Three Risks Looming Over the Trump-Putin Meeting | Only Trump Can Save Israel from Its Own Government | Escalating Cyber Threats in the Indo-Pacific, and more

only conceivable plan, as any alternative only means a deeper abyss.

Inside the Biden Administration’s Gamble to Freeze China’s AI Future  (Grhm Webster, Wired)
What really motivated the US government to ban Nvidia from selling powerful computer chips to China?

China’s Power Over Rare Earths Is Not as Great as It Seems  (Economist)
There are lots of ways for the West to get around its near-monopoly.

Only Trump Can Save Israel from Its Own Government  (Philip H. Gordon, Foreign Policy)
Netanyahu’s plan to seize Gaza is a catastrophe for all.

Taiwan Faces a Precarious Future – Whether or Not US and China Continue on Path to Conflict  (Kerry Brown, The Conversation)
Taiwan has often compared itself to being a “shrimp between two whales”. That expression has never been more apt than today with the US and China – which considers Taiwan to be part of its territory – locked in a standoff over the future of the island.
At an event I attended some years ago, a Chinese scholar remarked when the issue of the US-China rivalry came up that they believed there was an African saying: “When two elephants are either having a fight, or making love, the grass around them gets trampled.”
It was best for everyone, they advised the other attendees, for the two superpowers to have a workmanlike, unexciting relationship rather than take the risk of things getting too friendly or hostile.
But whether or not the current period of conflict continues or the US and China magically become more aligned, the challenges facing Taiwan are severe.

Enterprising Adversaries: Escalating Cyber Threats in the Indo-Pacific  (James Corera and Jason Van der Schyff, The Strategist)
The Indo-Pacific’s cyber threat environment has entered a new phase. The 2025 Threat Hunting Report of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike describes the rise of ‘enterprising adversaries’, actors both state and criminal that operate with the precision, scale and adaptability of a well-run business.
In just the first half of this year, cloud intrusions jumped 136 percent compared with all of 2024, more than four fifths of interactive intrusions were malware-free, and identity-driven attacks such as voice phishing were on track to double last year’s volume.
These figures reflect the sharpening ability of malign actors to breach a network in hours, move invisibly across systems and use legitimate tools to achieve their goals without tripping long-established defenses. Increasingly, those goals are being achieved through the weaponization of AI.