Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Israeli review shows minor damage from Iran’s missile barrage Israel reports first deaths in Lebanon and bolsters forces fighting Hezbollah Iranian missile strike on Israel shows capability for greater scale, complexity The Atlantic’s Arash Azizi: Iran is not ready for war with Israel The Free Press’ Eli Lake: Let Israel win the war Iran started Biden won’t support a strike on Iran nuclear sites as Israel weighs response to Iran missile attack Iran exposed to Israeli counterattack after blows against its allies WSJ Editorial: Biden protects Iran’s nuclear program Three killed in Israeli strike on Damascus, Syrian state media says Islamic State ambush kills four Iraqi soldiers near Kirkuk WINEP’s Matthew Levitt: Hezbollah is weakened, but still dangerous Yemen's Houthis say they targeted Israeli military posts with rocketsIn The News
Israel
An initial Israeli assessment Wednesday of the damage from roughly 180 missiles fired a day earlier by Iran indicated largely minor damage to dozens of houses and other civilian infrastructure in the country’s densely populated center and to a few military bases. The aerial attack has escalated a yearlong conflict in the Middle East. – Wall Street Journal
Eight soldiers were killed in the first casualties of Israel’s ground campaign in Lebanon, the Israeli military said Wednesday, as it sent additional troops to bolster forces engaged in close fighting with the militant group Hezbollah. – Wall Street Journal
The White House is working to limit the Israeli response to the barrage of ballistic missiles that Iran fired into the country Tuesday, as some U.S. officials worry the Middle East could be edging closer to the all-out war that President Joe Biden has sought to prevent for nearly a year. – Washington Post
The United Nations on Wednesday called Israel’s ban on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres entering the country a political statement by its foreign minister and stressed that the world body’s contacts with Israel will continue “because they have to.” – Associated Press
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that regular infantry and armoured units were joining ground operations in southern Lebanon, but said they would remain limited and localised in scope. – Reuters
The Iranian ballistic missile attack against Israel on Tuesday was larger, more complex and involved more advanced weapons than the strikes in April, experts say, putting greater stress on missile defences and allowing more warheads to get through. – Reuters
The United Nations is making preparations to start in mid-October a second round of vaccinating some 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip against polio, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday. – Reuters
The Israeli army said sirens that sounded early on Thursday in the community of Nahal Oz near the Gaza strip were determined to be due to a “false identification”. It did not provide further details. – Reuters
The Israeli military on Wednesday acknowledged that some of its airbases were hit in Iran’s massive ballistic missile attack on the country a night earlier, but stressed that no harm was caused to the functioning of the Israeli Air Force. – Times of Israel
Hamas has refused to take part in negotiations for a hostage release-ceasefire deal for the past several weeks, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday. – Jerusalem Post
Israel’s multilayered air defense systems prevented what could have resulted in significant casualties and damage across the country from Tuesday’s Iranian missile barrage. – Washington Examiner
Israeli leaders vowed to retaliate against Iran for Tuesday’s ballistic missile barrage, though it is unclear how and when they will do that. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed that Tehran would “pay for” the attack and met with the heads of the security establishment on Wednesday at the Kirya, the Israeli equivalent of the Pentagon, in Tel Aviv. – Washington Examiner
The US has announced that it’s giving the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank additional humanitarian aid worth $336 million. But in response to all the US support during the war (and prior), the Palestinian Authority (PA) is relentlessly demonizing the US as being the aggressor and mastermind behind Israel’s war against the Hamas and Hezbollah terror organizations, regardless of the fact that both terror organizations first attacked and continue to attack Israel and Israeli civilians. – Algemeiner
Arash Azizi writes: In the past couple of weeks, Israel’s blitzkrieg actions against Hezbollah have neutralized Iran’s most potent threat—that of Hamas and Hezbollah missiles pointing at Israel from two directions. Some observers have compared the moment to 1967, when Israel decisively defeated Jordan, Syria, and Egypt in the Six-Day War. Israel seemingly holds all the cards; it could still choose to “take the win,” as President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu to do back in April, and carve a new place for itself in the region through diplomacy. In one sign of the possibility for goodwill, as in April, Arab states such as Jordan intercepted some of the Iranian missiles aimed at Israel. – The Atlantic
Aaron David Miller and Lauren Morganbesser write: The story is told of the U.S. Secretary of State, who on a diplomatic mission to London, Moscow, and Jerusalem, decided to take a break and look for some new clothes. In each city, the secretary went to the tailor to ask, “For $100, what can you make me?” The British tailor offered to make a sweater and a tie. The Russian tailor could make a vest and a pair of pants for that sum. But in Jerusalem, the answer came as a surprise. “For $100 I can make you several shirts, a sport coat, and I’ll throw in a few pairs of pants,” the Israeli tailor said. Stunned, the U.S. diplomat asked how the same money could buy so much more in Israel. “It’s really quite simple,” the tailor replied: “Out here, you’re not so big.” – Foreign Policy
David E. Rosenberg writes: The Israeli assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week made a lot of Israelis happy—but probably no one quite as much as Benjamin Netanyahu. His joy marks a sudden reversal after the most difficult year in his political career. Try as he did, he could not remove the stain of the failure to prevent Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre. Meanwhile, Israel was enduring months of indecisive warfare with Hezbollah and an ongoing hostage ordeal in Gaza. – Foreign Policy
Douglas Murray writes: Israel’s enemies have spent the past year trying to destroy it, as they have so many times before. But it is they who have gone to the dust, with the regime in Tehran the only thing that is, for the time being, still standing. Absent that terror regime, and not just Israel but the whole of the Middle East has a bright future. Sometimes you need war to make peace. Sometimes there is a price to pay for trying to finish the work of Adolf Hitler. Who knew? – The Spectator
Eli Lake writes: In other words, if Sullivan and Biden are serious, now would be the time to take off the handcuffs. Israel has vast capabilities—as it has shown in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, and Iran over the last year. But it’s even more capable when its chief ally supports its mission. So why not give Israel the green light and help it defang the chief cause of regional instability, the Iranian regime? Through pluck, daring, and ingenuity, Israel changed the dynamics of the war last month. Iran is wobbling. The win is there if the president takes it. – The Free Press
Newt Gingrich writes: This campaign is a well thought out, focused Israeli effort to break the back of the terrorist alliance which threatens Israel’s survival — and peace in the region. When Israel wins — and it will — the global elites’ appeasing delusions will be shattered. A new consensus will emerge that Mr. Netanyahu’s realism is a better path to safety than the Biden-Harris fantasy. – New York Sun
Michael Hirsh writes: That, in sum, is the conclusion of many military and national security experts following several months of devastating—and mostly unanswered—Israeli attacks. Since the spring, these operations have killed off senior commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); taken out Hamas’s political leader in the heart of Tehran and its top general in Gaza; and with a stunningly swift series of sophisticated blows both disabled and decapitated Hezbollah. – Foreign Policy
Daniel Byman writes: The greater destructiveness of the Israeli campaign may make Hezbollah more cautious this time, especially if Israel backs it up with continued strikes in response to buffer zone violations. However, maintaining that consistently over time is a difficult feat. The best hope for Israel is that it pushes Hezbollah back and the United States can negotiate a ceasefire. Hezbollah would then lick its many wounds. Israel, in turn, would again fall back on keeping Hezbollah deterred, with both sides preparing to fight another day. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Iran
With two of Iran’s most powerful proxies—Hezbollah and Hamas—fighting for their lives, Tehran has lost a central pillar of its deterrence strategy, giving Israel an opening to strike what it sees as its most dangerous foe. – Wall Street Journal
For years, Israel and Iran avoided direct confrontation, as Israel secretly sabotaged Tehran’s interests and assassinated its officials without claiming responsibility, and Iran encouraged allies to attack Israel while rarely doing so itself. Now, the two countries seem prepared to risk a direct, prolonged and extraordinarily costly conflict. – New York Times
The premise behind the question from Margaret Brennan of CBS News, one of the debate’s moderators, highlights a popular confusion over what it takes to build a usable nuclear bomb. Nuclear experts said on Wednesday that it would take Iran not weeks to make a nuclear weapon, but months and possibly as long as a year. – New York Times
President Joe Biden said Wednesday he will not support an Israeli strike on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program in response to Iran’s missile attack on Israel. – Associated Press
At Tehran’s central Valiasr Square, a towering billboard with a yellow-and-green portrait of slain Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah looms over passing pedestrians. A Quranic verse proclaims: “God’s victory is close at hand.” – Reuters
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said. – Reuters
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of a strong response from Tehran to any further Israeli actions against it and sought to rally Asian countries to its side as he visited Qatar on Wednesday. – Reuters
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday told the West to “get lost” from the Middle East after his country launched a massive barrage of missiles at Israel — as Israeli officials vowed payback within days over the Iranian strikes. – New York Post
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed that Iran wants peace in the Middle East during a joint press conference in Doha with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Wednesday. – Jerusalem Post
Iranian president Massoud Pezeshkian met with Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, in Qatar, N12 reported Thursday morning. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: All evidence suggests that Iran continues to move closer to building a nuclear weapon it could deliver on ballistic missiles. If that happens, the world becomes far more dangerous and Israel far more vulnerable. If Mr. Biden won’t take this opportunity to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, the least he can do is not stop Israel from doing the job for its own self-preservation. – Wall Street Journal
Isaac Schorr writes: President George W. Bush first identified Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an “axis of evil” in January 2002, just months after 9/11 — and rightly so. Now a more powerful, more interconnected, and more unpredictable axis is rearing its ugly head. It’s a moral as well as a strategic imperative that the United States head this one off before it sows more death and destruction across the globe. And that means not only believing the hard truth staring us in the face, but rebuking those who deny it. – New York Post
Brendan O’Neill writes: Few things in politics are simple. One should always tease out the complexities, embrace the nuance. But to my mind, what is happening right now is pretty straightforward. You are either on the side of a barbarous theocratic regime that oppresses and murders women, workers and minorities and whose allies recently carried out the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, or you are on the side of Israel. It’s time to choose. – New York Post
Eliot A. Cohen writes: For the second time in less than half a year, Iran has hurled hundreds of missiles at Israel. Although Iran technically launched more weapons at Israel in April, only 120 of those were ballistic missiles—a smaller salvo than the more than 180 ballistic missiles used this time. The drones and cruise missiles used in April were more easily intercepted and shot down by Israeli, American, and European air defenses, working in cooperation with some of Israel’s Arab partners. According to early reports, miraculously enough, no Israelis were killed in this latest barrage, although falling debris killed a Palestinian in Jenin, on the West Bank. – The Atlantic
Russia & Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday approved a new law that will exempt Russian defendants and suspects who have signed up to fight in the army from criminal liability. – Washington Post
The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that it was ordering the last of its forces to retreat from the ruins of Vuhledar, a mining town that had served as a vital defensive bastion for nearly three years in eastern Ukraine, after it was stormed by Russian troops. – New York Times
What the Kremlin wants from Russians now boils down to two things. Men should join the army. Women should have more children. – New York Times
On the morning of April 1, President Joe Biden’s top national security aides had a stern message to deliver to Israel as it prepared to launch a military operation in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah: Its northern Gaza offensive against Hamas militants had already killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians. The same thing could not happen again. – Washington Post
A Russian guided bomb struck a five-storey apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, late on Wednesday, starting fires and injuring at least 10 people, local officials said. – Reuters
In years past, the staff of the Moscow weekly Sobesednik would throw a party each February to toast the newspaper’s anniversary. On its 40th birthday this year, journalists instead gathered nervously in a room at the editorial offices in the Russian capital. In another sat a colonel from a shadowy branch of Russia’s interior ministry – the Centre for Combating Extremism – calling reporters in one-by-one for questioning, editor-in-chief Oleg Roldugin recalled. – Reuters
Four Russian journalists went on trial in Moscow on Wednesday on charges of involvement in an “extremist” group after authorities accused them of working for the banned organisation of the late dissident Alexei Navalny. – Reuters
Russia has dismissed the possibility of nuclear talks with the United States citing Washington’s stance on NATO expansion, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Ukraine can produce four million drones annually and is quickly ramping up its production of other weapons, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in comments authorised for publication on Wednesday. – Reuters
President Zelensky returned home empty handed from Washington last weekend. President Biden refused to authorize use of American, British, and French “long range” missiles on military targets as deep as 190 miles inside Russia. – New York Sun
Lawrence Friedman writes: Nor does this mean that there are no circumstances in which Mr. Putin might consider using nuclear weapons. The scenario he has mentioned most is one in which NATO forces are fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, a situation that could quickly put Russian forces on the back foot. That is a scenario in which we can imagine a desperate Mr. Putin being prepared to embark on a wider war. He finds himself caught in the classic paradox of the nuclear age. He does not consider himself irrational, but to make his threats credible, he has to rely on his adversaries’ thinking that he might be a bit crazy. – New York Times
Eliot Wilson writes: Putin’s fundamental doctrine remains that of most nuclear powers: a first strike is almost unthinkable, and would only enter consideration in the face of a genuinely existential threat. If Ukrainian forces were 50 miles outside Moscow, perhaps Putin’s finger might twitch on the trigger. But intimidation and misdirection are straight from the spook’s playbook: KGB Colonel Putin may not go nuclear, but he will be happy for the West to think he might, if it means that we hold back in our support for Ukraine. – The Hill
Doug Livermore writes: The Sarmat 2 failure presents a useful moment for NATO to reassess its nuclear deterrence, especially given the ongoing war in Ukraine. While the test highlights vulnerabilities in Russia’s nuclear forces, it also underscores the potential dangers of a Russia that feels increasingly cornered by its military failures. By maintaining a credible strategic and tactical deterrent, enhancing missile defenses, fostering diplomatic engagement, and promoting arms control, NATO can ensure continued deterrence against a nuclear exchange. – Centre for European Policy Analysis
Maxim Starchak writes: Thus the changes in the nuclear doctrine actually confirm principles already established in Russian military practice. The participation of nuclear states in aggression against non-nuclear states carries the danger of escalation into a global conflict. Russia’s statements do clarify some areas, but the fundamental conditions for the use of its nuclear weapons remain unchanged — a nuclear response will follow events that threaten the very existence of the state (meaning the existence of the current regime) and the threat of nuclear weapons use is the foundation of its power. – Centre for European Policy Analysis
Nico Lange writes: The West’s current strategy is the most protracted and expensive imaginable. Politicians should not succumb to the illusion that pandering to peace populists and Kremlin mouthpieces will bring the conflict closer to a solution. This will only encourage Putin to wage further war and make further demands. The situation for Ukraine is difficult but could be turned around by strong partners with manageable means. If the US and the major European states spoke and acted like Mette Frederiksen, Petr Pavel, Kaja Kallas or Gabrielius Landsbergis, an end to the war could be achieved quickly. – Centre for European Policy Analysis
Hezbollah
Hezbollah’s Unit 910, referred to as the Shadow Unit and the Black Unit, is a clandestine unit overseen by senior operative Talal Hosni Hamiyah, also known as Abu Jaafar, who is a member of the Jihad Council. The unit serves as Hezbollah’s operational branch for executing missions and terrorist activities beyond Lebanon, and is also utilized by Iran, particularly by its intelligence agency and the Quds Force of the IRGC. – Arutz Sheva
Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon is reassuring for Turkey, which could seize the opportunity to strengthen its regional influence in the face of its rival Iran, analysts have said. – Agence France-Presse
Matthew Levitt writes: Even Iranian ballistic missile strikes targeting Israel cannot mask the fact that Hezbollah, the jewel in the crown of Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance”, no longer exists as we knew it. And since Hezbollah was the backbone of this network of militant proxies, Iran’s strategy of arming and deploying these groups throughout the region is suddenly at risk. – Washington Institute
Sean Durns writes: Of course, Nasrallah was nothing of the sort. He was a murderer who was good at organizing and inspiring other murderers. And he hasn’t brought “victory” to Hezbollah. Instead, his decision to continue to escalate after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack has brought decimation and disaster to the terrorist group — and possibly to the Lebanese people themselves. Whether their leaders have the good sense to realize that fact is, at best, in doubt. – Washington Examiner
Lebanon
Israel and Hezbollah were fighting at close range in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in at least two areas near the border, according to reports from the Israeli military, Hezbollah and Lebanon’s army. – New York Times
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Wednesday the country needed a ceasefire in hostilities between Israel and armed group Hezbollah, saying around 1.2 million people in Lebanon had been displaced by Israeli attacks. – Reuters
More than 200 Chinese citizens have been safely evacuated from Lebanon by the government, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
Western nations have drafted contingency plans to evacuate citizens from Lebanon after a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah, coupled with Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Tuesday. – Reuters
Israel bombed Beirut early on Thursday, killing at least six people, after its forces suffered their deadliest day on the Lebanese front in a year of clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah. – Reuters
Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon has prompted a renewed bid by some leading Lebanese politicians to fill a two-year-long presidential vacuum, an effort to revive the paralysed state as it grapples with an escalating conflict. – Reuters
Israel pressed forward on two fronts Wednesday, pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah that left eight Israeli soldiers dead and conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. – Associated Press
When Israel bombed buildings outside the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, Mohamed Arkadan and his team rushed to an emergency unlike anything they had ever seen. – Associated Press
Keith Johnson writes: What ended Israel’s last invasion of Lebanon in 2006—and made the latest incursion all but inevitable—is a once-heralded U.N. resolution honored more in the breach than the observance. The sad saga and uncertain future of Resolution 1701 act as a mirror to nearly everything that has happened between Israel and Lebanon in the 18 years since it was passed. – Foreign Policy
Bonnie Glick writes: It is time for leaders in the U.S., France, the EU, the UK, the World Bank, the IMF, and the UN to stop making excuses for Lebanon and to start demanding a housecleaning. There is simply no reason for Beirut’s kleptocrats to change when they know there are bailouts coming. The time for bailouts must end. America is the most generous country in the history of the world, but American taxpayers deserve better than having their hard-earned tax dollars squandered on foreign ne’er-do-wells who are best friends with terrorists. We should end all direct budget support to Lebanon and should curtail any further assistance until Lebanon can demonstrate it is worthy of it. – Townhall
Syria
Three civilians were killed and three wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Syria’s capital Damascus on Wednesday, the Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a military source as saying. – Reuters
Hassan Nasrallah’s son-in-law, Hassan Jafar Qassir, may have been killed in airstrikes in the Mezzeh neighborhood in Damascus on Wednesday, according to early reports published by Sky News Arabic. – Jerusalem Post
Israel allegedly struck targets on coastal cities in western Syria, the country’s state media claimed on Thursday. They were targeting a weapons depot in the Jableh countryside on the Syrian coast, according to the Saudi news channel Al-Hadath, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. – Jerusalem Post
Iraq
Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and three injured on Wednesday in an ambush by Islamic State militants on an army convoy southwest of the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, a military statement said. – Reuters
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday that former President Trump’s recent remarks downplaying U.S. troop brain injuries in Iraq are “obviously not accurate.” “Yeah, that’s, that’s obviously not accurate,” he responded when asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if the former defense official saw those brain injuries as just “headaches.” – The Hill
As the specter of a regional war in the Middle East grows a year after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, with Iran this week firing ballistic missiles at Israel and the IDF sending ground forces to fight Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, one front has remained relatively quiet. However, that reality may be rapidly changing. Iran-backed Iraqi militias have vowed since October 7 to support Hamas’s war effort. Lately, these groups have stepped up their attacks. – Times of Israel
Arabian Peninsula
Several airlines operating in the Gulf have adjusted their flight routes to ensure passenger safety following Iran’s attack on Israel. – Reuters
The Gulf Cooperation Council affirmed its support for Lebanon during such a “critical stage” and called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the council said late on Wednesday after holding an extraordinary ministerial meeting in Doha. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia is hoping for de-escalation and dialogue, Economy Minister Faisal al-Ibrahim said on Wednesday, when asked at a conference in Berlin about the situation in the Middle East following Iran’s missile attack against Israel. – Reuters
Yoana Gonen writes: And yet, Safadi’s words offered not only reproof, but hope. They were a reminder that unlike the stories we’re told, other solutions have been on the table for years, if only we would agree to sit at that table. In today’s Israel, anyone who dares to say this is spewed with scorn and hatred, and even the leaders of the left prefer to talk about the occupation of south Lebanon instead of peace. So it’s lucky that Jordan’s foreign minister grabbed the microphone for a moment. – Haaretz
Yemen
Yemen’s Houthis targeted military posts deep in Israel with three winged ‘Quds 5’ rockets, the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Wednesday. – Reuters
The United States has imposed sanctions on one individual and three companies that have facilitated weapons procurement and smuggling for the Houthis, the State Department announced on Wednesday. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: The U.S. should make clear that Iran must either cease its support for the Houthis or see its forces involved in that support destroyed. The objective of such escalated actions would be to deter Houthi strikes or degrade the group’s ability to carry out attacks. The shift is needed. – Washington Examiner
Middle East & North Africa
Oil rises amid rising Middle East tensions. Earlier this week, Iran launched a missile attack on Israel, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said his country would respond to Iran’s attack. – Wall Street Journal
Group of Seven (G7) leaders expressed “strong concern” on Wednesday over the crisis in the Middle East but said a diplomatic solution was still viable and a region-wide conflict was in no one’s interest, a statement said. – Reuters
Britain said two of its fighter jets and an air-to-air refuelling tanker played a part on Tuesday in attempts to prevent further escalation in the conflict in the Middle East, but that the jets did not engage any targets. – Reuters
OPEC has enough spare oil capacity to compensate for a full loss of Iranian supply if Israel knocks out that country’s facilities but the producer group would struggle if Iran retaliates by hitting installations of its Gulf neighbours. – Reuters
Brian Katulis writes: The wider Middle East region still hangs on the precipice of a deep abyss as the war grinds on, simultaneously adding to broader geopolitical uncertainties in Europe and Asia. The current crisis will likely shape and define America’s relationship with the region for years to come. The Biden administration made some of the same mistakes previous US administrations have made on other foreign policy issues: trying to do too many things at once without putting enough resources into the overall effort in order to achieve success. But the next administration can learn from the past few years to hopefully avoid the same pitfalls. – Middle East Institute
Korean Peninsula
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will hold a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit which will be hosted by Laos next week, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing Yoon’s office. – Reuters
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered on Wednesday military aircraft to be deployed immediately to evacuate its citizens from Israel and other parts of the Middle East amid escalating tension, his office said. – Reuters
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held his first telephone call with Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday and agreed a united response together with the United States is needed to counter North Korea’s threats, his office said. – Reuters
China
China’s Communist Party has for years stoked patriotism in the state media and the country’s classrooms, driving nationalist fervor that at times spun out of control. Now, three stabbing attacks in four months that targeted Japanese and Americans have exposed a dark side of that campaign, what many in China describe as “hate education.” – Wall Street Journal
Chinese firms’ overseas investments in clean energy technology projects have exceeded $100 billion since the start of 2023 as they aim to avoid tariffs in the U.S. and elsewhere, Australian research group Climate Energy Finance (CEF) said on Wednesday. – Reuters
China called on the United Nations Security Council to take “urgent actions” to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East as Israel launched fresh air strikes in Lebanon. – Reuters
Russia stands alongside China on Asian issues, including the criticism of the U.S. drive to extend its influence and “deliberate attempts” to inflame the situation around Taiwan, its foreign minister said in an interview published on Thursday. – Reuters
The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it would ban the import of goods from a Chinese steel manufacturer and a Chinese maker of artificial sweetener, accusing both of being involved in the use of forced labor from China’s far-west region of Xinjiang. – Associated Press
China is marking the 75th year of Communist Party rule as economic challenges and security threats linger over the massive state. – Fox News
Oliver McPherson-Smith writes: Beijing’s global glut of poorly regulated nickel poses a threat to the environment, the plight of workers’ rights and American economic security. And this global flood of nickel is just the latest example of the Communist Party’s weaponization of its mineral dominance to undercut and stymie America’s strategic industries. It is beyond time for the Biden-Harris administration to unleash America’s mineral wealth through sensible permitting reforms and a trade policy that supports American workers and their communities. – The Hill
South Asia
Bangladesh’s interim government has recalled five envoys, including the ambassador to neighbouring India, in a major diplomatic reshuffle, a foreign ministry official said on Thursday. – Reuters
Pakistani security forces have killed at least six insurgents in a raid on their hideout in the country’s restive southwest, officials said Wednesday. – Associated Press
A recent report by the U.S. Institute of Peace highlights the resurgence of scam hubs, particularly in Myanmar’s Karen State, due to China’s softened stance toward the country’s military regime. – Voice of America
Asia
But now, competition for control of the South China Sea is disrupting the repair and badly needed construction of subsea cables, raising costs and at times straining telecommunications, according to interviews with more than 30 people in the subsea cable industry and unpublished industry data. – Washington Post
Vietnam on Wednesday protested to China over what it said was an attack on a Vietnamese fishing boat three days ago in contested South China Sea waters that injured several fishermen. – Reuters
Japan’s foreign and defence ministers said on Wednesday they are not working on a proposal by Japan’s new prime minister to establish an “Asian NATO”, as the U.S. and India had rejected the idea. – Reuters
Thailand has seen a surge in illegal drugs trafficked from neighbouring Myanmar and a sharp increase in methamphetamines and heroin seizures, as a civil war adds fuel to the regional drug trade, a senior Thai counter-narcotics official said. – Reuters
Taiwan’s government said on Thursday that two Chinese nationals had been deported after they harassed a protest held by Hong Kong exiles in Taipei on China’s national day. – Reuters
The armed forces of New Zealand and Australia have swapped deputy commanders at their respective joint forces headquarters, signaling that they consider the defense of their nations an interconnected affair. – Defense News
The Chinese Liaoning Carrier Strike Group is now operating southeast of the Philippine main island of Mindanao and heading toward the Celebes Sea, based on the latest release by Japan’s Joint Staff Office. – USNI News
Europe
Financial markets remain vulnerable to a sharp correction, the Bank of England warned Wednesday as a twice-yearly survey found that geopolitical developments are seen as the greatest threat to stability. – Wall Street Journal
Spanish authorities have called off the search for dozens of passengers on a migrant boat that sank near the island of El Hierro in the Canary Islands over the weekend, killing at least nine people, the maritime rescue service said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Moldova’s opposition challenger to President Maia Sandu’s re-election bid came under fire on Tuesday for holding duel citizenship with neighbouring Romania — a criticism that has also been levelled at Sandu. – Reuters
Danish police said on Wednesday they had apprehended three individuals in connection with the investigation into two blasts near Israel’s embassy in Copenhagen. – Reuters
Canada is working with Nordic countries to create a new Arctic security coalition that would exclude Russia and offer a place to coordinate on defense, intelligence and cyber threats. – Bloomberg
French President Emmanuel Macron criticized attempts to conclude a European Union trade deal with four South American countries, saying the accord would put the bloc’s companies and agricultural workers at a disadvantage. – Bloomberg
Africa
Mozambicans will vote in presidential and legislative elections on Oct. 9 that are almost certain to extend the ruling Frelimo party’s half century in power, as it battles a long-running Islamist insurgency in one of Africa’s largest gas fields. – Reuters
TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), opens new tab CEO Patrick Pouyanne said he planned to go to Mozambique later this month to meet the country’s new president about the company’s planned Mozambique LNG project. – Reuters
Forty-five migrants have died after two ships wrecked sank off the coast of the East African nation of Djibouti with many still missing, a spokesperson for the United Nations migration agency said, opens new tab on Tuesday. – Reuters
Islamic State in Somalia, the global terrorist group’s affiliate in the Horn of Africa nation, has doubled its presence in the country this year, the chief of the US Africa Command said. – Bloomberg
Latin America
Approval of Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in September went down when compared to a survey conducted two months earlier, pollster Quaest said on Wednesday, as his third non-consecutive term nears its midpoint. – Reuters
The Brazilian state of Pará, which will host the COP30 global climate talks next year in the Amazon, is defending local regulations that encourage illegal gold mining, according to documents in the case before the Supreme Court seen by Reuters. – Reuters
The Haitian government’s anti-corruption agency charged five high-profile individuals with corruption on Wednesday, including three members of an interim governing council, over a scandal involving bribing the chairman of a state-owned bank. – Reuters
The Dominican Republic on Wednesday announced an “immediate” plan to deport up to 10,000 migrants per week, as it ramps up enforcement along its border with Haiti despite U.N. pleas for it not to expel people to its conflict-hit neighbor. – Reuters
The Mexican army has seized the weapons of local police in the cartel-dominated city of Culiacan in the country’s northwest Sinaloa state as violence and gunfights have ravaged the city in recent weeks, reports said this week. – Fox News
North America
At least six migrants were killed in southern Mexico on Tuesday night after military officers shot at the vehicle they were traveling in. The episode called attention to a growing concern in Mexico — ever more powerful armed forces that operate with little oversight — and a continuing one, the dangers faced by migrants in the country. – New York Times
While the Canadian anti-Israel movement has always had extremist rhetoric at its core, the last few weeks have witnessed a notable escalation in tactics, with demonstrators now attacking police, openly waving the flags of listed terror organizations and even calling for the destruction of Canada itself – National Post
Elaine Dezenski and Niko Stavropoulos write: Investment review will also protect Mexico’s domestic manufacturing market from Chinese investments that risk hollowing out Mexico’s EV production capacity in the coming years. Canada is considering blocking Chinese investment into new auto-sector factories — Mexico should be considering the same thing. North America’s leaders need to develop a coordinated strategy to blunt China’s advances. We should be partnering with democratic allies globally to develop a resilient democratic EV supply chain — pushing back on China’s non-market monopolies from critical minerals to finished vehicles. If we don’t do that now, we will regret it later. – The Hill
United States
The U.S. CIA on Wednesday launched a new drive to recruit informants in China, Iran and North Korea, adding to what it says has been a successful effort to enlist Russians. – Reuters
U.S. authorities charged five Chinese nationals with lying and trying to cover their tracks, more than a year after they were confronted in the dark near a remote Michigan military site where thousands of people had gathered for summer drills. – Associated Press
Former President Donald Trump will participate in an event in Florida on Monday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, his campaign announced on Wednesday. – Jewish Insider
Lenny Fukshansky writes: Every criticism of Israel needn’t be antisemitic, but nearly all the antisemitism I have encountered, here and in the U.S.S.R., has been mixed with anti-Zionism. As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observed, Jew hatred mutates throughout the ages, and anti-Zionism is simply its most recent incarnation. Soviet communism is dead, mercifully, yet some of its dark legacies endure in the nation that defeated it. As a Jew who grew up in that nightmarish regime, I hope America, my adopted home, will find a way to see and reject so much anti-Zionism for the blatant antisemitism it is. – Wall Street Journal
Cybersecurity
The U.S. sees a growing threat of Russia, Iran and China attempting to influence the Nov. 5 elections, including by using artificial intelligence to disseminate fake or divisive information, according to an annual U.S. threat assessment released on Wednesday. – Reuters
A sanctioned group of hackers working for the North Korean government appears to be continuing its attacks on U.S. organizations, targeting at least three in August. – The Record
Eight suspected cybercriminals were arrested in Côte d’Ivoire as part of an ongoing international operation, according to a statement by Interpol. The suspects were involved in “large-scale” phishing scams targeting Swiss citizens. – The Record
Defense
President Joe Biden authorized the Department of Defense to send 1,000 active-duty U.S. troops to aid states struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. – Washington Examiner
Two U.S. guided-missile destroyers destroyed a handful of Iranian missiles using a combination of weapons, including the Standard Missile 3, a U.S. official confirmed to USNI News on Wednesday. – USNI News
The U.S. Navy has released video showing the fiery launch of ballistic missile interceptors from two guided-missile destroyers in the Eastern Mediterranean to defend Israel from an Iranian missile barrage on Tuesday. – Fox News
Pentagon officials want to build America’s arsenal of cheap, disposable drones, staple weapons of the war in Ukraine, pinging commercial vendors for systems with mass-production potential. – Defense News