Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Trump’s planned sale of controversial bombs to Israel is largest in years Several explosions heard on Iran's Qeshm island, IRNA says citing local sources Russia, Ukraine trade aerial strikes after Trump’s claim of truce Houthis report deadly Saudi airstrikes as Kingdom issues mass alerts WSJ Editorial: Who will stop the Houthis? Saudi cancels some oil cargoes after pipeline hit, top buyer chasing alternatives JPost Editorial: Answer Saudi Arabia: Israel must take the opportunity presented by the Houthi attack North Korea says US-driven nuclear submarine push justifies its own weapons buildup India protests to Pakistan over collision of naval ships at sea EU opens door for Canada to become its first associate member, von der Leyen says Ukraine war drives European demand for bigger, cheaper missile arsenals U.S. probes cyberattacks on energy tankers bound for American coastIn The News
Israel
The Trump administration is preparing a multibillion-dollar sale of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in the largest single sale of the controversial munition in recent years, a U.S. official told The Washington Post. – Washington Post
Israeli airstrikes killed at least five Palestinians, including two children and a Hamas armed commander, in northern and southern Gaza on Tuesday, health officials and Hamas sources said. – Reuters
Neta Heiman Mina, whose elderly mother, Ditza Heiman, was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and held prisoner in Gaza for nearly two months, spoke on Tuesday at the 63rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, during a panel on human rights education, confronting the UN over its continued funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) despite its ties to Hamas. – Jerusalem Post
The Israel Defense Forces shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said, while the army said the man had tried to grab a soldier’s weapon. – Times of Israel
Gaza terrorists joked about the October 2023 invasion of Israel as the attack was taking place, according to contemporaneous phone calls released in a US federal investigation on Tuesday that gave an inside view of terrorists’ immediate reaction to the Hamas attack and their preparations to join the invasion. – Times of Israel
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet confirmed late Tuesday that Nael Abu Obeid, who commanded Hamas’s Rafah Brigade and headed its operations division, was among those killed, describing him as “central figure” in the terror group. – Times of Israel
Iran
CoinEx, a crypto exchange once popular in Iran, said it was shutting down on Tuesday citing a prolonged downturn in the cryptocurrency market and rising compliance costs. The exchange, founded by a former Tencent engineer in Hong Kong, was the subject of a Wall Street Journal article in June that showed how it had become a favorite of Iranian users, including ones with ties to the Islamic Republic. – Wall Street Journal
A lightning offensive along Yemen’s Red Sea coast by Iranian-backed Houthi militants has strengthened Tehran’s leverage in its war of economic attrition with Washington — giving it the ability to threaten a waterway that plays an even broader role in global shipping than the Strait of Hormuz. – Washington Post
Several explosions were heard on Iran’s Qeshm island, Iranian official IRNA news agency reported, citing local sources as saying, adding the sounds appeared to have come from the direction of the sea. – Reuters
The U.S. military said Tuesday that it opened fire and destroyed two small Iranian boats this week that were trying to steal a drone ship in the waters off Iran, the latest back-and-forth fire in the stalemated war. – Associated Press
Iran holds over nine tons of nuclear material outside of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) safeguards, accused Israel Atomic Energy Commission Director-General Moshe Edri at the agency’s 70th general conference on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Iran’s security chief on Tuesday rejected any talks with the United States after US President Donald Trump said he was open to resuming discussions on the Middle East war. – Times of Israel
Michael Eisenstadt and Farzin Nadimi write: Iran has emerged from the past two wars with a much leaner military whose capabilities still threaten vital U.S. interests. Yet its extreme path-dependence on missiles and drones is a potential vulnerability. If Washington and its partners can develop and field cheap, highly effective means to counter these capabilities, they may transform Iran’s growing dependence on missiles and drones into a single point of failure. In the meantime, U.S. policy must counter Iran’s ongoing efforts to reconstitute and enhance those capabilities through a variety of measures. – Washington Institute
Russia and Ukraine
Russia and Ukraine carried out aerial strikes on each other’s infrastructure overnight, despite an announcement by President Trump that both had agreed to stop hitting energy targets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia “continues to attack our energy sector, regular logistics, and critical infrastructure,” without elaborating. – Wall Street Journal
The Russian and Ukrainian governments made clear on Tuesday that neither had agreed to an energy cease-fire that President Trump presented as a done deal a day before. – New York Times
A Russian drone attack on a passenger bus killed five people and wounded at least seven more in Ukraine’s southeast on Wednesday, in an area close to the frontline, the regional governor said. – Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that Russian drones attacked Moldovan airspace twice while he was in the country aboard his aircraft in transit. – Reuters
Ukrainian forces have launched an offensive operation in the north of the eastern Donetsk region, the focal point of intense battles during more than four years of the war, a senior military commander said on Tuesday. – Reuters
They lead party tickets, star in campaign videos and appear in televised debates. They are Russians who have fought in Ukraine, and they feature prominently in this week’s parliamentary election. – Associated Press
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Ukraine is ready to halt its strikes on Russian territory if allies can secure a genuine Russian commitment not to hit Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. – Associated Press
David H. Petraeus writes: Eric Schmidt, who has played an important role in supporting Ukraine’s defense-technology innovation, has correctly observed that the race for scale is becoming decisive. Ukraine has shown that it can innovate, adapt, fight and endure. Its partners now must help it demonstrate those skills at an industrial scale while providing the air defenses, financing and other capabilities necessary to withstand Russia’s aggression. Do that, sustain the pressure, and Putin will learn that time isn’t the friend he thought it was. – Washington Post
Luke Coffey writes: Ukraine seeks a just and fair peace, not a surrender. The US needs a comprehensive strategy that demonstrates American strength, resolve, and commitment to ending the war honorably and on just terms. Alongside the war with Iran, President Donald Trump’s success or failure in bringing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to an acceptable conclusion—an objective he repeatedly emphasized during his campaign—will be an important measure of his administration’s foreign policy record. – Hudson Institute
Matthew Rojansky writes: Diplomacy is never a reward for good behavior, and negotiation is not normalization. It is an instrument of national power. For the past decade, the United States and its allies have invested heavily in their ability to impose costs on Russia, constrain its options, and deter further aggression. Those capabilities remain necessary. But leverage has value only if the United States also knows how to turn it into outcomes. Sooner or later, U.S. officials will again sit across the table from Russian counterparts. Preparing them to succeed should begin now. – Foreign Policy
Turkey
Boeing is close to finalising a delayed order for 150 of its 737 MAX jets after Turkish Airlines threatened to walk away from the high-profile deal in a dispute over maintenance with engine maker CFM, four people familiar with the matter said. – Reuters
Turkish authorities arrested at least 31 people pending trial on Tuesday as part of a government campaign targeting LGBTQ+ groups, while police detained at least 126 people during protests in Ankara and Istanbul against recent raids and arrests, lawyers said. – Reuters
The European Union will continue to export hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic waste to Turkey each year, despite finding evidence of environmental damage that could breach EU rules. – Politico
Yemen
Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen on Tuesday accused each other of launching attacks at their territories, with reports of casualties on both sides, days after the Iran-backed militia seized key areas of Yemen’s Red Sea coast. – New York Times
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have made sweeping gains along Yemen’s Red Sea coast after conducting a large-scale military operation aimed at controlling the Bab al-Mandab Strait. – Washington Post
Editorial: Wars are unpredictable, and the enemy isn’t obliged to cooperate. With his concessions to win a ceasefire in April, Mr. Trump thought he could get Iranian acquiescence. Vice President JD Vance said Iran’s leaders are “a much different group of people” for whom “something has fundamentally transformed.” Instead the hard men of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its allies have escalated. There are now risks all around, but the biggest is if the world concludes that Iran and the Houthis are defeating Mr. Trump, the U.S. and its Middle Eastern allies. Someone needs to stop the Houthis. – Wall Street Journal
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has cut oil shipments to Europe after drone attacks damaged its key export pipeline to the Red Sea, trade sources told Reuters, prompting top customers such as Poland to rush to seek alternatives as cargo prices topped $120 a barrel. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia’s air defences destroyed a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered prohibited airspace over the holy city, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said on Wednesday, as fighting spreads in the Middle East. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia is offering more loadings of crude oil to Asian refiners via ship-to-ship transfer off Oman’s Sohar port after drone attacks damaged its key oil pipeline to the Red Sea, people familiar with the matter said. – Reuters
Editorial: CENTCOM provides an architecture for Israel and Arab states to coordinate against common threats without requiring every relationship to become public or political. That framework should be strengthened. Iran has constructed a regional network designed to exploit divisions among its adversaries. Its answer to pressure has been to threaten the arteries through which the region trades with the world. Israel should answer the Saudi request positively, carefully, and without triumphalism. Iran has spent decades trying to divide and intimidate its adversaries. The best response is to make its aggression bring them closer together. – Jerusalem Post
Gulf States
Amazon Web Services said Tuesday it is unable to restore access to some customer data hosted in Persian Gulf data centers that were struck by Iranian drones in the spring. AWS data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have been mostly offline since Iran launched drone swarms at them in the opening days of the U.S. war against the Islamic Republic. The damage in Bahrain was spread across multiple AWS facilities. – Wall Street Journal
Gulf Arab countries have long relied for their security on the U.S. military bases that they host. But after six months of war, the repeated pummeling of those countries by Iranian missiles and drones has made the limitations of American security guarantees abundantly clear. – New York Times
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed the need to ensure freedom and security of navigation in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea during talks on Tuesday, the Egyptian presidency said. – Reuters
Israel’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Yossi Shelley, said on Tuesday that another country, possibly Kuwait, could join the Abraham Accords within four to six months, he said in an interview with KAN Reshet Bet. – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
More than six months of Israeli bombardment and demolition, triggered by a Hezbollah rocket attack in early March, have left villages abandoned and residents forcibly displaced across swathes of land. Shrubs encroach on minarets and rusting metal gates mark where homes once stood. – Reuters
Libya’s oil production has not been greatly affected by the suspension of production at several oilfields and remains at about 1.4 million barrels per day, National Oil Corporation Chairman Massoud Suleman told Reuters. – Reuters
Egypt is betting that building wind turbines at home can help it build a renewable-energy industry, positioning it as a template for Africa’s push for renewable-energy industrialization. – Associated Press
The Lebanese government is pressing members of the UN Security Council to establish a multinational force that would replace the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which currently serves as a buffer between Israeli and Lebanese forces. – Jerusalem Post
The military chiefs of Israel, the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt held a meeting in Germany last week about the war with Iran and regional tensions, two Israeli officials told the Axios news site in a Tuesday report. – Times of Israel
Korean Peninsula
A Seoul court on Wednesday ordered North Korea to pay 44.6 billion won ($32.5 million) in damages over its 2020 demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office, South Korean media reported, marking the first ruling in a lawsuit brought by South Korea against Pyongyang. – Reuters
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun will hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday, the foreign ministry said, amid efforts by the allies to bridge differences over planned South Korean investments in the United States and discuss security issues. – Reuters
North Korea accused the United States on Wednesday of expanding a “nuclear submarine alliance” that it said was undermining global nuclear security, as the fifth anniversary of its AUKUS defence pact with Australia and Britain arrives. – Reuters
South Korea and Kazakhstan signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy as their leaders met on Tuesday and pledged to work together on trade, energy and critical minerals and AI, Seoul said. – Reuters
China
Two Chinese companies used accounts on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance to launder illegal proceeds from the sale of Iranian oil, the Justice Department said in court papers. – New York Times
Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun urged nations on Wednesday to avoid provocative acts and curb the resurgence of regressive historical trends in remarks likely to be taken as veiled criticism of Japan. – Reuters
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is set to attend the U.S. President Donald Trump’s state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee on Wednesday unveiled the city’s first five-year plan in a politically symbolic step that echoes Beijing’s approach to development, pushing to broaden Hong Kong’s identity beyond international finance to also encompass technology and higher education. – Associated Press
Christopher Nye and Charles Sun write: Any Chinese show of force would not only expose an untested chain of command, but also force Beijing to sabotage the very framework it has sought to build. Every limit that gives way is room Washington gains and holds. Xi is due at the White House on Sept. 24, and the suspension of China’s rare-earth export controls expires on Nov. 10, 2026. Beijing is likely to put rare earths on the table, as the price for another stretch of quiet. Washington has no reason to celebrate this kind of stability. In this deal, the art belonged to Beijing. As Jonathan A. Czin warns, this arrangement is a false promise, a lull Beijing is using to gather strength on the cheap. “Strategic stability” is Beijing’s word, and Washington may make use of the pause without accepting that unilateral definition. – War on the Rocks
South Asia
New Zealand’s parliament on Wednesday passed legislation to implement a free trade agreement with India, under which tariffs on about 95% of New Zealand exports to India would be eliminated or significantly reduced. – Reuters
Indian police will question Google over a lack of safeguards after smashing a criminal network that set up and managed more than 500,000 fake Gmail accounts to send hoax bomb threats to government offices, a police official told Reuters on Tuesday. – Reuters
India’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it had summoned the top Pakistani diplomat to lodge a strong protest over what it said was “unacceptable and unprofessional conduct” of Pakistani naval units that led to a collision with an Indian warship. – Reuters
Aparna Pande writes: As chair, India has already encountered the limits of geopolitical cooperation. At the BRICS+ foreign ministers’ meeting in May 2026, Iran pushed the group to condemn the war. Other members, including India and the UAE, sought to avoid a strong public statement. India responded by issuing a chair’s statement acknowledging differing views on the Middle East conflict. The failure to issue a joint statement was nevertheless widely seen as evidence of the grouping’s internal divisions. – Hudson Institute
Asia
As Japan’s central bank prepares to meet this week, the architects of the country’s decade-long policy of low interest rates say that strategy has outlived its usefulness. Their concern has flipped from stagnant prices to entrenched inflation. – New York Times
Australian sales of electric vehicles overtook gas-powered cars for the first time in August, official data shows, with experts saying that higher oil prices resulting from the U.S. war with Iran was one of the main reasons for the shift. – New York Times
AI giant Anthropic signed its first data centre lease agreement in Australia, two people familiar with the deal said, capitalising on a favourable political environment and abundant renewable resources to secure capacity at what would be one of the world’s largest computing facilities. – Reuters
Poland is seeking new defence partnerships with the Philippines, a senior foreign ministry official said on Tuesday, after completing the delivery of Black Hawk helicopters to Manila last month. – Reuters
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto sacked Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa after he clashed with a top ministry official who served on Prabowo’s former special forces team, three government sources said. – Reuters
Candidates from parties associated with a former rebel group appeared to be leading the first elections in a predominately Muslim region in the southern Philippines, official results showed Wednesday. – Associated Press
Thailand aims to finalize the substance of a US tariff agreement before Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul speaks with President Donald Trump later this week, potentially seeking a slightly lower rate. – Bloomberg
Grigor Hovhannissian writes: Armenia has attempted a Western turn during a period of Russian weakness before. When the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917, independent Armenia similarly looked West. Woodrow Wilson became the symbol of Armenian hopes for an external guarantee, but Western sympathy never became enforceable protection. In the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, caught between Turkish forces and Bolshevik Russia, the First Republic disappeared in 1920. A century later, Armenians are taking another chance. The West has an opportunity to do it right this time. – The Hill
Harrison Prétat writes: With the energy of the Trump administration so clearly focused on economic relations with China, it would be a surprise if maritime issues figure largely in the public press from the summit. But whether public or private, it will take signaling from the top if this administration wants its security posture to steer Chinese behavior in the right direction. If maritime issues fall off the summit agenda completely, the world should only expect worse behavior from Beijing in the waterways of Asia. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Europe
On the eve of becoming the world’s first trillionaire, Elon Musk was fixated on political turmoil an ocean away from SpaceX headquarters. In one X post, he called the mayor of Belfast a “betrayer of her people.” In another, he called a British political leader “a scumbag and a traitor.” – Wall Street Journal
This summer, the U.K. government decreed that Piddington’s 350 inhabitants are set to get new neighbors: up to 1,250 single male immigrants housed in a nearby disused military site, where they will live while their claims for asylum are processed. They will outnumber residents by nearly 4-to-1. The plan has caused outrage and panic here, turning this bucolic corner of England into a test case for an English middle-class revolt over growing concerns about how the country manages tens of thousands of asylum seekers crossing its borders. – Wall Street Journal
Ireland’s defenses are prompting fears among some Western officials and experts that infrastructure essential for Europe and the U.S. is perilously exposed to the threat of Russian interference and sabotage. Russian submarines, spy ships and jets have already been detected in and around the Irish coast and airspace. – Wall Street Journal
Denmark’s foreign minister announced on Tuesday that he had summoned Russia’s ambassador after Denmark’s military said a Russian frigate fired two flares at a Danish air force helicopter the previous day. One flare passed close to the helicopter, the Danish military said in a statement. – New York Times
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union is opening the door for Canada to become its first “associate member”, a status that is not set out in the bloc’s treaties. – Reuters
European militaries are increasingly exploring cheaper missiles and interceptors after conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East exposed the limits of small inventories of high-end weapons. Along Europe’s eastern flank, Russia’s daily drone and missile attacks on Ukraine have highlighted a lesson often overlooked in peacetime procurement planning: modern conflicts can consume weapons faster than many countries can replace them. – Reuters
A contested reform of Italy’s electoral law won Senate approval on Tuesday amid fierce opposition criticism, as rivals accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of changing the rules to improve her chances of winning re-election next year. – Reuters
Italy on Tuesday extended for another 15 days border checks on visitors from Spain that it imposed after more than 72,000 migrants poured into Spain’s North African territory of Ceuta from Morocco in late July. – Associated Press
The European Union will propose creating a new security architecture with like-minded allies to confront growing defense threats amid doubts about US President Donald Trump’s commitments toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. – Bloomberg
Friedrich Merz cancelled his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, changing course as the German chancellor faces growing opposition within his own conservative party ahead of closely-watched regional elections on Sunday. – Bloomberg
Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz announced Tuesday that the country is reinforcing security at its border with Ukraine after Russian drone strikes near crossings heightened concerns among NATO allies. – CNN
Anton Jäger writes: The result is something of a riddle. Migration is assailed from practically all sides as a threat to Europe’s identity. Yet in the 21st century, it is unclear what exactly that identity is. No longer the seat of globe-spanning empires, much less a world hegemon, the continent comes across as both prestigious and provincial: a cultural powerhouse suffering geopolitical marginalization. Civic Europeanism, for all the commission’s best efforts, will prove a feeble antidote to such ailments. Instead, it falls to migration to fill the void at the center of Europe’s self-image. – New York Times
Matthew Brooker writes: Reform isn’t wrong that it has been targeted. Harborne’s £9 million donation was a catalyst for the cap announced in March. But this reflects a legitimate public-policy concern over the potential power of a tiny number of ultra-wealthy individuals based outside the UK to influence the political process and nudge the country in the direction of a US-style system dominated by megadonors. Britain’s democracy needs protecting from the wall of cryptocurrency wealth: £36 million is a system-challenging sum yet represents only 0.2% of Harborne’s £18.2 billion fortune, as estimated by the Sunday Times Rich List. If Delo and Harborne are truly committed, all they need do is live (and presumably pay tax) in the UK through the end of next year, after which they will be freed from the donation cap. For patriots motivated only by the good of the country, that shouldn’t be too much to ask. – Bloomberg
Africa
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, welcomed progress in talks and pledged to move quickly toward a new programme to support the country’s recovery, the West African country’s presidency said on X on Tuesday. – Reuters
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday the U.S. was announcing a new visa restriction policy targeting some foreign nationals from South Africa as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to cool ties with the country. – Reuters
Two U.S. government officials were accidentally shot and wounded by Eswatini’s defence force during an anti-smuggling operation last week, the government of the Southern African monarchy said. – Reuters
Democratic Republic of Congo has approved a task force to speed up implementation of its strategic minerals partnership with the United States, according to cabinet minutes seen by Reuters on Tuesday, as Kinshasa seeks to attract more Western investment into its copper and cobalt sectors. – Reuters
The Americas
Brazil’s Supreme Court postponed on Tuesday a decision on whether to open an investigation of fellow court member Justice Alexandre de Moraes over allegations he advised a banker accused of leading a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme. – Reuters
A Colombian-born businessman with close ties to ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a U.S. corruption case, as federal prosecutors prepare separately to take Maduro to trial next year. – Reuters
Britain said on Tuesday it would upgrade its diplomatic relations with Venezuela, appointing an ambassador to the country, in a move which it said would strengthen its ability to play a role in supporting a transition to democracy. – Reuters
A close ally of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro long described by U.S. officials as the ousted leader’s frontman pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of money laundering tied to an alleged bribery conspiracy to win lucrative government contracts in the South American country. – Associated Press
Adam Goldsmith writes: Any political group brave enough to platform these issues could form the base of a successful new movement in Brazil. When the country reaches its next crisis, it will once again have an opportunity to establish reforms that attack the root causes of its malaise. There will be a golden opportunity to win politically while simultaneously making critical improvements. This is the path of durable reform—and Brazil’s chance to escape the crisis-reform cycle. – Foreign Policy
North America
Canada is implementing a tax change tied to the accelerated write off of capital equipment that attempts to move the country toward Prime Minister Mark Carney’s goal of attracting nearly $1 trillion of new investment. – Wall Street Journal
Prime Minister Mark Carney gathered roughly 100 money managers from about 25 countries, including the United States, in Toronto on Tuesday to explain why they should invest more of the trillions of dollars they control in Canada. The core of his message was that Canada is a stable and trustworthy alternative to its neighbor. – New York Times
A trade war between the United States and Canada is making it more difficult and expensive for small businesses in the economically entwined countries to operate, according to business owners caught in the crossfire. – Associated Press
Gautam Mukunda writes: The first Trump administration was hardly a well-oiled machine, but it at least aspired to competence. I’ve written two books on Presidential leadership. In the next editions this administration will be the case study for the fallout when a President abdicates his managerial responsibilities and the institutions surrounding him are too weak to compensate. Negotiating with Canada, which has every reason to accommodate the United States, is diplomacy with training wheels. An administration that fumbles that relationship will fail disastrously at more challenging tasks. And that problem will keep getting worse, because there’s no equivalent to Henry Ford II in the Trump administration. – Bloomberg
United States
The Kennedy Center’s board voted on Tuesday to close the venue for a two-year renovation, but President Trump immediately threatened to block that work unless his name is restored to the building. – Wall Street Journal
For a third time, the U.S. House has voted to end the war in Iran, approving a war powers resolution that would halt President Donald Trump’s ability to continue military action without congressional approval. – Associated Press
The Trump administration is stripping tens of millions of dollars in U.S. military assistance from countries in Europe and the Middle East to support conservative-leaning governments in Central and South America. – Associated Press
A supporter of the Islamic State group in Pennsylvania sought to poison food and drink at synagogues and backed Hamas, according to a federal criminal complaint announced on Tuesday. – Times of Israel
Jamil N. Jaffer writes: Given the economic and national security criticality of our power grid, this is an area where classic industrial policy might make good sense. Imagine if we rebuilt domestic capacity like the president has started doing on computer chips: we’d create high-paying industrial and manufacturing jobs and avoid foreign threats being embedded in our infrastructure; win-win. At the end of the day, the key point is this: if something were to happen to the power grid, the American people will legitimately question how it is possible that we identified this threat back in the 1990s, proved its capabilities in 2007, and picked up a key tool in 2020 only to drop it a year later. Luckily, we have a second shot. Given that our adversaries are actively taking aim at us, we ought not to miss this time. – National Interest
Cybersecurity
Some of China’s scrappiest hackers-for-hire are evolving into full-service private intelligence agencies, exploiting advances in artificial intelligence and other technologies to put stolen secrets of foreign governments at the fingertips of the country’s security agencies. – Wall Street Journal
At least two foreign tankers bound for American shores were targeted in cyberattacks now under U.S. government investigation, fueling concerns that Iran or other adversaries are seeking to widen the Middle East conflict, according to U.S. officials familiar with the incidents. – Wall Street Journal
OpenAI is supporting a slate of bills that the company says will help prevent artificial intelligence models from supercharging the threat of biological weapons and synthetic viruses. – Politico
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the AI industry doesn’t need any new laws Tuesday during San Francisco’s annual Dreamforce megaconference hosted by Salesforce billionaire Marc Benioff, doubling down on arguments that have also been voiced by President Donald Trump. – Politico
A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency program that provides tools and capabilities to other agencies has to get speedier so it can push them toward being able to move more quickly themselves, an agency official said Tuesday. – Cyberscoop
British, American and Dutch security agencies issued a warning on Tuesday exposing a spyware tool being used by Iranian state-sponsored hackers to target individuals perceived as posing a threat to the regime. – The Record
Editorial: Whatever arrangements Washington ultimately considers, an outside evaluator’s approval must not absolve the firms of responsibility for their releases. If negligence causes harm — whether it comes from a frontier lab or a rising competitor — the responsible firm will have to pay. The prospect of financial calamity should give companies ample reason to find a pace they can safely sustain. – Washington Post
Daniel Huttenlocher writes: AI is an extremely powerful and beneficial technology. But accountability for its actions remains with the people and institutions that grant it the power to act, and so does everything that follows: the duty to justify the arrangement, to watch it, to correct it and to stop it when necessary. The less predictable the system and the greater the potential harm, the stronger that justification and oversight have to be. Where that can’t be achieved, the answer is not to delegate. – Wall Street Journal
Emily Otto writes: The U.S. is in a unique position. Its labs are anywhere from six to 12 months ahead of its Chinese competitors, and the U.S. retains dominance in semiconductors and cloud infrastructure. Though it is not unreasonable to worry about squandering the lead given the high geopolitical stakes, the risk from runaway AI knows no borders. That gives Washington and Beijing a rare shared interest: ensuring that competition between them does not become a race to surrender human control. Good imagined a machine “docile enough” to remain under human control. Keeping it that way will take a great deal of human work. The best chance for success is to make sure machines never take over that work themselves. – Washington Post
George Whitesides writes: Congress should use the same month to draft the thresholds and verification structure — independent auditors, government observers inside the labs — that turn voluntary red lines into law. The AI can hold a line for a month. Holding it for good is Congress’s job. Some of the people building this technology put the odds of catastrophe somewhere between 1 in 100 and a coin flip. You would not board a plane that had those odds of survival. – Washington Post
Bret Stephens writes: When slowing down isn’t a realistic possibility, sometimes the right answer is to speed up — if only to accelerate our understanding of the means by which we can use A.I. against the very risks we create through it (or that it creates by itself). One consolation is that this isn’t the first time great scientific minds have warned that they’ve created the instruments of humanity’s destruction. Less consoling is that past reprieves are no guarantee of future salvation. – New York Times
Defense
The U.S. war against Iran has cost the Department of Defense more than $38 billion through Aug. 1, and will continue costing up to $3 billion a month or more depending on the intensity of the conflict, according to an assessment released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. – Associated Press
Three new shipyards have been tapped to construct seven Landing Craft Utility landing vessels as part of an overall $280 million deal to expand the production of the heavy-lift amphibious connector, the Navy announced Tuesday. – USNI News
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) recently operated with Royal Australian Navy frigates in the South China Sea, the Australian Department of Defense announced Tuesday. – USNI News
Editorial: Also notable was Mr. Meink’s remark that a defensive space-based interceptor moved “from initial contract to flight-ready hardware in less than one year.” The President’s Golden Dome missile shield is a bright spot in his agenda, but the project needs dollars in a Republican reconciliation bill that hasn’t been moving in Congress. The timing of the space announcement may be no accident coming ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington next week. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are increasingly working together and they’d like to force Americans to fight blind. Our adversaries need to know that the U.S. has the capacity to fight and win in space as well as on land, sea and air. – Wall Street Journal
Duncan Wood writes: The fundamental problem is geography. The maritime approaches to the United States encompass millions of square miles. Maintaining persistent awareness using Coast Guard cutters, Navy vessels, helicopters, and maritime patrol aircraft alone is enormously expensive. Imagine a layered maritime security network instead. Autonomous surface craft patrol major trafficking corridors. Underwater systems monitor areas semi-submersibles frequently use. Satellites and unmanned aircraft provide additional surveillance. Artificial intelligence integrates the data and flags anomalies that require investigation. Coast Guard and naval crews would spend less time searching enormous expanses of ocean. They could concentrate on interception. – National Interest