The D Brief: NOLA attacker acted alone, FBI says; China’s new jets; Cyber breaches hint at what’s next; US Steel sale blocked; And a bit more.

Update: New Orleans attacker acted alone, vowed allegiance to ISIS, officials say. Reversing an early assessment, FBI officials said Thursday that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native who served as a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, acted alone when he drove his truck into a crowd of New Year’s Day revelers in New Orleans, killing 14 and injuring more. 

Jabbar’s act was premeditated terrorism, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia told reporters on Thursday. Reuters has more.

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Welcome to this Friday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson, Bradley Peniston, and Audrey Decker. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1944, Marine Corps ace pilot Maj. Greg “Pappy” Boyington was shot down over the Pacific before being recovered by Japanese sailors, who placed him in a prisoner-of-war camp, where he remained for almost two years before being released after the Japanese capitulated. Boyington would later receive the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross for his actions in the Pacific.  

China

Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin are among more than two dozen defense firms China added to its export control list Thursday, citing Chinese “national security and interests.” 

Beijing also added 10 companies to its “unreliable entities list” over arms sales to Taiwan, the New York Times reports. 

Expert reax: “Most of this is probably at the symbolic level because so many of these entities were already subject to [China’s] sanctions,” consultant Andrew Gilholm said, adding that “what we’re seeing is the widening scope and number of entities being added in a single listing.” 

Panning out: The new sanctions “are part of an economic tit-for-tat that has escalated in recent months,” the Times explains. “It began during Mr. Trump’s first term, after he took aim at China with tariffs and restrictions on trade…Since then, the Biden administration has also expanded its restrictions on Chinese companies and imposed bans on dual-use products, recently targeting 140 Chinese companies.” 

ICYMI: China sanctioned seven companies last Friday over arms sales to Taiwan, AP reported at the time. That list of entities includes Insitu Inc., Hudson Technologies Co., Saronic Technologies, Inc., Raytheon Canada, Raytheon Australia, Aerkomm Inc. and Oceaneering International Inc.

• Also worth noting: The Commerce Department announced Thursday it might implement tough new restrictions banning the use of Chinese- and Russian-made drones across the United States. Officials are accepting public feedback as they consider the change—already praised by some lawmakers—in the coming weeks. 

Uncertainty about those and other sanctions may have driven Beijing’s successful effort to hack into the U.S. Treasury. News broke Monday of the breach of “a highly sensitive office in the Treasury Department that administers economic sanctions against countries and groups of individuals — one of the most potent tools possessed by the United States to achieve national security aims,” the Washington Post reported. 

The breach was likely intended to learn about U.S. sanctions on Chinese exporters, David Sedney, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, said Thursday. The Chinese “want to be prepared for what, first, the Biden administration in its closing days does, and then what the Trump administration does, starting on Jan. 20,” Sedney told Alhurra. He said that suggests the attacks are likely to grow in scope and sophistication. 

Comparing the Biden-administration response and Trump-team statements about recent breaches illuminates how the White House approach to cybersecurity may change after Jan. 20, Defense One’s Patrick Tucker writes, here.

China is apparently flying new tailless combat aircraft. Imagery of two new Chinese combat aircraft circulated on social media last week, throwing airpower observers for a loop. Both designs are tailless and feature advanced and stealthy technology. Experts told Air & Space Force Magazine that one image is likely a prototype stealth bomber, and the other is a new lamba-winged jet demonstrator. 

The Air Force is “closely monitoring” China’s military modernization programs, a service official said, adding that “this development is consistent with our understanding of China’s strategic objectives and long-term force planning. Their new weapons systems introduce additional complexity in the PLA, which requires highly skilled personnel to actually employ them to the max extent of their capability.” The War Zone has more here and here.

Related reading: 

Additional reading from the region: 

Industry

Biden blocks Nippon Steel’s $14.1 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel. After months of speculation and similar messaging from both the Harris and Trump campaigns, President Biden on Friday formally blocked a takeover bid to buy U.S. Steel—America’s third-largest steelmaker—by Japanese industry titan Nippon Steel, the fourth-largest steelmaker in the world. 

“As a committee of national security and trade experts across the executive branch determined, this acquisition would place one of America’s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains,” Biden said in a statement Friday. “That is why I am taking action to block this deal,” he said. 

Fine print: According to the order issued Friday, the companies have 30 days to abandon the deal unless a federal panel (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.) decides to extend its review of the acquisition. 

“It is my solemn responsibility as President to ensure that, now and long into the future, America has a strong domestically owned and operated steel industry that can continue to power our national sources of strength at home and abroad; and it is a fulfillment of that responsibility to block foreign ownership of this vital American company,” the outgoing president said. 

Big picture: “Biden’s rejection of the deal is the latest sign of the U.S. government’s tilt toward protectionist policies for homegrown businesses,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “It also clouds the future of 124-year-old U.S. Steel, where executives have said they might close plants and shift production to lower-cost facilities if the sale didn’t proceed.” 

Next: “The matter will probably head to court,” the New York Times writes in Friday’s Dealbook newsletter. That’s partly because the deal stipulates Nippon pay U.S. Steel $565 million if regulators block the acquisition. But the companies might also “sue each other, perhaps citing a failure to do enough to win approval,” the Times reports. 

Defense One