A declassified memo from the National Intelligence Council warns that Iranian and Russian operatives could try to incite violence in America after all the ballots have been cast on Nov. 5. The memo says American spy agencies have already detected foreign efforts to stoke protests ahead of Election Day.

The document, which was declassified earlier this month and posted online Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, also asserts that Russia, Iran and China have the technical capability to access some U.S. election networks.

National Security Tech Correspondent Ryan Lovelace examined the memo, which says a Russian GRU military intelligence unit “sought to recruit a probably unwitting U.S. person to organize protests in the United States” in January. Intelligence officials also determined that the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) encouraged a U.S. national to attend a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Washington and offered to send funds for money and travel.

The Russian government created the fake viral video of a former student at the high school of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, accusing him of sexual abuse, U.S. intelligence said.

“The [intelligence community] assesses that Russian influence actors created and amplified content alleging inappropriate activity committed by the Democratic vice presidential candidate during his earlier career,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated in a foreign election interference update circulated Tuesday.

“The [intelligence community] reviewed media associated with this effort, and in doing so, it revealed several indicators of manipulation that are consistent with the influence efforts and tactics of Russian actors,” according to the update.

Russia fired more than 1,300 attack drones into Ukrainian territory in September and is expected to surpass that number in October, according to the latest “Intelligence Update” on Ukraine circulated by Britain’s Ministry of Defense.

The September figure was “the highest number” launched in a single month since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, states the update, which asserts that Moscow is “almost certainly” expanding its capacity to conduct large-scale drone attacks by supplementing its Iranian-supplied drones with an expanded domestic production line.

Russia has used attack drones to strike a wide range of targets but particularly focuses on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The British assessment was posted Wednesday on social media, days after Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy confirmed that the U.S. will provide Kyiv with $800 million to fund Ukraine’s domestic drone industry.

The Biden administration tallied more than 2.9 million illegal entries into the U.S. over the last year, marking a slight improvement on 2023’s record. The Border Patrol also recorded 106 apprehensions of illegal immigrants whose identities were flagged by the terrorism watchlist.

Overall, Border Patrol agents recorded nearly 1.6 million arrests, a drop compared to the previous year. Customs and Border Protection officers nabbed more than 1.3 million others, which is by far the highest year on record.

The shifts were intentional as President Biden has used legally contested parole powers to try to force illegal immigrants to stop jumping the border and instead pre-schedule their arrivals, with the promise of catch-and-release if they do. Mr. Biden has also adopted get-tough policies reminiscent of former President Donald Trump for those who refuse to schedule their arrivals through parole programs.

North Korea is now aligned with a revanchist Russia, providing artillery shells, ballistic missiles and now, reportedly, troops to aid Russia in its war in Ukraine, writes Joseph R. DeTrani, who warns against anyone arguing for a policy that pursues normalization with Pyongyang and acceptance of it as a nuclear weapons state.

“Normalizing relations with a nuclear-armed North Korea could result in significant nuclear proliferation, with a nuclear arms race in Northeast Asia, with South Korea and Japan — and others — seeking their own nuclear weapons despite U.S. extended nuclear deterrence commitments,” writes Mr. DeTrani, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and opinion contributor to Threat Status. 

“Moreover,” he writes, “the danger of a nuclear weapon or fissile material for a dirty bomb getting into the hands of a rogue state or terrorist organization could become much greater.”

Foundation for Defense of Democracies President Clifford D. May writes that in the wake of Sinwar’s death, a “big stick may deter [Hamas], but offers of carrots only whet their appetite for more war, genocide, and conquest.”

In a piece analyzing the aftermath of the killing of “the Hamas commander who plotted and implemented the invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the massacre that followed,” Mr. May, an opinion contributor to Threat Status, offers some sobering history on Sinwar.

“He murdered, often with his own hands, Gaza residents suspected of cooperating with Israelis, earning the sobriquet ‘Butcher of Khan Younis,’” writes Mr. May. “After murdering 12 Palestinians in 1989, he was given four life sentences in an Israeli prison. In his 22 years behind bars, he learned Hebrew. Though language can be a window into culture, Sinwar saw nothing about Israel or Israelis to justify their existence, not even after Israeli doctors saved his life in 2004 by removing an aggressive brain tumor.”

• Oct. 23 — European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Europe’s Economic Outlook, Atlantic Council

• Oct. 23 — Explosive Triangle: Israel, Iran, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

• Oct. 24 — U.S.-Japan Relations and Prospects for Multilateral Economic Cooperation, Wilson Center

• Oct. 25 — The Road Ahead: Israelis and Palestinians One Year After Oct. 7, Center for a New American Security

• 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