Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
U.S. warns Israel against escalating fight with Hezbollah Israel updates war goals with fate of defence minister unclear Iran's president says Tehran did not transfer weapons to Russia since he took office Iran will never give up on its missile programme, says president Jerusalem Post’s Salem Alketbi: Iran’s strategic evasion: The regime’s response to Haniyeh’s assassination Meta bans Russian state media outlet RT for acts of ‘foreign interference’ Blinken heads to Middle East in bid to revive cease-fire negotiations Houthi official says US offered to recognize Sanaa government; US official denies claim WSJ’s William McGurn: The man who is Hong Kong Pakistani man pleads not guilty to US assassination plot charges Venezuela detains three Americans after promising to end the practice WaPo Editorial: Donald Trump should be protected as if he were a sitting presidentIn The News
Israel
A top U.S. envoy warned Israel over escalating the fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon, while Israel’s defense minister said military action is becoming the only way to return Israelis evacuated from northern border areas back to their homes. – Wall Street Journal
U.N. human rights experts criticised mostly Western states on Monday for continuing to support Israel despite what they described as a genocide in Gaza which might turn Israel into a “pariah” nation. – Reuters
Israel on Tuesday expanded its stated goals of the war in Gaza to include enabling residents to return to communities in northern Israel that have been evacuated due to attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. – Reuters
Hamas chief Yehya Sinwar congratulated Yemen’s Houthi group for its missile attack on Israel over the weekend and said this sent a message to their foe, the Houthi Al-Massirah TV reported on Monday, underscoring fears the war in Gaza could erupt into a wider regional conflict. – Reuters
Polio vaccination coverage in Gaza has reached 90%, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday, adding that the next step was to ensure hundreds of thousands of children got a second dose at the end of the month. – Reuters
Reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering firing Defence Minister Yoav Gallant shook the political landscape and sent Israeli financial markets lower on Monday. – Reuters
The first Palestinian ambassador to Spain presented his credentials on Monday to Spanish King Felipe VI after Madrid in May formally recognized a Palestinian state. – Times of Israel
A poll of Israelis and Palestinians published last Thursday reveals that the two sides nearly mirror each other in their unprecedented levels of fear and distrust. In addition, Jewish Israeli respondents report record-low rates of support for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the forms of a one- or two-state solution or a confederation with Palestinians. – Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition lawmaker Gideon Sa’ar agreed that they will jointly choose the future Israeli army chief should Sa’ar replace Yoav Gallant as Netanyahu’s defense minister. – Haaretz
On Monday, IAF aircraft guided by intelligence information attacked and eliminated the head of Islamic Jihad’s Rafah rocket unit. – Arutz Sheva
The body of Maher Jazi, the Jordanian terrorist who committed the shooting attack at the Allenby Crossing on the Israel-Jordan border last week, was returned by Israel on Monday night to Jordan, Kan News reported. – Arutz Sheva
Luke Moon writes: If Hamas were to be defeated, Gaza itself could have a future of prosperity. There’s no reason it couldn’t evolve into a cultural and economic beacon in the Middle East, akin to Tel Aviv. The people of Gaza deserve the chance to build a future free of terror. But for that to happen, Hamas must first be removed from the equation entirely. In the end, wars end with victory or defeat, and for peace to flourish in Gaza and Israel, Hamas needs to be soundly, unequivocally defeated. – Arutz Sheva
Gabby Deutch writes: A brief dedication at the start of the book honoring the Israeli hostages in Gaza inadvertently signals the still-unfolding horrors of Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7. Lévy notes that when the book was published in March, 131 hostages were still held by Hamas. In June, when the English edition went to print, that number had fallen to 120. Since then, a small number of hostages have been rescued. Others were determined to be dead. Six were murdered by Hamas in August, shortly before Israeli forces attempted to rescue them. Now, 101 hostages remain. Many of them are not alive. – Jewish Insider
Iran
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that his government had not transferred any weapons to Russia since it took office in August, after Western powers accused Tehran of delivering ballistic missiles to Moscow in September. – Reuters
Iranian authorities have released Austrian citizen Christian Weber, detained for crimes committed in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province, to Austria’s ambassador in Tehran, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
Iran could hold direct talks with the United States if Washington demonstrates “in practice” that it is not hostile to the Islamic Republic, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday. – Reuters
Tehran has not sent hypersonic missiles to Yemen’s Houthis, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a televised news conference on Monday, a day after the Iran-backed group said a missile it fired at Israel was a hypersonic one. – Reuters
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Tehran would never give up on its missile programme as it needs such deterrence for its security in a region where Iran’s arch-foe Israel is able to “drop missiles on Gaza every day”. – Reuters
Iran’s new reformist president insisted Monday that Tehran didn’t want to enrich uranium at near-weapons grade levels but had been forced to by the U.S. withdrawal from its nuclear deal with world powers. – Associated Press
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed on Monday to ensure the morality police would no longer “bother” women, in remarks to the media on the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in custody. – Agence France-Presse
Thirty-four female prisoners went on a hunger strike in an Iranian prison on Sunday to mark two years since protests erupted against clerical authorities, the foundation of Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi said. – AFP
Salem Alketbi writes: I am firmly convinced that the Iranian regime is engaged in evasion, maneuvering, and negotiation to safeguard its nuclear program, which it views as its most crucial and valuable project. This program is seen as providing protection and immunity from its perceived adversaries. The regime will employ every possible tactic to preserve it, even if it occasionally appears all talk and little action. It will not provide Israel with the opportunity to eliminate these capabilities in a preemptive, abortive operation. The regime sees this as the epitome of wisdom and the essence of the principle of political dissimulation that has ensured the regime’s survival from 1979 until now. – Jerusalem Post
Jay Solomon writes: On Sunday, the Houthis successfully launched a long-range missile at central Israel for the first time. Israeli defense officials said their air defense system largely destroyed the projectile, though some fragments landed on agricultural land and near a railway station. This, combined with the reduced air traffic, has prompted self-congratulatory comments from Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Khamenei, that their multifront war against the Jewish state is working […] The 84-year-old cleric has made clear that the path toward liberating Palestine will be achieved as much through making Israel unlivable to its Jewish residents as through open warfare. – The Free Press
Russia & Ukraine
The number of Ukrainians and Russians killed or wounded in the grinding 2½-year war has reached roughly one million, a staggering toll that two countries struggling with shrinking prewar populations will pay far into the future. – Wall Street Journal
Meta — the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram — said Monday that it was banning Russian state media outlets such as RT from its platforms, days after the United States imposed sanctions on RT’s parent companies and accused them of acting as an arm of Moscow’s intelligence operations. – The Washington Post
The man accused of pointing a gun at former president Donald Trump traveled to Ukraine in 2022 to help recruit foreigners for its defense, but a representative of the country’s International Legion at the time said it did not find him useful. – Washington Post
President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen in a move that would make it the second largest in the world after China’s. – Reuters
A Russian national residing in Sarasota, Florida, was arrested on Monday on charges of smuggling, money laundering and illegally exporting to Russia technology that could be used in drone production, the U.S. Department of Justice said. – Reuters
Russia said on Monday that its forces had retaken control of two villages in its western Kursk region from Ukraine, continuing what Moscow says is a significant counter-offensive there. – Reuters
Ukraine said on Monday it had asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to join humanitarian efforts in Russia’s Kursk region following a cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces. – Reuters
The Kremlin said on Monday that the Ukrainian links of the alleged shooter in the assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump showed that “playing with fire” had consequences. – Reuters
Germany will provide an additional 100 million euros ($111 million) in aid for Ukraine this winter, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced during a visit to Moldova on Tuesday. – Reuters
The trial of a French citizen arrested in Russia on charges of unlawfully collecting information on military issues started Monday but was quickly adjourned for a month. – Associated Press
The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday that it tracked a group of Russian naval vessels as they crossed into U.S. waters off Alaska in an apparent effort to avoid sea ice, a move that is permitted under international rules and customs. – Associated Press
Western allies bought roughly $2 billion in fuel made from Russian oil in the first half of 2024, using a sanctions loophole that enables Moscow to pay its soldiers in Ukraine, an upcoming report seen by Politico has found. – Politico
Ukrainian troops have made advances in the Kursk region, according to reports following accounts that Moscow was starting to succeed in counterattacking Kyiv’s push into Russian territory, as maps show the latest state of play. – Newsweek
John V. Parachini writes: Tragically, the conditions for Russia to engage in meaningful negotiations with Ukraine to end the conflict will likely depend upon a combination of significant battlefield losses and international pressure urging Russia to act as a responsible state within the international system. Currently, these conditions seem distant despite Ukraine’s advances in the Kursk region. – National Interest
Middle East & North Africa
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is headed back to the Middle East on Tuesday to push cease-fire negotiations forward, though this time he is skipping Israel and going to Egypt to hold frank discussions about one of the deal’s most contentious issues: the Philadelphi corridor. – Wall Street Journal
The United States is still working with mediators Egypt and Qatar to present a revised proposal for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday. – Reuters
The Egyptian cabinet said in a statement on Monday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has directed the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) to pump $5 billion worth of investment money into Egypt in what it called a “first stage”. – Reuters
The U.S. offered to recognize the Houthi government in Sanaa in a bid to stop the Yemeni rebel group’s attacks, a senior Houthi official said on Monday, in remarks that a U.S. official said were false. – Reuters
A Turkish drone strike killed one member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and wounded two others as they were holding a meeting in a refugee camp in northern Iraq on Monday, the region’s counter-terrorism service said. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia plans to scrap light-touch oversight of its nuclear facilities by the U.N. atomic watchdog and switch to regular safeguards by the end of this year, the kingdom said on Monday, a step the watchdog has long been calling for. – Reuters
Salvagers successfully towed a Greek-flagged oil tanker ablaze for weeks after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels to a safe area without any oil spill, a European Union naval mission said Monday. – Associated Press
Iraq’s prime minister said US troops are no longer needed in his country because they have largely succeeded in vanquishing ISIS, and he plans to announce a timetable for their withdrawal soon. – Bloomberg
In recent years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been signaling its intent to become a major player in artificial intelligence, but now other Gulf countries are also getting serious about the technology. – CNN
Korean Peninsula
North Korea sent its foreign minister to Russia for her second trip in less than a year to the major backer of Kim Jong Un’s regime. The move comes as Pyongyang readies for a parliamentary meeting that will likely approve measures that raise tensions with South Korea. – Bloomberg
South Korean exporters of products ranging from steel and petrochemicals to textiles and cosmetics are struggling to compete with a glut of goods from Chinese rivals, as the effects of overcapacity and sluggish domestic demand spill over into global markets. – Financial Times
North Korea has launched its biggest vaccine drive since the Covid-19 pandemic after a four year hiatus on routine immunisation that has left children exposed to a myriad of deadly diseases and raised the risk of outbreaks. – The Telegraph
China
A group of senior U.S. officials is traveling to Beijing this week for a round of high-level meetings intended to underscore Washington’s concerns over a wave of Chinese goods flooding world markets. – Wall Street Journal
In a sprawling factory in eastern Shanghai, where marshy plains have long since been converted into industrial parks, China’s most advanced chipmaker has been hard at work testing the limits of U.S. authority. – New York Times
China Coast Guard ships Meishan and Xiushan have arrived in Russia’s Far East port of Vladivostok to conduct joint exercises and patrols with their Russian counterparts, RIA state news agency reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
The United States worked for some time to secure the freedom of American Pastor David Lin ahead of his release from China and is still seeking the release of other Americans held there, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday. – Reuters
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is shutting down two of its hard-won offices in China, The Associated Press has learned, a move that comes even as the agency struggles to disrupt the flow of precursor chemicals from the country that have fueled a fentanyl epidemic blamed for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. – Associated Press
William McGurn writes: As the 2021 seizure of Apple Daily illustrates, Mr. Lee’s Hong Kong is a place where the government can take your property without any judicial review—in Mr. Lai’s case, his thriving newspaper […] Thanks to Mr. Lee, the government’s alternatives are all bad: more sanctions, more international condemnation, more questions about Hong Kong’s attractiveness as a place to invest and do business. – Wall Street Journal
South Asia
The Indian government is in talks with the two ethnic groups at the center of a long running conflict in the northeastern state of Manipur, Interior Minister Amit Shah said at a press conference on Tuesday. – Reuters
India will conduct its much-delayed national census soon, Interior Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday, after a delay of about three years. – Reuters
India has condemned comments made by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the treatment of Muslims in the South Asian nation, calling his remarks “misinformed and unacceptable”. – Reuters
A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges stemming from an alleged plot to assassinate an American politician in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards top commander Qassem Soleimani. – Reuters
The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the U.N. said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress. – Associated Press
In Indian-controlled Kashmir, many people boycotted elections for decades in protest against Indian rule. But in the run-up to the local election beginning Wednesday, many are willing to buck that trend and use their vote to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party the power to form a local government in the disputed region. – Associated Press
Asia
The U.S. State Department said on Monday it approved a possible foreign military sale to Taiwan of spare parts valued at about $228 million, which Taiwan’s military said will help maintain combat readiness in the face of China’s grey zone intrusions. – Reuters
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev urged visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday to give up on the idea that Russia can be defeated on the battlefield and to support China’s peace plan for Ukraine, a suggestion Scholz rejected. – Reuters
The United States and Japan are close to a deal to curb tech exports to China’s chip industry despite alarm in Tokyo about Beijing’s threat to retaliate against Japanese companies, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday citing people familiar with the matter. – Reuters
The United States imposed new sanctions and visa bans on Georgians on Monday, including financial sanctions on two government officials and two members of the country’s pro-Russian far-right movement Washington says were involved in violent crackdowns on protests. – Reuters
Days of tribal violence in Papua New Guinea’s mountainous interior have left more than 35 people dead, a police official said on Tuesday. – Associated Press
A union leader freed from prison Monday after serving time for her part in a strike against Cambodia’s biggest casino has vowed to continue the labor action until justice is done. – Associated Press
Europe
A top official who helped lead the European Union’s push to create new rules for some of the world’s biggest online platforms stepped down Monday, in a move that prompted celebration from social-media platform X but is unlikely to deter the bloc from its big-tech enforcement agenda. – Wall Street Journal
When French prosecutors took aim at Telegram boss Pavel Durov, they had a trump card to wield – a tough new law with no international equivalent that criminalises tech titans whose platforms allow illegal products or activities. – Reuters
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to assign jobs in the EU’s executive body on Tuesday, confirming which countries’ representatives will win powerful roles on trade, competition and the green agenda. – Reuters
Germany reintroduced temporary border checks including at its frontiers with France and the Netherlands on Monday as part of efforts to combat irregular migration and cross-border crime. – Reuters
France has increased its surveillance of African swine fever (ASF) along part of the border with Germany as the disease continues to spread among wild boar in much of Europe, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday. – Reuters
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed Italy’s efforts to tackle illegal immigration on Monday, saying the two countries would share intelligence and work more closely together to “smash” the people smuggling gangs. – Reuters
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Monday signed a decree pardoning 37 people convicted of crimes related to “extremism”, state news agency Belta reported. – Reuters
German police and prosecutors are investigating an explosion that occurred in central Cologne early Monday, a police spokesperson said, adding that there was no indication of a terrorist motive for the crime. – Reuters
Although German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reaffirmed his military support for Israel repeatedly, the German Federal Security Council, chaired by Scholz, has not approved arms exports to Israel for months, according to a Sunday Profil Magazine report. – Jerusalem Post
A prominent Belarus filmmaker and a critic of Minsk’s authoritarian government handed a letter to the Serbian presidency signed by hundreds of artists on Monday, appealing against his extradition to his home country where he says he could be tortured and killed. – Associated Press
Andrea Rotter writes: Ultimately, however, the presentation of the space security strategy is not enough. Rather, it should provide the necessary impetus to initiate a broader debate in Germany on the strategic relevance of space, to raise awareness of vulnerabilities and threats, and to expand space-specific expertise in politics, ministries, think tanks, science, and society. Without greater space literacy, strategic thinking fully adapted to the new geopolitical realities, and the sufficient political will at the relevant levels to implement the necessary measures, it will not be possible to successfully address the many challenges and be a reliable partner. Given the increasing dynamics in space, Germany can no longer afford to remain on the sidelines when it comes to space security. – War on the Rocks
Africa
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will seek another four-year term as head of the World Trade Organization following a broad Africa-led push to start the process early, aiming to complete “unfinished business” from her first mandate. – Reuters
Russia has tentatively agreed to the construction of a fuel pipeline in the Republic of Congo, according to a government decree published late on Monday. – Reuters
The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Niger is complete, an American official said Monday. A small number of military personnel assigned to guard the U.S. Embassy remain, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters. – Associated Press
Nigerian authorities said 281 inmates escaped after devastating floods brought down a prison’s walls in the country’s northeast. – Associated Press
The Americas
After a prisoner swap with Venezuela’s regime last year, Biden administration officials celebrated and said they had commitments from President Nicolás Maduro’s regime not to detain more Americans. – Wall Street Journal
A news anchor running for mayor of São Paulo attacked his opponent with a chair during a televised debate, shocking this nation and plunging the race to govern the Western Hemisphere’s largest city into political chaos. – Washington Post
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ruling Liberals, trailing badly in the polls, face a struggle on Monday to retain a once-safe seat in a special election where failure to win could boost calls for a new party leader. – Reuters
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa will seek changes to the constitution to allow foreign military bases to be established in the Andean country, he said on Monday via a post on X. – Reuters
Venezuela’s government “dramatically intensified” efforts to crush peaceful protest and ramped up its repressive machinery following the country’s presidential election in July, according to a report from a UN fact-finding mission published Tuesday. – Reuters
Bolivia’s hugely popular and controversial former leftist president, Evo Morales, on Monday called on supporters to take to the streets in protest against his bitter political rival, current President Luis Arce, who hours earlier accused Morales on national TV of trying to overthrow him. – Associated Press
Venezuela’s main opposition coalition on Monday called on the U.S. to cancel the licenses that allow Chevron and other energy companies to operate in the South American country to pressure President Nicolás Maduro to negotiate a transition from power. – Associated Press
Practitioners of different religious traditions marched down Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana Beach on Sunday to support religious freedom in Brazil, where cases of intolerance have doubled over the past six years. – Associated Press
United States
The gunman suspected of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump acted so erratically during his years as a pro-Ukraine activist that other Americans who encountered him flagged his behavior to U.S. authorities.- Wall Street Journal
Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the second threat to his life in recent months, spurred more calls to increase the former president’s security and raised fresh doubts about whether the Secret Service is capable of protecting both presidential candidates given rising risks of political violence. – Wall Street Journal
Soon after Donald Trump became president, authorities tried to warn him about the risks posed by golfing at his own courses because of their proximity to public roads. Secret Service agents came armed with unusual evidence: not suspect profiles or spent bullet casings, but simple photographs taken by news crews of him golfing at his private club in Sterling, Va. – Washington Post
The Secret Service did not search the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday before former President Donald J. Trump began his round, an acknowledgment that has put the besieged agency under renewed scrutiny two months after a similar episode in Pennsylvania. – New York Times
The man arrested after pointing a rifle through a fence ringing former President Donald J. Trump’s golf course in Florida on Sunday never got off a shot, but appears to have remained undetected for nearly 12 hours before being spotted by a Secret Service agent who drove him off with a volley of gunfire, officials said on Monday. – New York Times
A man suspected of hiding for nearly 12 hours in an apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course was charged with two gun-related crimes on Monday, a day after authorities say he was spotted in the bushes with a rifle as the former U.S. president played nearby. – Reuters
Former President Donald Trump is slated to give remarks on countering antisemitism to a group of prominent Jewish supporters on Thursday during an exclusive event in Washington, D.C., according to a person involved with the gathering. – Jewish Insider
Law enforcement officials are investigating a “Nazi like” assault of a Jewish student allegedly carried out by six people near the University of Michigan late Saturday night. – Algemeiner
Editorial: We don’t envy the Secret Service. Its agents get little credit when, day in and day out, they successfully protect the nation’s leaders. Any slip-up could be disastrous. Yet sequestering candidates and incumbent politicians from the public would prevent voters from evaluating those who act in their name. Washington is tightly controlled by cordons and barriers that separate people from their government. Striking the right balance between security and access is not easy. But it is the job. Congress should ensure the Secret Service has the resources to do it. – Washington Post
Ro Khanna writes: An attack on a former or current president is one of the greatest threats to our democracy and national security. What makes America extraordinary is our commitment to free and fair elections and resolving our political differences, in a very diverse nation, at the ballot box. Increasing security for the former president should be a bipartisan effort and a no-brainer. We must put politics aside and vote to urgently address the rising threats of political violence and protect our leaders. A failure to do so could lead to dire consequences that rip this nation apart at a fragile moment. – Washington Post
Cybersecurity
Scientists who helped pioneer artificial intelligence are warning that countries must create a global system of oversight to check the potentially grave risks posed by the fast-developing technology. – New York Times
Last year had the worst decline in credible elections and parliamentary oversight in almost a half-century, driven by government intimidation, foreign interference, disinformation and the misuse of artificial intelligence in campaigns, an organization promoting democracy said Tuesday. – Associated Press
The United States announced new sanctions Monday against a commercial spyware company headed by a former Israeli military officer whose program allowed easy access to almost any information stored on a smartphone. – Associated Press
The cybercriminals responsible for the attempted extortion of the Port of Seattle posted on Monday a 100-bitcoin ransom demand and images of purported documents stolen from the organization. – Cyberscoop
The Treasury Department announced sanctions Monday on the Intellexa Consortium, a corporate entity responsible for developing and marketing the notorious Predator spyware. – Cyberscoop
Binance is warning customers that malware is being used to manipulate withdrawal addresses in order to steal cryptocurrency, in a campaign that has led to “significant financial losses for victims.” – The Record
The Justice Department indicted a Chinese national for attempting to hack several aviation agencies across the U.S. government in order to steal software and code created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and others. – The Record
The owner of the only platinum and palladium mines in the U.S. confirmed that it experienced a cyberattack this summer that exposed the sensitive information of thousands of employees. – The Record
The cybercriminals responsible for the attempted extortion of the Port of Seattle posted on Monday a 100-bitcoin ransom demand and images of purported documents stolen from the organization. – The Record
Defense
The group that persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to bar the consideration of race in college admissions took the U.S. Naval Academy to trial on Monday in an effort to end a carve-out that allows military academies to still employ affirmative action policies.- Reuters
The United States is amassing an arsenal of abundant and easily made anti-ship weapons as part of American efforts to deter China in the Indo-Pacific region and gear up U.S. forces there. – Reuters
The U.S. Air Force plans to bed down 25 F-35As in fiscal 2026, according to a recent Defense Department report outlining how the service plans to field an inventory of nearly 700 of the aircraft by the end of the decade. – Defense News
The Pentagon announced today it will help lead a $3 billion U.S. Commerce Department initiative designed to make sure the U.S. military has access to a reliable domestic microelectronics supply chain. – Defense News
Cleanup of 51,450 gallons of firefighting foam and PFAS-contaminated water continues at a Navy-owned, privately leased hangar and its surrounding area in Maine — the second accident in two months involving stockpiles at active and former military installations. – Military.com
A senior enlisted Marine at the service’s West Coast recruit depot is in pretrial confinement and under investigation by law enforcement after being fired Thursday for “loss of trust and confidence.” – Military.com
The Navy on Monday released the service details of a sailor who was detained by Venezuelan authorities at the end of August after a top official in the country alleged he was part of a plot to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro and overthrow his regime. – Military.com
The Pentagon’s Replicator capabilities will be instrumental in countering China’s advanced military presence that’s expanding across the Indo-Pacific region, but there’s still much to puzzle out regarding the overarching concepts of operation for the platforms, according to the head of Pacific Air Forces. – DefenseScoop