Poland shot down Russian drones that violated the country’s airspace early Wednesday, Polish and NATO officials said, in what some European leaders cast as an “intentional” escalation by Moscow.

It’s not the first time that drones believed to be of Russian origin have crossed into NATO airspace since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But this appears to be the first time those aircraft have been shot down by a NATO member’s military. “This is the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in allied airspace,” said U.S. Army Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for NATO’s Supreme Allied Powers Europe.

Polish leaders said the incident marks a serious escalation. “I have no reason to claim we’re on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and it’s incomparably more dangerous than before,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told his parliament Wednesday.

Israel’s surprise strike targeting Hamas in Qatar has deepened diplomatic tension with the White House, which swiftly criticized the move, calling Qatar a “close ally” and asserting that while Mr. Trump had not given his approval for the strike, he had been alerted of it before it was carried out.

Mr. Trump told reporters that when he learned the strike was imminent, he told his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to inform Qatari officials of the impending attack, which resulted in several explosions in a residential area of Doha, the capital of the Gulf State emirate. Top Hamas figures survived the strike, which killed five lower-ranked members of the Palestinian militant group, as well as one Qatari security officer. The Hamas officials had gathered to consider a U.S. ceasefire proposal for the Gaza Strip.

Reports on Tuesday indicated that both the White House and Israel’s Mossad spy agency both promised Qatar prior to Tuesday’s strikes that Israeli forces would not attack the country. Mossad chief David Barnea has repeatedly visited Qatar for negotiations regarding a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. His most recent visit occurred earlier this month.

Iran and the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency reached an agreement Tuesday to allow U.N. inspections of Iranian uranium enrichment facilities that were hit in July by Israeli and U.S. bombs. Tehran is seen to be accepting the deal in a bid to avoid a renewal of harsh international economic sanctions.

Iran’s parliament passed a bill in July that officially halted cooperation with the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. In response, France, Germany and the United Kingdom threatened to reimpose U.N.-backed sanctions, also known as snapback sanctions, at the end of August unless Tehran made progress on key demands.

Sources tell Threat Status that U.S. intelligence is closely watching for China’s reaction to Iran’s behavior. Beijing is the top buyer of Iranian crude oil and is seen to be weighing whether to replace Russia as Tehran’s principal defense partner. An analysis this week by Can Kasapoğlu at the Hudson Institute concluded that “the possibility of snapback sanctions on Iran might … influence China’s stance.”

“Deep-rooted institutional inertia is undermining the intelligence community, with bureaucratic managers resisting long-overdue changes to established policies, processes and strategies,” according to U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, Florida Republican and a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

“Just as once-dominant companies, including Blackberry and Blockbuster, failed to keep up with the times, U.S. intelligence officials have sat idly by while our talent, tradecraft and technology have languished,” the congressman writes in an op-ed for The Washington Times.

“While adversaries exploit advances in artificial intelligence, open-source data and cyber capabilities, the intelligence community remains anchored to legacy systems, outdated analytical models and rigid institutional practices,” he writes. “This lack of agility and innovation threatens to render U.S. intelligence obsolete. The intelligence community risks losing strategic advantage, compromising national security and becoming increasingly irrelevant in a rapidly evolving global threat environment.”

Joseph R. DeTrani, a Threat Status contributor and a former director of East Asia operations at the CIA, writes that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was “no doubt” impressed with China’s Sept. 3 victory day parade celebrating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

China’s message was that it “is a global power and Mr. Xi is an alternative global leader for a new world order with its own rules, independent from Western standards,” Mr. DeTrani writes in the Times.

With that as a backdrop, the Trump administration’s “goal should be to reengage with North Korea and get Mr. Kim to realize that a normal relationship with the U.S., and hopefully with South Korea, is in North Korea’s interest,” he writes. “Indeed, it would provide North Korea with international legitimacy and access to international financial institutions and economic assistance for economic development purposes.”

• Sept. 11 — U.S.-Iraq Security Partnership after Operation Inherent Resolve, Atlantic Council

• Sept. 15 — Competing Visions of the Regional Order in the Middle East, Chatham House

• Sept. 15 — Securing America’s Technological Edge: A Conversation with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acting Director Coke Stewart, Hudson Institute

• Sept. 17 — New Visions for Grand Strategy, Stimson Center

• Sept. 20-21 — AFA National Convention 2025, Air & Space Forces Association

• Sept. 22-23 — Cyber Defense Summit 25, Mandiant & Google Threat Intelligence

• Sept. 23-25 — National Cyber Summit

• Sept. 23-27 and Sept. 29 — U.N. General Assembly 2025: General Debate, United Nations