September 24 2024

1 Israel’s Deadliest Airstrikes in Lebanon Since 2006 Escalate Mideast Conflict
2 Virginia-Class Submarine Program Faces $17 Billion Overrun, 3y Late
3 Venezuelan Gang’s Spread in U.S. Fuels Tensions Over Border Policy
4 Western Nations Launch Initiative to Counter China’s Dominance in Critical Minerals
5 U.S. Research Funding Fuels China’s Military Tech, Lawmakers Call for Reform of Federal Funding in Sensitive Areas
9/24/1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect nine black students entering its newly integrated high school.

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1 Israel’s Deadliest Airstrikes in Lebanon Since 2006 Escalate Mideast Conflict

A Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon killed hundreds of people and injured more than 1,000 others on Monday, Lebanon’s health ministry said, in the deadliest day of Israeli attacks there since at least 2006, when Israel last fought a war with the Iranian-backed militant group. The Israeli military said in a statement after midnight, early on Tuesday, that its Air Force had struck about 1,600 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Monday and was continuing to attack. The main roads to Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, were clogged with people on Monday fleeing to what they hoped would be the safety of the metropolis, witnesses said. The pace and intensity of the airstrikes on Monday outstripped that of the devastating 2006 war, when more than 1,000 Lebanese were killed over an entire month.   

B Hezbollah, which has been regularly striking targets in Israel for nearly a year, has kept in reserve a massive arsenal of rockets, drones and antitank missiles that it can deploy to counter Israeli advances. Among its most dangerous new weapons is an Iranian-made guided antitank missile called Almas—the Persian word for diamond—which gives Hezbollah a much higher degree of precision in its strikes than it had when it last fought a war with Israel in 2006. As in that war, which ended in a stalemate, Israel would have to fight on a battlefield in southern Lebanon that plays to Hezbollah’s strengths. The conflict could turn into a quagmire, much like the war in Gaza.  

Article Source: NYT, WSJ

2 Virginia-Class Submarine Program Faces $17 Billion Overrun, 3y Late

The Navy’s new Virginia-class submarines are projected to run $17 billion over their planned budget through 2030, a problem emblematic of a crisis in the program, the House’s top lawmaker on defense spending disclosed. “It’s clear that the Navy and shipbuilders have known about this shortfall for at least 18 months” but “Congress was notified just two weeks ago,” Representative Ken Calvert, chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, said in remarks released Thursday before a classified hearing with Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro. The program for a new generation of nuclear-powered subs being manufactured by General Dynamics Corp. and HII “has slipped two to three years” behind schedule “and is experiencing extraordinary cost growth,” Calvert said. The $17 billion shortfall will increase the program’s projected $184 billion total cost if the Navy can’t close the gap by finding ways to cut expenditures. Several Navy ship programs, including the Virginia class, “are in crisis,” he said. Calvert, a California Republican and usually an enthusiastic supporter of defense programs, lambasted the Navy for what he called a lack of candor in disclosing problems and for poor metrics in overseeing multibillion-dollar programs.  

Ed note US defense contractors are broken, my take on the problem and fix

Article Source: Bloomberg

3 Venezuelan Gang’s Spread in U.S. Fuels Tensions Over Border Policy

At the country’s southern border, U.S. Border Patrol agents have been on the lookout for members of a notorious Venezuelan gang. In the nation’s heartland, police officers from Denver to Chicago have made dozens of arrests for alleged crimes linked to the group, from retail theft to murder and prostitution. And in New York City, police detectives have spent months interviewing informants — including confessed gang members — to identify gang leaders and gather information on robbery patterns and recruitment efforts. The gang in question is Tren de Aragua, which sprang from a Venezuelan prison and developed into a feared criminal organization focused on sex trafficking, human smuggling and the drug trade. Its widening presence in the United States has become a political lightning rod for Republicans, especially former President Donald J. Trump, as they seek to blame the Biden administration’s border policy for allowing criminals into the country. Federal officials were working on more than 100 investigations linked to the gang at one point this year, according to a Department of Homeland Security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Officers nationwide have made more than 50 arrests related to the gang, the official said.

Article Source: NYT

4 Western Nations Launch Initiative to Counter China’s Dominance in Critical Minerals

Western nations are directing their development finance and export credit agencies to work with private industry to support critical minerals projects, in a drive to break China’s chokehold over a sector that is essential for high-tech industries. The Minerals Security Partnership, a coalition of 14 nations and the European Commission, will unveil a new financing network at an event in New York on Monday as they try to ramp up international collaboration and pledge financial support for a huge nickel project in Tanzania, backed by mining company BHP.

Article Source: FT

5 U.S. Research Funding Fuels China’s Military Tech, Lawmakers Call for Reform of Federal Funding in Sensitive Areas

A House committee focused on threats from China argues in a new report that U.S. federal research funding had helped to advance Chinese technologies with military applications, fueling a potential national security rival to the United States. The report argues that Chinese partnerships with U.S.-funded researchers and universities have helped to propel Beijing’s advancements in fields like hypersonic and nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence and semiconductors, and that these developments may one day influence how the two nations perform on the battlefield. The report — put out by the Republican members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce — also recommends stricter guidelines around federally funded research, including significantly curtailing the ability of researchers who receive U.S. grants to work with Chinese universities and companies that have military ties.

Article Source: NYT

9/24/1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect nine black students entering its newly integrated high school.

Sources

1. A https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/23/world/gaza-israel-hamas-hezbollah?campaign_id=7&emc=edit_mbae_20240923&instance_id=135074&nl=morning-briefing:-asia-pacific-edition&regi_id=61468173&segment_id=178627&te=1&user_id=02b32d846497687a8f0c061d7ffd16b1&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb&ngrp=mnp&pvid=104239BF-EA93-41AF-BFB0-8BFFD5393E
B https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/the-vast-hezbollah-arsenal-awaiting-israel-in-lebanon-99ce396c?st=JvxxCx&reflink=article_copyURL_share

2. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-19/new-us-submarines-running-17-billion-over-budget-lawmaker-says

3. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/22/nyregion/venezuelan-gang-aragua-crimes.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

4. https://www.ft.com/content/2984ae03-df15-420b-89cc-9ad8337014a9

5. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/23/us/politics/us-china-research-military.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb&ngrp=mnp&pvid=B3ACB810-C1B0-4EEE-8252-6D190DE8C9F5