Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Board of Peace to brief countries on Gaza rebuild efforts during UN General Assembly Russia and China Veto U.S. resolution to renew U.N. monitoring of Iran nuclear program Trump tells Axios he's approaching major crossroads in Iran war Satellite images show Iran rapidly working to rebuild nuclear site bombed by Israel ISIS’s David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, Spencer Faragasso, and the Good ISIS Team: Iran is rapidly reconstructing Taleghan 2 Russia’s wartime economy faces long-term erosion from debt and military spending WSJ Editorial: Trump gets new power against Putin Fighting intensifies in Yemen as militia advances on key provinces Trump moves ahead with F-35 jet sales to Saudi Arabia despite intelligence concerns Rejecting Trump, South Korean leader says he will not send troops to Iran China presses Iran to help rein in Houthis after Saudi appeal, sources say Poland's Tusk says Russia plans 'hybrid' missile and drone attacks on Kyiv's alliesIn The News
Israel
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Thursday to allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address the annual gathering of world leaders next week via video – for the second year in a row – after the United States again denied him a visa to travel to New York. – Reuters
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is struggling to strike a deal to fund the Israeli military’s request for $8 billion before next month’s election. – Bloomberg
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) will hunt down every single Hamas member involved in the October 7 massacre, no matter where they are or where they are hiding, Shin Bet Director David Zini said Thursday at a ceremony honoring Shin Bet agents for their exceptional service. – Jerusalem Post
An Israeli man was charged on Thursday with preparing a terrorist attack on a data center in Ra’anana, after allegedly using his volunteer work with the fire service to visit the site and explore ways to deliver an explosive. – Jerusalem Post
Israel’s hard-line government is pushing forward contentious plans for construction in a strategically significant area of the occupied West Bank. Critics say the effort, which defies international censure, aims to lock in the plans on the ground before elections next month. – New York Times
Israel’s targeted killings of Hamas operatives may be justified, but it will not cause the terrorist organization to be dismantled, according to a source close to the Board of Peace (BoP). – Jerusalem Post
The Board of Peace will hold a briefing for representatives from dozens of countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next week to update them on efforts to implement US President Donald Trump’s plan for rebuilding the Gaza Strip. – Times of Israel
The IDF confirmed on Thursday that it struck in the Al-Bureij area a day prior and eliminated the terrorist Muhammad Jamal Ahmad Eid, a Nukhba commander in Hamas’ military wing who terrorist infiltrated Israeli territory during the October 7th Massacre. – Arutz Sheva
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Thursday that Israel would continue its campaign against Iran and its terrorist proxies, saying that the Iranian regime would ultimately fall and that Israel would eliminate Hamas and continue acting against Hezbollah. – Arutz Sheva
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon on Thursday criticized Turkey’s growing military presence in Syria, warning that Israel would not allow Syrian territory to become a platform from which it could be threatened. – Arutz Sheva
Seth Mandel writes: That is the global media’s herd mentality on display, as well as the disconnect between the elites and the public. We see this also when looking at specific events that spur large amounts of media coverage. For example: International organizations produce a lot of garbage dressed up as “reports” on Israel, yet each time they release one, the media covers it like it’s the moon landing. The study is a valuable look at the inner workings of the media’s manufactured obsession with Israel and the consequences—chief among them, I’d suggest, is the amount of preventable deaths that might have been saved by some of the world’s attention and resources. When the media have Jews on the brain, everybody suffers. – Commentary Magazine
Iran
Russia and China vetoed a U.S. bid to renew the mandate of U.N. experts monitoring nuclear sanctions against Iran at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday. The move deepened tensions between the geopolitical rivals over the Trump administration’s efforts to isolate the Islamic republic. – New York Times
A major Iranian airline suspended flights to neighboring countries, adding to the country’s isolation caused by sweeping U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade that have sought to cut off Iran from the global economy. – New York Times
United Nations investigators said Thursday that there were reasonable grounds to conclude that two U.S. airstrikes on Iran in February in which at least 178 civilians died had been indiscriminate and amounted to war crimes. – New York Times
When President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations a year ago, he touted the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites just months earlier as “totally obliterating everything” and said he had brought peace between Israel and Iran. – Reuters
Four commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf on Thursday, down from six a day earlier and below the 10-day average of about 16, preliminary shipping data showed on Friday. – Reuters
The Trump administration will allow top Iranian officials to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, the State Department said on Thursday, even as Washington and Tehran remain at war and continue intermittent talks aimed at ending the conflict. – Reuters
The United States announced sanctions on an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange controlled by sanctioned Iranian financier Babak Zanjani on Thursday, accusing it of processing payments for ships to transit safely through the Strait of Hormuz. – Reuters
During her incarceration at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, Nobel peace laureate Narges Mohammadi would smuggle out fragments of writing with the help of her friends and fellow inmates. – CNN
President Trump told Axios Thursday that he’s approaching a critical juncture in the Iran war over whether to restart massive attacks in an effort to bring the conflict to a close. – Axios
Bursts of gunfire lasting for two hours were heard in the Iranian city of Zahedan from a shooting that left at least six wounded, Iran International reported early Friday morning. – Jerusalem Post
At least two General Atomics MQ-1 US military drones were shot down by Iranian fire in recent days, two anonymous US officials familiar with the matter told CBS News on Thursday. – Jerusalem Post
Iran is rapidly advancing the reconstruction of a nuclear facility that was previously bombed by Israel, according to satellite images cited in a report Thursday by the Institute for Science and International Security. – Times of Israel
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran is seeking an agreement with the United States but is not yet prepared to reach one. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said Tehran will either accept a favorable deal or there will be no agreement. – Arutz Sheva
Iran summoned Germany’s ambassador on Thursday in protest over remarks by senior German officials, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as tensions continue over Tehran’s actions in the region and the ongoing war. – Arutz Sheva
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Thursday that its naval forces struck a Togo-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz after the vessel allegedly attempted an “illegal passage” through the strategic waterway. – Arutz Sheva
David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, Spencer Faragasso, and the Good ISIS Team write: We noticed in an August 21, 2026, image by Vantor the presence of several passive defensive structures. Throughout 2026, Iran placed makeshift dirt mounds in several locations at the above ground complex, in key areas that could be used by U.S. or Israeli forces to land vertical takeoff or landing (VTOL) aircraft. Chicane barriers made from dirt can also be seen placed along the road just outside of the security perimeter. These passive defense structures are likely intended to complicate any sort of ground forces raid conducted against the complex. – Institute for Science and International Security
David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, Spencer Faragasso, and the Good ISIS Team write: During its reconstruction starting in May 2025, the Institute observed the installation of a cylindrical structure, which may have been a high explosive containment vessel. Given the precision of the March 2026 attacks, the high explosive containment vessel was likely destroyed. Significant questions remain as to Iran’s plans for the facility; not least is why Iran keeps rebuilding it. What is clear is that Iran remains committed to rebuilding this facility, a deeply concerning development considering the long history of nuclear weapons research and development activities that occurred there. – Institute for Science and International Security
Russia and Ukraine
Russians began voting on Friday in the first parliamentary elections since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an exercise carefully engineered by the Kremlin to project popular support for continuing a war now in its fifth year. – New York Times
Russia bombarded Kyiv and other cities with missiles and drones overnight, and neighbouring NATO member Poland scrambled jets after a Russian daytime attack in western Ukraine, officials said on Thursday. – Reuters
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people. It has also served as a proving ground for new weapons systems and raised an uncomfortable question for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Is the alliance prepared for the next war it might have to fight? – Reuters
The frictions in Russia’s wartime economy are growing, as massive military spending balloons the budget deficit. Consumers and businesses are gloomier. Growth has slowed. – Associated Press
Ukraine has long argued that Russia will only negotiate seriously if the cost of continuing the war becomes too high. For Kyiv, punitive sanctions that impose real economic costs on Moscow are a key part of that strategy. – Associated Press
Russians are growing fearful that President Vladimir Putin may soon order a massive new mobilization for the war in Ukraine after this weekend’s parliamentary elections. – Bloomberg
Russia is increasingly targeting Ukrainian passenger trains with jet-powered drones, threatening a rail network crucial to the country’s economy, military logistics and movement of people. – Politico
Editorial: The Justice Department this week indicted five individuals working for Russian intelligence services for allegedly trying to “conduct attacks and murders around the world, including in the United States.” This is a reminder that the stakes in Ukraine are much larger than the fate of that country. A large bipartisan majority of a politically polarized Congress has handed Mr. Trump new tools to pressure Mr. Putin to come to the negotiating table. Let’s hope the President signs the bill and makes the most of the leverage. If he could still play golf with Mr. Trump, we know what Lindsey Graham would be advising the President to do. – Wall Street Journal
Tom Rogan writes: At a minimum, the Trump administration should expel many Russian intelligence officers from America, impose heavy sanctions on all buyers of Russian energy supplies, and join as yet insufficient but growing European efforts to sanction or seize Russia’s shadow tanker fleet. Mr. Putin might then assess that killing U.S. residents or Americans carries more cost than benefit. Assuming he doesn’t, if and when someone on American soil is killed, a mirror response will be required. – Wall Street Journal
Alexandra Prokopenko writes: Neither the shambles of the 2022 military draft nor the mutiny by the Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin the following year fractured the ruling stratum. An official can still soften an instruction, protect a subordinate, place a friend. But that’s the extent of his or her power. On Sunday, officials whose livelihoods depend on delivering big numbers will count the votes and report them upward to a man who purports to believe them. The process will produce a majority both overwhelming and virtual — easily assembled and just as easily dismantled, should it ever become useful to do so. That is what 25 years have built: a country with one arbiter and a ruling class trained to follow his orders. – New York Times
Yemen
Fighting has intensified near two strategic provinces in Yemen, a sign that Iranian-backed Houthi militants are expanding their offensive after seizing the country’s Red Sea coastline, analysts say. – New York Times
A Yemeni living in Saudi Arabia was killed on Thursday in the interception of a drone, which the kingdom’s civil defence said was launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis. – Reuters
As Houthi rebels closed in, Eshraq Abdel Gelil and her husband fled their home, walking through the mountains before catching a ride to a nearby city. Four months pregnant, she feared another miscarriage. – Associated Press
Saudi Arabia
Militants have taken out what has arguably become the most important oil pipeline in the world. A way to ferry crude through the Strait of Hormuz, along with Saudi Arabia’s track record of fixing damaged infrastructure quickly, are now the best hope to cool oil prices. – Wall Street Journal
The State Department said Thursday that the Trump administration was moving forward with the sale of 48 advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite internal reports by U.S. intelligence agencies that China could acquire or steal the warplane’s technology. – New York Times
Richard Nephew writes: The U.S.-Saudi agreement is also innovative and imaginative, a credit to creative negotiations to unlock an issue that has been difficult for multiple administrations. As such, it may also mark out a future path for U.S. nuclear cooperation that sidesteps the positive, but overly aggressive, terms of the United Arab Emirates “gold standard” agreement. Additional provisions to ensure its effectiveness are not a mark against it, but an indication of how important it is to ensure that the gains made in this agreement’s text are preserved in its application. – War on the Rocks
Middle East & North Africa
Oil prices fell for a second straight session amid expectations that Saudi Arabia could soon restore some oil flows through its damaged East-West pipeline while shipping crude through the Strait of Hormuz, easing immediate concerns over Middle Eastern supplies. – Wall Street Journal
Power cuts have been a fact of life for years for Naseem Al-Akkari, who owns a chain of restaurants in Libya’s capital, Tripoli. But it was not until this summer’s heatwaves that they began posing an existential threat to his business, inflicting an estimated $40,000 in losses in just a few months. – Reuters
A former Syrian government official who headed the Damascus Central Prison under ousted President Bashar al-Assad and was convicted of torture by a US federal jury has been sentenced to 60 years in prison by a US judge, federal prosecutors said. – Reuters
Turkey’s Capital Markets Board (SPK) on Friday appointed Isbank and Ziraat Bank to oversee the liquidation of 131 investment funds managed by seven portfolio companies, following earlier decisions to suspend trading in the funds. – Reuters
The heads of state of Lebanon, France and Jordan met on Thursday as part of an effort to drum up support for the struggling Lebanese military. – Associated Press
Korean Peninsula
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un found a new way in recent years to deepen his alliance with Russia, sending North Korean workers by the thousands to aid an economy suffering from President Vladimir Putin’s protracted war with Ukraine. – Wall Street Journal
President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea pushed back against pressure from the Trump administration on Friday, declaring that his country would not deploy troops or military assets to support the U.S.-led war against Iran. – New York Times
North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of leader Kim Jong Un, on Friday blamed US-led military drills for “ever-worsening” tensions on the Korean Peninsula and vowed no change in the country’s course to strengthen its nuclear arsenal. – Reuters
Kim Son-Gyong, North Korea’s vice foreign minister, plans to attend a high-level segment of the United Nations General Assembly set to begin in New York next week, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday, citing a source at the international body. – Reuters
North Korea’s vice defence minister said on Thursday that a growing U.S.-led military buildup and what he called an expanding nuclear alliance among Washington, Seoul and Tokyo justified Pyongyang’s efforts to strengthen and expand its nuclear forces. – Reuters
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said talks with the US over projects tied to Seoul’s $350 billion investment commitment were causing him to lose sleep, with discussions reopening after he found parts of a nearly completed deal hard to accept. – Bloomberg
China
One of the most important lessons from the war with Iran is one that few saw coming. The conflict has made clear that China, which has long been highly vulnerable to oil supply shocks, has managed to transform that weakness into a surprising source of geopolitical power. – New York Times
China has privately asked Tehran to help rein in Yemen’s Houthis after an appeal to Beijing by Saudi Arabia following the Iran-backed group’s military blitz in the past week, according to three Iranian sources familiar with the matter. – Reuters
Shenzhen Forms Syntron Information has postponed its planned Hong Kong listing, citing market conditions, the Chinese financial technology firm said in a filing late Thursday. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump will welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week for their second meeting this year, as the two leaders seek stability in a relationship under pressure over issues ranging from trade to Taiwan and Iran as well as global worries about artificial intelligence. – Reuters
China is establishing a vast airspace security zone roughly the size of Italy around Beijing, barring all but commercial, approved business and emergency flights, months after a small aircraft crashed into the capital’s tallest building. – Reuters
A China Coast Guard vessel rammed a Philippine fishing boat on a resupply mission in the South China Sea on Friday, the Philippine Coast Guard said, damaging its railings and deck structures in the latest confrontation between the two countries in disputed waters. – Reuters
China has made upgrades to its military base at Djibouti that should significantly enhance its ability to monitor military activity across the Middle East and Africa, a report by a US think tank released on Thursday said. – Reuters
Editorial: Hong Kong used to be different. For decades, the only certainty investors needed was a stable currency and the government’s commitment to get out of the way. The erosion of the territory’s political freedoms under Beijing’s rule has been obvious for a long time in the jailing of publisher Jimmy Lai and other democracy advocates and a crackdown on dissent. Now it looks like Beijing also can’t keep its hands off the Hong Kong economy. – Wall Street Journal
Grace Jin Drexel, Rayhan Asat, and Sophie Luo write: One hundred names costs Beijing nothing but a decree, signed before the plane taking the prisoners home leaves Beijing. It would cement Trump’s historic legacy as the president who has freed more prisoners of conscience than any of his predecessors, turning the tide on overwhelming injustice. Beijing gains as well. A summit that opens in gratitude outperforms one that opens in grievance. Such a gesture also projects confidence. Lukashenko understood that — and lost nothing by satisfying Trump’s requests. Xi will come bearing gifts regardless. We ask for the only one that cannot be recalled, tariffed or renegotiated: a hundred people walking out of a hundred cells. Beijing could just call that a statistic. We will call each one by their name. – Washington Post
South Asia
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday suspended 17-year prison sentences handed to prominent rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband, and ordered them freed on bail, lifting a detention that has been criticised by activists. – Reuters
Pakistan announced on Thursday a cut in fuel for official vehicles, bans on vehicle purchases by the state, foreign visits by officials, and official dinners, as part of a slew of austerity measures in a bid to conserve energy as fuel prices spike due to the Gulf conflict. – Reuters
In Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, Parvin Akter times her cooking to the neighborhood’s availability of piped gas. With gas in intermittent supply as a result of a global energy crunch, she now sometimes has to wait until midnight to cook her dinner. – Reuters
A delegation of U.S. officials traveled to Myanmar this week and met with the country’s military-backed government to secure the release of detained US citizen Adam Castillo, a Department of State spokesman said on Thursday. – Reuters
Brahma Chellaney writes: The New Delhi summit may have demonstrated both the promise and the limits of BRICS. It is an influential coalition but not yet a unified alliance. It can coordinate diplomatic messaging but struggles to reconcile rival national ambitions. Its members share strong dissatisfaction with the current order but remain divided over the architecture of the next. Such underlying strain does not diminish BRICS’s significance. The future order will likely be shaped by a diverse group of middle powers seeking a multipolar world in which no single nation or bloc writes all the rules, East or West. – The Hill
Hriday Sarma writes: BRICS can still produce consensus, but only through carefully calibrated language that avoids forcing members to choose sides on their most divisive geopolitical disputes. For Israel and the US, that distinction matters. A stronger BRICS may challenge parts of the existing international order, but the New Delhi summit does not show the emergence of a unified alternative bloc. It shows something more complicated: India is trying to ensure that BRICS becomes a powerful negotiating forum without allowing China, Russia, or any other member to turn it into a geopolitical instrument. – Jerusalem Post
Asia
The Bank of Japan lifted its benchmark interest rate to its highest level in 30 years and signaled more increases are on the way, a policy shift with the potential for big ripples far beyond Japan’s shores. – Wall Street Journal
New Zealand has not had any discussions with the European Union about becoming an associate member, a spokesperson for New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Friday, after the bloc said it was considering such a proposal for Canada. – Reuters
Australia is considering barring the use of camera-equipped smart glasses in government workplaces due to privacy and security concerns, in what it said could be the first ban of its kind. – Reuters
Indonesia has begun an operation to right a ship that capsized and sank in the Java Sea last weekend, officials said on Friday, as authorities continued air and surface searches for the 129 people still missing. – Reuters
Australia will stop foreign students from bringing partners and children to accompany them while they study and tighten working holiday visa rules, a senior minister said on Thursday, amid growing debate over high migration levels. – Reuters
The Malaysian pardons board chaired by the king agreed on Friday to allow jailed former premier Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest, four years after a conviction related to a multi-billion-dollar financial scandal, the prime minister’s legal department said. – Reuters
Malaysia’s king agreed on Friday to allow jailed former premier Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest, the government said, four years after his conviction for his involvement in a multi-billion-dollar financial scandal. – Reuters
Indonesia welcomed its first aircraft carrier on Friday, a former Italian warship that the government says will strengthen the archipelago nation’s maritime security and disaster response capabilities. – Associated Press
Thailand’s finance minister isn’t getting much sleep these days. Ekniti Nitithanprapas said the demands of the job have cut his nightly sleep to about four hours, leaving him relying on weekly vitamin drips and daily supplements to keep going. – Bloomberg
Europe
Sweden’s center-left political parties squeaked to victory in elections this week, according to results released on Thursday, making the country one of the first in Europe to tap the brakes on the far right’s seemingly steady march toward power. – New York Times
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson submitted a letter of resignation to the speaker of parliament on Thursday following the announcement of a final vote count for Sunday’s election. – Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that progress is being made toward establishing a US Army base in Poland, crediting “the bold leadership” of Polish President Karol Nawrocki. – Reuters
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday, citing unnamed intelligence agencies, that Russia plans to launch ‘hybrid’ drone and missile attacks against countries supporting Ukraine. – Reuters
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that Serbia had opened a factory to assemble advanced Israeli-made drones, which will supply the Serbian military and armed forces in other countries. – Reuters
Friedrich Merz has been haunted by a past boast that he could cut the support of Germany’s surging far-right party in half. – Bloomberg
European Union officials insist they need to see a credible effort from China to rebalance its trade relationship with the bloc by next month or they will use all “tools” at their disposal to fix the situation. – Bloomberg
The European Commission will consider banning the export of plastic waste to Turkey if the country fails to address pollution and environmental concerns, a Commission official told POLITICO. – Politico
Germany and Spain used separate POLITICO opinion pieces to clash over the total size of the EU’s next approximately €2 trillion seven-year budget, setting the scene for tough negotiations to strike a deal before an informal end-of-year deadline. – Politico
Romanian President Nicușor Dan proposed member of European Parliament Siegfried Mureșan as the country’s next prime minister in a third attempt to wrench Bucharest out of its political crisis. – Politico
French presidential candidate Gabriel Attal laid out an ambitious pro-European platform for his campaign Thursday, vowing to make France part of a powerful, economically muscular “United States of Europe” if he wins next year’s race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron. – Politico
The European Commission sprang into damage-control mode Thursday over its surprise offer to bring Canada on board as the EU’s first “associate member” — a proposal that immediately triggered U.S. President Donald Trump’s wrath. – Politico
A senior World Jewish Congress delegation met on Thursday with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša and senior members of his government, marking a significant new chapter in relations between Slovenia, Israel, and the global Jewish community. – Arutz Sheva
German police arrested a 37-year-old Afghan national on Thursday on suspicion of attempting to set fire to a synagogue in the western city of Wuppertal, authorities told AFP. – Arutz Sheva
Dov Maimon writes: Exceptions notwithstanding, the overall trend is hard to ignore: electoral momentum is shifting toward constituencies that are currently less hostile to Israel than the European Left. Europe is not becoming pro-Israel, and that distinction matters. But the combination of a weakened center-left in several countries, a strengthening Right, growing pushback against extremism at protests, and the return of security concerns to the political mainstream may produce something more modest than affection – yet still significant for Israel: a continent less hostile than the one we have known over the past two years. For those who have grown used to seeing “Europe” as one uniform, hostile bloc, this is a trend worth watching closely. – Jerusalem Post
Africa
South African police said they found a ninth woman’s body near Johannesburg on Thursday as they investigated a series of killings in the same area over the last two months. – Reuters
The ongoing Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is still serious, with data indicating gaps in infection prevention and control, Africa’s top public health agency said on Thursday. – Reuters
Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 15 people in a pre-dawn attack on a village in northern Cameroon, a local vigilante and an administrative authority said on Thursday, in the latest violence to hit the area plagued by a long-running insurgency. – Reuters
At least 26 people have been killed and 82 others injured in Abyei town on the border between South Sudan and Sudan after clashes between two rival tribes, the United Nations said in a statement on Thursday. – Reuters
Senegal plans to shift towards using more domestically produced natural gas to lower the cost of electricity generation, as it aims to cut its dependence on imported fuels whose prices have risen sharply this year, the West African country’s energy minister told Reuters. – Reuters
Nigeria’s state security service on Thursday opened the trial of five suspected members of Islamist group Ansaru over the abduction of pupils and teachers from schools in southwestern Oyo state. – Reuters
The US government has approved up to $414 million in financing for a uranium project in Niger, according to the project’s developer, in what sources described as a win for Washington two years after the West African nation expelled all US forces. – Reuters
Protesters in South Africa have given migrants living illegally in the country until the end of the month to leave. If that sounds familiar, it comes months after another deadline came and went. And while the threat carries no legal force, it is causing major ructions between Africa’s richest country and its most populous — Nigeria. – CNN
The Americas
Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held a narrow numerical lead over Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a potential runoff in the October presidential election, according to a Datafolha poll published on Thursday. – Reuters
Argentina’s government has presented a bill to crack down on companies operating in the Falkland Islands, potentially escalating tensions with the United Kingdom over the territory that is controlled by Britain but claimed by Argentina. – Reuters
The Venezuelan government and opposition are close to an agreement to transfer the central bank’s gold reserves, worth about $4 billion, to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from the Bank of England, the Financial Times said. – Reuters
Brazil’s leftist government on Thursday announced a 15% increase in benefits under the country’s flagship welfare program, which supports tens of millions of low-income people, and signaled a new initiative to help indebted households clear negative credit listings ahead of next month’s general election. – Reuters
Bolivia’s Assembly extended a state of emergency for 90 days on Thursday, citing persistent risks that demonstrators protesting the government’s policies could mount new road blockades disrupting supplies and economic activity. – Reuters
Chile, one of Latin America’s largest oil importers, has started to consider adopting ethanol-blended gasoline as spiking oil prices this year have strained the economy and government finances, according to documents seen by Reuters. – Reuters
Trinidad and Tobago ended a lengthy state of emergency on Thursday with authorities on alert for a possible surge in violence as activists and lawyers decried the mass arrests stemming from the measure. – Associated Press
Argentine President Javier Milei fired around 12 members of the domestic staff at his official residence outside Buenos Aires due to a series of alleged leaks, newspaper La Nacion reported citing officials it did not name. – Bloomberg
North America
The union representing more than 9,000 Stellantis employees in Canada said Thursday it could be in a strike position in the coming weeks unless the carmaker changes course on its plan to sell a Toronto-area factory to a defense firm. – Wall Street Journal
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is attempting the most dramatic reorientation of his country’s economy and international alliances since Ottawa entered a free-trade agreement with the U.S. almost 40 years ago. – Wall Street Journal
Thousands of containers filled with food, medicine and other goods bound for Cuba have been stranded throughout the Caribbean since two shipping giants stopped deliveries to avoid tough U.S. sanctions, according to diplomats, Cuban officials, merchants and others involved in the imports. – New York Times
The United States imposed sanctions Thursday on 11 Cuban entities related to nickel reserves and military enterprises that it said were part of a system that enriched the elite, hurting ordinary Cubans. – Reuters
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney secured this week an offer to become the European Union’s first associate member, a mostly symbolic victory in his campaign to demonstrate Canada can flourish while decreasing its reliance on the United States. – Reuters
A human rights group in Haiti has revealed new details about one of the country’s biggest massacres in recent years and unveiled security holes as authorities struggle to contain violent gangs. – Associated Press
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum discussed bilateral trade with her US counterpart Donald Trump in a phone call, according to several people familiar with the discussion. – Bloomberg
European Investment Bank President Nadia Calviño is heading to Ottawa on Sunday to lay the groundwork for Europe-Canada cooperation on critical raw materials, an official from her office said. – Politico
Duncan Wood writes: A future Canadian government still integrated into the U.S. economy could approach Washington with a far more substantial strategic relationship with Europe, dramatically stronger links to Asian economies and significantly greater ability to move Canadian energy, resources, technology and capital in multiple directions. That would represent something more important than simply surviving the current trade dispute. For much of its history, Canada has seen its geography next to an economic superpower as destiny. Perhaps that interpretation has been too narrow. Canada borders the United States. But it also faces Europe across the Atlantic, Asia across the Pacific and an increasingly important Arctic to the north. The opportunity is not to choose among them. It is to connect them. - The Hill
United States
Three Democratic senators are pressing the Trump administration for transparency on billions of dollars in oil revenue from Venezuela believed to be in a U.S. government-controlled account. – Washington Post
An Afghan man was sentenced in Virginia on Wednesday to 20 years in prison in a case where prosecutors had sought to tie him to a suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport in 2021 but the jury delivered a mixed verdict. – New York Times
US House of Representatives Democrats raised concerns on Thursday about President Donald Trump’s civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, and said they had introduced a resolution of disapproval seeking to block the deal from coming into force. – Reuters
In-person voting for this year’s midterm elections begins Friday, ushering in the final six weeks for Americans to decide who they trust to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran and other pressing issues. – Associated Press
At the high-level Middle East-America Dialogue (MEAD) conference in Washington last week, which brought together current and former senior officials from Israel, the US, and across the Middle East, one theme repeatedly emerged: In Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon, “the perfect” must not be allowed to become the enemy of progress. – Jerusalem Post
Federal authorities have arrested a North Carolina man accused of sending antisemitic threatening letters to Jewish organizations and community leaders, including the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach and officials affiliated with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), JNS reported. – Arutz Sheva
Gary Rosen writes: There is something touching in this starry-eyed vision, and it speaks to genuine anxieties. But it is an ideological fairy tale. It can deliver wasteful political theater such as government-run grocery stores. It might win a hearing for Medicare-for-all, at least until Americans learn about the sacrifices it would entail. It can provide a degree of meaning and social connection to a privileged urban cohort determined, in classic fashion, to shock the bourgeoisie. But don’t expect the DSA to unite the workers of the world or even to take over the Democratic Party. Americans are disgruntled, but they won’t be duped by cosplaying revolutionaries. – Washington Post
Cybersecurity
King Charles III of Britain met with executives from leading artificial intelligence companies in Scotland on Thursday, amid a growing global debate about safety risks created by the technology and whether the pace of development should be slowed down. – New York Times
Huawei’s Eric Xu said Chinese AI developers may not yet be advanced enough to experience the safety risks reported by leading U.S. firms, arguing they should continue developing more powerful models while balancing innovation against risk. – Reuters
A range of delegates to China’s flagship defence conference this week expressed fears over the potential for unchecked AI development and technology rivalries to further heighten risks across the global security environment. – Reuters
A US government website employed an AI model from a Chinese company for users to search proposed federal regulations despite the FBI accusing the model’s developer, Alibaba, of “malicious” copying of US rival Anthropic’s technology. – Reuters
An anonymous hacking group claimed to have broken into computer systems connected to Russia’s election infrastructure just days before the country begins voting for a new parliament. – The Record
Congress is looking for ways to address a recent string of suicide deaths at the military’s premier digital warfighting organization, hoping to provide more mental and emotional support to personnel at a time when the tempo and duration of cyber operations have reached new heights. – The Record
Alleged Chinese hackers are breaking into government agencies across Latin America using a new backdoor that researchers are calling “SparroWocky.” ESET researcher Alexandre Côté Cyr said he has been following the campaign since at least August 2025 and tracked attacks on government departments in Guatemala, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Panama, Venezuela, Peru and Argentina. – The Record
An Israeli influence-for-hire company appears to have trained Angolan government officials to run online influence operations, including creating fake social media personas and producing content designed to promote the government, according to new research. – The Record
David Ignatius writes: The Chinese author, Tianjiao Jiang, argued that such a hotline could “reduce the risk of cascading crises.” I hope Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping put it on the agenda for their summit next week. “This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.” We’ve all heard the screeching electronic noise on our radio, followed by the message: “If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for news and official information.” Well, this isn’t a test. The AI challenge is real, and if it isn’t well controlled, it could produce an actual emergency. We’re waiting for “official information,” but right now what we’re hearing is political static. That must change. – Washington Post
Marc A. Thiessen writes: But the United States cannot afford to stop or slow its development. Because America’s adversaries will not slow down. And even if some of the fears about artificial intelligence do come true, any problems would be far worse in the hands of a Chinese Communist Party with AI superiority. If China is allowed to pull ahead in AI development and harness that knowledge to achieve military superiority over the United States, that would pose an existential threat to humanity. Indeed, the very real danger of allowing a genocidal, totalitarian regime to possess superior AI is far greater than any hypothetical threat posed by AI itself. When it comes to AI, we don’t know where the arms race is going, but we know America needs to get there first. – Washington Post
Andreas Kluth writes: AI doesn’t share, at least not intrinsically, our human instinct to avoid catastrophe — a difference euphemistically called the “alignment problem.” That one insight is enough to explain why it’s imperative, as the jargon has it, always to keep a human in the loop, and to go no faster than human speed. This too is a lesson already learned by leaders during the late Cold War: An out-of-control AI contest, like a nuclear war, cannot be won, and must never be fought. – Bloomberg
Jane Li writes: Beijing quickly pushed back and blasted Anthropic’s calls to slow AI as a “Cold War” tactic. But this clash reveals a glaring strategic paradox: If Western AI governance leans toward becoming more dependent on government safety controls, it risks shifting the competition onto Beijing’s home turf. What happens when the system designed to control technological risk also becomes a gatekeeper for who can participate? – Washington Examiner
Defense
General Motors has entered the missile business. The automaker is supplying parts for Lockheed Martin’s LMT Patriot missiles, the military contractor said Thursday—a potential lift to U.S. munitions supplies depleted by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. – Wall Street Journal
US Coast Guard and FBI personnel boarded two commercial vessels bound for the United States in the Gulf of Mexico last month after indications that hackers had broken into their computer networks, the agencies said on Thursday. – Reuters
Tensions are mounting between the Pentagon and Congress over the flow of information to lawmakers about the U.S. military’s priorities, with both Democrats and Republicans accusing a Defense Department leader of being frustratingly opaque. – Associated Press
China is devoting enormous efforts — from submarines to ballistic missiles — to destroy America’s aircraft carriers. The strategy prompted a U.S. think tank to ask why America couldn’t do the same and sink China’s growing fleet of carriers. – Defense News
Battleship New Jersey Museum & Memorial is undergoing its “largest undertaking” since it opened its doors in October 2001, CEO Marshall Spevak told Military.com. – Military.com
The Space Force is making headway on two efforts the service says will modernize how the Defense Department tracks airborne and ground-based moving targets. – DefenseScoop
Editorial: The Houthis, a Yemen-based Iranian proxy, are again disrupting shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb, chokepoints for oil and other essential globally traded commodities. They have a long-standing policy of not targeting Russian and Chinese ships, knowing that Iranian and Russian oil, bought at steep discounts by China, lines their pockets and allows them to evade American sanctions. U.S. policymakers must recognize our enemies’ shared objective, and our strategy must reflect it. Strategy flows from presidential pronouncements and actions. Trump should not slap conditions on arms sales to Taiwan if Xi asks him to. He should condemn China for its role in murdering American troops, and he should sanction the Chinese entities responsible.- Washington Examiner
Abigail Remler and David Feith write: The choice is between an integrated American system that combines public missions with private capital and a fragmented one facing off against China’s coordinated buildup. Twenty years ago, NASA understood that preserving U.S. leadership required changing how government worked with industry. The NNSA can make the same leap. China is building, but American companies are, too. Washington can unite the national labs and private fusion firms before the next generation of facilities is built without national security needs in mind. As SpaceX showed, commercial partnerships created to meet certain government needs can help unlock entire industries and strategic advantages. – Washington Post
Nadia Schadlow writes: Breaking this pattern will require a change in thinking in Washington. U.S. military leaders must build forces and concepts around the assumption that future wars are unlikely to be resolved quickly, while political leaders must be more realistic about whether the objectives they set can be achieved by military force alone and in a short time frame. Such adjustments will not be easy. The more dangerous possibility is that the United States will continue to drift into attritional conflicts because their price initially appears manageable, even as the human and economic costs mount. Americans may reject the notion of “forever wars.” But U.S. adversaries have every incentive to deny the United States the short, decisive conflicts it prefers. And even wars that prove relatively easy to sustain can be very difficult to end for good. – Foreign Affairs
Can Kasapoglu writes: If munitions scarcity is the problem, the answer cannot be passivity either. Western magazines are not empty due to unnecessary wars. They are empty because the West’s political masters never saw the wars coming. The remedy must begin with the actual causes. Intelligence assessments must focus on adversary capabilities rather than preferred interpretations of adversary intentions. Long story short: peace is not preserved by wishing war away. It is preserved by making war too costly for the aggressor to contemplate. – The National Interest