Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Hamas letter to Trump asks for 60-day ceasefire deal to release half of hostages, sources say UNRWA ignored Hamas ties in schools, fostering terrorism – UN Watch report WSJ Editorial: A Palestinian state for Hamas Iran and E3 to hold critical talks to avert sanctions, odds remain slim Putin signs nuclear reactors deal with Iran Putin ready to extend nuclear arms control pact for a year Zelensky urges ‘powerful pressure on Russia’ at U.N. General Assembly Bloomberg’s James Stavridis: Russia needs to pay for flying into NATO airspace Trump to meet officials from Muslim-majority countries to discuss Gaza North Korea's Kim says he will strengthen ties with China more vigorously, state media reports Top diplomats from US, South Korea, Japan voice concern on Taiwan Strait Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger announce exit from International Criminal CourtIn The News
Israel
The cascade of Western governments recognizing a Palestinian state this week has been met in Israel by calls from ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to permanently snuff out that idea by annexing the West Bank. – Wall Street Journal
Hamas-led authorities in Gaza have executed three men accused of collaborating with Israel, a Palestinian official said, as the group seeks to crush rising challenges from Palestinian militias it says are working against it with Israeli support. – Reuters
Singapore said on Monday it will impose targeted sanctions on leaders of Israeli settler groups and would recognise a Palestine state under the right conditions. – Reuters
Hamas has drafted a letter to President Donald Trump, asking the American commander in chief to guarantee a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the immediate release of half of the hostages being detained within Gaza, Fox News has learned from a senior Trump administration official and a second source directly involved in negotiations. – Fox News
French President Emmanuel Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state on Monday drew fierce rebuke from Franco-Israelis, who found the move exasperating and incomprehensible. – Agence France-Presse
Israel will skip an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Gaza scheduled for Tuesday because of the Jewish New Year, its envoy to the UN said calling the timing “regrettable.” – Agence France-Presse
The Hamas terrorist organization published a propaganda video of hostage Alon Ohel on Monday afternoon. Ohel has been held in the Gaza Strip for 717 days, as of the video’s publication. – Jerusalem Post
UNRWA turned a blind eye as Hamas terror chiefs held top positions within the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) educational system and promoted terrorism and radicalization, a scathing new report by the watchdog UN Watch has revealed. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: Recognizing the state is intended as safe diplomatic theater for their Western domestic audiences, detached from the harsh Middle East reality: The Palestinians have consistently chosen the struggle to destroy Israel rather than the offer of a state alongside it. To say, let them have both, as France, the U.K., Canada, Australia et al. now say, is to make Hamas’s day. – Wall Street Journal
Walter Russell Mead writes: That was true in 1864. It was still true in 1945, and it remains so today. Israel faces genuinely hellish choices in Gaza. But Western leaders who insist that Israel’s actions are historically unprecedented and morally unjustifiable betray an ignorance of history and unseriousness of purpose that raise fundamental questions about their fitness for the offices they hold. – Wall Street Journal
Seth Mandel writes: The world said everybody in Gaza, civilians and hostages, deserved to eat. Well, food soon flooded back into the enclave and into the hands of Gazans, yet we have seen no evidence that the hostages have been treated any better. Lesson: Hamas is allowed to starve the hostages but Israel must feed Hamas. On Tuesday, the UN Security Council is scheduled to meet about the conflict in Gaza. Israeli delegates won’t be there because it’s Rosh Hashanah. True, Hamas won’t be there either — but the room will be full of diplomats speaking on its behalf. The hostages will have no such luck. – New York Post
Iran
Iran and European powers are engaged in last-ditch talks to prevent the revival of U.N. sanctions on Tehran, two senior Iranian officials and two Western diplomats told Reuters on Monday, though all warned the chances of success remain slim. – Reuters
The White House has banned Iranians in New York for the high-level United Nations General Assembly meetings from shopping at Costco or buying luxury goods without US approval. – Bloomberg
Russia has agreed to build nuclear power sites in Iran at a meeting in Moscow between Vladimir Putin and Tehran’s atomic energy chief. – The Telegraph
As world leaders arrive in New York City for the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly this week, much of the talk is expected to focus on Iran’s nuclear program and the sanctions meant to squeeze its economy. Jonathan Harounoff, Israel’s spokesman at the United Nations, hopes the spotlight also lands on everyday Iranians who live under the regime. – JNS
Russia and Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Monday that Russia is prepared to adhere to the New START Treaty for an additional year — the last remaining nuclear control pact between Russia and the United States, which is set to expire in February. – Washington Post
Winter is fast approaching in Ukraine, and with it comes the annual fear that Russian forces will hammer energy installations and plunge millions of Ukrainians into darkness and cold. – Washington Post
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Monday urged those gathering for the United Nations General Assembly in New York to place “real, powerful pressure on Russia” to end the war it began more than three years ago. – New York Times
Russia still believes that a two-state solution is the only way to settle the conflict in the Middle East, the Kremlin said on Monday, after it was asked about a decision by some Western countries to recognise a Palestinian state. – Reuters
Russia is reviving Soviet-era tactics such as forced psychiatric treatment to silence dissenters and anti-war voices in an increasingly repressive environment, a U.N. expert said on Monday. – Reuters
Russia on Monday accused NATO member state Estonia of falsely claiming that Russian military jets had violated its airspace last week, saying Tallinn had no evidence to back up its claim and was seeking to ratchet up East-West tensions. – Reuters
Russia is urging aviation leaders gathering this week in Montreal to ease sanctions on spare parts and overflights, dismissing a largely global response to the war in Ukraine as “unlawful coercive measures,” according to working papers and a source familiar with the matter. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund has persuaded Ukraine’s government to significantly increase its projections of additional funding the country will need through the end of 2027 in the face of protracted Russia’s invasion, according to people familiar with the matter. – Bloomberg
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said Russia was testing NATO’s readiness to retaliate with its series of incursions along the eastern flank of the alliance. – Bloomberg
James Stavridis writes: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has already warned Putin that Poland will shoot down any aircraft crossing its borders. Simply escorting Russian fighters home time after time is not going to get the Kremlin’s attention. NATO’s long-term plan should be a full no-fly zone over Ukraine, but for now it should begin a full-on military response to Russian air intrusions — both unmanned and piloted. – Bloomberg
Andriy Zagorodnyuk writes: But the EU and NATO must do more to help Ukraine firmly prevail over Russia’s technologies and deny Moscow any further battlefield victories. Its members need to plow more resources and in-kind technology contributions into Ukraine’s defense industry. They must help Kyiv quickly develop and massively scale up new systems. Then, and only then, will Europe be able to breathe. – Foreign Affairs
Turkey
Turkey said on Monday it had terminated retaliatory tariffs imposed in 2018 on U.S. imports ranging from passenger cars to fruit, in a sign of warming bilateral ties as President Tayyip Erdogan travels to the United States. – Reuters
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to buy hundreds of Boeing Co. airliners and Lockheed Martin Corp. fighters, while pushing for some of their parts to be produced in Turkey. – Bloomberg
Soner Cagaptay writes: However the U.S. government proceeds, it should closely monitor Turkey’s domestic developments, given their potential impact on Ankara’s foreign policy. A decisive CHP surge could result in Erdogan reverting to nationalist politics to boost his base, such as on the Kurdish issue, including by renewing Ankara’s hardline stance toward U.S. cooperation with the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria. In another scenario, Erdogan might close ranks with the Trump administration on Syria as well as other regional and global issues to burnish his strongman image, while simultaneously cracking down on the CHP. – Washington Institute
Middle East & North Africa
Egypt’s president on Monday pardoned a British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist who rose to prominence during the country’s 2011 revolution and has spent more than a decade in prison. – Wall Street Journal
Iraq’s federal and Kurdish regional governments reached a deal with oil firms to resume crude exports via Turkey on Monday, two oil officials told Reuters. – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump will meet leaders and officials from multiple Muslim-majority countries on Tuesday and discuss the situation in Gaza, which has been under a mounting assault from Washington’s ally Israel. – Reuters
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa renewed his call on Monday for Washington to formally lift U.S. sanctions imposed under the 2019 Caesar Act while visiting New York to attend the first U.N. General Assembly of a Syrian leader in nearly six decades. – Reuters
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Monday that his country would host a Gaza reconstruction conference as soon as a ceasefire had been reached in the devastated territory. – Agence France-Presse
Saudi Arabia and Britain launched a partnership to strengthen the coastguard of Yemen’s anti-Houthi government in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden last week, including collecting pledges of millions of dollars to fund the scheme from 35 countries. – Jerusalem Post
Korean Peninsula
The widow and successor of the Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon was arrested on Tuesday on charges of providing illegal political funds and bribing the wife of Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached and ousted as president of South Korea. – New York Times
The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and the United States expressed concern about increasingly frequent destabilising activities around Taiwan in a joint statement issued after their meeting. – Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he would promote relations with China “more vigorously,” state media KCNA reported on Tuesday. Kim’s comments were made in a reply to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s congratulatory message on North Korea’s founding anniversary, KCNA said. – Reuters
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said negotiations with the U.S. on tariffs have stirred concerns in the foreign exchange market but he was confident the two sides will reach a solution, a statement from Lee’s office said on Tuesday. – Reuters
China
China’s securities watchdog has advised some local brokerages to pause their real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation business in Hong Kong, said two sources, signalling Beijing’s concerns of a euphoric drive towards a booming digital assets market offshore. – Reuters
China’s internet regulator on Monday declared a two-month nationwide campaign to curb any online content that promotes violent or hostile sentiment in society. Even pessimistic comments about the slowing economy will not be spared. – Reuters
A large but loose Asian trade bloc that includes China, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, will consider adding new members and finding ways to boost trade when its leaders meet next month, the Malaysian hosts said on Monday. – Reuters
A delegation of U.S. lawmakers met with Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun on Monday in the first House of Representatives visit to Beijing in six years, with talks aimed at bolstering exchanges including military-to-military communication. – Reuters
A senior Chinese official held talks with Belarus’s president to discuss Poland’s decision to shut its eastern border with the Russian-aligned former Soviet republic, cutting off a crucial trade route for goods from China. – Bloomberg
The container ship Istanbul Bridge completed its loading operations at the northern area of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port on Monday, and will depart for the Port of Felixstowe, the largest container port in the UK, which marked the official launch of the world’s first China-Europe Arctic express route. – Global Times
Ryan C. Berg, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Jessie Hu, and Henry Ziemer write: Working with Major Non-NATO Allies like Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia to streamline arms procurement processes and encourage greater interoperability with U.S. forces can help to minimize the appeal of Beijing or Moscow’s offers. Finally, to effectively compete with China’s eagerness to lead in nontraditional security issues, doubling down on historic humanitarian assistance and disaster response efforts where the United States’ geographic proximity to the region offers it a natural leg up should be an area for continued focus. – Center for Strategic and International Studies
Michael Sobolik writes: The success of Beijing’s gambit is predicated in large part on secrecy. The Geedge leaks expose the advance of the CCP’s global censorship regime, which cuts against the party’s preferences. But it also relies on American fatalism. As long as officials assume the party’s efforts are untouchable, the CCP will continue to advance. It is past time to start dismantling the Great Firewall, brick by brick. – The Dispatch
South Asia
India’s Supreme Court on Monday asked the government to respond to a plea seeking an independent investigation into the Air India plane crash on June 12 that killed 260 people. – Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed the critical importance of the U.S. relationship with India on Monday, after President Donald Trump’s move to impose a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas, dealt a blow to Indian tech firms. – Reuters
Massive floods in Pakistan have struck both the rural heartland and industrial centres for the first time in decades, causing billions of dollars in damage while straining food supplies, exports and a fragile economic recovery. – Reuters
Brahma Chellaney writes: Such double standards do more than mislead — they dignify disorder elsewhere that would never be tolerated at home. Nepal’s tragedy should serve as a cautionary tale. Democracy cannot be built on ashes and lynchings. It rests on institutions, legality and order — the very foundations mobs destroyed and the military has now sought to restore. To mistake chaos for change is to invite more instability, not less. – The Hill
Divyansh Kaushik and Lindsey Ford write: What’s needed now is the political will to choose rebuilding over recrimination. Trust, once broken, is hard to rebuild. But the TRUST initiative provides both the framework and the opportunity to begin that work where it matters most—in the laboratories and classrooms where democratic technological leadership takes shape. The phones between Washington and New Delhi are now ringing again. It’s time both sides started listening. – National Interest
Asia
Indonesia’s defence ministry issued a full-page advertisement in the country’s largest newspaper on Monday, detailing and defending non-defence programmes being run by the military, amid criticism of its wider role under President Prabowo Subianto. – Reuters
Thailand’s new government is setting up a multi-agency team to counter the baht’s rise to four-year highs, which is a risk for the key economic drivers of tourism and exports, and said on Monday it also wanted to urgently tackle high debt levels. – Reuters
The Philippines’ corruption probe widened to more infrastructure projects on Tuesday, with a former public works official alleging that street lamps, roads and buildings are also overpriced and substandard. – Bloomberg
Former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte has been charged by International Criminal Court prosecutors with three counts of murder for the killings of alleged drug suspects while he was mayor and president. – Bloomberg
Japan’s ruling party leadership race formally kicked off Monday under close market scrutiny, with the outcome likely to determine who will lead the nation following Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s decision to step down. – Bloomberg
Australia would reverse its decision on Palestinian state recognition if there is a change of government in Australia, the country’s Opposition Leader and Liberal Party head, Sussan Ley, told Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Sa’ar later revealed in a X/Twitter post on Monday. – Jerusalem Post
Daniel Moss writes: Will her successor, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, act as a similar protector? He has said the time isn’t right to shift the bank’s mandate. If officials act like it’s already in place, then there is no need to codify it. Prabowo is frustrated that the economy isn’t yet tracking toward his long-term aspiration for growth of around 8%. He should move prudently, not recklessly. Learn, from Turkey, Indonesia. Avoid emulating it. – Bloomberg
Europe
France’s slide into political and fiscal dysfunction is generating a groundswell of support for a sweeping wealth tax that would represent a radical break from the pro-business agenda of President Emmanuel Macron. – Wall Street Journal
It was once unthinkable that a wave of some of the U.S.’s closest Western allies would recognize a Palestinian state. It took less than a year of closed-door diplomacy by French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi officials to upend the decades-old status quo. – Wall Street Journal
What started with a silent vigil by a handful of students late last year has grown into some of the largest protests in Serbia’s history, rivaling the mass demonstrations that pushed the strongman Slobodan Milosevic from power a quarter-century ago. – Washington Post
Protesters against Israel’s Gaza offensive clashed with police in Milan and other Italian cities on Monday as tens of thousands marched in Rome and dockworkers blocked ports in solidarity with Palestinians. – Reuters
Germany’s armed forces are planning how to treat a potential 1,000 wounded troops per day should a large-scale conflict between NATO and Russia break out, and amid long-standing warnings by the alliance that Moscow could be capable of launching an attack from 2029. – Reuters
Moldova carried out more than 200 raids over alleged Russian-backed efforts to destabilise the country ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election, as President Maida Sandu warned Moscow was spending hundreds of millions of euros to sway the vote. – Reuters
Spain’s top diplomat dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that there will never be a Palestinian state, saying Israelis will one day want to live side by side in peace with Palestinians. – Associated Press
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland is prepared to shoot down foreign aircraft that cross into its territory without authorization after a series of Russian incursions into NATO airspace. – Bloomberg
After eight years in office, Emmanuel Macron is staring into the abyss of public disapproval. Ever since his botched dissolution attempt in the summer of 2024, the President has been losing the faith of voters. – UnHerd
Africa
The treason trial of South Sudan’s suspended First Vice President Riek Machar, opened on Monday under tight security in the capital Juba, with his lawyer arguing the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. – Reuters
Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi said on Monday that a U.S.-mediated peace deal signed with Rwanda in June has not calmed fighting in eastern Congo, though he thanked President Donald Trump for attempting to end the conflict. – Reuters
Malawi’s former President Peter Mutharika has built a commanding lead over incumbent Lazarus Chakwera in the Southern African country’s presidential election, provisional results from two-thirds of councils showed on Monday. – Reuters
The military-led West African countries Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have announced their withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, denouncing it as “a tool of neocolonial repression.” – Reuters
A Jamaican man who was among five migrants deported by the United States to Eswatini in Africa has been repatriated to his home country, Eswatini authorities said Monday. – Associated Press
The Americas
The Trump administration is looking at options to provide Argentina a financial lifeline as the country struggles to overhaul its economy, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday. – Wall Street Journal
Officials in the Dominican Republic said they recovered hundreds of cocaine packages from a speedboat destroyed by the U.S. military as part of the Trump administration’s operations against drug trafficking from Venezuela. – Wall Street Journal
The U.S. on Monday imposed sanctions on the wife of the judge who presided over the criminal case of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro and also yanked the visas, of six high-ranking officials, escalating a showdown between the Trump administration and the Brazilian government. – Reuters
Brazil’s Prosecutor General charged federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro with coercion, according to a statement on Monday, in a case linked to the one in which his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted for plotting a coup. – Reuters
Canadian police have arrested a Sikh activist on firearms charges in Ontario, an advocacy group said on Monday, two years after his close associate was murdered and the crime strained Canada’s diplomatic ties with India. – Reuters
Costa Rica’s Congress fell short Monday of the supermajority required to strip President Rodrigo Chaves of immunity in order to prosecute him on corruption charges. – Associated Press
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he wants to see western allies impose secondary sanctions on Russia quickly in order to dramatically ramp up pressure on President Vladimir Putin. – Bloomberg
Editorial: Argentines have billions of dollars in mattresses and coffee cans, and a credible Milei plan to make the dollar legal tender would allow them to put those greenbacks to work in the Argentine economy. If Mr. Milei wants U.S. help in minimizing default risk and maintaining access to capital markets, he could start by putting dollarization on the table. – Wall Street Journal
United States
The United States is considering imposing sanctions as soon as this week against the entire International Criminal Court, putting the court’s day-to-day operations in jeopardy in retaliation for investigations of suspected Israeli war crimes. – Reuters
The United States sought to build support at the United Nations on Monday for the expansion of an international force to tackle Haiti’s armed gangs, building on a Kenyan-led mission that Kenyan President William Ruto said has struggled with staffing and logistics. – Reuters
President Donald Trump is set to hold a series of high-stakes meetings at the United Nations this week, beginning with bilateral talks with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and leaders from Ukraine, Argentina, and the European Union, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday. – Reuters
President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist group, as his administration moves to intensify its scrutiny of left-leaning organizations following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. – Bloomberg
The US Supreme Court said it will hear a Trump administration appeal that could topple a 90-year-old precedent and put the White House in control of federal agencies that have long been independent. – Bloomberg
The United States is trying to prevent Donald Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Belarusian flag carrier Belavia from opening the floodgate for crucial aviation spare parts to reach Russia’s airlines. – Politico
Cybersecurity
The future of TikTok in the U.S. is coming into focus, and users likely won’t have to download a new app to access it. After months of negotiations between the Trump administration and China over the U.S. operations of the popular short-form video app, the two sides have a preliminary deal. – Wall Street Journal
Airport disruptions that affected automated check-in systems in recent days were caused by a ransomware attack, the EU’s cybersecurity agency said on Monday, highlighting the growing risks of such attacks to critical infrastructure and industries. – Reuters
Pessimism is mounting about the chances that Congress will reauthorize a cyber threat information-sharing law before it’s set to expire at the end of this month — with no clear path for either a temporary or long-term extension. – CyberScoop
Hackers are increasingly adopting the techniques of the Chinese group that successfully infiltrated major telecommunications providers in attacks that made headlines last year by looking for unconventional weak spots, an AT&T executive said Monday. – CyberScoop
Clearview AI, the facial recognition company that scraped the internet for images of people’s faces for its database, is building a tool to deal with an emerging problem: AI-generated faces. – FedScoop
Defense
The U.S. Air Force must focus its limited maintenance resources on aircraft that are capable of surviving in a contested environment, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Monday. – Defense News
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink indicated Monday that he expects the service to have a new chief of staff by the time current chief Gen. David Allvin retires. – Defense News
The Air Force’s first F-47 fighter is now being built by Boeing, and the advanced jet is expected to have its initial flight in 2028, Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said Monday. – Defense News
USS Stockdale (DDG-106) is now operating in the Caribbean alongside seven U.S. Navy surface warships as part of the Trump Administration’s homeland security efforts, USNI News understands. – USNI News