Situation Reports

The Afghan Taliban plans to host a trilateral meeting on Aug. 20 with China and Pakistan in Kabul, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 19.

Japan's Ministry of Defense is preparing to make a budget request of 8.8 trillion yen (about $60 billion) for fiscal year 2026, marking only a slight uptick from the 8.7 trillion yen requested in 2025, Kyodo News reported on Aug. 19.

Qatar forwarded a draft peace deal to the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Rwandan-backed M23 that would involve a seven-month phased approach to resolving their conflict, Jeune Afrique reported on Aug. 18.

The United Kingdom walked back a demand for Apple to provide law enforcement with a backdoor that could circumvent encryption for any users' data stored in the company's cloud services, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated in a social media post on X on Aug. 18.

The commander in chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, reshuffled his Joint Chiefs of Staff by appointing new deputies in charge of logistics, training, administration and operations, as well as a new head of military intelligence and a new commander of the air force, Sudan Tribune reported on Aug. 18.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Flavio Dino ruled that Brazil's court must authorize a foreign court's decision to freeze assets or cancel services in Brazil before the decision is enacted, g1 reported Aug. 18.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar revoked the visas of Australian diplomats to the Palestinian Authority after Australian authorities barred far-right Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman from entering the country and banned him from applying for another visa for three years, Reuters reported Aug. 18.

The United States is in talks to take about a 10% stake in U.S. chip manufacturer Intel, potentially by converting the $10.9 billion in grants awarded to Intel under the CHIPS and Science Act into equity, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 18.

U.S. technology company Nvidia is developing a new artificial intelligence chip for the Chinese market that is more powerful than the H20 chip, which the United States authorized Nvidia to sell in China earlier in August, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 19.

After his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin late on Aug. 15, U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed the idea of immediately raising tariffs on China over its purchases of sanctioned Russian oil, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 15.