🇩🇪🇺🇦⚡️ — Germany and Ukraine announced a major joint drone-production agreement on Monday covering both battlefield drones with ranges under 100 kilometers and long-range drones capable of flying up to 1,500 kilometers.

➡️ The partnership will involve co-developing and producing a wide range of drone systems, from tactical battlefield platforms to deep-strike drones designed for long-range operations.

🇮🇱🇪🇺⚡️ — A New York Times investigation found that Israel ran a coordinated, multi-year campaign to turn Eurovision Song Contest into a soft-power tool, spending at least $1 million on Eurovision promotion, including more than $800,000 around the 2024 contest in Malmö alone, partly funded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “hasbara” office.

➡️ Israel bought multilingual ads urging viewers to vote up to 20 times, while Netanyahu, diplomats, and pro-Israel groups coordinated online campaigns and lobbying efforts to keep Israel in the contest. Israeli embassies also pressured broadcasters and foreign ministries as several countries pushed to ban Israel over the Gaza war.

➡️ The investigation found Israel’s contestants won public votes in countries where Israel polls poorly, and analysis suggested only a few hundred repeat voters could swing results. However, the report found no evidence of bots or covert vote manipulation.

➡️ The European Broadcasting Union kept full voting data secret, canceled an emergency vote on Israel’s participation, discouraged broadcasters from speaking to journalists, and instead adopted vague rule changes limiting “disproportionate promotion campaigns.”

➡️ The controversy led Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia to boycott the 2026 contest in Vienna.

🇵🇸⚡️ — WATCH: Palestinians in Gaza train in a gym beneath the rubble of a damaged building.

🇺🇸🇨🇳⚡️ — Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for China and has resigned from her position.

➡️ Wang was charged in April with acting on behalf of Chinese officials, including sharing pro-Beijing articles, without notifying the U.S. government as required by law.

➡️ The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

🇮🇱❌🇱🇧 — The Israeli army has decided to establish a factory to produce explosive drones as part of its response to Hezbollah's drone capabilities, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

🇮🇱❌🇱🇧 — IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee issues an urgent warning to residents of Arzoun, Tayr Debba, Al-Bazourieh, and Al-Housh in Lebanon to immediately evacuate their homes and move at least 1,000 meters into open areas, citing Hezbollah's ceasefire violations and warning that anyone near Hezbollah members, facilities, or equipment is at risk.

🇮🇷🇮🇱⚡️ — A message received on many Israeli phones, claiming to be from the Islamic Republic of Iran:

the islamic republic of iran invites you to cooperate in the intelligence field.
for cooperation, contact iranian embassies in various countries, or one of the iranian cyber operators online. start building your future now.

🛢📈⚡️ — Brent crude futures rise more than 2% to $106.38 per barrel, according to Reuters.

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇦🇪⚡️ — U.S. ambassador to Israel Huckabee confirms that Israel sent Iron Dome batteries and personnel to the UAE during the Iran war.

🇱🇧🇮🇱🇱🇧⚡️ — Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem, in a message to Hezbollah fighters, said their drones, missiles and operations are inflicting fear and psychological pressure on Israel, vowing the group will not leave the field and will turn it into "hell for Israel."

➡️ Qassem called for withdrawal from direct negotiations, describing them as free concessions to Israel, while stating that a potential Iranian-American agreement halting aggression against Lebanon remains the strongest card to stop the offensive.

➡️ Qassem stressed that weapons and resistance are internal Lebanese matters with no external party having any say, and that Hezbollah will respond to all violations and will not return to pre-March 2nd conditions.

🇬🇧⚡️ — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has told his cabinet that he will not be resigning.

🇩🇰🇬🇱🇺🇸⚡️ — Denmark and the U.S. have been holding regular talks on expanding the U.S. military presence in Greenland, with discussions progressing in recent months, according to the BBC.

➡️ U.S. officials are seeking to establish three new bases in southern Greenland focused on monitoring Russian and Chinese naval activity in the GIUK Gap between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. One proposed site is in Narsarsuaq at a former U.S. military base.

➡️ U.S. officials have floated the idea of designating the new bases as sovereign U.S. territory, though no agreement has been finalized and the number of bases could still change.

➡️ Officials said negotiations behind the scenes are being handled "professionally" by the Trump administration despite the diplomatic tensions sparked by Trump’s threats to seize the territory by force.

🇺🇸🇷🇺⚡️ — The FBI has begun interviewing current and former CIA employees as part of a Justice Department investigation into former CIA director John Brennan over his role in the 2017 intelligence assessment that concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to help President Trump, according to Reuters.

➡️ FBI agents from the Miami field office questioned officials at CIA headquarters in Virginia last week, with more interviews expected. About a dozen current and former CIA officers have been questioned.

➡️ Prosecutors are examining whether Brennan made false statements to Congress in 2023 regarding the assessment and the extent to which its conclusions relied on the controversial Steele dossier.

➡️ The investigation has intensified under the Trump administration despite multiple past reviews affirming the conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.

🇮🇱⚡️ — Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties are threatening to dissolve the Knesset and potentially trigger new elections after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told them there is currently no majority for a law exempting many religious students from military service, according to Kan News.

➡️ A political crisis is unfolding between Netanyahu’s office and Moshe Gafni, chairman of the Degel Hatorah party, who is refusing calls from the prime minister. The ultra-Orthodox parties are threatening to move to dissolve parliament “immediately.”

➡️ The dispute comes after Israel’s High Court ordered the state to prepare sanctions against ultra-Orthodox men who refuse military service, following petitions accusing the government of failing to enforce conscription in the absence of a new exemption law.