Lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee received a classified briefing Tuesday on the spate of mysterious drone sightings on the East Coast. Many of those lawmakers said they were largely satisfied with the answers from the Defense, Homeland and Justice departments, which attributed the sightings to commercial aircraft, innocuous civilian drones, or other objects that do not pose a threat to U.S. national security.

But that’s by no means the end of the story. The fight in Congress is now shifting, with some powerful members pushing to give states permission to detect — and, if necessary, take down — such drones.

New York Democratic Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said he will ask colleagues to approve a bill to plug gaps in the country’s capabilities, which currently give federal agencies the power to detect and interdict drones but deny it to states and localities.

“Federal authorities agree that they can’t respond to these incidents alone and they need help from local authorities. But unfortunately, the local authorities do not have the authority right now,” Mr. Schumer said.

Asia Editor Andrew Salmon is tracking key developments in the Ukraine-Russia war, where North Korean troops have entered the fight alongside Russian troops in the Kursk border region. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this story, as North Korea’s involvement in the war represents a major escalation and the start of a true combat partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang.

North Korean troops were first reported in Russia in October, but have not been confirmed to have taken part in major operations with their Russian allies until last weekend. On Monday, the Pentagon said that North Korean troops had started combat operations and had suffered casualties, while the Kremlin declined to comment. Despite the losses they suffered, the North Korean forces reportedly captured the village of Plekhovo in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has posted gruesome footage that he says shows Russian forces burning the faces of dead North Korean troops to conceal their involvement in the fighting.

China’s massive military buildup is moving ahead at a frightening pace. A Pentagon report made public Wednesday found that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has added hundreds of new missiles and 100 more nuclear warheads just since 2023 as part of its preparations for a possible future war with the U.S.

National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz has all the details on the publication, which also said that the PLA is preparing for sophisticated information warfare operations against its foes, including America. The expected Chinese operations include the use of deep fake fraudulent online posts and cyber-enabled psychological warfare. The goal is to target U.S. military leaders’ decision-making in a regional conflict, demoralize troops, and sow divisions in American society.

What’s even more troubling, perhaps, is China’s ultimate goal: Undermining not just America’s military power, but its standing as a global leader.

The PLA increasingly views warfare as a confrontation between opposing operational systems, rather than annihilation of opposing mechanized military forces,” the Pentagon report said. 

Military Correspondent Mike Glenn is tracking the fallout from an apparent Ukrainian intelligence operation that killed Russian Gen. Kirillov and an aide outside his apartment building in Moscow on Tuesday. At the Defense Department, officials said that the U.S. had no advance knowledge of the killing, which represented a major coup for Ukraine’s intelligence services and an embarrassing blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Inside Russia, authorities said they’ve detained a suspect, who was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services to take part in the operation. The general, who was prominent in the military’s WMD programs, is the highest-ranked Russian officer to be killed in the war.

The fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government has sparked hope in the West that perhaps the country’s new rulers are moderates who believe in tolerance and peace. But such hope may turn out to be misplaced.

In a new piece for The Times, Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a Threat Status contributor, argues that the revolutionaries who overthrow governments rarely turn out to be the moderates that the U.S. hopes.

“Take the revolution that just occurred in Syria. It was led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. He runs Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a rebel group with roots in both al Qaeda and the Islamic State group,” Mr. May writes. “Mr. Jolani is no moderate. Could he be a pragmatist? It’s not impossible that, at this very moment, he’s asking himself: ‘Should I climb into a Toyota pickup with a few of my jihadi buddies, drive up to the Golan Heights and kill some Jews? Or would I rather take a long, hot bath in the presidential palace?’”

• Dec. 18 — What are the Benefits of International Space Cooperation? Center for Strategic and International Studies 

• Dec. 19 — Putin loses in Syria. Is Russia in retreat? Atlantic Council 

• Jan. 9 — What do people in Taiwan and the United States think about Taiwan’s security situation? Brookings Institution