Threat Status for Tuesday, September 30, 2025. Share this daily newsletter with your friends, who can sign up here. Send tips to National Security Editor Guy Taylor.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed “fat generals and admirals” in a rare speech to hundreds of top U.S. military officers gathered Tuesday at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
… Mr. Hegseth, who was joined by President Trump, vowed to purge the U.S. military of “woke garbage” and said all service members — including the highest-ranking officers — will be required to meet weight requirements and pass physical fitness tests twice each year. The defense secretary told any officers who disagree with the new Pentagon culture to resign.
… Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Trump say Hamas must accept their 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza or Israel will have the “full backing” of the U.S. to eliminate the terrorist group.
… The Trump administration is deporting hundreds of Iranians who entered the U.S. illegally.
… European law enforcement agencies are on alert as the Sinaloa cartel expands its criminal empire across the Atlantic.
… There are two front-runners in Japan’s prime minister race: the comparatively youthful scion of a political dynasty and a foreign policy hawk who could become the country’s first female leader.
… Japan’s outgoing prime minister and his South Korean counterpart vowed Tuesday that the two key U.S. security allies on China’s periphery will continue to pursue closer ties.
… The U.N. mission in Afghanistan is pleading with the Taliban to restore internet and telecommunications across the country.
… And the British defense giant BAE Systems is joining forces with Maryland-based drone maker Forterra to rapidly create a prototype of an autonomous armored multipurpose vehicle.
Increasingly successful information operations and global cyber activities are growing in both sophistication and capability through the use of artificial intelligence, according to a new report from Booz Allen, examining how Chinese intelligence services and the People’s Liberation Army are employing the technology.
The cyber and information operations ultimately are subverting the United States and its alliances. “They are a tool of statecraft, applied systematically with other elements of national power to weaken adversaries’ decision-making ecosystems, constrain their operational flexibility and pre-condition the outcomes of future geopolitical contests,” the report states.
“Beijing is targeting the backbone of the U.S. alliance system, recognizing both its enduring strategic importance and its growing vulnerability,” it states. “PRC operations prioritize embedding technical and political access into decision-making ecosystems, shaping elite discourse and eroding cohesion from within,” the report says, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
As the U.S. attempts to clamp down on drug trafficking, Europe is becoming more critical to narcotics networks. The Sinaloa cartel, which has been expanding its footprint in Europe since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, is importing its operations, not just its products, into the European Union.
Washington Times special correspondent Joseph Hammond offers a deep dive, noting how Polish law enforcement officials this month raided a methamphetamine laboratory linked to the North American cartel that authorities said was operating inside a modest country villa.
The meth lab was similar to other Sinaloa production sites uncovered in Europe. First, a discreet house in a rural community is acquired through clandestine means. Mexican “trainers” are flown in to instruct locals in production, after which the Sinaloa operatives move on to the next site.
“They’re already here. They’re operating. They’re finding comfortable conditions for drug production, with the participation of residents. They’re selling drugs to our loved ones,” said Joanna Gocłowska-Bolek, a professor and a Latin American expert with the University of Warsaw.
Mr. Trump’s willingness to negotiate with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the iron-fisted authoritarian who has ruled his Eastern European country since 1994, has raised concerns among Belarusian pro-democracy activists, who are worried that Mr. Trump is rewarding a dictator who has rigged elections, suppressed dissent and imprisoned political opponents.
“It’s the intention of Lukashenko to fool President Trump,” says Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled leader of Belarus’ opposition. However, where some see appeasement, others suggest the U.S. administration’s pursuit of rapprochement with the former Soviet republic is a bid to chip away at Moscow’s influence in the Eastern European country of 9.1 million.
The White House eased sanctions this month, allowing Belarus to buy needed replacement parts for its aging commercial airliners. The White House is also planning to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, closed since 2022, and has opened the door to more trade negotiations. In return, Mr. Lukashenko on Sept. 11 released 52 political prisoners, including Ms. Tsikhanouskaya’s husband.
The U.S. will deport 120 Iranians who came to the U.S. illegally, marking a rare instance of collaboration between Tehran and Washington, following months of reported negotiations. Critics say the development exposes the administration’s willingness to deport illegal immigrants to countries with deplorable human rights records.
Hossein Noushabadi, director-general for parliamentary and consular affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said U.S. authorities have identified 400 Iranian nationals for deportation, most of whom entered the country illegally through Mexico. He warned Washington to respect the international rights of the deportees during the process and said Iran would welcome them back without obstacle.
An initial group of 120 Iranians will be deported this week in the first phase. The New York Times reported that a U.S.-chartered plane carrying some deportees took off Monday from a Louisiana airport and is expected to arrive in Iran via Qatar on Tuesday. Mr. Noushabadi confirmed that all 120 people are expected to arrive in Tehran over the next two days.
Threat Status opinion contributor Miles Yu writes that “China remains a communist dictatorship. The party is supreme; property rights do not exist; courts enforce communist authority, not law. Foreign companies are forced to hand over technology, endure surveillance and risk theft of intellectual property.
“Engagement under such conditions is not partnership; it is extortion, and extortion cannot sustain coexistence,” Mr. Yu, director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute, writes in The Times. “Nor are Beijing’s ambitions confined within its borders. The Belt and Road Initiative is not development but leverage. Loans create dependence; dependence breeds obedience. Ports, power plants and railways are not neutral assets but instruments of control.
“Simultaneously, China militarizes the South China Sea, threatens Taiwan and bankrolls Russia’s war in Ukraine. These are not the behaviors of a state seeking stability. They are the actions of a power bent on rewriting the global order,” he writes. “The clash is unavoidable. The West rests on openness, reciprocity and the rule of law. The [Chinese Communist Party] rests on secrecy, coercion and party supremacy.”
• Oct. 8 — Investing in the North Korean People: Broadening Access to Information in North Korea, Stimson Center
• Oct. 8 — Relearning Great Power Diplomacy: A Conversation with Wess Mitchell, Hudson Institute
• Oct. 13-15 — AUSA 2025 Annual Meeting & Exposition in Washington, Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA)
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