Today In Issues:
FDD Research & Analysis
The Must-Reads
Israel to close British consulate in East Jerusalem after UK, France and Canada ban imports from settlements WSJ Editorial: Europe joins the boycott Israel crowd U.S. strikes Iranian oil tankers in response to Tehran’s attacks on navy ships Iranian airline favored by the regime Is defying sanctions and expanding Iran attacks US base in Jordan, ships near Hormuz after tankers sunk Ukraine contracting around 1,000 Patriot missiles from allies, defence chief says Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis edge back to the brink of war North Korea builds new Yongbyon uranium enrichment facility, IAEA says Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison: China overplayed its hand on critical minerals The AfD is trying to turn its first state government into a far-right policy lab Trump signs orders to ban some Canadian products from U.S. market A hacking tool built with A.I. can breach phones without a clickIn The News
Israel
The U.K., France, Canada and nine other countries said they would impose new trade restrictions on Israel, escalating a dispute over the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Tuesday’s announcement prompted a swift retaliation from Israel against the U.K., which was the first to announce it would halt trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. – Wall Street Journal
Israel said on Tuesday it was closing Britain’s consulate in East Jerusalem in response to plans by the UK, France and Canada to block imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. – Reuters
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to consolidate Israel’s fractious right-wing parties ahead of a Tuesday deadline in order to avoid an election loss forecast by opinion polls. – Reuters
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was directly warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive just days before the militant group attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, according to an Israeli newspaper report. – Associated Press
Roughly 16,500 Palestinians have passed Israeli vetting to serve on the Board of Peace’s new Gaza police force, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is blocking them from leaving the Strip to begin training, two officials from the US-controlled panel told The Times of Israel on Tuesday. – Times of Israel
Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross are expected to meet Israeli security officials at a detention facility this week as part of ongoing efforts to resume its visits to Palestinian security prisoners and detainees, an ICRC spokesperson told The Times of Israel on Monday, following a Channel 12 report on the matter. – Times of Israel
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir announced on Tuesday that the military would soon inaugurate a new “unmanned systems and artificial intelligence” branch. – Times of Israel
A large Hamas-linked terrorist infrastructure that allegedly recruited cells across the West Bank to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and security personnel was uncovered in a joint operation by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Israel Police and the IDF, the agencies announced on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Editorial: Most remarkable, Mr. Miliband accused Israeli extremists of ethnic cleansing before himself declaring all Jews illegal in Judea, Samaria and even the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Labour claims it’s the law because Jordan expelled the Jews from those parts in 1948, for 19 years of a 4,000-year history. None apply international law this way in any other case. It’s the European way by now: The Palestinians start wars they lose and won’t make peace, but punish Israel to pressure it to make land-for-war concessions anyway. The Europeans hope the next U.S. President will do the same. – Wall Street Journal
Editorial: Britain cannot continually narrow its political relationship with Israel while assuming that the most valuable elements of the strategic relationship exist on autopilot. Allies can disagree, sometimes bitterly. They also have to recognize what they stand to lose when disagreement becomes a systematic downgrading of the relationship. Britain has chosen a “reset.” It should make certain that, in trying to punish Israel over the West Bank, it does not weaken an alliance that has helped keep British citizens safe. – Jerusalem Post
Iran
The U.S. destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday in response to fresh attempts by Tehran to strike U.S. warships in the Middle East in recent days, according to U.S. Central Command. – Wall Street Journal
An Iranian airline accused of ferrying cash, weapons and personnel for the regime’s powerful Revolutionary Guard is expanding its footprint, despite more than a decade under U.S. sanctions and a recent push by the Trump administration to ground it. – Wall Street Journal
Iran has signaled that it is willing to escalate its fight with the United States, with senior leaders issuing increasingly sharp warnings in recent days after attacking American warships for the first time. – New York Times
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at a base in Jordan used by the U.S. military and attacked 10 ships on Wednesday, after the U.S. said it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers, in a sharp escalation of the six-month-old war. – Reuters
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday it had captured a U.S. uncrewed submarine at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, offering a rare glimpse into how underwater drones are being used in military operations. – Defense News
Russia and Ukraine
A brief pause in Russia’s campaign of nonstop attacks that allowed President Trump’s envoys to safely visit Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, this weekend came to an abrupt end on Tuesday as Moscow resumed its bombardment. – New York Times
Ukraine is contracting a supply of around 1,000 missiles for the U.S.-designed Patriot air-defence systems with the help of allies and through a European Union loan, Kyiv’s defence minister said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Russian drones hit a border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova in the southern region of Odesa, killing two people, and attacked the country’s capital Kyiv overnight, Ukrainian authorities said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Four people including a child were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Novorossiysk, the governor of Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Ludovic Hood writes: Success in Ukraine is not out of the question. Both sides need a way out; no one disputes that only America can manage the process. The Trump administration can reengage by projecting strength and resolve through renewed economic pressure on Russia and targeted military support for Ukraine. Bipartisan support exists for increasing pressure on the Kremlin. Making a serious push for peace is low risk with significant political upside—and a potential boon for Trump’s legacy. – Wall Street Journal
Robin Brooks and Ben Harris write: But policymakers’ appetite for bolder measures is growing amid the United States’ inaction, Russia’s increasingly effective evasion of sanctions, and rising concern that the war could spread beyond Ukraine. The absence of action, meanwhile, hands Moscow an easy win. Russia will continue to replace aging tankers with newer ones and collect enormous oil profits from maritime trade that will feed directly into its war machine in Ukraine. Europe has policy levers it can pull to stop the shadow fleet, and that is an opportunity it cannot afford to pass up. – Foreign Affairs
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia vowed on Tuesday to retaliate against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia after attacks by the group injured 73 civilians in the south of the kingdom, according to the Saudi authorities. – New York Times
Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense lifted an alert it had announced in the southern city of Khamis Mushait on Wednesday, a day after Houthi attacks there and in three other nearby cities wounded 73 people and set oil installations ablaze. – Reuters
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said any attack on Saudi Arabia could activate the Mecca Defense Alliance, warning aggression against one member would be viewed as an attack on all signatories. – Bloomberg
A letter written by US President Donald Trump to Congress when sending the Saudi Arabia-United States nuclear deal to Congress last month was released overnight on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
Paul J. Saunders writes: The agreement could open new opportunities for American nuclear companies and investment while giving Washington a larger role in the development of the Saudi nuclear energy sector. Yet the possibility of future uranium enrichment in Saudi Arabia ensures that nonproliferation concerns will remain central to the agreement. The deal also comes at a consequential moment for the Middle East. President Donald Trump has suggested linking nuclear cooperation to Saudi normalization with Israel, while the war with Iran has raised new questions among Gulf states about US security commitments. Together, those pressures make the nuclear agreement part of a much larger debate over Washington’s relationship with Riyadh and the United States’ role in the region. – The National Interest
Doga Eralp writes: The result could be a dangerous security vacuum in which regional states possess greater political obligations but insufficient means to enforce them. The big unknown for the pact is whether its members can close the widening gap between political ambition and military capability before that gap is exposed in a real crisis. If they cannot, the first serious test of the pact may lead to immediate escalation of regional rivalries to all-out war. A defense pact that overpromises and underdelivers risks encouraging miscalculation among both its members and their adversaries — potentially turning a mechanism intended to enhance deterrence into a catalyst for the very conflict it was designed to prevent. – War on the Rocks
Middle East & North Africa
Iraq wants to increase its oil output quota as OPEC and its allies conduct a review of member capacity to determine how much they can produce next year, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter. – Reuters
A U.N. commission investigating Syria said on Tuesday it was deeply alarmed over Israel’s military activity inside Syrian territory, warning that some actions including the detention of civilians could amount to war crimes. – Reuters
Syria’s future constitution should guarantee the equality and inclusion of all religious minorities in order to stem emigration, a Syrian minister told AFP on Tuesday. – Agence France-Presse
Luke Coffey writes: It is also naive to think any lasting solution to the current Strait of Hormuz crisis can be achieved without Oman. Geography alone guarantees Muscat a seat at the table. The last Omani ruler to visit the United States was Sultan Qaboos in April 1983, during the Reagan administration. More than four decades later, President Trump should invite Sultan Haitham bin Tariq to Washington so the two leaders can meet face-to-face, chart a way to get US-Oman relations back on track, and work toward a lasting solution to reopen the Strait of Hormuz fully. The sooner this is done, the better for the US position in the Middle East. – The National Interest
Korean Peninsula
North Korea has built a new uranium enrichment facility at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex that could house up to 28 centrifuge cascades, and started operating an expanded annex at its Kangson enrichment site, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. – Reuters
South Korea’s military said on Wednesday it was closely monitoring North Korean activity, including incursions across the military demarcation line separating the two Koreas, and maintaining a firm state of military readiness. – Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin used messages marking North Korea’s 78th founding anniversary to reaffirm close strategic ties with Pyongyang, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed cooperation on security and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz during a summit in Paris on Tuesday, but the talks did not concern troop deployment, Seoul’s presidential office said. – Reuters
As Poland and numerous other NATO eastern flank countries are looking for inexpensive ways to bolster their counter-drone capabilities, South Korea’s Hanwha is pitching a new product to militaries across the region: a 50 kW laser mounted on an armored vehicle. – Defense News
China
The Chinese are now promoting the first regular cargo service to use the Northern Sea Route, an Arctic shortcut from Asia to Europe across the top of the world. This week, the Dubai Tower, a Chinese cargo ship, is finishing a three-week journey from Qingdao to Teesport in England. – New York Times
When President Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, meet this month to talk about a fragile trade truce, one issue is sure to dominate: China’s seemingly unstoppable export engine. – New York Times
Scott Morrison writes: The Busan truce bought valuable time. The Trump-Xi meeting this month may extend that timeline. Regardless, China has provoked an increasingly integrated and scaled response that must now be sustained. Now it is essential to put permitting and the bureaucracy on a conflict footing. The more Beijing abuses its leverage, the stronger the case becomes to build around it. We can thank China for that. – Wall Street Journal
South Asia
The tourism- and aid-dependent Himalayan nation, crisscrossed by snowfed rivers, has looked to hydropower as the answer to its energy needs and central to its development plans. Private investment has poured in, quadrupling installed capacity over the past decade. More than 210 projects currently under construction would expand that by 150%, according to industry estimates. The once chronically energy-starved country has even been exporting power in recent years. – Wall Street Journal
Nonprofit groups in Nepal that were funded by the American aid agency said they have had to shut down some of their programs since the Trump administration gutted it early last year, making it harder for them to support relief and rescue efforts. – New York Times
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will join the BRICS Summit on Sept. 12-13 as this year’s chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and push for closer ties between the two groupings. – Bloomberg
Asia
Indonesia has reopened all the airports closed by volcanic ash from Mount Anak Krakatau, including Jakarta’s main airport, but eight people, including five journalists who had been reporting on the volcano, are missing. – Reuters
Australia said on Wednesday it sees no risk to its relationship with the United States after reports that the Trump administration criticised Canberra’s plans to target social media algorithms, which critics say would curtail free speech. – Reuters
Two Australian F-35A stealth fighter jets are in New Zealand for joint exercises with the New Zealand Army and Air Force, underscoring deepening defence ties between the neighbours as they move towards sharing personnel and maintenance roles. – Reuters
A gunman shot and killed a kindergarten teacher Wednesday inside a school building in eastern Thailand, where 44 children and three other teachers were evacuated safely, authorities said. – Associated Press
Europe
After Alternative for Germany’s big state-election win in eastern Germany on Sunday, the party is as close as it has ever been to actually governing. If it succeeds, it intends to launch one of the most ambitious far-right policy experiments in Europe this century. – Wall Street Journal
A new government in Hungary formed after the election defeat of the country’s Russia-friendly former prime minister, Viktor Orban, ordered the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats on Tuesday, signaling a sharp turn away from previously cozy relations with Moscow. – New York Times
A day after summoning the American ambassador for a formal rebuke, Iceland’s leaders on Tuesday publicly condemned a social media post from President Trump showing the American flag covering their nation along with Greenland, Canada, Mexico and Caribbean states. – New York Times
Flights from British airports resumed early on Wednesday after a major air traffic control failure, but hubs warned that it would take time for operations to return to normal after disruption left aircraft in the wrong places. – Reuters
Once known for its welcome to migrants, Sweden has not only shut its borders over the last decade, its right-wing government is now paying some foreign-born residents to leave, part of a tough stance on migration it hopes will help it secure reelection this month. – Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping struck a positive tone in a phone call with Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Tuesday, saying that Beijing and London share greater common interests than differences. – Reuters
But in Slovenia, Jansa — who took office for the fourth time earlier this year, and who is often at loggerheads with the European Union — has instead received Israeli accolades for defying the EU over the West Bank settlements. – Agence France-Presse
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s minority government survived a no-confidence motion in parliament on Tuesday, after the opposition Socialists abstained. – Bloomberg
The European Union and Canada are working toward a new, all-encompassing relationship that will range from trade to security, as the transatlantic partners seek to build a new alliance to offset the global power politics dominated by the US and China. – Bloomberg
Serbia will hold a snap vote on Oct. 25, setting in motion a political playbook that may see the embattled President Aleksandar Vucic transition to the role of prime minister. – Bloomberg
Adrian Woodridge writes: Plenty of politicians have tried to reorganize regional government to make it more responsive to the people, only to end up making it more distant and convoluted. But even if Burnham does better, he risks wasting a lot of effort achieving very little, at least in the short term. The caliber of councilors will not improve until more power is devolved and until local success stories like Manchester multiply. We don’t have the luxury of time. – Bloomberg
Rosa Prince writes: While Trump has successfully bent the constitution and courts to his will, UK institutions are — I trust — still free and fearless enough to pursue Reform’s numerous attempts to break the rules on matters large and small. Farage will hopefully be brought to account for his inability to toe the line, in the court of public opinion as well as by the authorities he so despises. – Bloomberg
Antonia Ferrier writes: But that future cannot belong only to Munich, Berlin, and Germany’s other winners. The government, working with private industry, has an obligation to drive investment, new factories and productive employment to places like Saxony-Anhalt—to give communities that have already endured decades of upheaval a tangible stake in what comes next. If Germany’s economic renewal is real but large parts of the country do not feel part of it, the political consequences will be profound. Germany clearly can still build a modern economic future. The question is whether it can build one that enough Germans believe includes them. – The National Interest
Africa
Efforts to halt the spread of the Congo’s deadliest outbreak of Ebola are faltering. Health workers are going unpaid. Locals are challenging health officials over how the disease spreads and questioning whether it even exists at all. – Wall Street Journal
Kenya’s government offered a temporary amnesty to undocumented East African nationals after hundreds of Burundians flocked to their country’s embassy in Nairobi on Monday seeking travel documents, fearing a crackdown on small-scale traders from abroad. – Reuters
Senegal must clear billions of dollars in payment arrears as part of efforts to restore its public finances, Prime Minister Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Police in Equatorial Guinea pulled firearms on migrants deported there from the United States, according to three witnesses and video footage shared with Reuters, intensifying concerns about the treatment and safety of people sent to the Central African nation under a U.S. deportation programme. – Reuters
The Americas
Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Colombia on Tuesday, part of a three-country trip during which he said he planned to speak with leaders about taking on “transnational criminal terrorists” and “economic engagements.” – New York Times
Ecuador, once considered a relatively safe part of Latin America, now has the region’s third-highest level of internal displacement behind Haiti and Colombia, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. Displacement has been driven by a sustained rise in nationwide violence, says the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Guayaquil. – Reuters
A British Foreign Office minister said on Tuesday there was “no doubt” over Britain’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, after Argentine President Javier Milei stepped up his country’s claims over the British overseas territory. – Reuters
The Trump administration is seeking greater U.S. access to Venezuela’s minerals, including gold, as it expands its push to gain control and influence over the South American country’s vast natural resources beyond oil, according to three sources familiar with the discussions. – Reuters
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice André Mendonca on Tuesday removed the head of the country’s federal police and its intelligence chief from their posts, deepening a crisis at the top court and drawing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government into the turmoil ahead of October national elections – Associated Press
North America
President Trump on Tuesday signed orders to ban the importation of many dairy products, alcoholic beverages and motorcycles from Canada in three weeks—a retaliation for Canadian tariffs that took effect earlier the same day. – Wall Street Journal
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will “do whatever it takes” to backstop regions and industrial sectors targeted by U.S. tariffs as the trade conflict between the neighboring and closely-integrated economies enters a precarious stage. – Wall Street Journal
Cuba’s top diplomat said on Monday there are no talks underway with the United States, nor were there any plans for future negotiations, amid a “genocidal” blockade that Cuba says has cost the island nation over $8 billion in economic damages in the last year. – Reuters
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is traveling to Mexico for trade talks with President Claudia Sheinbaum and other top Mexican officials, as the tariff stalemate with the United States’ other North American neighbor deepens. – Politico
United States
The Trump administration on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to let it use a wide-ranging government database that includes Social Security information to help state officials verify whether would-be voters are U.S. citizens. – Washington Post
The pilots of the Amazon cargo jet that overran a runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday were not fully in control of the aircraft as it touched down and appeared to have temporarily considered aborting the landing, according to a timeline of the final seconds before the deadly crash that federal investigators unveiled late Tuesday. – New York Times
A Russian citizen who federal prosecutors said had helped drain millions of dollars from U.S. bank accounts was extradited from the republic of Georgia to face trial in the state of Georgia, federal officials announced on Tuesday. – New York Times
The United States is engaging in a broader range of espionage against China, including Chinese companies, to address the country’s status as both a military and an economic threat, the deputy C.I.A. director, Michael Ellis, said on Tuesday. – New York Times
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is accusing Ford Motor Co. of becoming too dependent on Chinese companies, warning CEO Jim Farley that the automaker’s business ties to China threaten U.S. national security and American manufacturing. – Fox News
A US nonprofit that had served as a financial hub for leading anti-Israel activist groups has seen its funding plummet after a series of lawsuits and pressure from the federal government, according to tax filings posted last month. – Times of Israel
Matthew Levitt writes: America faces serious threats from both far-left and far-right groups here at home, and Iranian agents and proxies have intensified their international terrorist plots, including in America. On counterterrorism, America is now experiencing not only “a failure of imagination” (as the 9/11 Commission famously invoked that frame) but also of policy and leadership. Today, ideology is trumping data when it comes to assessing the most pressing terrorist threats to the country. We are not safer for it. – Washington Institute
Cybersecurity
The attack is the latest — and one of the most alarming — demonstrations yet of the breakneck speed at which A.I. is progressing, outpacing the ability of regulators and even of leading developers to keep up. – New York Times
The Australian Parliament will consider legislation that would allow social media users to opt out of algorithms on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook under new laws proposed by the government on Tuesday to boost online safety. – New York Times
Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has tapped CITIC Securities to prepare for an initial public offering on Shanghai’s tech-focused STAR Market, two people with knowledge of the matter said. – Reuters
OpenAI is deepening cooperation with Samsung Electronics as the ChatGPT maker develops its own chips, expanding ties with the South Korean technology giant across semiconductors and enterprise AI services. – Reuters
Huawei Technologies, a leading Chinese tech company, faces a criminal racketeering trial in New York over charges that it stole technology, plotted to steal U.S. trade secrets and committed wire and bank fraud, among other crimes. – Associated Press
The Justice Department is demanding testimony before a Florida grand jury in an investigation aiming to establish an intelligence community conspiracy against President Donald Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. – Associated Press
Chinese artificial intelligence firms are committing “industrial-scale” theft of their American counterparts’ trade secrets to save money and bring the coveted technology to market faster, US federal agencies alleged Tuesday. – CNN
The European Union should try to stay consistent with authorities elsewhere as it decides whether to order a breakup of Google’s advertising business, the bloc’s competition chief told POLITICO. – Politico
CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis said Tuesday that the agency’s role in Operation Absolute Resolve is an example of how it has moved to put cyber operations at the center of intelligence collection and field missions, rather than treat them as a separate technical service. – Cyberscoop
Authorities extradited a 36-year-old Russian national from the Republic of Georgia under accusations of widespread bank-account takeover attacks, including a scheme to defraud two banks of more than $6.3 million, the Justice Department said Tuesday. – Cyberscoop
Brian Babin writes: Our adversaries are probing these systems because they understand just how vital they are to everyday American life. Safe drinking water should never depend on whether a small-town utility can outmatch a foreign intelligence service. Congress must continue supporting the research, technologies and partnerships that will strengthen our nation’s cyber defenses and help ensure every American community can trust the water flowing from its tap. – Fox News
Defense
A National Guard soldier has been charged with felony assault, accused of pointing his service gun at another soldier while they were on patrol in Washington, D.C., last month. – New York Times
In the wake of Iranian attacks that devastated U.S. bases in the Middle East, the U.S. Air Force wants portable air-defense guns that can destroy drones and cruise missiles. – Defense News
David M. Drucker writes: They fear doing so would function as a de facto supplemental funding bill for the Iran war that Congress has never signed off on. Voters, they worry, would view such legislation as tantamount to financing a conflict that is unpopular with voters broadly, and grassroots liberals specifically, when midterm elections are just around the corner. The perilous irony is that this sort of incompetent government inaction is the surest way to invite another sort of unpopular war — the sort forced upon us by a hubristic adversary that we have no choice but to fight. History is watching; America’s enemies are, too. – Bloomberg
Audrey Kurth Cronin writes: He has not even declared himself the group’s leader, perhaps because he fears assassination—but perhaps because there is, in reality, nothing for him to lead. Although the group could one day reinvent itself or carry out attacks sponsored or abetted by Iran, the al-Qaeda that attacked the United States 25 years ago has ended. The United States sometimes accelerated and sometimes slowed the group’s demise. But ultimately, al-Qaeda failed. – Foreign Affairs