European coalition to train Ukraine on F-16s

Denmark and the Netherlands are set to head a new European coalition to provide Ukraine with F-16 pilot training and maintenance as the allies prepare to supply Kyiv with fighter jets, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Thursday. The United States will participate in the training program, to be conducted in Europe, along with Norway, Belgium, Portugal, Poland and others that have F-16s in their arsenals, as The Washington Post reports.

Chinese Malware Hits Systems on Guam

Yesterday, the NYT’s David Sanger reported that “around the time that the F.B.I. was examining the equipment recovered from the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast in February, American intelligence agencies and Microsoft detected what they feared was a more worrisome intruder: mysterious computer code appearing in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States.”

Today, Beijing denied that state-sponsored actors from China targeted infrastructure in Guam and elsewhere in the U.S., as the WSJ reports.

South Korea, US troops hold large live-fire drills near NK Boarder

The South Korean and U.S. militaries conducted large live-fire drills near the border with North Korea on Thursday, despite the North’s warning that it won’t tolerate what it calls an invasion rehearsal on its doorstep, as the AP reports.

Executive Education

Renewing the U.S. Innovation System is a one-day executive course for insights on ongoing efforts to renew the U.S. innovation system, including the CHIPS and Science Act and its implications for business and policy decisions. This course will provide industry leaders, diplomats, and policymakers with an understanding of the pillars of the U.S. innovation ecosystem, the challenges it faces, and often instructive new initiatives of allies and competitors.

Video Shorts

Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “The Recap,” “Data Unpacked,” “Testify,” “What's Happening,” “Preview,” and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel!

In That Number

342

Nuri, South Korea’s three-stage liquid-fuel rocket, blasted off at 6:24 p.m. local time Thursday from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, a city on the country’s southern coast. The 200-ton rocket launched into space and deployed eight satellites into orbit about 342 miles above Earth, about 13 minutes after liftoff.

Source: WSJ

Critical Quote

“When an Iranian drone kills a pregnant Ukrainian girl and her husband in their home, why do you, mothers and fathers in Iran, need this?”

—President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine

iDeas Lab

The CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change hosted Mr. Charif Souki, Executive Chairman of Tellurian, for a discussion on the future of U.S. natural gas. Watch the ReCap here.

The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and multimedia.

Optics

(Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images.) Sudanese army soldiers rest next to a building in Khartoum on May 25, 2023.

This Town Next Week

On Tuesday, at 10:00 a.m., the CSIS Missile Defense Project holds a conversation on air and missile defense with Moshe Patel, director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization.

On Tuesday, at 2:00 p.m., the CSIS International Security Program hosts Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research Brett Holmgren to discuss threats and challenges facing the Unites States.

On Thursday, at 2:00 p.m., the CSIS Strategic Technologies Program examines the core pillars of the National Cybersecurity Strategy.

Video

Today, the CSIS Asia Program held a conversation with Dr. Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, and Dr. Siddharth Mohandas, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, on the outlook for security in the Indo-Pacific. Watch the full event here.

Podcasts

CSIS's Gregory C. Allen joins to discuss artificial intelligence, China’s thinking on AI technology, and U.S.-China competition in this realm.

Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

How could we say goodbye to Tina without posting one of her most iconic performances with one of her best friends?

I invite you to email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz

The Evening is my daily guide to key insights CSIS brings to the events of the day. It is composed with the External Relations team: Paige Montfort, Claire Dannenbaum, and Ava Rose.