An explosive device planted under a car detonated Monday, killing Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, authorities in Moscow said. It was the third such assassination of a senior military officer in the Russian capital in roughly a year.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, the nation’s top criminal investigation agency, said authorities were probing whether Ukrainian intelligence services were involved in planting the bomb. Ukraine, which has claimed responsibility for previous assassinations inside Russia, has not commented on Monday’s incident.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the Russian military’s chief of nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow last year. Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for that attack, which also killed Kirillov’s assistant.

The Trump administration is engaged in a new push for an end to the Ukraine war, with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House staffer Josh Gruenbaum holding separate meetings in Miami over the weekend with Russian and Ukrainian representatives, as well as officials from several European countries.

Mr. Witkoff said Sunday the talks were “productive and constructive” — an upbeat assessment echoed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Other officials said the discussions focused on the U.S.-backed “20-point plan” to end the conflict. Members of Mr. Witkoff’s delegation met with Russian counterparts on Friday and Saturday.

In a video post on X, Mr. Zelenskyy said it was a “significant diplomatic week” for Ukraine and that coming out of the weekend, the involved countries will continue “work on the documents on ending the war.” He cautioned, however, that the negotiations had to move past being “a rhetorical or political game” and that Russia continues to inflict damage on the battlefield.

An eye-opening development in the world of space-based intelligence operations last week saw Virginia-based signals intelligence firm HawkEye 360 — a U.S. commercial satellite company that collects communications from space — acquire the Texas-based surveillance data company Innovative Signal Analysis to increase its military and intelligence capabilities.

Innovative Signal Analysis will provide HawkEye 360 with the ability to take communications collected from around the globe from space and use algorithms to detect and identify more intelligence for the U.S. government. “This acquisition marks a transformative moment in our long-term vision for HawkEye 360,” said John Serafini, CEO of HawkEye 360, in a statement. Mr. Serafini said the move will bring HawkEye 360 “closer to becoming the industry’s central hub for all-domain signals intelligence.”

HawkEye 360 has major, multimillion-dollar contracts with the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. Navy and other arms of the government. HawkEye 360 started in 2015 selling commercial signals intelligence from space as a service. A recent $98.8 million indefinite contract renewal with the U.S. Navy is in its fourth year as part of the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness initiative.

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford says the panel has reaffirmed that the intelligence community mishandled analyses of cases involving “anomalous health incidents.” The committee report a year ago concluded there is direct evidence the 2023 intelligence community assessment, or ICA, on the incidents was corrupted and produced using poor analytical standards and facts.

That 2023 assessment concluded that most intelligence agencies believed the incidents were “very unlikely” caused by foreign adversary attacks. Congressional investigators determined in 2024 in an interim report that it is increasingly likely a foreign adversary is behind some of the incidents.

Suspects include the intelligence services of Russia or China that may have conducted directed energy attacks against U.S. personnel. The malady surfaced publicly in late 2016 when several diplomats based in Havana reported experiencing debilitating brain injuries. The incidents led to the affliction being labeled Havana Syndrome.

A decisive turning point came with Pakistan’s “unexpected showing in its brief but intense May clash with India, an outcome that reportedly left Mr. Trump stunned,” according to Mr. Kimmitt, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Near East and South Asia and former assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs.

“The conflict showcased a level of military discipline, strategic focus and asymmetric capability that Washington had thought unattainable. Officials in Washington who had casually written off Pakistan as a fading power began referring to it once again as a serious regional actor,” the retired general writes in an op-ed in The Washington Times. “For Mr. Trump, the episode redrew the strategic map: Pakistan was now viewed as an emerging asset whose capabilities could anchor his broader South Asia vision.

“Pakistan’s military modernization has gained additional momentum from this renewed relevance on the global stage,” Mr. Kimmitt writes. “The armed forces’ command structure has been overhauled, introducing a new top-tier position, the chief of defense forces, now held by Field Marshal Asim Munir, who concurrently serves as army chief.”

• Jan. 12 — Next Steps for the U.S.-Japan Alliance: Deterrence, Cybersecurity and Indo-Pacific Partnerships, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Jan. 14 — A New Direction for Artificial Intelligence and Students: Findings from the Brookings Global Task Force on AI and Education, Brookings Institution

• Jan. 15 — The Future of U.S. Foreign Assistance, Center for a New American Security

• Jan. 15 — 10 Conflicts to Watch in 2026, Chatham House

• Jan. 20 — The Future of Biosafety: Confronting Gain-of-Function Research, The Heritage Foundation

• Jan. 21 — Artificial General Intelligence: America’s Next National Security Frontier, Institute of World Politics