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Today’s EXTENDED CRISIS EDITION PDB includes a variety of critical national security issues.

READ TODAY’S PDB BELOW:

Biden’s Afghan Disaster

Biden declared the war over. But wars go on. The president’s assertion after the withdrawal from Afghanistan that the United States is not at war for the first time in 20 years ignored continued smaller-scale conflicts.

‘God needed an angel’ says gunnery sergeant in moving eulogy for Marine killed in Kabul airport attack. McClain, who later acknowledged on his Facebook page that he gave the eulogy, assured the Marines that Gee’s death was not their fault and that she died doing what she loved.

Mother of fallen Marine asks you to donate to support Afghan refugees. A Marine from Logansport who died last month in an ambush at the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan is being remembered at his high school, and his mother is asking people to bring items to donate for Afghan refugees.

Homeland Security

Pentagon setting up flights for migrants amid Texas border surge. The military was working Wednesday to arrange contracted commercial flights to move migrants surging at the Texas-Mexico border to immigration processing sites in the U.S., Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

Migrants from Haiti, Colombia and China stopped off Hallandale Beach, Coast Guard says. A group of 30 migrants and a smuggling suspect had their trip to the United States stopped off the coast of Hallandale Beach Saturday night, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

National Security

French submarine snub tests EU defense cooperation avenues. France’s rage over its abrupt sidelining by an Australian-British-US defense pact is drawing fresh attention to nascent European Union cooperation programs designed to build bridges across the Atlantic and the English Channel.

France just won something more valuable than a submarine contract. The $66 billion submarine deal with Australia is lost, but France’s President Emmanuel Macron may have won something far more valuable from President Joe Biden.

China Threat

Most Europeans believe the US is in a new cold war with China and Russia – poll. A majority of Europeans believe a new cold war is under way between the US and its chief geopolitical rivals, China and Russia, according to a report – but few view their own country as a direct participant.

Is China stepping up its ambition to supplant US as top superpower? Joe Biden has cleared the decks to focus on China. But how imminent is the danger

China can’t win an arms race with the U.S.– Attempting to match the combined military might of America and its allies would require a radical increase in defense spending — the same trap that ensnared the Soviets.

Russia Threat

U.S., Russian military chiefs meet in Helsinki for six hours. The top U.S. military officers from the United States and Russia held six hours of talks in Helsinki on Wednesday, in the first face-to-face meeting between them since 2019 as both nations adjust to the U.S. pullout and Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

Turkey

Turkey sends more troops to Syria ahead of a key Putin meeting. Turkey has sent more troops to northwestern Syria as it prepares for a critical meeting with the leaders of Russia and Iran next week, signaling its determination to carry on blocking an assault on one of the Syrian war’s last front lines.

Iran Threat

Stryker Brigade takes over base support and force protection ops in Iraq, sans Strykers. A new Army unit takes over support and force protection operations in Iraq.

Insurgency worsens with deadly new tactics. The Islamic State militant group is staging increasingly bold attacks on both security forces and civilians in northern Iraq, with energy infrastructure also at risk.

Military

This heavy-lift drone could quietly carry a sub-hunting torpedo. A result of a partnership between British defense giant BAE and drone firm Malloy Aeronautics, the T-650 is an all-electric heavy-lift drone. Its payloads will include everything from battlefield resupply to torpedoes launched at submarines.

END of PDB

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Paul Crespo

Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Defense News. A defense and national security expert, he served as a Marine Corps officer and as a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at US embassies worldwide. Paul holds degrees from Georgetown, London, and Cambridge Universities. He is also CEO of SPECTRE Global Risk, a security advisory firm, and President of the Center for American Defense Studies, a national security think tank. - paulcrespo.substack.com - PAULCRESPO.COM