Threat Status for Friday, November 7, 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 is expected in a major speech Friday afternoon to announce major changes to how the Pentagon acquires and delivers weapons to warfighters.
… The stage is set for direct U.S. military strikes on Venezuela after the Senate narrowly voted down a war powers resolution requirement.
… Several explosions shook a mosque during Friday prayers in Indonesia, the Southeast Asian nation with the largest Muslim population in the world.
… Kazakhstan has joined the Abraham Accords, although the move is mostly symbolic because the former Soviet republic already has normal diplomatic relations with Israel.
… Here’s a look inside the motivations behind China’s new Fujian aircraft carrier.
… And there are some eye-opening similarities between Iran today and Iraq in 1991, according to Middle East Institute Vice President Kenneth M. Pollack.
President Trump’s threat to send U.S. forces into Nigeria to protect Christians from deadly militant groups has drawn cautious praise and more than a little wary concern from religious and political leaders in the oil-rich but economically poor nation, which is the most populous in Africa.
Threat Status Special Correspondent Joseph Hammond examines the dynamics in Nigeria, where the killing of some 3,100 Christians over the past year — more than anywhere else in the world — has been blamed on Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province and Fulani militant herders, who frequently target Christian farmers. A 2023 report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law said at least 100,000 Christians and 60,000 Muslims had been killed since 2009, when the current round of fighting began.
Mr. Trump has added Nigeria to a U.S. watch list that opens the door for targeted sanctions against Nigeria, where several factors, including religious hatred, competition for land and the diminishing authority of the state, are fueling a conflict cycle that appears to be escalating. “We are deeply grateful for this important recognition,” says Shawn Wright, president of International Christian Concern. “It represents a significant step toward mobilizing the global community to confront the atrocities.”
U.S. senators on Thursday voted down a resolution that would have required Mr. Trump to seek congressional approval before launching any military action against Venezuela. The final tally had 49 senators voting in favor of the measure, with 51 rejecting it. It was introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, who convinced 15 cosponsors to sign on, including Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
The development comes amid heightened speculation that Mr. Trump will order direct strikes on Venezuela after months of U.S. military attacks on alleged drug cartel boats near the South American nation. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, is expected to reach the Caribbean next week amid a weapons buildup that could reflect White House desires to topple President Nicolas Maduro.
The Trump administration says Mr. Maduro is part of “Cartel de los Soles” (Cartel of the Suns), a criminal ring linked to senior Venezuelan military leaders involved with trafficking drugs into the United States. The Venezuelan president was indicted in 2020 on federal charges of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to export cocaine to the United States.
The Trump administration is sending a contingent of U.S. troops to the Syrian capital of Damascus to monitor a potential agreement between Syria and Israel — a development that comes just before a high-stakes summit between Mr. Trump and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa slated for Monday at the White House.
Mr. al-Sharaa’s visit is expected to be followed by a Nov. 18 trip to the White House by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reflecting a coordinated effort by Riyadh and Damascus to press the Trump administration and Congress to give Syria sanctions relief and ease its economic isolation on the world stage. The visits are a chance for the Trump administration to usurp a potential resurgence of Russian influence in Syria. Mr. al-Sharaa met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.
But the visits also represent an extraordinary gamble for all sides involved. Less than a year ago, Mr. al-Sharaa led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist militia with roots in Syria’s al Qaeda affiliate, fighting in fatigues from rebel-held Idlib. Today, he governs from Damascus in a suit, while pitching investment laws to financiers and seeking a role in the ongoing U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State group.
Mr. Trump’s meetings in East Asia last week “did more to enhance our relationship with a few allies and partners in the region than the past 15 years of talking about a ‘pivot to Asia’ combined,” Joseph R. DeTrani writes in a Washington Times op-ed. He argues the visit was about “more than tariffs and trade,” it was “about relationships that principally deal with national security.
“The U.S. and Japan signed security and economic measures, as well as a memorandum of cooperation, to expand cooperation on shipbuilding and critical minerals supply chains, an apparent initiative aimed at reducing reliance on China for rare earth and other critical minerals,” writes Mr. DeTrani, former associate director of National Intelligence, former member of the Senior Intelligence Service of the CIA and an opinion contributor to Threat Status.
“With South Korea, U.S. approval to develop nuclear-powered submarines using U.S. technology and facilities was a major U.S. decision, as South Korea joined a select few states that operate nuclear-propulsion submarines,” he writes. “A few particulars related to the fuel and safeguard agreements will have to be addressed, but the bottom line is that within a few years, South Korea will have nuclear-powered submarines (with conventional weapons), a major enhancement of the country’s deterrent capabilities.”
America’s national program of maritime rejuvenation, founded on the “goal of nurturing an enduring comparative advantage in the global maritime marketplace, is stalling,” according to Brent D. Sadler, who writes in The Times that Mr. Trump’s “imminent release of a Maritime Action Plan alone is not enough, and Congress is taking too long to advance related legislation.
“But waterfront communities need not wait,” writes Mr. Sadler, a senior Heritage Foundation fellow on advanced tech and naval warfare. “America is today perilously reliant on China for shipbuilding and shipping, as allies South Korea and Japan — the second- and third-leading shipbuilders — fight to keep shrinking market share.
“As Congress and the executive branch remain in a budget stalemate, there is no time to waste,” he writes. “American waterfronts can kickstart investments by nominating themselves as Maritime Prosperity Zones (MPZs).”
• Nov. 11 — Free Showing of the Award-winning Documentary “Honor in the Air: Remembering Captain Scott Alwin and the 68th Assault Helicopter Company,” Washington Policy Institute
• Nov. 12 — Space Force Association Washington Fall Social, SFA D.C. Chapter
• Nov. 13 — The Fourth Intelligence Revolution: Anthony Vinci on Artificial Intelligence, Geopolitics and the Future of Espionage, Hudson Institute
• Nov. 13 — Meeting the U.S. Defense Imperative: Challenges and Opportunities in the Development of the Defense Industrial Base Workforce, Center for Strategic & International Studies
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