Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Hundreds of thousands rally in Iran as war and economy squeeze Iran vows to keep Strait of Hormuz closed until US meets its conditions Russia warns new U.S. sanctions law would harm Trump's peace efforts Putin’s ruling party wins big in controlled parliament vote How AI is reshaping election campaigns in Israel Sharaa secretly building up Syrian military, raising red flags in Israeli security community Houthis push to expand territory as tensions with Saudi Arabia rise WSJ Editorial: The Saudis, the Houthis, and Israel North Korea fires two suspected ballistic missiles off east coast within three hours Taiwan holds first joint drill using multiple attack drones in modernisation push U.S. reaches Greenland security agreement US removes sanctions on Eritrean Defense Forces, Treasury website showsIn The News
Israel
The Israeli prime minister appears asleep in bed, while warnings of a Hamas attack flash across the screen. Senior judges are shown being dragged through the streets after protesting the government. The mayor of New York holds a party to celebrate the downfall of longtime Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. – Wall Street Journal
An Israeli man was shot and killed in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to the Israeli authorities, who said they had detained a Palestinian suspect over the attack. It was part of a broader surge in violence in the territory. – New York Times
Israel’s president on Saturday expunged the criminal record of a former soldier who fatally shot a severely wounded Palestinian assailant while he lay on the ground a decade ago, fulfilling a long-sought demand from Israel’s right. – New York Times
The European Commissioner for the Mediterranean said on Sunday that she discussed the European Union’s relationship with Israel, regional stability and Gaza recovery efforts with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. – Reuters
A meeting between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not on the agenda during Netanyahu’s visit to the United States, a senior US official told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday, with the latest schedules placing the two leaders in New York at different times. – Jerusalem Post
A 32-year-old man from Majd al-Krum was arrested on suspicion of making contact with a foreign agent several months ago in order to conduct missions in Israel on their behalf, Israel Police announced on Friday. – Jerusalem Post
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is adding a stop in Texas to his brief visit to the US for next week’s UN General Assembly, with a visit to tour SpaceX facilities, a political source confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Friday. – Jerusalem Post
The US embassy in Israel issued a security alert on Saturday in light of the renewed fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and a Saudi-led coalition that supports the internationally recognized government of Yemen. – Times of Israel
Editorial: His Palestinian Authority promotes anti-Israel measures at the Hague and other international fora. It uses foreign donations to pay families of terrorist “martyrs.” America banned Mr. Abbas’s visit to New York, where he annually stars at next week’s United Nations gabfest. The UN general assembly promptly voted to allow Mr. Abbas to address world leaders by video from Ramallah. Supporters of a Palestinian state, including Arab and European donors, are hoping that elections would lend legitimacy to a government that has long lost its citizens’ trust. Legitimacy could embolden those who are eager to start rebuilding Gaza — and force an Israelis withdrawal. A veneer of democracy, though, is unlikely to convince Israelis — and most Palestinian Arabs — that peace is around the corner. – New York Sun
Iran
Rifle-toting supporters of Iran’s theocracy poured into the streets of Tehran on Friday in a defiant display of military power, as diplomatic efforts to end the war with the U.S. stagnate and economic frustration mounts. – Wall Street Journal
President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations said Sunday he would not put a timeline on the end of the Iran war, which has dragged on for nearly seven months despite Trump’s initial insistence that it would be over within four or five weeks. – Washington Post
Iran and the United States exchanged new threats on Sunday, with President Donald Trump warning Iran would fail economically or face its leadership being wiped out if it didn’t make a deal, and the Iranian military saying it would retaliate harshly to any fresh attack. – Reuters
A dozen commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on the weekend, down from 35 the prior weekend, shipping data showed on Monday, as tension in the Gulf persisted with the US and Iran in stalemate. – Reuters
France will summon Iran’s ambassador and take appropriate measures in response after Iranian authorities sealed a French language centre affiliated with its embassy in Tehran, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. – Reuters
Iran executed a man convicted of passing missile site intelligence to Israel during the 12-day war, according to the judiciary. Iran’s judiciary-run Mizan news agency said Hossein Pedaran was hanged after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence on charges of espionage and intelligence cooperation with Israel. – Reuters
Iranians are suffering as economic misery and internal repression leave “no room for people to breathe” after 1½ years of wars, Iran’s most prominent human rights activist has told The Associated Press. – Associated Press
Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi said Saturday that members of the Islamic Republic’s military and civilian establishment were already quietly breaking with the regime, describing Iran as having entered an “active defection” phase in the struggle to overthrow the country’s rulers. – Jerusalem Post
The spokesman for Iran’s mass mobilisation campaign said children under 15 could be introduced to military concepts, while denying that minors were receiving formal weapons training as authorities expand a civilian defence drive launched during the war – Iran International
Morgan Bazilian writes: A war intended to pressure Iran and reassure American allies is, in country after country, becoming an argument for buying energy security from Beijing instead of Washington. […] The energy map that existed before Feb. 28 rested on a weak assumption that the Strait of Hormuz would carry gas, chemicals and fuel on a predictable schedule indefinitely. That assumption is gone, and countries are having to adjust to a world without it. The lessons the United States is drawing need to become less insular and acknowledge the interconnected nature of supply chains. The war in Iran will end, but its effects on the global economy will last longer. – Washington Post
Russia and Ukraine
Russia’s parliamentary election this weekend will have little bearing on the direction of the country. There is no serious question about which party will prevail: President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia. – Wall Street Journal
Russia has unexpectedly seized Nestlé’s operations in the country, in a new round of pressure on Western companies four years after the start of the Ukraine war. – Wall Street Journal
Many of the children recruited by Russia are impoverished and are lured into betraying Ukraine with relatively small offers of money, the authorities said. […] Many of the children recruited by Russia are impoverished and are lured into betraying Ukraine with relatively small offers of money, the authorities said. – Washington Post
Russian President Vladimir Putin will win yet another election Sunday. United Russia, the party that has long supported the country’s modern “forever leader,” will once again win a majority in the Duma, the lower house of parliament. – Washington Post
Moscow and its surrounding region came under attack by hundreds of drones, the local authorities said on Sunday morning, on the final day of parliamentary, regional and local elections across Russia. – New York Times
They have almost no chance of winning. Their party, Yabloko, was formally removed from the nationwide ballot in this weekend’s elections. Their fellow party members have been sentenced to years in prison for their antiwar positions. – New York Times
Russia has suggested that sweeping new U.S. legislation aimed at pressuring Moscow to end the war in Ukraine will backfire, warning that new U.S. sanctions would risk undoing President Trump’s steps toward peace. – New York Times
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had spoken with US President Donald Trump and the two agreed to meet in New York for talks that “could change a lot” in terms of finding a resolution to the 4-1/2-year-old war with Russia. – Reuters
Russian authorities reported attacks on voting systems and communication lines across the country on Saturday, the second day of a September 18-20 parliamentary election that Moscow is treating as a test of public support for the war in Ukraine. – Reuters
An overnight Russian attack on the Kyiv region killed four people, including three children, Kyiv regional authorities said on Sunday. Drone attacks persisted in Kyiv and the surrounding region throughout the day. – Reuters
The US State Department approved a potential $2.7 billion military sale to Ukraine for air defense development upgrades and related equipment and services, the department said in a congressional notification late on Friday. – Reuters
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday it had been informed the cooling tower of a reactor unit “was hit by a drone” the previous day at western Russia’s Kursk nuclear power plant. – Reuters
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy launched on Friday a new regional grouping of eight countries from the Carpathian region of central and eastern Europe, at a summit in Ukraine designed to promote trade and security cooperation. – Reuters
Russia’s ruling United Russia party scored an overwhelming victory in the country’s first parliamentary elections since the start of the war in Ukraine, in a vote tightly controlled by the Kremlin and with virtually no genuine opposition on the ballot. – Bloomberg
Moscow is moving to expand its capacity to make tens of thousands of the killer drones it deploys in attacks on Ukrainian cities, according to plans from a Russian state company obtained by POLITICO. – Politico
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Britain’s chargé d’affaires in Moscow, Danae Dholakia, on Friday to issue a formal protest about what it called London’s “further increase” in weapons supplies to Ukraine. – Jerusalem Post
Eric Wargotz writes: For the international community and discerning readers, the primary takeaway from this national exercise is clear. It should not be the artificial vote totals or the scripted declarations of victory. Instead, the true value of observing this process lies in analyzing the Kremlin’s control. […] The high participation rates and overwhelming margins will not reflect the genuine will of a free populace. Rather, they will demonstrate that the regime retains a firm, uncompromising grip on the levers of domestic power. As the finalized results are broadcast worldwide, they will serve as a stark reminder. The democratic ritual in an autocracy is never about choosing a future. It is simply about freezing the present in place. – Washington Examiner
Lawrence J. Haas writes: European officials are reportedly considering options that include “opening a debate about whether a so-called hybrid attack could trigger NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, more unified communication in response to incidents and a greater push on protecting critical infrastructure.” Washington and Europe should go much further. Along with hardening energy and communications infrastructure and strengthening cyber defenses, Western nations should boost their weaponry and provide what’s needed not just for Ukraine but for other nations that are most vulnerable to a prospective Russian attack. Because, if Russian behavior is any guide, the costs of not doing so are liable to be far greater. – The National Interest
Syria
Syrian authorities said on Saturday they arrested a leader of a cell involved in the deaths of three security force personnel during an anti-extremist operation in the south. – Agence France-Presse
At least four people were injured following a series of explosions at an Aleppo army site in northern Syria early Monday, state media reported. – Agence France-Presse
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been diverting most of the country’s resources, from tax revenues to international aid, toward building a large standing army and acquiring weapons systems, according to Israeli security assessments. – Jerusalem Post
Turkey
Turkish authorities detained five people as part of an investigation launched after some investment funds defaulted on redemption requests, the justice ministry said on Saturday. – Reuters
Turkey’s BDDK banking watchdog revoked the operating license of Iranian lender Mellat Bank’s branch in Istanbul, according to a notice published in the Official Gazette on Saturday, as the US presses other countries to increase economic pressure on Tehran. – Reuters
A 14-year-old boy just became the first test of a law that lets Turkish courts send children away for decades — and the court did not hold back. – New York Sun
Nine Israelis have been arrested in Turkey, local media reported Saturday, as authorities said they’d broken up an Israel-linked international investment fraud network accused of stealing some $3 billion from victims across Europe, Asia and Africa. – Times of Israel
Yemen
The Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen was engaged in fierce battles against fighters backed by Saudi Arabia on Sunday, as the group steps up its push to expand its territory, according to local officials. – New York Times
When a terrifying bombardment erupted around their camp in Yemen this week as a long-paused civil war reignited, Rawya Hassan and her family fled for their lives, barefoot and leaving their animals and other belongings behind. – Reuters
A senior official with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels is warning countries against joining Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s revived civil war, telling The Associated Press on Sunday that his group has assured the Trump administration that it won’t attack U.S. vessels in the Red Sea. – Associated Press
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with Al Arabiya on Sunday that he strongly condemns Houthi attacks on infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. – Al Arabiya
Saudi Arabia
President Donald Trump, contending with soaring gas and diesel prices and a depleted munition stocks, has not offered a military intervention in response. Instead, the president — who since his first term has maintained close relations with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia known as MBS — has been relatively blasé in remarks on the matter. – Washington Post
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia may have military needs due to the ongoing attacks by Yemen’s Houthis and that Turkey was ready to help under a trilateral defence pact that also includes Pakistan. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia has conveyed through the Sultanate of Oman a new proposal to the Houthis in Yemen, including a two-week ceasefire and the opening of direct talks between Riyadh and the Houthi leadership. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: Or Riyadh can join the Abraham Accords, as Mr. Trump says, and cement the U.S. regional alliance. Progress continues among Israel, the U.A.E. and Bahrain, and Israel and Morocco agreed Wednesday to resume direct flights, appoint ambassadors and turn their diplomatic missions into full embassies. Riyadh says it wants a path to a Palestinian state first, but after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, that’s effectively a stall. The Pakistanis and the Turks aren’t going to save the day for the Saudis. There’s no substitute for the U.S.-led alliance, and this looks like a chance for it to reach its potential. – Wall Street Journal
Gulf States
The crisis over the Strait of Hormuz could delay some QatarEnergy expansion projects because critical equipment is unable to reach Qatar, its CEO Saad al-Kaabi said on Sunday, adding that QatarEnergy was currently producing only a “very minute” volume of liquefied natural gas. – Reuters
Qatar’s prime minister announced on Sunday the creation of a new division of the Qatar Investment Authority dedicated to developing domestic investments, marking a new direction for a sovereign wealth fund long focused on building wealth overseas. – Reuters
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, said Gulf states must work together to restore stability in the region and help find a settlement between the US and Iran. – Bloomberg
Qatar’s International Media office denied reports that the nation provided funding for Hamas in Gaza in the form of “humanitarian aid” in an official statement on Friday, claiming that “these allegations are being promoted by elements of Israel’s far right and political figures in an attempt to deflect attention from domestic political failures and portray Qatar as a convenient scapegoat.” – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
An Iraqi court on Sunday opened the trial of six French nationals accused of belonging to Islamic State, with a member of the Supreme Judicial Council telling the court that the suspects could face the death penalty if convicted of crimes committed against Iraq and the Iraqi people. – Reuters
The head of United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon said on Saturday it was critical to ensure other UN agencies and Lebanese troops could assume the tasks carried out by the force before it begins withdrawing at the end of this year. – Reuters
A funeral in rural Morocco for an elderly woman became an unlikely campaign stop for candidates trying to motivate disenchanted young voters ahead of parliamentary elections Wednesday. – Associated Press
Hundreds of Tunisians protested on Saturday to demand the release of jailed pro-Palestinian activists accused of money laundering when they helped organize a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla. – Agence France-Presse
Korean Peninsula
The overtures from President Trump to one of his favorite dictators came hot and heavy over the summer. In June, Mr. Trump posted a photo of himself strolling through the tropical grounds of a luxury hotel with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, during their historic summit in Singapore eight years ago. – New York Times
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday as the longtime allies grappled with delayed Korean investments in the United States and Seoul’s role in Middle East security. – Reuters
North Korea fired two missiles off its eastern coast on Sunday, its second set of tests in roughly a week and days after Pyongyang accused the US of driving tensions on the Korean Peninsula through a series of military drills. – Reuters
Three South Korean military officers conducting an operation south of the Military Demarcation Line in the western sector of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas were injured in an explosion, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement on Monday. – Reuters
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s nominee for justice minister withdrew from consideration on Saturday, the second of Lee’s cabinet picks to step aside this month as his approval ratings slump. – Reuters
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will visit the United States and Mexico on September 21 to 27 to attend the UN General Assembly and hold a summit with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, the presidential Blue House said on Monday. Lee is also seeking meetings on the sidelines of the UN gathering with the leaders of the United States, Australia and other countries, the Blue House said. – Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, accused the International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday of double standards after it adopted a resolution criticising Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme. – Reuters
North Korea said on Monday it would not tolerate what it called hostile forces’ efforts to curb Pyongyang’s cooperation with other countries, adding that no new sanctions would block its development or defence of its core interests, state media KCNA reported, citing a Foreign Ministry spokesperson. – Reuters
China
China’s Xi Jinping skipped a dinner of world leaders in India earlier this month because he was unwell, said people familiar with the matter, fueling speculation about his health days before a planned visit to the U.S. – Wall Street Journal
In the four months since the leaders of the two global superpowers last met, Xi Jinping has overseen a surge in China’s trade with the world while Donald Trump has struggled with falling approval ratings at home. – Reuters
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng concluded talks in New York on Sunday with the US side proposing a new AI safety notification mechanism for US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider at their summit this week. – Reuters
The US and China are discussing a plan to reduce or eliminate China’s tariffs on American LNG as part of a broader package of energy and agriculture agreements that could be announced when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Washington next week, according to two people briefed on the discussions. – Reuters
Washington and Beijing are finalising a group of Chinese business leaders to join President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Washington, three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially including companies facing US regulatory scrutiny as they seek greater market access. – Reuters
China criticized the new US law that strengthens sanctions on Russia and extends trade measures on Iran, which was signed late Friday by President Donald Trump. – Bloomberg
Editorial: China imposed the national-security law on Hong Kong that was used to convict Mr. Lai for communicating in innocent fashion with foreigners. One of his offenses was writing an op-ed in these pages. A word from Mr. Xi, and Mr. Lai could be on a plane the next day. It would cost Mr. Xi nothing to free Mr. Lai, and it would prevent the international ignominy that is sure to follow if Mr. Lai dies in prison. Mr. Trump puts a premium on his personal diplomacy with foreign leaders. We’ll soon learn if Mr. Xi returns the favor to Mr. Trump for all of the Washington pomp and presidential praise. – Wall Street Journal
George F. Will writes: Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports “a profound shift in Taiwan’s identity”: In 1992, only 17.6 percent of Taiwan residents identified solely as Taiwanese. Today 63.1 percent do. The share identifying solely as Chinese has plummeted from 25.5 percent to 2.5 percent. Time is widening a cultural divide that increasingly precludes peaceful “reunification” (Xi’s propagandistic term) of Taiwan with Xi’s Communist Party state. Freymann says — startlingly, without elaboration — that by seizing Taiwan, Xi could make himself “untouchable by rivals in his old age.” It is relevant, and unsettling, that Xi, who visits Washington next week, has thrived in such a high-risk, high-stakes, uncivilized political milieu. – Washington Post
Dan Perry writes: Such a bargain aligns three interests. Venezuela would receive capital and a path toward higher production. China would gain another long-term energy source. The United States would cut the financial connection that allows Iran to absorb Western pressure for longer than is acceptable. Iran currently wants the world to believe that nothing can force it to retreat and its forces and proxies are projecting power from Hormuz to Bab el-Mandeb while the West struggles to translate pressure into submission. Trump can change that calculation by focusing on the country that makes Iran’s defiance economically possible. So on September 24, Trump should remind China’s leader that Iran’s accessible oil stockpile is vanishing anyway, that Beijing has reasons to want Hormuz reopened faster, and that America is willing to deal. – New York Post
Liselotte Odgaard writes: A visit by Xi Jinping could help establish guardrails for competition and reduce the danger of crisis escalation. Those are worthwhile objectives. But policymakers should resist the temptation to treat dialogue itself as a strategic outcome. The long-term stability of the Indo-Pacific will depend less on summit diplomacy than on whether allies continue to strengthen the collective capabilities needed to deter conflict. In an era of strategic competition, alliance confidence is not a peripheral concern. It is the foundation of deterrence. – The National Interest
South Asia
An alliance led by powerful militant leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose fighters once targeted U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has claimed responsibility for a deadly mosque assault inside a police compound in northwest Pakistan. – New York Times
A new sanctions law giving President Trump broad authority to impose steep tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil adds a new layer of uncertainty to India’s already fraught trade relationship with the United States. – New York Times
Canada is optimistic about concluding negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) with India by year-end, the country’s minister for international trade said on Saturday. – Reuters
Police arrested Aleema Khan, the sister of Pakistan’s jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan at her house in Lahore, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Punjab spokesman said on Sunday, ahead of a planned protest march by the party on September 27. – Reuters
At least three people were killed in Pakistani airstrikes on northeastern Afghanistan on Monday, Afghan officials said, threatening to reignite tensions between the neighbours after nearly three months of relative calm. – Reuters
Asia
Noel Germano leads the way through the dark, airless hallways of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, an isolated compound west of Manila that was meant to be the first source of atomic energy in the Philippines. – New York Times
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters warned on Monday of a more troubled and unsettled world, calling for the United States to be engaged in the Pacific as he noted the unwelcome geopolitical manoeuvring in the region. – Reuters
Two New Zealand naval ships transited the Taiwan Strait late last week, New Zealand’s Defence Force said on Monday, amid tension over the waterway claimed by China and regarded by Taiwan and the US as international waters. – Reuters
Indonesian authorities will continue searching on Monday for more than a hundred people still missing after a passenger ship sank in the Java Sea last week, with the confirmed death toll now at 10, its rescue agency said on Sunday. – Reuters
Taiwan’s labour minister left on Sunday for China to attend an APEC event, the first ministerial-level visit of President Lai Ching-te’s administration at a time when Beijing has ramped up military and political pressure against Taipei. – Reuters
Australia and New Zealand on Monday signed a pact to deepen cooperation between both countries’ navies. The pact, named Plan Tasman, will strengthen cooperation across personnel, training, development, warfighting, engineering, regulation and international engagement, statements from both countries said. – Reuters
Taiwan’s military carried out its first joint combat exercise using multiple types of attack drones this week, in what President Lai Ching-te said on Friday showed how the armed forces were adapting to the needs of modern warfare. – Reuters
Australia will bid to join the United Nations Security Council from 2029, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday, as he launched a campaign to secure one of the two non-permanent seats available to its bloc. – Reuters
US defence tech firm Anduril’s founder Palmer Luckey said on Saturday that President Donald Trump’s delay in approving arms sales to Taiwan is affecting its business and that he has discussed this with Trump. – Reuters
Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth agreed in a phone call to further strengthen security ties after Koizumi retained his post in a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York next week, their first-face-to-face since the US intervened to help prop up Japan’s yen. – Bloomberg
Jason Hsu writes: If Washington reaffirms it doesn’t need Mr. Xi’s permission to sell weapons to Taipei, that’s a sign of the U.S. holding its ground. If Taiwan’s allies treat its security as a shared supply-chain concern rather than a bilateral bargaining chip, that is a shift favoring China. If the summit is merely calm and forgettable, and both sides depart, relieved about maintaining the status quo, then something did shift. It won’t make a sound. Applause for the absence of a crisis is how we sleep through the erosion of deterrence. “Stay the way it is” isn’t sound policy. It is a countdown to Beijing’s chokehold over the strait, narrated as a truce. – Wall Street Journal
Europe
Military commanders from across NATO selected Germany’s top general as their new representative in the alliance’s leadership, further lifting Berlin’s status among European armed forces as the continent adapts to threats from Russia and increasing tensions with the Trump administration. – Wall Street Journal
Germany’s fast-paced rearmament is causing growing concern in Europe, rekindling a century-old debate about how much hard power Berlin should have. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump said the U.S. and Denmark reached an agreement that allows for more American forces in Greenland, though it stops short of the self-governing island’s takeover that he envisioned since the start of his second term. – Wall Street Journal
Four weeks before Britain announced major sanctions on Israeli settlements this month, the British foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, held a tense phone call with his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, that dealt with a contentious construction plan in the heart of the West Bank. – New York Times
Just two weeks after the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, scored a stunning victory in the small eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, German voters in two other regions voted on Sunday and delivered a new gauge of the AfD’s national prospects. – New York Times
As part of Canada’s effort to knit closer ties with Europe, Prime Minister Mark Carney flew on Sunday to a French island just a ferry ride off Canada’s Newfoundland coast to meet with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron. – New York Times
Italy’s defence minister on Friday called for a stronger naval presence in the Red Sea to protect merchant shipping amid concerns over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital waterway threatened by the widening Middle East conflict. – Reuters
Luxembourg’s government said on Sunday that additional detection assets have been deployed to strengthen airspace monitoring, after Luxembourg Airport temporarily suspended services late on Friday due to the sighting of drones. – Reuters
Russia is intensifying its campaign of hybrid attacks against Europe and France, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, promising a response. Macron told a news conference that he had ordered his government to draw up a plan to protect critical infrastructure against drone and cyber attacks. – Reuters
Poland has joined an anti-ballistic missile coalition with Ukraine and other allies, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday. “From today, Poland is part of this major project … we agreed on the forms and frameworks of this cooperation,” Tusk said in a video posted on X. – Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top economic envoy and Germany’s far-right AfD leadership have begun preparations to meet next year to discuss restarting gas supplies to Europe’s biggest economy, two people familiar with the plan said. – Reuters
The U.S. ambassador to NATO renewed his country’s criticism of the Czech Republic on Friday, saying it had failed to spend enough on defense. “It is disappointing to see that it has not made more progress towards meeting the Hague Defense Commitment,” Matthew Whitaker told a defense conference in Prague. – Associated Press
The European Union is pressing international partners to provide funding to Ukraine as the country faces increasing financing needs amid a tense battlefield situation before the winter. – Bloomberg
Hungary can meet European Union regulation to completely wean the country off Russian gas in a year’s time, the energy minister said, in a significant shift from the policies pursued under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban. – Bloomberg
Editorial: The U.S. military is down to one base in Greenland, from as many as 17 facilities during the Cold War. Will Mr. Trump now push Congress for the money for expansion, particularly for his Golden Dome missile shield? Basing rights won’t mean much if U.S. defenses are so stretched that there’s no money to exploit them. Meanwhile, that sound you hear is a sigh of relief across Europe, in Congress—and even in sensible corners of the Trump Administration—that the deal has defused a ticking bomb in America’s alliances and global prestige. – Wall Street Journal
Tunku Varadarajan writes: And so, 25 years after it opened, Berlin’s Jewish Museum must face up to an existential challenge. It’s no longer enough to “explain Jewish culture to Germans from a Jewish perspective,” as Ms. Berg describes the institution’s founding mission. It must adapt to—and push back against—a spate of ugliness and violence in Germany that flows from sources old and new, from a resurgent right that many believe is nostalgic for a Nazi past and from an arriviste cohort of Islamist Jew-haters who teem in Germany’s cities. “We cannot ever be complacent,” Ms. Berg says, as she navigates the barriers outside her buildings, each bollard proof of how hard it is for a German Jew to live in peace. – Wall Street Journal
Africa
Two men deported to Equatorial Guinea by the Trump administration were hooded, bound, beaten with guns and shoved down a flight of stairs recently by police officers at a remote hotel where immigrants are being held indefinitely, according to witnesses and lawyers. – New York Times
Thirty-seven people working in an illegal mine in Nigeria died in the authorities’ custody days after being detained, officials said, igniting angry protests on Friday as survivors described being packed in an overcrowded cell with little air. – New York Times
The United States has agreed to give the UN another year to wind down its support for African peacekeepers in Somalia, a document showed – a move that gives some breathing space to a force that was fearing quicker cuts, but still leaves its future in peril. – Reuters
South Africans gathered for memorial runs and protests this week after the killings of nine women near Johannesburg reignited anger and fear over violence that many say mirrors the dangers women face every day. – Reuters
Authorities imposed an overnight curfew in Nigeria’s central city of Minna on Friday after security forces opened fire as hundreds of people took to the streets to protest against the deaths of 37 detainees in the custody of a paramilitary force. – Reuters
The Trump administration lifted sanctions on Eritrean Defense Forces and other entities in Eritrea on Friday in a move analysts have said could boost US ties to the African nation given its strategic location along the Red Sea shipping route. – Reuters
A gold mine shaft collapsed in northeastern Sudan, killing at least 11 miners and injuring 30, a state official said Sunday, while a search continued for the missing under the debris. – Associated Press
The al-Qaida -linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin militant group released videos of dozens of Malian soldiers it said were captured in combat and claimed that more than 100 others were killed in the attack earlier this month on an army camp in central Mali. – Associated Press
The Americas
These days, María Corina Machado wakes up at 6 a.m. in a borrowed friend’s apartment near the Pacific coastline and pours herself a strong coffee. Then, she gets back to planning the biggest gamble of her life: going back to Venezuela to push for new elections. – Wall Street Journal
An hour by helicopter from Guyana’s capital, Exxon Mobil’s deepwater production hub in the churning Atlantic Ocean reflects the scale of the company’s wager that Guyana has the makings of a new world oil power. – New York Times
US President Donald Trump will have a meeting with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez in New York on Tuesday, a senior US official said on Friday, in what will be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since Washington ousted former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. – Reuters
Venezuela Interim President Delcy Rodriguez on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding with French oil and gas company Total Energies, according to local media. – Reuters
Cuba’s electrical grid suffered a total collapse on Friday, plunging the nation into darkness and leaving millions without power amid a US pressure campaign that has largely blocked oil from reaching the Caribbean’s largest island. – Reuters
Leaders from Canada, Brazil, Kenya and the European Union unveiled a joint diplomatic front on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly, seeking to shield global cooperation from an increasingly transactional geopolitical order. – Bloomberg
Paraguayan President Santiago Peña began a visit to Venezuela that includes talks with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, signaling a diplomatic shift as Latin American governments adjust to a stronger US role in the region. – Bloomberg
Mary Anastasia O’Grady writes: Ms. Machado told Democrats Review that U.S. pressure has “prevented the brutal violations” by the regime that were previously “considered routine.” But “torture centers still exist, and the number of political prisoners remains very high. Nor have the threats against the opposition’s political leaders diminished. I receive daily threats from members of Delcy Rodríguez’s executive [circle] and this climate of terror obviously affects all our relatives and friends.” Some Trump critics allege that the U.S. has lost interest in a democratic transition. More likely, the administration fears a Machado return because her leadership threatens the status quo. There’s no telling what the chavistas might do to try to stay in power. – Wall Street Journal
United States
The Trump administration is preparing to impose sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court, according to officials, a sharp escalation in Washington’s efforts to dismantle the institution after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. – Wall Street Journal
President Trump’s decision to escalate a trade war with Canada is threatening to hurt Republicans in the midterm elections, with several Senate battleground states on the northern border feeling an outsize impact. – New York Times
Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, temporarily halted some cooperation with the agency’s counterpart in Canada this month after the nation’s public broadcaster reminded its journalists of a longstanding policy not to refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as “terrorism” without attribution to experts, according to multiple officials with knowledge of the event. – New York Times
Half a block from Central Park, on East 77th Street, the fault lines of a faraway conflict run through a sandstone townhouse. The top two floors of this five-story structure are occupied by officials who answer to Myanmar’s military-backed government. – New York Times
The U.S. Justice Department on Sunday arrested an additional 30 suspects in the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, including 18 who had been transferred from Haiti to Miami aboard a U.S. military plane, according to the U.S. attorney for South Florida. – New York Times
World leaders gather in New York this week for the UN General Assembly, bracing for President Donald Trump’s return to the rostrum for a second year running, with talks centering on the widening conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the risks of artificial intelligence. – Reuters
US President Donald Trump plans to greet Chinese President Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews, at the airport of the military base just outside Washington, DC, on his arrival next week for a White House visit, a senior US official told reporters on Friday. – Reuters
The Republican chair of the US congressional committee on China on Friday urged President Donald Trump to take a tough line in his summit with Xi Jinping next week, warning against concessions and calling for tighter technology restrictions and consequences for China’s alleged support for Iran. – Reuters
The Trump administration has started building the border wall through a west Texas section of the Big Bend region, marking the first major construction in an area of the U.S.-Mexico border where the administration’s plans have met heavy opposition. – Associated Press
President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will meet in the mayor’s residence Monday as the pair continue an unlikely relationship that has alternated between cooperation and public clashes. – Bloomberg
It’s 45 days before an Election Day that will determine control of Congress for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s second term and 20 states are already mailing ballots to voters. That includes the hard-fought Senate contests in Texas, Michigan and North Carolina. – Bloomberg
Cybersecurity
TikTok and ByteDance’s proposed $400 million settlement with the US Justice Department hit a hurdle on Friday after a federal judge indicated he would reject part of the agreement. TikTok and its Chinese parent company agreed in August to settle allegations that the short-video app violated US children’s online privacy laws. – Reuters
Apple Executive Chair Tim Cook views the Australian government’s pioneering curbs on social media as “world-leading”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday after meeting with Cook at the company’s US headquarters. – Reuters
President Donald Trump said Saturday he plans to create an “AI Force” and name an AI czar as the government faces growing calls to impose guardrails on the rapid development of artificial intelligence. – CNN
Researchers said they used Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s Codex to identify a damaging flaw embedded in a popular software decoding tool that could leave major internet platforms, enterprise services, and web frameworks vulnerable to data theft and remote access. – Cyberscoop
North Korean hackers are infiltrating tens of thousands of job seekers’ computer networks by posing as prospective employers, such as artificial intelligence firms, to steal sensitive information and millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency, U.S. and allied governments warned Friday. – Cyberscoop
Defense
More American service members have died in the Middle East during the ongoing Iran war than the Pentagon has disclosed publicly, according to six U.S. officials familiar with the Defense Department’s internal casualty accounting data. – Washington Post
The cost of the war in Iran was $43.6 billion through Sept. 3, with bombs, missiles and other munitions accounting for more than 60 percent of the expenses, the Pentagon told Congress this week. – New York Times
The U.S. military attacked a boat suspected of being used to smuggle drugs in the Caribbean Sea on Saturday, killing four people, as the Trump administration continues its monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America. – Associated Press
A US House committee that oversees defense policy is investigating the diversion of potentially sensitive F-35 fighter jet components this year from Australia to Hong Kong, a spokesperson said. – Bloomberg
The US has warned allies to expect delays of as much as five years in key weapons deliveries as it rebuilds its own depleted munitions stocks. – Bloomberg
The intelligence report, circulated across the US military this spring in the midst of the war with Iran, immediately set off alarm bells: A Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program. – CNN
Tom Rogan writes: Here we see a coherent, pro-alliance MAGA approach to grand strategy. Hegseth is correct that the United States needs European powers to take greater ownership of Europe’s continental defense. The U.S. Navy and Air Force lack the capacity to sustain their current posture in Europe alongside an effective deterrence-defeat strategy against China. Yes, the Trump administration sent the wrong message by reducing troop deployments to Germany (rather than, as should have been the case, Italy and Spain) earlier this year. But Hegseth’s engagement with Pistorius is a significant step in the right direction. This results-oriented engagement is the way to deal with reliable allies. It is a far better approach than, as is too often the case with Hegseth, the course of theatrical partisanship. – Washington Examiner