Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
‘Shame on you,’ Netanyahu says of Mamdani ahead of trip to NYC Former Israel hostage Omer Shem Tov: Hostages like me were also ‘NAZA’—collateral damage Trump warns U.N. he might ‘annihilate’ Iran as war overshadows diplomacy U.S. and Iran had ‘very good meeting’ over ongoing war, Trump says Zelensky asks Trump for winter arms package, expects energy-ceasefire push E.U. drops sanctions on two of Russia’s richest oligarchs despite Kyiv’s outcry Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt affirm Riyadh's right to defend itself The behind-the-scenes push to get Xi a red carpet welcome in America Japan’s leader calls on U.N. to drop ‘enemy state’ label Here’s what Trump’s Greenland deal means for the U.S. WSJ Editorial: Trump’s U.N. message to the world Another U.S. service member dies amid Iran war, Pentagon tally showsIn The News
Israel
Ahead of his departure for this week’s U.N. General Assembly in New York, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a defiant video to social media addressed to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has called for the arrest of the Israeli leader. – Washington Post
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa offered one of his most extensive public assessments of Israel-Syria relations on Tuesday night, saying the October 7 massacre cannot be allowed to determine Israel’s policy toward Syria and revealing that negotiations between the two countries had at one point reached “almost 90%” agreement. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF denied a report from Tuesday that claimed that kidnapping attempts had been made against soldiers near the Yellow Line, saying that the majority of the details included were completely baseless. – Jerusalem Post
Yasser Abbas, the son and top aide of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, sought to skirt a ban on Palestinian officials entering the US by using his Canadian passport, a US official and two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel. – Times of Israel
Israel shot back angrily Tuesday at French President Emmanuel Macron who, in an address to the United Nations, criticized Israeli actions in the West Bank and claimed Hamas was never active in the territory that is home to the Palestinian Authority. – Times of Israel
Hamas is planning new kidnappings of Israelis, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday, citing “various intentions and intelligence,” and threatened to flatten Gaza City if the terror organization acts upon those plans. – Times of Israel
Editorial: Jewish sovereignty cannot mean protecting Jews only from religious hostility outside of Israel – it must also preserve disagreement within the Jewish community in Israel and ensure that no group can enforce its definition of legitimate Judaism through trespass or intimidation. Yom Kippur does not make Jewish communities identical; rather, it shows why their different ways of praying must all be protected. – Jerusalem Post
Omer Shem Tov writes: It sees the suffering in Gaza, but not what brought the war there: Hamas’s planning, the murder of families on Oct. 7, the people dragged from their homes and a music festival. None of that seems to create much of a moral dilemma for the film’s writers. In that story, perhaps I am NAZA too. Collateral damage. A Jewish hostage who could have been left to rot in a Hamas tunnel, or murdered alongside my friends at Nova, because fighting to free me, and to protect Israelis from the people who did this, is itself treated as morally suspect. Military power, weapons and technology matter. But a society’s ability to defend itself must depend on something simpler: the moral clarity to know that it has the right to do so. There must never be another Oct. 7. We have the right to ensure there isn’t. And we shouldn’t be ashamed of it. – Wall Street Journal
Shira Efron writes: A new government will find it hard to change course quickly. The only way to make that happen is U.S. leadership from the top, because whoever wins will want Trump on their side. The ceasefire, the hostages’ return and the 20-point framework a year ago were a major achievement. The Trump administration can use this anniversary and Israel’s election to press ahead. Otherwise, Israel risks drifting back into an Oct. 6 reality: a contained, managed Hamas quietly rebuilding behind a calm facade, primed to explode again. – The Hill
Iran
Iranian flights are being canceled in several countries as part of an American pressure campaign over the Strait of Hormuz, further squeezing the Islamic Republic as it already contends with a U.S. naval blockade and disruptions at its land borders. – Wall Street Journal
Frustrated by a war with Iran that has lasted long past his initial promises, President Donald Trump told world leaders on Tuesday that he would “annihilate” the entire country if its leaders do not make a deal. – Wall Street Journal
The United States and Iran held a rare three-hour meeting in New York on Tuesday to discuss ending the war between the two countries, President Donald Trump told reporters. – Washington Post
With the United States and Iran locked in a dragging conflict, President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran was traveling to New York on Tuesday to attend the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. – New York Times
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in a meeting during which Iran’s conditions to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz were conveyed to the US, according to Iran’s state media. – Reuters
Iraq ordered its civil aviation authority to suspend Iranian flights to Baghdad airport starting Wednesday, two sources told Reuters, after the United States threatened to sanction any airport that services Iranian carriers. – Reuters
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned Monday that it would “change the geography of the war” if the United States escalates the conflict. – Associated Press
Richard Haass and Carolyn Kissane write: A negotiated agreement could end up having a political upside for Trump. Some criticism would be inevitable, but the war’s end and lower energy prices would be met with relief in the United States and much of the world—except, perhaps, in parts of the Middle East, where countries would have to contend with an empowered Iran. The longer-term costs of the war could be ignored for a time, and the nuclear file and other thorny issues could be quietly set aside for future negotiations. Trump could persuade his supporters—and no doubt some others—that the deal was a resounding success and leave it at that. With global economic catastrophe averted, attention would shift elsewhere. As the Middle Eastern saying goes, “The dogs bark, and the caravan moves on.” – Foreign Affairs
Russia and Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that he had asked President Trump for a “winter package” of new military equipment and believes the U.S. will pursue a deal to halt attacks on energy infrastructure. – Wall Street Journal
The European Union on Tuesday lifted sanctions on two of Russia’s wealthiest men, including billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who was referred to as “one of Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs” when the bloc imposed restrictions on him after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. – Washington Post
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York City on Wednesday morning, the State Department said late on Tuesday. – Reuters
The International Monetary Fund will help Ukraine find part of the funding it needs to maintain financial and economic stability next year, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday after meeting IMF head Kristalina Georgieva. – Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin is becoming “increasingly cavalier, dangerous and risk accepting,” as his war in Ukraine drags on and as he seeks to divide Western allies, NATO’s deputy commander in Europe said Tuesday. – Associated Press
Robby Soave writes: Indeed, Trump is to be commended for everything he has done to try and bring about peace. But the reality is that there’s only one person who can truly end this pointless, destructive war. That person is Putin. He could end it tomorrow: Agree to a ceasefire, and have negotiations concerning the fate of the occupied territories. But he must agree not to try to conquer the rest of Ukraine, at the very least. And if he won’t do that, then the war is going to continue. And we will all suffer as a result. – The Hill
Azeem Ibrahim writes: American forces reinforcing Europe rely upon European ports, airfields, railways, communications networks, satellite navigation, and civilian logistics. Russia does not necessarily have to destroy that infrastructure to reduce its military value. It may be enough to make it unreliable when NATO needs it most. That creates a serious deterrence problem. NATO is strongest when aggression is unmistakable. Russian armored units crossing a NATO frontier leave little room for interpretation. Persistent GPS spoofing, cyber disruption, sabotage, damaged cables, or communications failures are less blatant. Each incident can remain below the threshold of war while collectively imposing strategic costs. For 30 years, NATO has watched Kaliningrad and counted missiles. It should now watch the signals. Kaliningrad may be showing Moscow how the next confrontation with the West could begin, not with an invasion, but with the quiet degradation of the systems that allow modern European societies, and the NATO alliance itself, to function. – National Interest
Annamaria Cantore writes: For NATO’s northeastern flank, the key challenge is not to replicate Ukraine’s model but to apply its most relevant elements to peacetime conditions. The priority should be to move from fragmented capabilities to a fully integrated counter-UAS capability across detection, tracking, and interception. This means combining radar, electronic warfare, acoustic sensors, intelligence, satellite surveillance, and civilian reporting into a single air operational picture, supported by rapid data fusion to shorten decision cycles and EW as the first layer of defense. Air defense should focus on protecting critical military, energy, and civilian infrastructure rather than attempting to provide coverage of all national territory. At the same time, countries should invest in more cost-effective interception capabilities, including low-cost interceptor drones, affordable missile systems, and other emerging technologies to counter large-scale drone attacks without rapidly depleting high-end missile stocks. – Heritage Foundation
Turkey
An assailant opened fire and injured 11 students near a high school in Turkey on Tuesday, Turkish officials said, shaking the country months after back-to-back school shootings. – New York Times
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan condemned on Tuesday what he called “global gender-neutralisation policies”, saying they had turned into a campaign targeting families and children. – Reuters
Turkey’s stock exchange, Borsa Istanbul, will replace more than a quarter of the constituents of its benchmark BIST-100 index, it said on Tuesday, a move announced as regulators seek to contain a liquidity crisis caused by a sell-off in investment funds. – Reuters
Turkish authorities detained 14 more people on Tuesday in an investigation into transactions involving shares of Katilimevim , a listed Turkish savings financing company, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said. – Reuters
With artificial intelligence and the Iran war topping the agenda at this week’s United Nations General Assembly, the president of the upcoming UN climate summit appealed to global business leaders to keep rising emissions in focus. “We believe we will be safer if we increase military spending, but the greatest threat is at our doorstep, which is climate change,” Murat Kurum, Turkey’s environment minister and COP31 president, said Tuesday during a speech at the COP31 Global Business Forum – New York Dialogue. – Bloomberg
Concern is growing in Israel over the possibility that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could use his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly to promote Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan as a candidate to become the next UN secretary-general. – Jerusalem Post
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is running tests on a critical oil pipeline that was recently knocked out by drone strikes, a step toward restoring flows and reviving a major export route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. – Wall Street Journal
The foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they affirmed Riyadh’s right to defend itself in line with international law and stressed the need to maintain safety of navigation in the region, amid escalating attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday denied an Iraqi claim that it had bought 25 oil tankers, saying the information was inaccurate, after Iraq linked the alleged purchases to a sharp increase in the cost of shipping its crude. – Reuters
Neville Teller writes: Meanwhile, the law of unintended consequences is in full play. While the Houthis continue their strikes on Saudi Arabia and make territorial gains in areas surrounding one of the world’s critical maritime choke points, the Bab el-Mandeb, they are inadvertently fostering greater military cooperation than ever before between Israel and Arab states, and both reviving and strengthening Israel’s covert security links with Saudi Arabia. – Jerusalem Post
Middle East & North Africa
Tens of thousands more people could be driven from homes in Yemen by an upsurge of fighting that has already displaced more than 130,000 people this month, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday. – 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
Moroccan voters are choosing a new parliament Wednesday in an election shaped by mounting frustration among young people, high unemployment despite a thriving economy, and demands for better schools, hospitals and housing. – Associated Press
Hundreds of inmates in a Lebanese prison have been on hunger strike for 10 days over the stalled implementation of an amnesty law supposed to benefit them, a judicial official told AFP on Tuesday. – Agence France-Presse
Qatar has firmly rejected allegations in a New Yorker article that its monthly cash payments to Gaza helped fund Hamas’s military wing prior to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, saying on Monday that Israel was to blame if any of the money reached the terror group. – Times of Israel
James Jay Carafano writes: Several developments could signal shifts in US policy and regional responses that could improve confidence in collective security: the United States repairs, rebuilds, and expands its basing footprint in the region; regional partners make declared commitments to burden-sharing agreements with specific targets; regional partners commit to the development of an indigenous low-cost interceptor program; and joint efforts for reconstruction in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria move forward. Whether some of these projects start to take shape when Trump meets with leaders next week remains to be seen, but if actions like this don’t start happening, the oft-promised “new Middle East” isn’t happening either. – National Interest
Korean Peninsula
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump welcomed “significant progress” in discussions on strategic investment projects during a 30-minute meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Seoul’s presidential office said on Wednesday. – Reuters
A showdown over green space is pitting South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who is trying to address a national housing crisis as his approval ratings slump, against Seoul’s mayor, who is pushing to create a huge park in the capital. – Reuters
A delegation led by North Korea’s vice foreign minister Kim Son Gyong left Pyongyang to take part in the UN General Assembly, North Korea’s state media KCNA reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
A delegation from the North Korean defence ministry, led by vice defence minister Ryo Chol Ung, left Pyongyang to visit Vietnam, the North Korean state media KCNA reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
Jun-seok Lee and Donghyeon Kim write: The Trump administration’s continuing demands for troop deployment in the Strait of Hormuz and arms exports to Ukraine have stirred bilateral relations, further complicated by a trade and tariff deal many in the South Korean public consider inherently unfair. Nevertheless, one silver lining is the growing recognition that South Korea needs clear principles: a standard requiring multilateral legitimacy for troop deployment in support of allies and partners, and a statutory framework governing arms sales to countries in peacetime and war. Hormuz and Ukraine are the most immediate questions Seoul’s policymakers face today, but they will not be the last. Only a clear strategy will make South Korea a reliable ally and partner. – War on the Rocks
China
Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted his upcoming trip to the U.S. to be categorized as a “state visit,” the highest tier of diplomatic pageantry. The designation would come with honor guards, a 21-gun salute and a formal welcome on the White House South Lawn. – Wall Street Journal
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is unlikely to bring a delegation of corporate executives when he comes to Washington later this week to meet President Trump, people familiar with the matter said, damping expectations for major business deals from the summit. – Wall Street Journal
Taiwan will continue to keep in close touch with the US to promote the implementation of arms sales according to plan, a defence ministry official said on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting between the US and Chinese leaders in Washington. – Reuters
The wife of a US expert on North Korean nuclear tests who has been imprisoned in China since late 2024 said on Tuesday the White House has assured her that President Donald Trump will ask Chinese leader Xi Jinping to free her husband when the pair meet this week. – Reuters
China said Tuesday that it is now requiring permits for exports to the United States, Mexico and Canada of two additional chemicals that can be used to make illegal drugs, expanding controls on shipments to the three countries. – Associated Press
Richard Gere writes: The competition between the U.S. and China over AI is often described as a race for technological supremacy. But American leadership has never rested on technology alone. It also rests on what we choose to do with that power and what principles we defend as new technologies reshape the world. The U.S. helped lead the world into the age of AI. It now has an important role in helping ensure this technology expands human possibility rather than the reach of China’s or any other country’s repression. – Wall Street Journal
Elise Labott writes: The northern sea route won’t become a new Suez Canal. It’s seasonal, expensive, hazardous and dependent on Russian infrastructure. But China’s entrance into the theater, albeit only in a commercial capacity, signals that the stakes are going up. And Russia’s hand in the region is likely to only get stronger as a result. The Arctic is unmistakably opening. The U.S. needs to strengthen its capacity to operate there before the rules are written by others. – Washington Post
Jessica Chen Weiss writes: Washington must understand that China seeks greater influence in the world and less vulnerability to foreign pressure, not to cripple one of its biggest trading partners. Beijing, for its part, must recognize that every time it weaponizes its dominance of critical minerals, it hastens U.S. efforts to diversify its own supply chains, thereby eroding China’s leverage and hardening American fears about Beijing’s intentions. A more stable relationship could create regular communication, make crises easier to manage and open space for sustained and badly needed work on humanity’s biggest challenges, such as A.I., climate change and global health, which neither country can solve alone. This doesn’t require mutual trust, only the wisdom and restraint to keep competition from consuming the rest of the relationship. – New York Times
Javier Blas writes: The loss of cheap Iranian crude has also inflated prices in the largely illiquid Chinese domestic oil futures market, fueling further rumors that the country is on a buying spree. What comes next? Over the past decade, China has built a massive strategic petroleum reserve that holds more than 1.2 billion barrels — or about four times what’s left in the US reserve. So far, Beijing has tapped only a small portion of this to cushion the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. If Xi wants to, Beijing can keep its oil imports low for much longer, handing Trump a strategic advantage in his fight against Tehran. Will he? My gut says yes. Trump and Xi may disagree on Iran, but it’s in Beijing’s self-interest to keep oil prices moderate. China isn’t helping America; it’s helping itself. Tehran is simply collateral damage. – Bloomberg
Jemimah Steinfeld writes: Trump has shown that political prisoners can be freed when their release becomes a diplomatic priority. His administration helped secure the release of prisoners in Belarus, including Sergei Tikhanovsky, Aleksandr Lukashenko’s most high-profile opposition leader. Now he has the chance to do the same for Jimmy Lai. I want to see the images of Lai embracing his family. I want the meeting I’ve imagined for almost six years to finally happen. There’s hot chocolate waiting. – The Hill
South Asia
Female prisoners in Myanmar are subjected to widespread torture, sexual violence and life-threatening medical neglect, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, underlining the chronic ill-treatment of thousands of detainees in the war-torn nation. – Reuters
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Canada in December to sign a trade deal, the Globe and Mail reported Tuesday. – Reuters
Pakistani fighter jets on Monday struck sites in eastern Afghanistan that Pakistani officials described as suspected militant hideouts. Pakistan said 28 militants were killed, while authorities in Kabul reported at least three civilian deaths. – Associated Press
Andy Mukherjee writes: In Gallup’s estimates, disillusion with work is already costing India $351 billion annually. By hollowing out skill formation, AI is bound to increase those productivity losses. India needs to be on watch. At its current level of development, the most-populous nation simply can’t afford a situation where unemployed Gen Z youths shout loudly for a middle-class life, while those on the career ladder quietly check out. – Bloomberg
Asia
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called on the United Nations to remove from its charter references to defeated World War II nations as “enemy states,” a term recently weaponized by China and Russia to put pressure on Tokyo over its plans to ramp up spending on defense. – Wall Street Journal
The European Union struck what it called a substantial agreement with the Philippines on free-trade, as persistent geopolitical shocks and tariffs underscore the need to look for new trade partners. – Wall Street Journal
Indonesian lawmakers passed into law on Tuesday a provision aimed at resolving land conflicts across the country, setting up a government body under the president to undertake such tasks. – Reuters
New Zealand’s parliament wrapped up its final sitting on Wednesday before a Nov. 7 election, with party leaders using the closing debate to press their competing cases to voters ahead of what is expected to be a close poll. – Reuters
Australia’s defense minister said Tuesday that F-35 fighter jet parts had been mistakenly diverted to Hong Kong, following reports US lawmakers were investigating the mishap amid concerns about the possibility of China getting access to sensitive US military technology. – CNN
Kaush Arha and S. Frederick Starr writes: There are five potential consequences of inaction: First, both Russia and Iran gain near-monopolies on the export to the West of oil from Kazakhstan and gas from Turkmenistan; Second, as buffers to uncertainty in the Persian Gulf, China gets more of Kazakhstan’s oil and Turkmenistan’s gas; Third, governments in both Central Asia and the Caucasus are thwarted in their efforts to “bridge the Caspian” and create “Greater Central Asia” as a functioning new world region and economic zone; Fourth, those same governments, as well as Turkey, will question whether the United States is a reliable partner on the world stage; Fifth, a US failure to open the trans-Caspian transit of Kazakh oil and Turkmen gas will severely dilute President Trump’s achievement in the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) and push shippers to view the existing east-west transit routes through Russia and Iran more favorably. – National Interest
Europe
President Trump signed a deal with the leaders of Greenland and Denmark to pave the way for a larger U.S. military presence on the Arctic island and end a monthslong standoff that has soured Washington’s relations with European allies. – Wall Street Journal
France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday dismissed US President Donald Trump’s claims of having secured peace in Gaza, saying not a single humanitarian corridor had been reopened in the enclave despite the proclaimed peace. – Reuters
US President Donald Trump hailed Andy Burnham on Tuesday as a “natural business person” at what the new British leader’s team described as a smooth first face-to-face meeting. – Reuters
Latvia’s Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs said on Tuesday that French President Emmanuel Macron had agreed to start talks with his country about joining a French nuclear deterrence initiative and that France has committed to boosting its presence in Latvia. – Reuters
Britain’s Ministry of Defence has found 97 million new documents, some of which could be relevant to a public inquiry into allegations that British special forces murdered people in Afghanistan, a letter published on Tuesday showed. – Reuters
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it welcomed the fact that Germany’s far-right AfD party wants dialogue with Moscow, contrasting that with what it called the confrontational stance of Chancellor Friedrich Merz. – Reuters
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Tuesday evening accused Russia of spreading lies and disinformation in what he said was an “attack” on society as he revealed plans for a new disinformation center at the heart of his government. – Bloomberg
The Spanish cabinet has allowed a US extradition request for James “Fergie” Chambers, an American millionaire and Gaza donor, to proceed to Spanish courts in a decision that his lawyers warn will set a “dangerous precedent” for the defense of the Palestinian cause in Europe. – CNN
Andrew McAfee writes: It is true that Europe has great strengths. It is a populous, prosperous region with strong institutions, excellent educational systems, and no shortage of talented builders. But it is also true that, at present, entrepreneurs face many barriers that impede their ability to scale their businesses, attract the world’s best sources of risk capital, and make an impact at a global level. Unless those barriers are dismantled, the EU will fall farther behind. And Brussels does not have the luxury of time. European industries are going to come under stringent challenges in the coming years. Near-term policy choices will determine if the new growth engines that rise to this challenge will be European. As things currently stand, they will not. – Foreign Affairs
Africa
The United States is withholding a visa for Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ahead of his scheduled UN appearance in a move that Sudanese and other sources say is linked to a US-backed ceasefire proposal that Khartoum has resisted. – Reuters
Belgium and Rwanda have resumed diplomatic relations 18 months after breaking ties due to a dispute over the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. – Reuters
Democratic Republic of Congo is preparing a one-stop agency for major mining investments as part of reforms linked to its minerals partnership with the US, aiming to cut red tape and attract more Western capital into a sector dominated by Chinese companies, four sources told Reuters. – Reuters
South African investigative journalist Micah Reddy, whose family said he had gone missing while in Djibouti last week, is free and has been deported, a watchdog group said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Three assailants shot at least 11 people to death in a mass shooting at a house party in South Africa, police said Wednesday. – Associated Press
The Americas
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado made three unsuccessful bids to return to Venezuela in recent hours, her team and media said on Tuesday, as interim President Delcy Rodriguez met US President Donald Trump in New York. – Reuters
President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to reassert US dominance in the Western Hemisphere and to use “unmatched military might” against threats in the region as he gathered allies behind an expanding campaign against drug cartels. – Reuters
The US Export-Import Bank plans to fund up to $7 billion worth of critical minerals and energy projects in Argentina, according to a document seen by Reuters, as part of a push to deepen economic cooperation between Washington and Buenos Aires. – Reuters
The head of the Inter-American Development Bank is working to secure approval for a $2.5 billion loan for Venezuela but has faced pushback from some members of the lender’s board, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. – Reuters
The rapidly accelerating use of drones among Latin American drug cartels will significantly complicate the Trump administration’s campaign to halt the flow of illicit narcotics into the United States and eliminate the criminal networks that produce and traffic them, according to a U.S. official familiar with an internal government assessment and others with knowledge of the matter. – Washington Post
At the United Nations General Assembly this week, State Department officials are expected to announce that 14 Latin American and Caribbean nations are labeling 25 criminal groups as terrorist organizations, according to U.S. and Latin American officials. The groups have already been labeled foreign terrorist organizations by Washington. – New York Times
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday warned that countries shouldn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other nations, while also urging world leaders to take stronger action in response to intensifying global conflicts. – Associated Press
North America
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada expanded on his vision for international cooperation on Tuesday, outlining how nations can safeguard their mutual interests following a “rupture” to the world order by the United States and China. – New York Times
Mexico issued a nationwide restriction on Tuesday on cellphones and screens in the country’s educational system, taking a stand in the global debate over how much technology should be allowed in the classroom. – New York Times
President Donald Trump said Cuba was a failed state and freedom would be coming to the island nation in a UN address on Tuesday that increased tensions with the Communist-run government. – Reuters
Canada is giving C$100 million in international assistance for Palestine, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday. Carney told reporters at the United Nations that C$80 million was for humanitarian aid to alleviate immediate human suffering, and C$20 million was to support peace and security capacity building. – Reuters
The gunman who was shot by Canadian police after firing on officers outside a synagogue at the start of Yom Kippur on Sunday evening has died, an official said Tuesday. – Agence France-Presse
United States
At the U.N. on Tuesday, Trump didn’t appear to be concerned about the political fallout of his statements. The president doubled-down on his muscular foreign policy agenda, positioning his interventions on multiple continents as the centerpiece of his second term—and his post-White House legacy. – Wall Street Journal
Republican candidates in key battleground states are starting to break with President Donald Trump on Iran as polls show the conflict — and its domestic ramifications — are growing increasingly unpopular with voters. – Washington Post
President Trump told reporters on Tuesday that his administration is reviewing a possible ban on U.S. exports of diesel to help lower fuel costs for farmers, truckers and businesses. – New York Times
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent could become President Donald Trump’s new AI czar, a source familiar with the discussions said on Tuesday, as fears grow among lawmakers in Washington about the risks posed by AI technology. – Reuters
Editorial: Unless, that is, the President stops himself. This can’t be discounted. Later on Tuesday he said a three-hour meeting with Iran’s representatives had gone “very well,” raising hopes for diplomacy. But Mr. Trump has shifted from annihilation to peace in our time, back and forth, so many times that exhausted Americans don’t know what to believe. It’s one reason that even some Republican candidates are calling for an end to the war. Iran is going to heed what the President does, not what he threatens to do. When the annihilation talk rings false, it hurts U.S. deterrence around the world. It also hurts Mr. Trump at home because it doesn’t look like the U.S. is winning. He’s better off explaining his strategy to win the war and for seeing it through—before and after the midterms. – Wall Street Journal
Andreas Kluth writes: This is the context in which the search for Guterres’s successor is taking place. But which leader of stature would want to step into such a thankless role? The secretary general “is always going to be the person who, even though he or she has no power, might be scapegoated,” says Thant Myint-U. Gowan at the International Crisis Group agrees. “There’s a very high risk you’re setting up the next secretary general for failure,” he told me; “and then the conclusion will be, oh well, the UN is rubbish.” That may just be what Trump and many of his supporters want. They should be careful what they wish for. In the 1930s, world leaders made the League of Nations irrelevant; the result was World War II. My advice: Stop sabotaging and ridiculing the UN and start backing it, so the United Nations can finally start doing its job. – Bloomberg
Grant Rumley and Elizabeth Dent write: Ending the Iran war on terms favorable to the United States will entail putting more pressure on Tehran than Washington has been able to thus far. China is still Iran’s most important external lifeline, so President Trump should use the summit to secure tangible, verifiable commitments that Beijing will reduce this support and use its considerable leverage to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table. – Washington Institute
Cybersecurity
Meta Platforms appears to have a hit AI product on its hands, but the company’s path to ultimate domination in this next chapter of consumer AI use is anything but assured. Two weeks ago, Meta launched a new, easy-to-use personal AI agent called Muse. The app, which is how users access the agent, has been sitting at No. 1 on Apple’s U.S. App Store since Friday, sending Meta’s stock up 11% Monday. – Wall Street Journal
It may come as a surprise for world leaders discussing artificial intelligence at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, but a large majority of people surveyed across the globe for a new Gallup poll said they felt mostly positive about A.I. – New York Times
The Trump administration has criticised Australia’s proposed social media algorithm reforms, which would give users the option to choose the content on their feeds, warning that Washington would likely view them as “facilitating censorship”. – Reuters
The digital extortion group known as “ShinyHunters” said on Tuesday that it had breached the Federal Bureau of Investigation and stolen data on a huge number of current and former FBI employees. – Reuters
China’s Alibaba unveiled new artificial intelligence chip technologies and plans for more powerful models on Tuesday, including what it said was China’s most powerful AI chip, days ahead of a meeting between Chinese and U.S. leaders at which competition to lead on AI technology is expected to be a major theme – Associated Press
The FBI said it is investigating a possible breach into its online jobs portal, after a prolific cybercrime group publicly claimed to have stolen personal information of FBI personnel. – Politico
A House Democrat tapped to lead his party’s efforts on artificial intelligence has introduced legislation that would establish a test program within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to give critical infrastructure operators free access to frontier AI models to protect their systems. – Cyberscoop
Microsoft, along with a group of industry partners, disrupted EvilTokens, a short-lived but highly consequential cybercrime platform that investigators linked to more than 12,000 compromised Microsoft customer email inboxes across more than 10,000 organizations globally, the company said Tuesday. – Cyberscoop
Thomas J. Duesterberg writes: First, Chinese models should be banned from U.S. markets until reciprocal access and effective market conditions are firmly in place in China. Second, given China’s need for Western capital to drive further technological advances, Trump should renew support for limits on U.S. financing of AI infrastructure IPOs and investments in the budding Chinese AI ecosystem. China’s AI strategy is a genuine threat to U.S. interests, but it teeters atop a rickety financial foundation. If Trump is willing to deploy the tools in his economic arsenal, the United States can undermine Beijing’s AI advance. – Washington Post
Zeynep Tufekci writes: If OpenAI and Anthropic really want to help advance science, there is one obvious way they can do so: They can spend a tiny fraction of their vast fortunes to fund the kind of humble but essential research that’s increasingly starved for resources. For all the public distrust of A.I., polls show that people still hold out hope it will at least help science. But if the arrival of generative A.I. means we speed through gamified solutions without gaining insights; if the glut of plausible hypotheses makes it harder to identify valuable work; and if people are now discouraged from sharing or pursuing complex work lest they be scooped by wealthy corporations, even that one tiny ray of optimism may prove to be misplaced. – New York Times
Christopher David LaRoche and Ankit Panda write: The coming summit between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this month will be an important test for whether the two leading AI powers can find any ground for cooperation on AI. AI safety is high on the agenda of potential items to discuss. But whatever comes of the summit, the more urgent and consequential work lies at home. Washington does not even yet know exactly what U.S. firms will be capable of in the coming months. Seeking international control without settled domestic oversight would answer the right questions in the wrong order. Until Congress provides clearer answers about who oversees the AI frontier, what firms must disclose, and what powers regulators possess, American approaches to managing AI will remain diffuse and improvisational. In the most meaningful parallel between AI and the bomb, there is little margin for error. – Foreign Affairs
Justin Hardy writes: Section 1604 of the Senate-reported 2027 National Defense Authorization Act outlines a pilot for contractor-owned, contractor-operated cyber operations under the commander of U.S. Cyber Command. This is the same question of supervised private operators, arriving with a new statutory grant behind it rather than an untested reading of an old one. The memorandum directs that implementation guidance is due sixty days from signature, in mid-October. Unfortunately, whatever comes out of that process will be written within these constraints, because it cannot fix a statute. The better question is whether Congress and the White House are content with building private sector cyber effects operations capability without purpose-written legislation, or whether a program reverse-engineered from the exception clause of a criminal statute written in the 1980s is sufficient. – War on the Rocks
Defense
The Pentagon has added one death to its public database of U.S. military fatalities that have occurred amid the war with Iran, bringing the disclosed total to 19. – Washington Post
The United States has confirmed that it is sending a new rotation of troops to Lithuania, the Baltic NATO country said on Tuesday, ending a period of uncertainty over whether the US military would replace forces that returned home this summer. – Reuters
An American military aircraft crashed at a U.S. air base in western Germany on Tuesday, injuring the pilot, the American military said. – Associated Press
The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.2 billion contract for its short-range ballistic missiles.
The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract covers initial production and future orders of Increment 2 of the Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, according to a Lockheed Martin announcement. – Defense News
Long War
A court in Sri Lanka on Tuesday convicted 15 men on terrorism charges for their role in a series of suicide bombings on Easter Sunday 2019 that killed more than 300 people in three cities. – New York Times
British counter-terrorism police said on Tuesday they had arrested two people as part of an investigation into a suspected terrorist plot to target the Jewish community in northern England. – Reuters
An Argentine judge on Monday formally charged seven Iranians and a Lebanese citizen over their alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. – Agence France-Presse