WORLD ROUNDUPHow Rare Earths Became China’s Top Trade Weapon | Far-Right Extremists Use Minecraft to Gamify Radicalization | Israeli Attacks Brought Fear but Not Regime Change to Iran, and more

China’s Evolving Industrial Policy for AI  (Kyle Chan, Gregory Smith, Jimmy Goodrich, Gerard DiPippo, and Konstantin F. Pilz, RAND)
China wants to become the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030. To achieve this goal, Beijing is deploying industrial policy tools across the full AI technology stack, from chips to applications. This expansion of AI industrial policy leads to two questions: What is Beijing doing to support its AI industry, and will it work?
China’s AI industrial policy will likely accelerate the country’s rapid progress in AI, particularly through support for research, talent, subsidized compute, and applications. Chinese AI models are closing the performance gap with top U.S. models, and AI adoption in China is growing quickly across sectors, from electric vehicles and robotics to health care and biotechnology. Although most of this growth is driven by innovation at China’s private tech firms, state support has helped enhance the competitiveness of China’s AI industry.

China’s Giant New Gamble with Digital IDs  (Economist)
They could change its internet for good and turbocharge AI efforts.

Playing with Hate: How Far-Right Extremists Use Minecraft to Gamify Radicalization  (Gagandeep, GNET)
Far-right extremist networks have turned Minecraft, one of the world’s most popular online games, into a tool for ideological grooming and radicalization. By creating immersive, gamified spaces that embed hateful narratives into familiar gameplay mechanics, extremists are turning gaming culture into recruitment infrastructure. This refers to how extremists use popular and widely accessible cultural activities, such as video games, as tools to subtly introduce and reinforce their beliefs among users. This Insight focuses on Minecraft specifically because of its unique blend of accessibility, community-driven content, and low moderation thresholds that make it particularly vulnerable to abuse by ideologically motivated actors.

“Dangerous Demonstration of Power”: Islamic Group Separates Genders at University Lecture at Berlin Charité (FNP)
Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director at the NGO Counter Extremism Project, calls such actions transgressions : “They want to test how far they can go. This is a dangerous demonstration of power,” Schindler said in an interview with the Münchner Merkurby IPPEN.MEDIA . There is no justification for this, especially not at the Berlin University.

Why Israeli Attacks Brought Fear but Not Regime Change to Iran  (Javad Heiran-Nia and Hessam Habibi Doroh, Stimson Venter)
Despite the military pressure and the temporary destabilization of Iranian state structures during the 12-day war, public support for externally driven regime change failed to materialize. Several sociological mechanisms explain this. Iran’s strong sense of national identity, deeply shaped by collective memories of foreign intervention, fosters public opposition to external interference. During World War II, despite Iran’s declared neutrality, Allied forces occupied the country, forcing Shah Reza Pahlavi to abdicate. Post-war Soviet reluctance to withdraw from northern Iran and support for separatist movements have also left enduring scars on the national psyche.

Rwanda Exercises Command and Control over M23 Rebels, Say UN Experts  (Michelle Nichols, Reuters)
Rwanda has exercised command and control over M23 rebels during their advance in eastern Congo, gaining political influence and access to mineral-rich territory, according to a confidential report by a group of United Nations experts. The report obtained by Reuters details training which the experts say Rwanda has provided to M23 recruits and military equipment they say Rwanda has deployed - notably “high-tech systems capable of neutralizing air assets” - to give the rebels “a decisive tactical advantage” over Congo’s beleaguered army. The report was submitted to the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee for Congo in early May and is due to be published shortly, said diplomats.
M23 has advanced in eastern Congo, seizing the region’s two largest cities, Goma and Bukavu in January and February. Congo, the United Nations and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms.

Ranking the Strongmen  (Ramachandra Guha, Foreign Policy)
In an era defined by vanity, the U.S. president outdoes all his populist peers.

How Rare Earths Became China’s Top Trade Weapon  (Christina Lu, Foreign Policy)
Washington wasn’t always so vulnerable to Beijing’s chokehold.

Israel Is Growing More Dependent on a Less Sympathetic United States  (Leon Hadar, National Interest)
The longtime pro-Israel bipartisan consensus in American politics is fading—precisely at the moment Israel needs it most.