WORLD ROUNDUPChinese Weapons Gave Pakistan a New Edge Against India | The Long Shadow of Syria’s Chemical Weapons | Could Iran’s Bavar-373 Air Defense System Take Down an F-35?, and more

The Darker Design Behind Trump’s $400 Million Plane  (Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic)
Through Qatar’s gift of a luxury jet, Trump has escalated American soft corruption to a garish new extreme.

Chinese Weapons Gave Pakistan a New Edge Against India  (Economist)
America and its allies are now scrambling for details.

Latin American Economies Look to China as U.S. Slashes Aid  (Catherine Osborn, Foreign Policy)
In Beijing this week, Colombia joined the Belt and Road Initiative, and Brazil notched key investment pledges.

The Long Shadow of Syria’s Chemical Weapons  (Anagha Subhash Nair, Foreign Policy)
USAID funding cuts cast doubt on eliminating the country’s stockpile.

Could Iran’s Bavar-373 Air Defense System Take Down an F-35?  (Brandon J. Weichert, National Interest)
Something put the IAF back on its heels after it penetrated Iranian airspace last October. Could it have been Iran’s new domestic missile system?

Peter Neumann on the AfD Report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution  (Nils Kottmann, Jüdische Allgemeine)
The report makes it clear that the AfD is no longer the party it was ten years ago, but has changed dramatically over the past five years. The officially dissolved “wing” around Björn Höcke calls the shots in the party and controls around two thirds of the board members. These people have an understanding of the people that is fundamentally at odds with the Basic Law. The problem is that this report is not so stringently argued that the decisive sections would focus on a specific part or passage. They can be found again and again in larger sections on other topics. For example, the report certainly contains 25 pages on how the AfD would like to deport asylum seekers or foreigners who are obliged to leave the country. This is a right-wing demand, but not right-wing extremist. The crucial point - namely that the AfD would also like to deport people who are here legally due to their nationalist world view - only comes later.

Secret Service Expert on Sabotage: Russia Is Trying to “Disrupt Germany”  (ZDF)
Interview with CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler: “Today’s events are really the latest example of a whole series of incidents, both in cyberspace and offline, in which it is clear that Russia is constantly, very purposefully and very willing to take risks in its repeated attempts to disrupt Germany and damage German interests,” says Schindler. Schindler explains that there is a recruiter who is presumably already “pre-sorted in the milieu”. According to Schindler, they may have basic sympathies or financial difficulties. In return for payment, these people are ultimately given a contract. Russia itself denies this approach, explains Schindler. Otherwise, it would run the risk of “actually being an act of war”. There will be legal consequences for the suspects, a hearing before the criminal court, a trial. There could also be diplomatic consequences, for example the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Germany.