I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. The U.S. military struck Iranian military targets to prevent the deployment of sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official said.
2. Jordan’s army says it intercepted eight missiles, shortly after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it attacked US military targets in the Washington-allied kingdom.
“Air defense systems intercepted eight missiles that breached the kingdom’s airspace at dawn today, Monday,” reads a statement quoting the army’s spokesperson.
3. Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Sunday called on leaders of Muslim countries, and particularly those in the Gulf, to stand together against Israel and the United States, imploring them to “know your real enemy.”
4. The Trump administration plans to impose sanctions on another bank this week in an effort to clamp down on Iran transactions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says.
5. The Hezbollah terror group has so far rejected overtures by the Lebanese government to pull its forces out of the contested Ali Taher Ridge in south Lebanon, according to a Saturday report.
6. Cuba is preparing to loosen some of the tightest controls over its communist economy, allowing private companies to trade directly with foreign businesses, giving foreign investors greater freedom to hire workers and expanding their ability to develop real estate on the island.
7. In a bid to accelerate missile production, India has approved the transfer of technologies for all conventional missile systems from a state-run organization to private companies.
8. The US Air Force has awarded aerospace giant Boeing a broad contract for the company’s F-15 fighter jet worth up to $131.2 billion, according to a DoW announcement.

For review:
1. CIA Director John Ratcliffe was in Moscow, Russia, for meetings on Tuesday, sources familiar with the situation told CBS News.
2. Russia warned on Thursday that it could strike British military ​targets inside and outside Ukraine in response to Ukrainian attacks on targets inside Russia using long-range British cruise missiles.
3. The United States on Friday issued fresh Iran-related sanctions as the war hit its six-month mark in a move that was rebuffed by Tehran as “state terrorism.”
Iran condemned the United States’ new economic sanctions and said other countries were legally obliged not to implement them. 
4. The United Kingdom warned on Friday that expelling its representatives from the US-led coordination center for postwar Gaza, located in southern Israel, would “undermine” efforts to improve the situation in the war-torn Strip.
5. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Tuesday that Dutch representatives will be expelled from the US-backed international coordination center for Gaza, citing a series of “anti-Israel measures” by the Netherlands.
6. US President Donald Trump signed an order on Friday creating a US Space Academy, billing it as a new military and civilian institution modeled after West Point and other military service academies.
7. USN Aircraft Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) will leave from San Diego in the coming weeks. The the strike group expected to move into US Central Command AOR to relieve the Japan-based USS George Wshington (CVN-73), which entered US 5th Fleet last week.
8. The Pentagon is betting big on a $1.15 trillion discretionary budget request with a further $350 billion coming from the reconciliation process — together adding up to a historic $1.5 trillion defense budget.

For review:
1. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday lamented what he called a “humanitarian crisis” in Iran, saying it “must be stopped,” as he accused the Tehran regime of killing protesters and failing to pay its armed forces.
“The failing Islamic Republic of Iran is not paying large segments of their military, while at the same time killing protesters, even when they are not protesting, at levels not seen before,” he wrote on Truth Social.
2. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told counterparts around the world that Washington does not currently expect to launch new offensive strikes against Iran, as the Trump administration shifts its focus to economic pressure and restoring shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Channel 12 reported Tuesday.
Rubio did not rule out US military action if Iran initiates new hostilities, according to two sources familiar with the conversations.
3. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in footage broadcast Wednesday that he urged US President Donald Trump to consider tightening the “siege” on Iran during their July meeting in Washington.
4. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani will visit Tehran tomorrow, where he will meet a number of Iranian officials to discuss ways to de-escalate tensions, foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari says on Wednesday on X.
5. The Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy briefed the UN Security on Wednesday, touting Hamas’s acceptance of a disarmament plan while effectively acknowledging that progress has since stalled amid Israel’s rejection of the proposal.
6. Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday told troops in southern Syria that the Israeli military would not leave its buffer zone there as long as “jihadist threats” remain, issuing a belligerent message to Damascus as the US tries to secure a security deal between the countries.
7. The first-ever road bridge linking North Korea and Russia across the Tumen River appears close to completion, according to satellite imagery reviewed by Defense News.
The border between North Korea and Russia is just 17 kilometers, or 11 miles, long, but increasingly geopolitically significant.
8. The Army is looking for a weapon that is similar to the existing Hellfire and Joint Air-to-Ground Missile, according to the Army’s Sources Sought notice. The deadline is Sept. 15.

For review:
1. Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the United States for the country’s severe crisis in an interview, saying his government will not make any concessions to the Trump administration, has “no alternative but to resist,” and that talks with Washington are “very stalled.”
2. Mossad chief Roman Gofman and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani held a meeting on Sunday to defuse tensions between their countries, Syrian state media confirmed.
3. The United States removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism on Monday, lifting what Damascus says was the last major impediment to investing in the country as Washington deepens ties to the new Syrian government.
4. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged Sunday that Iranians were facing “many problems” as the United States prepares new sanctions aimed at further isolating the country’s economy, while defending a June memorandum of understanding with Washington as the best way out of a diplomatic deadlock that has left Iran in a state of “neither war nor peace.”
5. US Treasury Secretary Bessent announced a new round of sanctions aimed at Iran on Monday and warned every country that does business with Iran to sever those financial ties or face retaliation from the United States.
6. Two U.S. tanker aircraft have left Bulgaria’s Bezmer air base, Bulgaria’s defense minister said on Saturday, nearly a month after their deployment in the country angered Iran.

For review:
1. The United States tightened sanctions on Cuba on Thursday, blacklisting three officials ​tied to a state-run organization that promotes Cuba's ties ‌with foreign solidarity activists, along with nine state entities in the metals, mining and construction sectors.
2. Israel reportedly claimed to the US that Turkey was planning to set up an air defense system on the airbase in northwest Syria that the IDF struck last week, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
3. The Israel Defense Forces said it carried out an airstrike in southwest Syria on Saturday afternoon, adding it targeted an operative “who advanced terror attacks in the final stages of preparation.”
4. The IDF said Saturday it had killed a Hamas commander involved in efforts to restore the terror group’s tunnel network in central Gaza. It also said it had killed an October 7 terrorist who had held hostages.
5. Iran on Saturday slammed US plans to announce new sanctions that could put further strain on the Islamic Republic’s economy, and warned that any countries which take part in imposing these sanctions would be “considered an enemy.”
6. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Thursday that they targeted an airport and a facility belonging to state-owned oil giant Aramco in Saudi Arabia’s southern region, near the Yemeni border.
7. A new wave of N. Korean Troops, already numbering 8,500 in Russia, contains a drone unit that could attack targets inside Ukraine, according to a senior Ukrainian intelligence official.
8. Taiwan’s budget agency has announced a proposed 18 percent increase in its defense budget for 2027 as the self-governing island continues efforts to deter a potential invasion from China. 
9. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is looking to leave his role at the Pentagon around the end of 2026 a former White House official and another source familiar with the discussions told The Hill on Friday.