I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. The U.S. Army Reserve is examining whether it can provide the military's Southern Command with police forces, medical personnel and other support units within the next four months, according to an internal Army message reviewed by CBS News.
2. Israel on Sunday gave Dutch diplomats serving in Ramallah seven days to return their Israeli-issued diplomatic credentials, retaliating after a Dutch ban on goods from Israeli businesses in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights went into effect.
Their diplomatic privileges granted by Israel will expire at the end of that period, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on X.
3. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to the UAE today to meet with Emirati President Mohamed Bin Zayed, Channel 12 reports, citing two sources.
4. Iran stood firm Sunday on its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, after US President Donald Trump rejected its proposal.
Iran’s plan called for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, according to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and fulfilling conditions in the ceasefire deal that fell apart months ago.
5. US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he expects talks with Iran to resume in the coming week, despite his rejection of a truce proposal put forward by Tehran.
6. British police said on Sunday they had arrested five men on suspicion of “preparing a terrorist act” and offenses under the Explosives Act, and the army was examining several vehicles after security was stepped up at a British air base used by US air forces in southwest England.
7. Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said on Saturday that Hamas agreed last year to a roadmap that ultimately includes the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In an interview with Qatar’s Al-Araby channel, Hayya was asked about Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm as part of the Gaza ceasefire, but did not directly say whether the terror group would agree to disarm.
8. North Korea test launched a new weapon over the weekend that appears to be a hypersonic missile, according to photos released Tuesday by state media Korean Central News Agency.
9. The first Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KF-21 was handed over to the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) Tuesday. 
The KF-21 is considered a 4.5-generation fighter jet and will be equipped with a mix of indigenous and Western sensors and weapons in service, including the KGGB precision glide bomb and European MBDA Meteor air-to-air missile.

For review:
1. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit many of his favorite themes in a combative speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, including the threat Iran poses to the world and the Jewish people’s determination to stand up to antisemitism and attempts to annihilate them.
2. In a pre-recorded address played before the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas knocked US President Donald Trump’s administration for preventing him from attending the forum in person for the second year in a row.
 In his roughly 22-minute speech, Abbas bitterly criticized Israel for its policies against the Palestinians, insisting that Ramallah has completed the reforms demanded by the international community and recommitted to a two-state solution with a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside Israel.
3. US President Donald Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterm elections.
4. An Israeli official has claimed that another round of strikes against Iran is “only a matter of time,” saying Tehran is racing to reactivate and fortify its nuclear program in anticipation of a possible attack, Saudi news channel Al-Hadath reported on Thursday.
5. China has sent around 1,300 air shipments containing dual-use components for drones and missiles to Iran’s Defense Ministry this year through the end of June, The Wall Street Journal reported. 
6. Saudi Arabia intercepted six ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on Thursday that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said were aimed at Taif in western Saudi Arabia and the Yanbu area on the Red Sea.
7. The United States has proposed that the United Arab Emirates host a trilateral meeting with Ukraine and Russia to discuss efforts to ​end their four-and-a-half-year war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.
8. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has lobbied U.S. defense leaders to allow the production of PAC-3 MSE interceptor missiles in Germany, arguing an additional production site would help alleviate a glaring shortfall in the global supply chain for the vital air-defense weapons.

For review:
1.  Argentine President Javier Milei attacks the UN in a speech to the world body’s General Assembly, calling it a “useless organization” filled with “arrogant parasites.” 
2. President Donald Trump said Cuba was a failed state and freedom ​would be coming to the island nation in a UN address on Tuesday that ‌increased tensions with the Communist-run government. 
3. Iran and the United States hinted on Tuesday at the prospect of reviving negotiations to end the months-old war, with a senior Iranian official suggesting that the Strait of Hormuz could soon be reopened, as the presidents of both countries were due at the UN General Assembly in New York. 
4.  Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa held out the possibility of peace with Israel in a speech to the United Nations on Wednesday, while sharply criticizing Israeli military activity in Syria and vowing that Damascus would not relinquish its claim to the Golan Heights. 
5.  Responding to Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa’s insistence that the Golan Heights are Syrian territory, Defense Minister Israel Katz says that the strategic plateau in the northeast is “an integral, eternal part of Israel,” and that the IDF will not withdraw from a buffer zone it has held in Syria since Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s ouster in 2024. 
6.  On Monday, the UK and France said they would provide defensive assistance to Saudi Arabia, which the Houthis have repeatedly struck during the renewed conflict. 
7. US Invites Russian President Putin to December G20 Summit in Miami.

For review:
1. President Trump to Address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
2. Houthi fighters were pushing to seize strategic heights in Yemen on Monday to cut off the Red Sea coast from remaining areas held by Saudi-backed forces, after a report that President Donald Trump had called off US strikes on the group at the last minute.
3. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says Britain has agreed to provide limited military support to Saudi Arabia to repel attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Burnham tells reporters as he flies to the United Nations General Assembly in New York that he has agreed that the Royal Air Force will provide air-to-air refueling of Saudi planes. 
4. Iran’s central military command said in a statement on Sunday that it had received information that the United States, with the backing of some regional countries, was preparing to resume military actions against it, state media reported.
5. Russia has effectively "lost control" of its diesel production sector as a result of the war with Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sept. 21, urging an end to the fighting.
6. Latvia’s government has approved the acquisition of Morana 155 mm self-propelled wheeled howitzers from Czech manufacturer Excalibur Army, reversing its earlier decision to pursue a deal with Sweden’s BAE Systems Bofors, the producer of the rival Archer artillery system.
7. The US plans to reopen a former Cold War-era military base in southern Greenland and set up a military presence at an east coast base under an agreement to be signed by the US, Denmark and Greenland on Tuesday.
8.  A Nevada Air Force Base was picked to house General Atomics’ FQ-42, a week after the U.S. Air Force dubbed the Collaborative Combat Aircraft as Vengeance.
 On Friday, a new FQ-42 Vengeance aircraft was delivered to Creech Air Force Base.
9. Lockheed Martin was awarded $1.2 billion by the ground branch for work on the early operational capability munitions of PrSM Increment 2, a variant that integrates a new seeker capable of mobile targets.

For review:
1. Yemen’s Houthis said on Saturday that they launched strikes targeting “sensitive sites” in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and oil facilities in the kingdom’s port city of Yanbu.
2. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not among the world leaders scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next week, and it is unlikely the pair will have time in their itineraries to squeeze in a sit-down, a US official told The Times of Israel on Friday.
3. Two IDF soldiers were lightly injured by a Hezbollah explosive device in southern Lebanon on Saturday morning, prompting Israeli strikes on the terror group’s sites, the military said.
According to the IDF, an engineering vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb planted by Hezbollah inside the military’s southern Lebanon buffer zone.
4. Denmark on Saturday hailed a “binding” deal announced by US President Donald Trump to give Washington “permanent control” over Greenland’s security and bar Russian and Chinese bases from the Arctic territory.
Denmark and Greenland — an autonomous Danish territory — both hailed the agreement and said they would sign it on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next week.
5. German and US officials celebrated the rollout of Berlin’s first F-35 in a ceremony today, with both sides praising the moment as a sign of the close defense alignment between the two partners.
6. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says that Ankara and Washington were working on “creative ideas” to lift US sanctions imposed on Turkey over its purchase of Russian S-400 missile systems.