The Cipher Brief Open Source Report

In today's report we've got a number of stories related to the Ukraine war, President Biden's ongoing visit to Poland and Russian activities in the area.  We're following news that Russia conducted a failed ICBM test during the time that Biden was in Ukraine.  This comes as China's top diplomat Wang Yi is in Russia for a visit where he underscored that relations between Russian and China are 'rock solid', a sentiment echoed by Vladimir Putin who added that Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Russia in the near future.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says his forces are holding their defensive positions in the face of constant Russian attempts to break thru, attempts that Zelenskiy says are resulting in 'staggering' losses for the Russian military.  The Netherlands and Belgium say they are tracking a Russian spy ship in their waters, while further east, Australian and US officials announce plans to begin joint maritime patrol operations with the Philippines.  This comes less than two weeks since the latest incident involving a Philippine Coast Guard Vessel and a Chinese Maritime Vessel.  There is a lot packed into today's full report.  Let's dive in now on a few of the major stories.

It's another very big national security news day.  Here are just a few of the headlines from today's complete Open Source Report: Blinken Postpones China Trip as Chinese Spy Balloon Loiters in US Airspace Ukrainian Intelligence Official Says Putin Orders Military to Launch Major New Offensive China's Military Publicly Reveals Capabilities of Hypersonic Anti-Ship Missiles for the First Time. We're also continuing our conversation with General (Ret) John Allen  today in our overtime segment.  Gen. Allen weighs in on the Marine Corps's role in today's world and shares his perspective on the challenges facing the US national security community from the rapid advances of technology.  Don't miss the conclusion of our week-long conversation with our newest Cipher Brief expert Marine General  (Ret) John Allen.   

We're continuing our conversation this week in our overtime segment with the newest Cipher Brief Expert retired General John Allen.  Today he shares his views on the relationship between Chinese President Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.    

In this special episode we're continuing our conversation with Cipher Brief Expert General (Ret) John Allen.   "We should be very, very concerned about this conflict because if Russia is successful,  it will give in many respects, the leading edge of accomplishment to this redefinition of the global world order. That is, for all intents and purposes, an axis between Beijing and Moscow." General John Allen 

Welcome to a special episode of the Open Source Report with two overtime segments. First we're discussing the explosions in Iran.  For that we talk with Cipher Brief Expert and former National Intelligence Manager for Iran (NIM-I) at ODNI Norm Roule.  Norm breaks down the events and walks us thru the likely thinking on both sides of the issue, and what he says must happen now. Then, we hear, for the first time from The Cipher Brief's newest Expert, General (Ret) John Allen.  General Allen was the former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, where he was the first Marine Corps general officer to command a theater of war.  Today, we're talking to him about Ukraine and as the US and Germany have both committed tanks to the war effort there, they are also asking for F-16s.  We're going to level set with the General just what he thinks is needed to win this war.  That's in today's Open Source Overtime section.