US News

• Reps Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan introduced a bill to cut $100 billion from the defense budget. [Link]
• The Pentagon’s new AI and data chief says the Pentagon bureaucracy is so inefficient it took several days for him to receive his common access id. [Link]
• Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi s pleaded guilty to four out of five charges brought against him by US authorities, claiming he belonged to al-Qaeda and was responsible for war crimes in Afghanistan. [Link]

Colombia

• A leader of the Colombian rebel FARC group has been killed in a military operation, according to President Ivan Duque. [Link]

Russia

• The European Commission will recommend granting Ukraine official status as an EU candidate country. [Link]
• NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg said there is no way to predict when Finland and Sweden will be able to join the alliance. [Link]
• Sweden has taken steps to meet Turkey’s demands for approving Stockholm’s NATO membership application, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. [Link]
• The US is quietly encouraging shipping companies and agricultural companies to purchase and transport more Russian fertilizer. [Link]
• Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks says the US is preparing to arm Ukraine for years to come. [Link]
• Ukrainian officials told The Wall Street Journal that without a significant increase in military aid, Ukraine will face a defeat in the eastern Donbas region. [Link]
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised his country will retake the Crimean Peninsula annexed by Russia. [Link]

China

• A bipartisan group of lawmakers agreed on legislation that would give the White House sweeping new powers to block billions in US investment into China. [Link]
• Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the Taiwan Strait fell within China’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. [Link]
• Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin sharply criticized China’s “more coercive and aggressive” approach to its territorial claims. [Link]
• China’s defense minister has slammed America’s approach to the Indo-Pacific region, calling it “a strategy to create conflict and confrontation, to contain and encircle others.” [Link]

Korea

• South Korean Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup said on Sunday that his country would enhance its defense capabilities and work closely with the United States and Japan to counter North Korea. [Link]
• The United States will maintain pressure on North Korea until Pyongyang changes course, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. [Link]
• South Korea says North Korea has completed preparations for a new nuclear test and that only a political decision by the country’s top leadership can prevent it from going forward. [Link]

Afghanistan

• According to a Wall Street Journal review of public documents, some officials who held top jobs during former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani’s rule, now live in mansions along California’s coast. [Link]

Middle East

• Israel has urged its citizens to avoid Istanbul or return home “as soon as possible” if due to a threat from Iran. [Link]
• Two of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were reported to have died in separate incidents over the weekend. Israel is suspected to be responsible. [Link]
• Iran has issued a statement pointing out that all of its nuclear activities are fully reversible, and that actions that are not compliant with the 2015 deal could be quickly brought back into compliance if a deal was reached. [Link]
• A tanker carrying about 1 million barrels of crude from Iran arrived in Venezuelan waters. [Link]
• Fighting between Turkey and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Zab left four Turkish soldiers dead. Three guerrillas were killed in a separate incident. [Link]

Africa

• Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland met with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to offer support for his security, reconciliation, and reform agenda. [Link]
• Authorities say 55 people have been killed in northern Burkina Faso in a suspected Islamic extremist attack. [Link] Other sources put the death toll at 100 or as high as 165. [Link]
• Clashes in Sudan’s Darfur between Arab and non-Arab groups have killed more than 100 people. [Link]