WORLD ROUNDUPIsrael’s Race to Kill Iran’s Nuclear Dream | How to Stop Regime Change in Europe | Does Xi Have Trump’s Number?, and more
· Inside the Spy Dossier That Led Israel to War
· How IDF Intelligence Outmaneuvered Iran
· Israel’s Race to Kill Iran’s Nuclear Dream
· Can Israel Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Program Without the U.S.?
· How to Stop Regime Change in Europe
· Does Xi Have Trump’s Number?
· America’s Middle East Trap is China’s Strategic Windfall
· Right-Wing Extremism: Brutally Young
Exclusive: Inside the Spy Dossier That Led Israel to War (Economist)
We review its secret intelligence on Iranian nukes.
How IDF Intelligence Outmaneuvered Iran (Jerusalem Post)
While all kinds of political and strategic stories in Israel, the US, and Iran led to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give the order to go to war with Iran, there is a specific one regarding operational intelligence that needed to happen to green light this. In October 2024, the IDF began to fixate on establishing a real operation plan that could actually take down Iran’s nuclear program and any other elements of its national power that could severely threaten Israel. Already in mid-2023, IDF intelligence and the Israel Air Force had pinpointed hundreds of potential targets to strike in a hypothetical war.
Israel’s Race to Kill Iran’s Nuclear Dream (Economist)
If it fails the regime could make a frantic dash for a bomb.
Can Israel Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Program Without the U.S.? (John Haltiwanger, Foreign Policy)
Experts say Iran’s nuclear program is battered but far from broken.
How to Stop Regime Change in Europe (Caroline de Gruyter, Foreign Policy)
A new book explains the danger of the far right—and how to counter Washington’s support for it.
Does Xi Have Trump’s Number? (Scott Kennedy, Foreign Policy)
China has come out ahead in recent dealmaking.
America’s Middle East Trap is China’s Strategic Windfall (Adham Sahloul, War on the Rocks)
As another carrier strike group steams to the Middle East and F-35 squadrons position themselves in the region with tankers, the American people should think hard about whether President Donald Trump is allowing the Middle East to overshadow blinking red priorities in the Indo-Pacific.
Beijing has systematically exploited America’s Middle East quagmires, turning each crisis into a strategic windfall. The Trump administration now faces a critical choice: de-escalate Middle East tensions or watch China continue capitalizing on Washington’s undisciplined policymaking.
Right-Wing Extremism: Brutally Young (Jan Heidtmann, Iris Mayer, and Christoph Koopmann, Suddeutsche Zeitung)
Alexander Ritzmann from the think tank “Counter Extremism Project” observes these groups closely. He says that in the spring of 2024, the party “Die Heimat” (formerly the NPD) with its up-and-coming organization Young Nationalists” (JN) changed its strategy because it was running out of members. Instead of being a party cadre factory, they want to bring people onto the streets – and is founding new local groups under the under the label “Revolt”, such as the Elblandrevolte in Dresden.
