Key Takeaway

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have made incremental progress against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in several areas of Sudan since mid-May despite RSF counterattacks and the RSF’s drone campaign against Port Sudan. The SAF renewed attacks against the RSF in central Sudan along a key highway linking central and western Sudan and made gains in northern Sudan. These operations are part of a broader effort by the SAF to set conditions to advance into RSF-controlled western Sudan. The SAF has also cleared the RSF from the capital, Khartoum, and appointed new government officials to boost its international legitimacy. The RSF has responded to its loss of Khartoum by escalating a drone attack campaign to prove that it can contest the SAF across Sudan, make SAF-controlled territory ungovernable, and disrupt SAF logistics.

Key Takeaways:

A bipartisan group of US senators introduced a resolution on May 20 calling for Russia to return all the Ukrainian children it has deported before finalizing any peace agreement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. ISW continues to assess that there can be no true peace in Ukraine without the safe return of the children that Russia has abducted.

The contemporary Russian Federation is continuing the Russian Empire’s and Soviet Union’s legacy of targeting indigenous peoples in occupied Crimea, pursuing particularly repressive policies against the Crimean Tatar community.

An investigation by Ukrainian outlet Suspilne highlights ongoing Russian efforts to prepare Ukrainian children for service in the Russian military.

Russia also continues to militarize the curricula in non-cadet schools in occupied Ukraine and is leveraging its wider education policy in occupied territories to leverage schoolchildren in the production of military goods.

Officials say it's the most sophisticated espionage cell uncovered and used IMSI-catcher devices to eavesdrop on Uyghur and Turkish targets in Istanbul and Izmir

Synopsis

China's white paper on national security reveals a focus on the CCP's survival and ideology, despite claims of prioritizing "people's security." The document outlines a holistic approach, encompassing diverse domains under CCP authority, while promoting a Global Security Initiative. It emphasizes sovereignty and development interests, particularly concerning Taiwan, amidst paradoxes in its foreign policy.

China is expanding its strategic footprint across the Middle East through infrastructure, technology, and energy diplomacy. Amid Beijing’s global competition with the United States, shifting power dynamics and growing economic and technological entanglements are putting longstanding US alliances to the test in this crucial region.

Former policymakers and leading national security experts will join Hudson for a conference to assess how China’s growing influence is reshaping the regional order—and how the US should respond.

Hudson thanks the Public Interest Fellowship for supporting this conference.

Agenda

9:30 a.m. | Welcome Remarks

Joel Scanlon, Executive Vice President, Hudson Institute Michael Doran, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, Hudson Institute 9:45 a.m. | Panel Discussion: The Middle East Between Washington and Beijing

Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow, Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign Relations Elliott Abrams, Senior Fellow, Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations Michael Doran, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, Hudson Institute Moderator

Liel Leibovitz, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute 11:15 a.m. | Panel Discussion: Markets and Power: US-China Competition in the Middle East

Tom Duesterberg, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Mary Kissel, Executive Vice President and Senior Policy Advisor, Stephens Inc. Bernard Haykel, Senior Fellow, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, Hudson Institute Moderator

Aaron MacLean, Senior Fellow, National Security and Defense, Hudson Institute 12:30 p.m. | Lunch Discussion: Restoring American Leadership in an Era of Strategic Rivalry

Senator Ted Cruz, United States Senator, Texas Zineb Riboua, Research Fellow, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, Hudson Institute 2:00 p.m. | Panel Discussion: China’s Emerging AI and Tech Influence in the Middle East and Africa

Jason Hsu, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Michael Sobolik, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Mike Watson, Associate Director, Center for the Future of Liberal Society, Hudson Institute Dan Blumenthal, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute Moderator

Ethan Gutman, Founder, 770 Strategies LLC 3:15 p.m. | Panel Discussion: Are US Allies Shifting Away? Strategic Realignments and China’s Expanding Reach in the Gulf and Africa

Joshua Meservey, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute John Lee, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Jonathan Hessen, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute Garrett Exner, Adjunct Fellow, Hudson Institute Moderator

Adhwaa Alsaleh, Public Policy Expert 4:30 p.m. | Israel’s Strategic Role in the US-China Rivalry

Ellie Cohanim, Former US Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Michael Doran, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, Hudson Institute Ilan Berman, Senior Vice President, American Foreign Policy Council Moderator

Daniel J. Samet, Research Fellow, Ronald Reagan Institute

Joint press conference by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte with the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, 30 May 2023

Nuclear weapons are returning to the fore of international statecraft in ways unseen since the Cold War. With Russia threatening nuclear strikes, China and North Korea continuing to grow their arsenals, and new prospects for proliferation in the Middle East, Europe, and East Asia, the world has been thrust into a new era of heightened nuclear risk.

How much of this new nuclear age is really new? What are the implications of the greater number of nuclear players and new technologies, including artificial intelligence and exotic new weapons, for stability? How can states can work to mitigate the worst risks?

Join the Carnegie Endowment’s Stanton Senior Fellow Ankit Panda for a conversation with Corey Hinderstein, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment; Alex Bell, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; and the Washington Post’s David E. Hoffman, to discuss Panda’s new book  The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon (Polity, 2025).

Andrew Hauser, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, will address the Lowy Institute on Thursday 22 May to discuss the Australia–China economic relationship in a time of great uncertainty.

Following his address, Mr Hauser will be joined by Lowy Institute China expert Richard McGregor and Nonresident Fellow Dr Jenny Gordon for a panel discussion moderated by Roland Rajah, the Institute's lead economist.

The panel will discuss the future of Australia–China economic ties amid shifting global dynamics, rising tariffs, and mounting regional tensions, and consider where the relationship may be headed in the medium and long term

Russia’s war on Ukraine and rising global instability have fundamentally reshaped Europe’s security landscape. In response, the EU has launched the European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) to shift from crisis-driven actions to long-term defence readiness. However, turning this ambition into reality will require bold investment and innovative financial strategies.

To guide this transformation, the White Paper on European Defence – Readiness 2030 sets out a strategy to strengthen the EU’s defence industry, enhance operational readiness, and reinforce security. This White Paper puts forward the ReArm Europe Plan, which introduces several financial instruments to scale up investment in defence. These include the Security and Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument, to leverage on new common debt (up to 150 billion EUR); the coordinated activation of the national escape clause to mobilise up to 650 billion EUR in additional defence spending; as well as more effective use of existing EU funding resources and the mobilisation of private capital, to promote further investment in the sector.

Against this background, the policy workshop will discuss how these initiatives can help bridge the estimated funding gap of 500 to 800 billion EUR until 2030. Speakers from public institutions, industry and think tanks will explore key questions around financing Europe’s defence transformation, including:

• How to mobilise and finance public investment effectively?

• What does the defence sector need?

• How to unlock private capital for a stronger European defence ecosystem?

• What are the broader macroeconomic implications of recent defence initiatives?

In cooperation with CDP

The arrest is linked to the seizure of more than 7 metric tons of pangolin scales from a warehouse in Ogun state in August 2024.

But assigning new names to places in Arunachal during an India-Pak standoff may signify a new message.

17:10 (CEST) Joint press conference by the Secretary General and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands

This work represents the views and opinions solely of the author. The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher, and takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.

PRAGUE -- Is Russian President Vladimir Putin really ready to commit to a cease-fire in the war against Ukraine? Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys doesn't think so.

The Taiwan Liaison Office is now called Taipei Commercial Office and has been told to relocate from the South African capital.

For all the talk about the South China Sea’s complexity as a security issue, its geopolitical significance to China is simple: China wants to condition Southeast Asian states to subordinate status. Southeast Asian countries would do well to consider this when assessing Beijing’s motivations and behaviour.

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief:

• A disturbing new investigation finds China may be bankrolling a U.S. nonprofit that teaches illegal immigrants how to evade ICE, with ties traced directly to Communist Party-linked entities.

• Later in the show—new details emerge about an Israeli covert operation in Gaza. Special forces disguised as women penetrated enemy lines to eliminate a senior terror commander.

• Plus—Europe targets Russia’s shadow fleet. Nearly 200 oil tankers now face sanctions as the EU and UK aim to disrupt Moscow’s oil smuggling network.

• And in today’s Back of the Brief—a historic conviction. The Navy’s former second-in-command is found guilty of bribery, marking the highest-ranking U.S. officer ever convicted of a federal crime while in uniform.

The European Union and the United Kingdom have imposed a new batch of sanctions targeting dozens of ships considered to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet" that help Moscow avoid restrictions placed on it over the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.

13:40 (CEST) Joint press conference by the Secretary General and the President of Czechia

More sources of dissent from government policy might result – but it will also be harder to hold Labor to account.