US News

• Fifteen Department of Veterans Affairs employees and vendors of the VA are charged with defrauding the department out of millions of dollars. [Link] 
• The 2020 NDAA includes sanctions against Syria, Iran, and Russia for war crimes in Syria. The sanctions will prevent international assistance to the Assad government. [Link]
• The NDAA creates a new bureaucracy within the Department of Defense to regulate housing for their employees. The bureaucracy will create a database of landlords and provide a ranking system. The agreement between the tenant and the landlord will be heavily regulated. [Link]
• The 2020 NDAA set to be passed this week has lost several important provisions that were in the version of the 2020 NDAA first passed by the House. The conference committee stripped two provisions that would have forced Congress to reconsider the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs. The provision that said a president could not start an aggressive war against Iran without Congressional approval was cut. [Link] Another provision that was cut would have prevented the US from deploying low yield nuclear weapons. [Link]
• The US test a ballistic missile that would have violated the INF Treaty. [Link]

Europe

• Boris Johnson’s Tory party wins a large majority in the UK election. Johnson ran on a pro-Brexit platform. [Link]
• Latvia’s government seizes the country’s two largest ports after the US sanctioned the port’s owner. [Link] 
• A fire injured two soldiers on Russia’s only aircraft carrier. [Link]

North Korea

• The US warns North Korea against taking ill-advised action. [Link]

Middle East

• The UN says it could not independently verify that Iran was behind the attack on the Saudi oil facility. [Link]
• Trump says US sanctions will not deter them from using the S-400 air defense system. After making the statement, Erdogan spoke with Putin. Russia said Turkey and Russia were committed to further defense cooperation. [Link]
• Turkey, Russia, and Iran expressed concern over the terrorists in Idlib Syria and agreed to work to eliminate them. [Link]
• A suicide bomber in Iraq kills seven soldiers. [Link]

Africa

• Al-Shabaab fighters attacked a hotel in Somalia. Three civilians, two Somali soldiers, and five militants died in the attack. [Link]
• Libyan strongman Haftar is pushing his forces to take the capital city of Libya. [Link]
• Jihadists killed 71 soldiers in Niger near the border with Mali. [Link]