Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Netanyahu set for one of shortest US trips, to make UN speech with no meeting with Trump WSJ’s Kyle Smith: You may have Israel derangement syndrome Iran’s President gets rare opportunity to make his case to the world Fox News’ Erfan Fard: After 6 months of war, US must prepare for a future after Iran’s government falls Russia strikes Ukraine industrial sites, killing four, officials say Bloomberg’s Marc Champion: Why Russia’s Potemkin election actually matters U.S. proposes $5 billion to kickstart fund to rebuild gulf energy sites North Korea reports new missile test designed to give enemy 'incurable headache' WSJ Editorial: What does Trump want from Xi? In the Baltics, NATO Forces are trying to learn the new way of war Al Qaeda-linked militants kill more than 100 Malian soldiers in attack this month, sources say US to open two new military bases in Greenland, sources sayIn The News
Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to make one of his shortest visits to the United States, arriving in New York Thursday morning, addressing the United Nations General Assembly at 2 p.m. local time (9 p.m. Israel time), and departing for Israel shortly afterward. – Jerusalem Post
IDF troops carried out counterterrorism operations at several locations across the West Bank during Yom Kippur, including in Kabatiya, where troops from the Duvdevan Unit arrested two terrorists who were planning to carry out an attack in the near future. – Jerusalem Post
Coalition chairman Ofir Katz backed National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s push to apply the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law to the terrorist who carried out the deadly attack in Neveh Tzuf, saying on Tuesday that the case met the law’s criteria. – Jerusalem Post
The Israeli government’s official public mapping site, govmap, recently uncensored previously blurred sections of the Gaza Strip, revealing the locations of military positions in high definition. – Times of Israel
Israel and Hamas had been nearing an agreement in talks that he was mediating before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks, former Palestinian Authority minister Sufian Abu Zaida said on Monday. – Times of Israel
The Israeli defense establishment has formulated a new professional opinion that was delivered to the political echelon, unequivocally recommending that it expand the Navy’s submarine fleet to eight in simultaneous service, Galei Tzahal reported on Tuesday. – Arutz Sheva
In response to Hamas’ violation of the ceasefire, the IDF struck Hamas infrastructure that was used by the terrorist organization to advance attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops. – Arutz Sheva
Kyle Smith writes: Not that an entity that launches a war has any moral right to complain when it faces a justified counterattack. Japan’s response to losing a war it started wasn’t to beg for sympathy—to act like the child who murdered his parents then cried, “Pity me, I’m an orphan!”—but to drop its death cult, join the ranks of liberal democracies and cease attacking its neighbors. Gaza could move on from Hamas and do the same. Instead of using its considerable reach to recommend that course of action, the IDS movement continues to shout, “Free Palestine!” Which is tantamount to saying, “Hurl the Jews into the sea.” Sorry, Mackle-bores, but Israel rules the region, and it isn’t going anywhere. – Wall Street Journal
Iran
When a small Iranian delegation, led by the country’s president, travels to New York this week, its members will be free to attend the United Nations General Assembly—but not to go for a walk in Central Park or shop on Fifth Avenue without permission. Only a trip down the block from their Manhattan hotel to the U.N. building is allowed. – Wall Street Journal
G7 foreign ministers on Monday called on Iran to end its arming and support of Houthis in Yemen, which they said constituted a dangerous pattern of escalation that risked undermining international trade and creating global instability. – Reuters
Two Republicans in tight US Senate races called on Monday for a swift end to the war in Iran, the latest sign that vulnerable candidates are trying to put some distance between themselves and President Donald Trump over a conflict that has pushed up fuel prices, including a surge in diesel to record highs. – Reuters
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned Monday that it would “change the geography of the war” if the United States escalates the conflict. Meanwhile, the British military said an “unknown projectile” struck a tanker as it entered the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, injuring two crew members. – Associated Press
Foreign companies continuing to provide services to Iranian airlines will risk facing US secondary sanctions starting on Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
US President Donald Trump said Monday that he plans to hold meetings later in the day regarding the war with Iran, reiterating that Tehran will not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. – Arutz Sheva
Erfan Fard writes: Hormuz, the Houthis, Tehran’s terrorist proxy networks, sanctions and war are not separate crises. They are consequences of the revolutionary order born in 1979, when ideology became an instrument of domestic rule and foreign policy. For decades, the West has confronted those consequences without resolving the underlying strategic problem. The question after six months of war, therefore, is not merely how it ends, but what begins afterward. Iran’s future belongs to Iranians, but serious statecraft requires contemplating a future beyond the Islamic Republic. – Fox News
Dr. Salem AlKetbi writes: So will Trump’s last weapon work? It will almost certainly drain Iran heavily. But whether it can squeeze Iran hard enough to change its political choices or its ability to keep fighting depends on two things: 1. How long the pressure lasts, and 2. How well Washington can close off escape routes. Tehran will likely keep looking for new paths, as it has for years. But each new route will cost more than the last. Every dollar lost to shipping, middlemen and discounts is a dollar that never reaches Iran’s economy or its war machine. That is the strength of this new weapon. Success comes without blocking every single path. It only needs to make keeping those paths open more expensive than Iran can afford over time. – Arutz Sheva
Amine Ayoub writes: The confrontation with the Islamic Republic is moving into a phase where political, cultural, and military domains are seamlessly intertwined. Tehran’s decision to target a French language center reflects a regime consolidating its domestic front in anticipation of broader regional instability. When a regime in Tehran begins treating French verbs as a national security threat, it is sending an unmistakable message about its readiness for confrontation. Israel’s task is to ensure European leaders understand that when Tehran defines every Western bridge as a target, standing on those bridges is no longer a diplomatic strategy; it is a posture of defenselessness. – Arutz Sheva
Mohamed Elgohari writes: AI content labeling assumes that audiences discount labeled material. The evidence instead shows that labeling does not reliably reduce sharing once content has already found emotional traction. Moreover, this model produces many versions from many nodes, none of them singularly authoritative, all of them disposable, and now demonstrably imitable by actors with no connection to the original campaign […]Akhbar Enfejari has already been deplatformed once and kept going. The model it pioneered is not contained. It has already been copied by actors with no stake in Iran’s war, and it will not stay confined to the conflict that produced it. – Foreign Policy
Russia and Ukraine
As the first parliamentary elections in Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine delivered a scripted victory on Sunday to Vladimir Putin, Ukraine pummeled the Moscow region with drones and missiles, hitting a key oil refinery and showing that winning the war remains out of reach for the Russian leader. – Washington Post
Russia hit Ukraine’s industrial heartland overnight, killing four, while an attack in the north cut power supply to thousands, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, where he will push for an energy truce with Russia. – Reuters
Russia’s major Moscow refinery, owned by Gazprom Neft, has halted crude oil processing after fires broke out at its primary crude distillation units following a Ukrainian drone attack on September 20, three industry sources said. – Reuters
Russian forces continued their attacks on different Ukrainian regions along the 1,200-km (775-mile) frontline of the 4-1/2-year-old war on Monday, killing at least five people, regional officials said. – Reuters
The Kremlin said on Monday that Oleshky, a town in the part of Ukraine’s Kherson region that Russia controls, had critical problems with food and medicine supplies, but that Russia’s military was working to resolve them. – Reuters
Nestle’s Russian subsidiary pledged to continue its operations in Russia without regard to a decision by the Kremlin to transfer control of the company’s assets, the Swiss food giant was quoted as saying on Monday. – Reuters
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia does not pose a threat to France or any European country, rejecting comments by the leadership of France’s hardline National Rally as false. – Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met US CIA chief John Ratcliffe at Shannon Airport in Ireland, two people familiar with the matter said. – Reuters
One person was killed and four wounded after Ukrainian drones hit civilian areas in Russia’s Samara region overnight, the local governor said on Telegram on Tuesday. – Reuters
Vladimir Putin is set to travel to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit hosted by President Xi Jinping but is likely to skip the Group of 20 in the US with Donald Trump. – Bloomberg
Ukraine’s forces have touted a world first by deploying ground robots behind Russian lines in its “Operation Vivaldi” counteroffensive. Ukraine’s Third Army Corps said on Sunday that attack ground robots were deployed from heavy bomber drones deep into the Russian rear, where they acted as payloads for larger aerial drones. – Newsweek
Marc Champion writes: If, by contrast, Putin has led a revisionist power to war, then Europe has a great deal to fear. Having put that argument to bed at home, Putin can now move on to persuading voters in the West. There elections do have the power to throw leaders out — and with that to divide Europe, destroy Ukraine and win the war for Russia. – Bloomberg
Agathe Demarais writes: Many of the advanced reactors that the United States wants to deploy run on a different type of LEU that only Rosatom sells at commercial scale today. For the Kremlin, annual uranium shipments of $1 billion to the United States are not about profits for Rosatom. They are a form of leverage, and that leverage will persist as long as uranium keeps flowing across the Atlantic. As U.S. envoys shuttle between Moscow and Kyiv for peace talks, it is hard to imagine that the Kremlin will not somehow make use of this ace up its sleeve. – Foreign Policy
Yemen
In a lightning offensive, the Iran-backed Houthi militia has seized control of the country’s Red Sea coastline in recent weeks. The group is now engaged in fierce clashes with Saudi-backed, Yemeni government forces on multiple fronts, and cross-border attacks in Yemen and Saudi Arabia have escalated. – New York Times
Houthi fighters pushed to seize strategic heights in Yemen on Monday to cut off the Red Sea coast from remaining areas held by Saudi-backed forces, after a report that US President Donald Trump had called off American strikes on the group at the last minute. – Reuters
US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi on Sunday, four people familiar with the matter said, discussing the advances of the Iran-backed Houthis around a vital global waterway […]Two of the sources, one Yemeni and one Western, said Trump had made no direct pledge of military support during the call. – Reuters
The acting chief of the World Food Programme on Monday said the agency was ramping up its response to the escalating crisis in Yemen, where Houthi fighters seized the country’s Red Sea coast, displacing tens of thousands of people. – Reuters
Saudi-led strikes on the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha killed at least six people and wounded eight others, a news agency affiliated with the Houthis said on Tuesday, as international calls mounted for the Iran-backed group in Yemen to halt its fighting. – Times of Israel
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia spent months rerouting oil across the desert to circumvent the Strait of Hormuz. Now, with its Red Sea bypass route disrupted by attacks, the world’s oil kingpin is having to return to the waterway it was trying to avoid in the first place. – Wall Street Journal
Saudi Arabia has canceled this year’s edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, an event that has drawn such Hollywood A-listers as Emily Blunt, Adrien Brody, Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Caine, as fighting in the region rages. – Washington Post
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Monday he had agreed to a request from Saudi Arabia to provide defensive air-to-air refuelling for a limited time period, a move he described as helping to stabilise the wider region. – Reuters
Saudi Aramco loaded about 14 million barrels of crude oil on seven supertankers inside the Mideast Gulf on Sunday, data from TankerTrackers.com showed, as the kingdom increased loadings from Gulf export terminals after an attack disrupted shipments via its east-west pipeline to the Red Sea. – Reuters
The sharp escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has raised concerns that the confrontation could spread further across the region, with Washington worried that the conflict could intensify and potentially lead the Houthis to resume direct attacks on Israel, diplomatic officials told Maariv on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Saudi Arabia has deep pockets and cutting-edge weapons, yet for more than a decade it has been unable to quash Yemen’s battle-hardened Houthis. – Times of Israel
Gulf States
Oil prices fell for a fourth consecutive session Monday as improving flows through the Strait of Hormuz and prospects for renewed diplomacy over the Iran conflict eased immediate supply concerns. – Wall Street Journal
The European Union’s naval mission to protect shipping in the Red Sea would need to boost its numbers to more than 10 warships, its foreign policy chief said on Monday, adding that for now there were not that many in the area. – Reuters
US President Donald Trump’s Gulf Arab allies will meet him in New York on Tuesday as he weighs whether to “annihilate” Iran’s regime. They talked him out of a major escalation once before. This time, they fear being drawn deeper into the war just as Washington looks for a way out. – CNN
Middle East & North Africa
The Trump administration has proposed investing $5 billion in a new fund that would help Middle East countries rebuild energy infrastructure battered in the Iran war and reduce their reliance on the Strait of Hormuz to transport oil and gas, according to U.S. and Middle Eastern officials and documents seen by The Wall Street Journal. – Wall Street Journal
When President Joseph Aoun of Lebanon signed an amnesty law this month to free some inmates and reduce sentences for others, it was meant to ease prison overcrowding and relieve an overwhelmed judicial system. – New York Times
Iraq’s prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, pledged to disarm his country’s Iran-backed militias by June 2027, laying out an exceptionally ambitious timeline for bringing the country’s unwieldy array of militants under state control. – New York Times
Turkish authorities detained 15 people on Monday in an investigation into transactions involving shares of Katilimevim , a listed Turkish savings financing company, while freezing assets linked to executives at several other investment firms, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said. – Reuters
A series of explosions tore through an army weapons depot in northern Syria early on Monday, the fourth such incident this month, wounding several people and sending villagers scattering. The blast was the latest in a series of mysterious and often unexplained explosions at military storage sites across Syria. – Reuters
The Iraqi government has given the country’s pro-Iranian Shi’ite militias until the end of September to disarm, as Israeli defense officials closely monitor the situation amid concerns that the groups could seek to “flex their muscles” and launch attacks against Israel after the deadline expires. – Jerusalem Post
Korean Peninsula
Breaking with decades of policy on North Korea, the president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, is now urging the United States to ease sanctions on Pyongyang in exchange for an agreement that it freeze its weapons programs. – New York Times
North Korea said it successfully tested a new weapon showcasing “ultra-modern defence technology” on Sunday, in a launch overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, who praised progress in strengthening the country’s war readiness, state media reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
A South Korean appeals court on Tuesday reduced former First Lady Kim Keon Hee’s prison sentence to five years from seven for receiving bribes during her husband’s presidency, Yonhap News Agency reported. – Reuters
South Korea confirmed its first project under a $350 billion US investment pact on Tuesday and said it is considering two others, moving ahead despite profitability concerns and criticism from President Donald Trump over the pace of implementation. – Reuters
A South Korean opposition lawmaker called on Monday for parliamentary scrutiny of Seoul’s planned US investment package, warning that negotiations over energy projects could leave South Korea carrying disproportionate financial risks. – Reuters
China
In April, the leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party traveled to mainland China for a red-carpet six-day tour, the first such visit in nearly a decade. – Wall Street Journal
The United States and China are considering a “notification mechanism” to monitor national security incidents involving artificial intelligence, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday night. – Washington Post
When China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and President Trump meet in Washington this week, the two men will be operating on vastly different clocks. – New York Times
China’s restrictions on exports of crucial rare-earth metals and rare-earth magnets remain one of the most difficult unresolved issues as President Trump and Xi Jinping prepare to meet this week. – New York Times
China’s Communist Party leaders expelled the country’s former top general, Zhang Youxia, from the party on Monday, accusing him of crimes and misdeeds ranging from taking bribes to disloyalty to the party. – New York Times
China and Europe should not fight trade wars because the pair are comprehensive strategic partners, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his German counterpart in a call, according to a statement from Beijing. – Reuters
China’s Xi Jinping is expected to press US President Donald Trump to halt Taiwan arms sales under a 1982 joint statement during a visit to Washington this week, which he could do at the US National Archives, sources briefed on the matter said. – Reuters
China appointed Hu Changsheng as the Communist Party secretary of Tibet and he becomes the region’s top political official while replacing Wang Junzheng, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday. – Reuters
Editorial: Taiwan is trying to spend 5% of its economy on defense by 2030, but it will struggle to reach that NATO standard absent faster U.S. weapons deliveries. Taiwan’s internal politics is divided, and a U.S. delay would feed anxiety that America is unreliable and help those on the island who think Taiwan must accept a Hong Kong-style takeover. For the sake of deterrence, Mr. Xi has to think Mr. Trump would defend Taiwan if China tries a blockade or invasion. – Wall Street Journal
Walter Russell Mead writes: American officials discussing AI with their counterparts should remember that the two governments want different things. We want AI to promote human freedom and creativity. China wants a technological platform that bolsters communist power at home and Chinese influence abroad. We can be sure that the Chinese side never lets pragmatic cooperation in areas of mutual interest obscure the core differences that divide us. We must be no less realistic. – Wall Street Journal
Sam Brownback writes: Trump is the first president since John F. Kennedy to confront China, and he should be applauded for it — and encouraged to go further. He raised tariffs on an evil Communist regime that seeks world dominance. He has confronted and weakened China’s allies in Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and elsewhere. He should continue to exert that leverage on behalf of people whose only offense is refusing to place their faith on the altar of the Chinese Communist Party. Now is the time to confront the CCP’s extensive apparatus of religious oppression — just as Reagan confronted the Soviet system — and make clear that the Chinese people should not have to choose between their faith and freedom. – Fox News
Gedalia Afterman and Caroline Dibble write: The Iran War will eventually end. But Beijing’s conclusions may shape the balance in Asia long after the fighting stops. America does not need to prove that its power is unlimited. It needs to show that its commitments can survive competing crises and that military success can produce lasting security. If it cannot, Asia may inherit the war’s most important legacy. – The National Interest
South Asia
A free trade agreement between India and New Zealand, signed in April, will come into force on October 20, Indian trade minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday, as New Delhi seeks to boost exports and attract investment amid shifts in global trade. – Reuters
Canada’s trade minister said trade talks with India are “moving along really well” and could conclude in the coming months, as his country looks for new markets for its goods amid a tariff war with the US. – Bloomberg
India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar met four Central European counterparts to boost cooperation and deepen defense ties as New Delhi broadens its diplomatic outreach at a time of strained relations with the US. – Bloomberg
Asia
For almost a year, China has orchestrated a bruising campaign against Japan in retaliation for a comment by its prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in defense of Taiwan. – New York Times
The news traveled quickly on a paradisiacal summer day in Nemuro, a remote fishing town in northern Japan. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, in a show of strength, had made a surprise visit to a nearby chain of islands that both Russia and Japan claim. – New York Times
The US on Monday reiterated its commitment to the defense of key Asian allies Japan and South Korea, and the three nations expressed support for Taiwan ahead of a summit this week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. – Reuters
Vietnamese leader To Lam said there had been positive negotiations on a trade agreement between Vietnam and the United States and a deal could be signed soon, the Vietnamese government said in a statement on Tuesday. – Reuters
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X on Tuesday that she had spoken to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and that they had just agreed on a free-trade deal. – Reuters
Tom Williams writes: I see China in exactly the same circumstances as Russia was before the wall came down. Gorbachev was clear about that. The wall had to come down because the Russian people were about to revolt. The Russian people intuitively knew what was on the other side of that wall, and they wanted the same for themselves. China is no different. The Chinese people don’t want to destroy the world economy and global trade by invading Taiwan. Nevertheless, Australia needs to demonstrate the strength and willingness to fight to avoid war. – Washington Examiner
Europe
The Danish mechanized infantry company role-played the enemy in this month’s exercise by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s brigade that has been deployed to protect Latvia from nearby Russia. – Wall Street Journal
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to forge ahead with an unpopular economic overhaul despite his collapsing popularity, misgivings among his coalition partners, and a string of electoral routs that have raised doubts about his political future. – Wall Street Journal
The United States is seeking to broker a deal to purchase fertilizer from Belarus and rely less on Canada, the U.S. ally with which the White House has repeatedly tangled, President Donald Trump said Monday. – Washington Post
Spooked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the German military drafted a 1,000-page blueprint in 2024 to set out how to respond to another Russian attack in Eastern Europe. – New York Times
Lithuania is planning defences against military drones at a key future power grid substation linking the Baltic states with western Europe in an area that intelligence sources say Russia could target with a false flag attack. – Reuters
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that he had discussed with US President Donald Trump initiatives aimed at securing a moratorium between Ukraine and Russia on attacks linked to the energy sector. – Reuters
Latvia said it could not accept a proposed deal that would lift EU sanctions on Russia-linked billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman in return for keeping thousands of other individuals and businesses under sanctions. – Reuters
The European Union has no reason to ease sanctions on Belarus, Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Monday, arguing that President Alexander Lukashenko’s government continues to repress opponents, violate human rights and back Russia’s war in Ukraine. – Reuters
Venice is looking at expanding its tourist entry fee, applying it for a longer period of the year and raising the daily charge to as much as €30 ($34), a senior official in the city government has said. – Reuters
Russian parliamentary elections that the country’s ruling United Russia party were easily on track to win did not meet the conditions for free elections, France’s foreign ministry said on Monday, adding that the organisation of elections in occupied Ukrainian territories constituted another violation of international law. – Reuters
Romanian prosecutors said on Monday they were investigating Calin Georgescu, the pro-Russian former frontrunner in the country’s 2024 canceled presidential election, in a €1.1 million ($1.26 million) fraud scheme. – Reuters
Poland’s army said on Friday it ended military aviation operations that had been launched earlier in the day in response to Russian strikes on Ukraine, with no violation of Polish airspace detected. – Reuters
Andy Burnham once said he would refuse to meet Donald Trump. Now Britain’s prime minister is about to hold his first meeting with the U.S. president, with Ukraine, the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence and the soaring cost of conflict in the Middle East dominating his agenda. – Associated Press
Pope Leo XIV, during his four-day visit to France beginning Friday, will meet privately with seven survivors of sexual abuse by priests and other Catholic personnel. The outcome will be closely watched by critics who say the church has not done enough to confront the problem. – Associated Press
Hungary won’t be building a joint strategic fuel reserve with Ukraine, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said, as he blamed the head of the country’s oil company for keeping him out of the loop on the project. – Bloomberg
Hungary is lobbying the US to withhold penalties for its continued purchases of Russian crude oil, in a test of bilateral ties after the ouster of Viktor Orban earlier this year. – Bloomberg
Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko said Monday that there are no available volumes of fertilizer to send to the U.S. This came after President Trump announced that he was working on a “massive Deal” to buy potash from Minsk at a steep discount amid the trade war with Canada. – The Hill
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced plans Sept. 20 to introduce legislation capping the number of foreign students in Italian classrooms and banning face-covering garments, including burqas and niqabs, in schools. – Fox News
The head of the Royal Navy called for Britain to expand its maritime capabilities and strengthen the U.K.-led Joint Expeditionary Force coalition in preparation for a potential conflict with Russia in the North Atlantic during a speech last week. – USNI News
Editorial: Worse is the antisemitism. Always a problem on the political left, this has grown more serious within Die Linke in recent years. The party in 2024 split over leaders’ failure to pass a resolution condemning the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel. Its electoral successes, including in Berlin on Sunday, rely on a coalition of Muslim voters and more old-school left-wing antisemites who view Jews always and everywhere as settler-colonialist oppressors. – Wall Street Journal
Jose Lev Alvarez write: The strategic nexus is absolute: Europe’s internal vulnerability is inextricably bound to its maritime paralysis in the Red Sea. Should Russia strike the Baltics, Washington and Jerusalem must force a passive Europe to absorb the full cost of its appeasement if it wants external support. If European capitals value survival, they must back it with credible measures. Securing the Baltics requires no Brussels diplomacy. It demands the permanent, kinetic neutralization of Iran’s regional architecture. – Washington Examiner
Rebecca Grant writes: Not everybody sees it that way. Who can forget the outcry last winter when Trump proposed simply purchasing Greenland? NATO nations got their knickers in a twist. Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom sent troops along to a joint exercise with Denmark to show resolve. Trump threatened to tariff them. You’d have thought the world was ending. […] The Greenland deal clears out Chinese influence from what Trump sees as North American territory. He’s followed that course with Panama, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio got Panama to back away from deals with China, and of course, Venezuela. Is Cuba next? – Fox News
Africa
Nigerian prison guards sprayed an unidentified substance into a crowded cell where dozens of detainees died and kept the doors locked, ignoring cries for help, according to three survivors. – Reuters
Seven Ethiopian armed groups, including longstanding enemies who fought on opposite sides of a 2020-2022 civil war, said they have formed an alliance aimed at overthrowing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. – Reuters
Jihadists killed more than 100 soldiers in central Mali this month, two sources said, while the army said it had evacuated troops from the camp under attack and struck enemy positions during a retaliatory operation lasting more than a week. – Reuters
South Sudan President Salva Kiir signed amendments to the country’s election law late on Monday, removing requirements that linked elections to the completion of a permanent constitution and a national census, changes that were rejected by the main opposition coalition. – Reuters
South African police have arrested three people over the death of a woman whose body was found east of Johannesburg last week, after a spate of femicides reignited public anger over violence against women. – Reuters
A 65-year-old Rwandan man has been charged with genocide-related offences allegedly committed during the 1994 Rwanda Tutsi killings, British prosecutors said on Monday. – Reuters
Amnesty International accused M23 rebels in eastern Congo of carrying out abuses and unlawful killings of miners while trafficking critical minerals to neighboring Rwanda, in what it said could amount to war crimes. – Associated Press
The UK has reassured Mauritius of its determination to pursue a plan to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to the Indian Ocean nation, even as officials concede the handover could remain on ice until after US President Donald Trump leaves office. – Bloomberg
The Americas
A Venezuelan delegation led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez that is taking part in the United Nations General Assembly this week began discussing energy, debt and mining issues with counterparties in the US on Monday, officials and sources said. – Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday for a first chat between two of the biggest names of the political left in the Americas ahead of key elections in both Brazil and the United States. – Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that Uruguay had authorized Brazil to use the surplus from its beef export quota to China. – Reuters
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro remain statistically tied in simulated runoffs ahead of next month’s election, two polls showed on Monday. – Reuters
The Brazilian government does not intend to use its reciprocity law against the United States over tariffs imposed by Washington while negotiations continue, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday. – Reuters
Nicaragua’s state institutions have together carried out enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention of political opponents, conduct that amounts to crimes against humanity, according to a report published on Tuesday by UN experts. – Reuters
Colombian authorities declared a public calamity as a wildfire burned through mountains surrounding one of the country’s best-known colonial towns in the northeast, scorching large swaths of vegetation and forcing evacuations. – Associated Press
Editorial: Many of Trump’s allies understand that elections are a prerequisite for long-term stability. Speaking Sunday on Fox News, for example, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) called for scheduling elections in Venezuela on July 24, 2027. That is the birthday of Venezuelan-born independence leader Simón Bolívar. Trump would win plaudits from investors and Venezuelans alike if he announced a timeline for elections during his address to the General Assembly. Rodríguez need only travel to visit her old boss in Brooklyn to see why cooperating is in her best interest. – Washington Post
North America
Canada’s Liberal government introduced legislation on Monday that enshrines an accelerated project-review process, and attempts to minimize labor disruptions in key trade-focused parts of the economy like railways and ports. – Wall Street Journal
A man with a shotgun shot and critically wounded a police officer stationed outside a synagogue in Ontario on Sunday, the Canadian authorities said, as congregants gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. – New York Times
Mexico is planning to buy more goods from the United States and reduce imports from other nations as part of the review of the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday. – Reuters
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday condemned a shooting outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, on Sunday evening that left a police officer wounded as members of the Jewish community gathered for Yom Kippur services. – Reuters
Human Rights Watch released a report on Monday detailing the hardships faced by hundreds of people deported by the United States to gang-ravaged Haiti. – Associated Press
A former Haitian government official and more than a dozen other people appeared Monday in federal court in Miami on charges related to the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. – Associated Press
United States
Donald Trump is set for a whirlwind schedule of meetings with leaders from four continents at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, against the backdrop of an unstable Middle East and a four-and-a-half-year-old war in Ukraine that shows no signs of abating despite the US president’s repeated attempts at mediation. – Reuters
More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers on Friday urged President Donald Trump to keep in place a ban on Chinese automakers out of the US market, ahead of his meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping this week. – Reuters
Charges against five former and current Stanford University students will be dismissed in relation to a 2024 pro-Palestinian demonstration in which protesters barricaded themselves inside the school president’s office. – Reuters
A man was convicted by a jury of attempted murder in the late 2023 shooting of three Palestinian American students in Vermont, two of whom were wounded and one was left paralyzed from the waist down, prosecutors said on Monday. – Reuters
The foreign aid landscape has changed dramatically since U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration dissolved the United States Agency for International Development, once the world’s largest humanitarian donor. – Associated Press
President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani capped a face-to-face meeting with a surprise joint appearance before reporters in which both played up what has become one of the more unlikely relationships in US politics. – Bloomberg
Ofir Akunis writes: This week, when Mr. Netanhyahu comes to New York, as leaders from around the world do every year, it is important for New Yorkers to consider the duplicity of those opposing Israel’s presence and what that says about the city we all call home. I call on the mayor to mind his own business and protect the city of New York, rather than wreaking havoc that will put his own residents at risk. You are either on one side or the other. You either support the Jewish state or you support our extremist enemies. There is no in between. – Wall Street Journal
Cybersecurity
British Columbia filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Chief Executive Sam Altman for alleged safety violations in the Tumbler Ridge mass school shooting that devastated a rural town in the province. – Wall Street Journal
As the threats posed by artificial intelligence spark international alarm, the stakes of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington this week have only grown bigger. – New York Times
Google said on Monday it has agreed to report content flagged as child sexual abuse material to Indian authorities, breaking from a global practice under which such reports are first routed through a U.S. non-profit. – Reuters
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham will announce a new AI defence partnership between Britain and the United States on Tuesday, part of a push for nations to use the technology to better protect critical infrastructure and detect threats. – Reuters
Belgian cybersecurity firm Aikido on Monday released an open-weight artificial intelligence model designed for cybersecurity applications, seeking to help companies use AI security tools without sending sensitive code to external providers. – Reuters
Google has been fined 403 million euros ($463 million) for breaching the European Union’s strict privacy rules because it mishandled users’ location data, the bloc’s data privacy watchdog said Monday. – Associated Press
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is launching a new office to monitor safety compliance for massive artificial intelligence companies, echoing calls by fellow Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom to explore a “kill switch” if the technology turns catastrophic. – Bloomberg
A push to have an international institution monitor artificial intelligence gained momentum as the U.N. General Assembly opened this week in New York City after several major technology leaders issued existential warnings about AI. – Washington Examiner
A group of leading House Democrats introduced legislation Monday requiring the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to conduct an assessment of its workforce to determine whether it’s up to the task after the exit of around 1,000 employees during President Donald Trump’s second term. – CyberScoop
Defense
The US plans to re-establish a Cold War-era military base in southern Greenland and set up another on the east coast, now used by the Danish dog sled patrol, under a deal to be signed with Denmark and Greenland on Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter. – Reuters
The United States is watching China’s presence in its Arctic zone “very closely” amid concerns regarding the security of the US homeland, a senior US Arctic military official said. – Reuters
The US government’s increased reliance on a Pentagon blacklist to target China’s biggest companies threatens to cast a pall over President Donald Trump’s summit this week with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. – Bloomberg
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will now oversee a new Pentagon advisory committee focused on homeland security and defense — the first such department panel to do so. – The Hill
The State Department on Saturday warned Americans in the Middle East to exercise caution, after the Iranian-backed Houthis launched an attack on the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh. – The Hill
Twenty-six days after the Pentagon’s deadline for defense companies to propose faster weapons production, the Defense Department has not publicly disclosed how many companies responded or what production timelines they offered. – Defense News
A Nevada Air Force Base was picked to house General Atomics’ FQ-42, a week after the U.S. Air Force dubbed the Collaborative Combat Aircraft as Vengeance. – Defense News
The U.S. Army contracted the first batch of Precision Strike Missiles designed to strike moving maritime targets last week. Lockheed Martin was awarded $1.2 billion by the ground branch for work on the early operational capability munitions of PrSM Increment 2, a variant that integrates a new seeker capable of mobile targets, the Pentagon announced on Sept. 14. – USNI News
Peter Suciu writes: A 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that more than one million F-35 spare parts had gone missing over the lifespan of the Joint Strike Fighter program. In addition to the intelligence value of the parts, they had a clear financial value as well; the watchdog study called out the Pentagon for doing a poor job of keeping track of spare parts collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The report noted that since May 2018, one unnamed F-35 prime contractor had incurred losses that exceeded one million spare parts totaling more than $85 million. – The National Interest