US News

• President Biden announced Monday that he will nominate Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, CNN has reported. AWC

Russia

• CIA Director William Burns said in a speech on Saturday that the war in Ukraine provides his spy agency a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to recruit Russians. AWC
• Top German officials expressed concern regarding Western escalations in Ukraine and signaled Berlin will push back against the most provocative proposals. The Institute 
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reaffirmed his position that the war in Ukraine will not end until Ukrainian forces take Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014. AWC
• Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called for US nuclear weapons to be deployed to Poland in response to Russia sending tactical nukes to Belarus. AWC
• An advisor to the director of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power engineering company claimed Tuesday that Ukraine is planning an imminent attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) while Ukraine is accusing Russian forces of plotting to blow up the facility. AWC
• NATO on Tuesday agreed to extend Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s term by another year as the alliance wants to stick with a familiar leader amid its raging proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. AWC
• The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow and other areas inside Russia would not be possible without support from the US and NATO. AWC

China

• Taiwan’s purchase of a mine-laying system from the US has sparked protest from opposition politicians as they don’t want Taiwan to become an “island of landmines,” The South China Morning Post reported on Monday. AWC
• The US is looking to restrict Chinese companies’ access to cloud-computing technology in a move that would further strain ties between Washington and Beijing, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. AWC
• On Tuesday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen hosted a US congressional delegation led by Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), the second time within a week that a group of US lawmakers visited the island. AWC

Middle East

• The White House has expressed support for a major Israeli offensive that was launched against the occupied West Bank city of Jenin early Monday. AWC
• Former Vice President Mike Pence participated in a rally outside Paris led by the exiled Iranian terrorist cult, the Marxist-Islamist Mujahideen-e-Khalq headed by Maryam Rajavi, and their political front the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), over the weekend. The Institute