Israeli forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have engaged in escalating tit-for-tat exchanges of fire this week. Israel launched a series of airstrikes Thursday against targets inside Yemen in response to Houthi attacks on Israeli territory with drones and surface-to-surface missiles over the past several days.

The latest Israel Defense Forces mission targeted military infrastructure at Yemen’s main airport in the capital city of Sanaa. Power stations in Hezyaz and Ras Qantib, along with seaports on the western coast of Yemen, were also hit. 

“These military targets were used by the Houthi terrorist regime to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials,” IDF officials said in a statement. “This is a further example of the Houthis’ exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes.”

The Houthis claimed Friday to have retaliated with a drone attack on Tel Aviv and a missile launch aimed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. Israeli officials said their air defenses intercepted the missile.

South Korea, a key U.S. Indo-Pacific ally and pivotal node in global supply chains, is sailing into uncharted political waters following the opposition-controlled National Assembly vote on Friday to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo, just 13 days after impeaching President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok is now expected to be the third man to take South Korea’s national helm in less than a month. The country comfortably managed two presidential impeachments in 2004 and 2016, but in neither of those cases was the acting president also booted.

Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon reports from Seoul that for the near future at least, the right-leaning presidency is at the mercy of the National Assembly, controlled by the left-leaning Democratic Party of Korea. With the presidency disempowered — possibly for eight months or longer — Cabinet officials lack the mandate to establish links with Mr. Trump’s incoming administration at a moment of increased U.S.-China tension and rising military collaboration between Russia and North Korea.

The Chinese Communist Party-ruled government in Beijing placed sanctions Friday on seven companies in response to recent U.S. announcements of military sales and aid to the self-governed island democracy of Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

Chinese officials said the seven companies targeted are Raytheon Canada, Raytheon Australia, Insitu Inc., Hudson Technologies Co., Saronic Technologies Inc., Aerkomm Inc. and Oceaneering International Inc. China’s Foreign Ministry asserted that “relevant senior executives” of the companies have also been sanctioned, meaning any assets they have in China will be frozen, and organizations and individuals in China are prohibited from engaging in any activity with them.

The sanctions also come in response to President Biden’s authorization last week of up to $571 million in Defense Department material and services and military education and training for Taiwan. The developments mark the latest escalation in U.S.-China tensions ahead of Mr. Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

Venezuela represents a “significant threat to U.S. interests and hemispheric democracy,” according to Miguel Angel Martin, Ignacio De Leon and Esteban Gerbasi who call on the incoming Trump administration to take action.

“Political inertia and wishful thinking will not dislodge the Chavista crime ring. Rebuilding Venezuela’s democratic institutions requires a bold strategy, decisively supported by the United States and its allies, to empower uncompromised Venezuelan leaders,” write Mr. Martin, Mr. De Leon and Mr. Gerbasi. “The Venezuelan regime’s links to terrorism and transnational crime underscore the urgency of a stronger response.”

“Economic sanctions, while necessary, have proven insufficient to stop the expansion of Venezuela’s terrorist networks,” they write. “Therefore, the Venezuelan American Patriot Foundation (VAPF), respectfully requests that the United States formally designate the Venezuelan Armed Forces (FANB), the Cartel de los Soles, and the Tren de Aragua as terrorist organizations.”

China’s interests in South America have “largely gone unchallenged,” writes Rep. Amata Coleman Radewagen, the Republican nonvoting representative from American Samoa who is vice chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Indo-Pacific Subcommittee.

“My islands may seem remote to those traveling from the U.S. Mainland to and through Hawaii and west to Asia, but in the context of the new geopolitical realities forced upon us by [the Chinese Communist Party], American Samoa, the only U.S. soil anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere, is … in the center of the direct path from Shanghai to the new CCP-built port in Peru,” writes Ms. Radewagen.

Calling for the establishment of a “Pacific Charter” designed to “prevent the start of worldwide conflict,” the congresswoman asks whether “a united Pacific community composed of freedom-loving peoples in free enterprise nations from the Pacific Rim to its center, with democratic models of self-government, now summon resolve equal to the competitive challenge we face from CCP and prevail against weaponized political warfare waged by CCP?”

• Jan. 6 — NVIDIA CEO Keynote at CES, NVIDIA

• Jan. 7 — Report launch and panel: NATO and U.S.-Turkey defense cooperation in a new era, Atlantic Council

• Jan. 7 — The Hidden Costs: Transparency and the U.S. Arms Trade, Stimson Center

• Jan. 7-10 — CES 2025, Consumer Technology Association

• Jan. 8 — Russia’s Difficult Road to Freedom: A Conversation with Vladimir Kara-Murza, American Enterprise Institute

• Jan. 8 — The Role of Religion and Spirituality in U.S. Security Assistance, Center for Strategic and International Studies

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