Ukraine’s domestic defense industry has experienced an unprecedented boom since Russia invaded and it’s starting to be felt on the front lines, reports Washington Times Special Correspondent Guillaume Ptak, who has a dispatch from the ground on the expansion and modernization of Ukrainian weapons production.

While President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tirelessly lobbies the U.S. and its allies for more military arms and equipment, he is not shy about Ukraine’s own achievements. He highlighted some of them this month at the second International Defense Industries Forum in Kyiv, which brought together representatives of more than 280 defense companies and associations from some 30 countries.

Joint ventures and contracts inked or announced during the forum included Virginia-based AeroVironment signing an agreement with an unidentified Ukrainian partner to start producing its Switchblade 600 kamikaze drone in Ukraine. The French-German holding company KNDS also announced it would open a branch in Kyiv to “carry out maintenance, repair and overhaul work” on several of its systems used by the Ukrainian army.

The KNDS branch will service the German Leopard 1 and 2 tanks, the French-made CAESAR self-propelled howitzer, and other weapons and systems. Ukraine’s factories, meanwhile, have massively increased their output to address the chronic ammunition shortages that have, at times, crippled the army’s ability to resist the Russian onslaught along a more than 600-mile front line. Mr. Zelenskyy said Ukraine has produced 25 times more artillery and mortar shells in the first half of 2024 than in all of 2022. And, Ukraine is reportedly able to produce 4 million drones a year.

Tensions between the Biden administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have burst back into the open this week, with the White House giving Israel 30 days to improve the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza or face an arms embargo — a daunting prospect as Israeli forces expand their two-front war against Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are backed by Iran.

The White House laid out its demands in what was supposed to be a private letter from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, lamenting that “trucks carrying humanitarian commodities, including perishable goods funded by the United States, are delayed at crossing platforms.” The letter expressed particular concern that recent Israeli actions are “contributing to an accelerated deterioration” of conditions in Gaza.

Israeli forces, meanwhile, ramped up their campaign against Hezbollah to the north, with strikes killing at least 15 people in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, which has long been associated with civilian deaths during previous conflicts. Israel also struck Beirut’s southern suburbs early Wednesday for the first time in nearly a week.

Brian Katulis of the Middle East Institute in Washington asserts during an exclusive interview on Martin Di Caro’s “History As It Happens” podcast that the Biden administration’s missteps and early miscalculations about the stability of the Middle East being quieter than it had been in two decades led to a situation in which the current White House has been “unable to achieve nearly any of its stated diplomatic and security” goals in the region.

“It was quiet, but under the surface it wasn’t,” Mr. Katulis tells the podcast. “In 2023, the Biden administration announced with partners in the region at the G20 summit in India the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor. So they had all these visions of regional integration and prosperity building on President Biden’s trip to the Middle East in the summer of 2022. But like Mike Tyson once said, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face.”

The podcast episode with Mr. Katulis is part of a two-part “History As It Happens” series, exploring U.S. policy moves in the region, while also diving into the past and future of Hamas with an eye toward what may lay ahead for the Iran-backed militant group in the wake of its terrorist atrocities against Israel last October and the ongoing war with Israeli forces in Gaza.

The commander of U.S. Army forces in the Pacific warns that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has rapidly transformed its forces over the past 10 years with new and advanced weapons and is conducting war games, drills and exercises that demonstrate alarming new capabilities.

Gen. Charles A. Flynn said in remarks Tuesday to the Center for New American Security that China’s extensive military buildup is on a “dangerous trajectory” that threatens the peace and security of the region. He cited Beijing’s large-scale war games in recent days around Taiwan as the latest example.

The PLA began a significant reorganization in 2014, followed by a rapid modernization program using training and exercises copied from the U.S. military, according to Gen. Flynn. “They’re taking pages right out of our book and putting them in place to build a force, [anti-access, area denial] arsenal that they have created,” said the four-star Army general, who defended Washington’s recent deployment of U.S. long-range missiles to the Philippines, a move China has called a threat to its security.

Threat Status opinion contributor Clifford D. May, who heads the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, writes that anti-Zionists “should not be so ignorant,” including in Congress. “Take [Vermont independent] Sen. Bernie Sanders,” writes Mr. May. “Last week, he repeated the truism that Israelis have a right to defend themselves while attempting to block shipments of American weapons that Israelis need to defend themselves.”

“He echoed Hamas propaganda. One example: He asserted that 60% of Gaza residents killed since Oct. 7 were women and children. Does he not know that such institutions as the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School have established that Hamas’ numbers are ‘probably outright faked’ and that the majority of those killed are likely Hamas fighters?” asks Mr. May.

“And why does he fail to mention — much less condemn — that Hamas uses women and children as shields? How is he unaware of such military experts as West Point’s John Spencer, who has concluded that ‘Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history and beyond what international law requires’? And why doesn’t he call on Hamas to release its hostages and cease firing at Israelis?”

• Oct. 16 — Assessing Opportunities for Protection of Civilians in Sudan, Stimson Center

• Oct. 17 — Africa in the New Cold War, Hudson Institute

• Oct. 17 — Strengthening the Allied Industrial Base, Hudson Institute

• Nov. 8-10 — IISS Prague Defense Summit 2024, International Institute for Strategic Studies

• Nov. 22-24 — Halifax International Security Forum

• Dec. 7 — 2024 Reagan National Defense Forum, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute