Israel Is Losing Its Greatest Asset: Acceptance | Reviving a Critical Minerals Mega-Railway Through Africa | Russia Prepared for Nuclear Attack on China, and more

Why Authoritarians Like Saddam Hussein Confound U.S. Presidents  (Steve Coll, New York Times)
America committed its worst foreign policy mistake of the post-Cold War era when it invaded Iraq in 2003 to disarm Saddam Hussein of his supposed weapons of mass destruction. 

Israel Is Losing Its Greatest Asset: Acceptance  (Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times)
I am seeing the increasingly rapid erosion of Israel’s standing among friendly nations — a level of acceptance and legitimacy that was painstakingly built up over decades. And if Biden is not careful, America’s global standing will plummet right along with Israel’s.

Russia Prepared for Nuclear Attack on China, Leaked Papers Reveal  (Tom Ball, The Times)
Russia has drawn up plans for the use of tactical nuclear weapons during the early stages of a conflict with a big power as part of a strategy of “fear inducement”, leaked military files reveal.

CIA Builds 12 Secret Spy Bases in Ukraine Along Russian Border  (Harriet Barber, The Telegraph)
The CIA has built 12 “secret spy bases” along the Russian border in Ukraine that act as the “nerve center” of Kyiv’s military, an investigation has revealed.

Washington Wants to Revive a Critical Minerals Mega-Railway Through Africa  (Christina Lu, Foreign Policy)
As geopolitical tensions electrify the global scramble for critical minerals—the raw materials that underpin advanced defense systems and clean energy technologies—the United States and China have been racing to expand their influence over the mineral market in Africa.