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☆ Drone Strike in Iraq Targets Syrian Kurdish Leader, a U.S. Ally
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Gen. Mazloum Abdi has been a U.S. ally in the fight against Islamic State. A drone strike in northern Iraq on Friday targeted a Syrian Kurdish leader who has been an American ally in the fight against Islamic State, U.S. officials said. Three U.S. military personnel were in the convoy with the leader, Gen. Mazloum Abdi , at the time of the attack. There were no casualties.

☆ U.S. Stops Sharing Data on Nuclear Forces With Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. has informed Russia that it will no longer exchange data on its strategic nuclear forces following Moscow’s decision to suspend its participation in the New START treaty cutting long-range arms, U.S. officials said Tuesday. “This is the first action we have taken within the treaty in response to Russia’s suspension,” a senior Biden administration official said. “It is our goal to encourage Russia to return to compliance with the treaty.”

Iranian-backed militias brushed aside U.S. warnings and mounted fresh attacks that brought two U.S. sites in eastern Syria under fire and injured an American service member, a U.S. official said Friday. The previous day, Iranian-backed groups mounted a drone attack that killed a U.S. contractor and wounded five service members and another contractor.

☆ Iran Could Produce Nuclear Weapon in Several Months if It Decides to Do So, Mark Milley Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Laurence Norman | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Gen. Mark Milley’s statement was coupled with a warning that the U.S. won’t allow Iran to have a “fielded nuclear weapon.”Iran would need only several months to build a nuclear weapon if Tehran opted to produce a bomb, Gen. Mark Milley , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress on Thursday. Gen. Milley’s assessment provides a significantly shorter estimate for how quickly Tehran could become a nuclear power than other public estimates by Western officials and adds to mounting concern about the advances in Iran’s nuclear program.

☆ U.S. to Send Aging Attack Planes to Mideast and Shift Newer Jets to Asia, Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A-10 attack planes at an air base in Tucson, Ariz. The U.S. military is looking to send the older A-10s to the Middle East. The U.S. will send aging A-10 attack planes to swap for more advanced combat aircraft in the Middle East as part of a Pentagon effort to shift more modern fighters to the Pacific and Europe to deter China and Russia, U.S. officials said. The deployment of the A-10s, scheduled for April, is part of a broader plan that also calls for retaining modest naval and ground forces in the Middle East region.

☆ Biden to Cement Australia Subs Deal at Summit With Albanese, Sunak
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Andrew Restuccia | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

President Biden has made China a central focus of his foreign-policy agenda. President Biden is set to meet in California on Monday with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as their three nations work to boost their military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific in a bid to counter China’s growing armed forces. The centerpiece of the summit at a San Diego naval base will be an announcement that Australia will acquire nuclear-powered submarines under a decadeslong plan that will require billions of dollars of new investment in the defense industrial base in all three countries.

☆ How the U.S. Agreed to Provide Nuclear Sub Technology to Australia
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, with Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego on Sunday. In April 2021, Australia’s top intelligence official went to Washington with an extraordinary proposal: the government in Canberra was looking to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. The U.S. had provided nuclear submarine technology to Britain during the Cold War and had kept an iron grip on it ever since.

☆ Australia to Buy U.S. Nuclear-Powered Submarines in Naval Expansion
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Nancy A. Youssef | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Australia would buy five U.S. nuclear-powered submarines under a plan to be announced Monday. The U.S. will speed up Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines by arranging for Canberra’s first few subs to be built in the U.S., according to people familiar with the still-confidential plan. The arrangement is part of a multifaceted plan to be announced Monday in San Diego at a meeting attended by President Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak .

☆ The U.S. Is Not Yet Ready for the Era of ‘Great Power’ Conflict
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Clint Hinote returned from a deployment in Baghdad in the spring of 2018 to a new assignment and a staggering realization. A classified Pentagon wargame simulated a Chinese push to take control of the South China Sea. The Air Force officer, charged with plotting the service’s future, learned that China’s well-stocked missile force had rained down on the bases and ports the U.S. relied on in the region, turning American combat aircraft and munitions into smoldering ruins in a matter of days.

☆ FBI Director Says Covid Pandemic Likely Caused by Chinese Lab Leak
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the Chinese government has been trying to ‘thwart and obfuscate’ the investigation. WASHINGTON—FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that the Covid pandemic was probably the result of a laboratory leak in China, providing the first public confirmation of the bureau’s classified judgment of how the virus that led to the deaths of nearly seven million people worldwide first emerged. “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Mr. Wray told Fox News. “Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.”

☆ Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Agency Now Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, in 2020. WASHINGTON—The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress. The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.

☆ A Lab Leak in China Most Likely Origin of Covid Pandemic, Energy Department Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ As China Calls for Peace, U.S. Believes Beijing Is Mulling Artillery and Drone Deliveries to Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Stephen Fidler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

U.S. officials say China is considering delivering artillery and drones to Russian forces that could prolong the war, even as Beijing called for peace talks to end the fighting on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The officials said no weapons deliveries have yet taken place. But, if China were to go ahead and deliver lethal aid to Russia, the resulting tensions could shape Western relations with Beijing for years and potentially have profound consequences on the battlefield in Ukraine, at a point when both sides are gearing up for a spring offensive.

☆ As China Calls for Peace, U.S. Believes Beijing Is Considering Artillery and Drone Deliveries to Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Stephen Fidler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Russia, China Challenge U.S.-Led World Order
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Stephen Fidler | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A series of high-profile events on the international stage has laid bare the perilous state of great-power relations as Russia and China challenge the U.S.-led global order and raised the prospect that they could deteriorate further. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia would suspend its participation in the last remaining nuclear-arms treaty between Moscow and Washington, a vestige of the security architecture that has helped keep the peace for decades.

☆ Chinese Balloon Carried Antennas, Other Equipment to Gather Intelligence, U.S. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Vivian Salama | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON— The Chinese balloon that crossed the U.S. was outfitted with antennas likely capable of collecting communications, a senior State Department official said Thursday, adding that the Biden administration is preparing to take action against China’s surveillance program. Providing details the U.S. has gathered since tracking and shooting down the balloon, the official said the balloon was also equipped with large solar panels capable of powering an array of intelligence-collection sensors. The manufacturer of the balloon has a direct relationship with the Chinese military, the official added.

☆ China’s Fleet of Balloons Prove Hard to Detect as They Survey the World
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Alastair Gale | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

China has operated a fleet of high-altitude balloons, like the one shot down by the Air Force, to carry out surveillance on five continents, the Biden administration said, as it tries to bring international attention to the scope of the Chinese program. Administration officials embarked on a series of briefings about the balloon with allies and partners, officials said. Those briefings draw on “what we’ve learned based on our careful observation of the system when it was in our airspace,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.

☆ China Has More ICBM Launchers Than U.S., American Military Reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An earlier satellite image shows what analysts believe is construction on an intercontinental ballistic missile silo near Hami, China. The U.S. military has notified Congress that China now has more land-based intercontinental-range missile launchers than the U.S., fueling the debate about how Washington should respond to Beijing’s nuclear buildup. “The number of land-based fixed and mobile ICBM launchers in China exceeds the number of ICBM launchers in the United States,” the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees nuclear forces, wrote the Senate’s and House’s Armed Services Committees on Jan. 26.

☆ Prior Chinese Balloon Incursions Over U.S. Went Undetected, Officials Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Vivian Salama | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—China previously sent high-altitude surveillance balloons over the U.S. that went undetected until after leaving American airspace, Biden administration officials said, as the military salvaged debris Sunday from the downed balloon in a bid to learn more about the Chinese operation. After the Pentagon disclosed last week that it was tracking the balloon that the Air Force shot down Saturday off the Carolina coast, defense officials said that there have been prior intrusions over the continental U.S. At least three of those occurred during former President Donald Trump’s term in office and once previously under President Biden.

☆ Pentagon Used Its Highest-End Fighter, Reliable Missile to Down Chinese Balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Doug Cameron | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

One of two Air Force F-22 Raptors flying near the Chinese surveillance balloon just off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday before it was shot down. Pentagon officials faced a difficult task in bringing down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon flying at high altitude and without endangering lives and property on the ground. They turned to the Air Force’s most advanced fighter jet and a well-tested missile to do it. To complete the mission, defense officials had to shoot down a craft that had been flying as high as 65,000 feet on its weeklong traverse of North America, above than the ceiling of most Air Force jets, and do it so that the debris would fall within the U.S. territorial waters off the coast, not international seas.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, days after it was spotted crossing the U.S. and adding to already high tensions between Washington and Beijing. An Air Force F-22 Raptor jet fighter on Saturday downed the balloon with a single AIM-9X Sidewinder missile off the coast of South Carolina at 2:39 p.m. ET within U.S. territorial waters, officials said. The jet fighter was flying at 58,000 feet, below the balloon, which had been flying as high as 65,000 feet.

WASHINGTON– U.S. fighter planes shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, days after it was spotted crossing the U.S. and leading to renewed tensions with Beijing. The downing took place off the Southeast coast on Saturday afternoon, U.S. officials said. Updates to follow as news develops. Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com, Nancy A. Youssef at nancy.youssef@wsj.com and Doug Cameron at Doug.Cameron@wsj.com

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration said that a suspected Chinese reconnaissance balloon drifting over the continental U.S. violated American sovereignty, and indefinitely postponed a scheduled visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at easing the acrimony in the nations’ relationship. Officials pulled the plug on the trip hours before Mr. Blinken was set to depart, underscoring the enormous challenges of finding areas of constructive cooperation, even as both capitals reiterated on Friday their commitment to reviving talks at a later date.

Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, pictured at press briefing last year, said the U.S. is tracking the high altitude surveillance balloon over the continental U.S.WASHINGTON—The U.S. tracked what officials described as a Chinese reconnaissance balloon over the continental U.S. this week, in what would be an aggressive act of intelligence gathering over sensitive U.S. national security sites. The balloon sighting came days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to make a planned trip to the Chinese capital, according to U.S. officials, throwing into question efforts to repair relations between the two powers at odds over a host of global and regional issues. The balloon was first spotted on Wednesday by civilians in a commercial airliner, U.S. officials said. U.S. Air Force F-22 fighters were dispatched to Montana, where the balloon was observed, before the administration decided not to shoot it down.

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