interest