WORLD ROUNDUP – 17-24 AUGUST 2025Trump Has No Idea How to Do Diplomacy | For China, the Ukraine War Is a Laboratory | How RFK Jr Is Systematically Undermining Vaccines Around the World | Nuclear Nightmares Are Back, and more
CHINA WATCH
· America’s Military Runs on Chinese Rare Earths
· For China, the Ukraine War Is a Laboratory
· Africa Is Buying a Record Number of Chinese Solar Panels
· Trump’s Trade Tactics Come for Chip Controls
· Why Trump Flip-Flopped on Nvidia Selling H20 Chips to China
· A Nation of Lawyers Confronts China’s Engineering State
MIDDLE EAST
· Ferocity of Recent Killings in Syria Reveals Country’s Fragility
· How Much of Gaza Is Left Standing?
· Beyond Recognition: the Challenges of Creating a New Palestinian State Are So Formidable, Is It Even Possible?
· Iran Reshuffles the Deck. Will it Matter?
· For Syrian Druze, Latest Violence Is One More Chapter in a Centuries-Long Struggle Over Autonomy
ALASKA SUMMIT: REFLECTIONS
· Trump Has No Idea How to Do Diplomacy
· Putin Played Trump Like an Agent Handler Plays an Asset
· Trump Keeps Defending Russia
· Trump Bows to Putin’s Approach on Ukraine: No Cease-Fire, Deadlines or Sanctions
· Russia Sees Victory as Trump Adopts Putin’s Approach to Ending Ukraine War
· No Deal, but No Consequence for Putin
· Trump Backs Putin’s Route for Talks, Dashing Ukraine’s Hopes for Swift Cease-Fire
· Donald Trump’s Gift to Vladimir Putin
· Trump Drops Ceasefire Demand for Ukraine War After Summit with Putin
· Well, What Did You Think Would Happen?
· Putin Got Exactly What He Wanted from Trump
· Who Will America’s President Listen to Next on Ukraine?
· Why Steve Witkoff Is Trump’s Master of Disaster
· Trump and Putin Find Common Ground on One Issue: Biden
· To Get Peace in Ukraine, Trump Should Play the Nuclear Card
· Trump Bows to Putin’s Approach on Ukraine: No Cease-Fire, Deadlines or Sanctions
· Russia Sees Victory as Trump Adopts Putin’s Approach to Ending Ukraine War
· No Deal, but No Consequence for Putin
· Trump Backs Putin’s Route for Talks, Dashing Ukraine’s Hopes for Swift Cease-Fire
· Donald Trump’s Gift to Vladimir Putin
· Trump Drops Ceasefire Demand for Ukraine War After Summit with Putin
· Well, What Did You Think Would Happen?
THE LONG VIEW
· Nuclear Nightmares Are Back
· How RFK Jr Is Systematically Undermining Vaccines Around the World
· How US Inconsistency Undermines Its Central Asia Position
· Is Ukraine the Future of Asia?
· The Looming Military Threat in the Arctic
· How to Halt the Flow of Weapons Arming Mexican Cartels
· Bee Sting: The Varroa-mite Incursion Is a Biosecurity Warning
MORE PICKS
· At Least 18 Die in Colombia in Two Attacks Attributed to FARC Dissidents
· Bolivia Says “No MAS”
· The Choices Facing Britain’s Next MI6 Chief
· Trump Is Inching Toward a Major Strategic Blunder in Myanmar
· The US Is Losing the Plot on India
· South Korea’s Biggest National Security Threat: Low Birthrates
· Will Trump’s India Tariffs Affect a Critical U.S. Partnership?
· Phone Searches at the US Border Hit a Record High
· FEMA Now Requires Disaster Victims to Have an Email Address
· Deportation of 6-Year-Old Puts Spotlight on ICE’s Detention of Families
CHINA WATCH
America’s Military Runs on Chinese Rare Earths (Christina Lu, Foreign Policy)
But the Pentagon is hoping it can change that.
For China, the Ukraine War Is a Laboratory (David Petraeus and Clara Kaluderovic, National Interest)
Beijing is using the Russia-Ukraine War as a testing ground to prepare for a showdown with the United States.
Africa Is Buying a Record Number of Chinese Solar Panels (Zeyi Yang, Wired)
Energy-starved countries on the continent have reluctantly turned to coal and gas for decades. Cheap Chinese solar panels are now finally changing the calculus.
Trump’s Trade Tactics Come for Chip Controls (Keith Johnson and Rishi Iyengar,Foreign Policy)
With tariffs on one side and shakedowns on the other, the U.S. president is upending years of China consensus.
Why Trump Flip-Flopped on Nvidia Selling H20 Chips to China (Louise Matsakis, Wired)
Nvidia struck a surprising deal after convincing the president that H20 chips aren’t a national security risk. But whether the reversal is good or bad depends on who you ask.
A Nation of Lawyers Confronts China’s Engineering State (Dan Wang, The Atlantic)
As the Chinese economy surges forward, the U.S. has lost its capacity for physical improvement.
MIDDLE EAST
Ferocity of Recent Killings in Syria Reveals Country’s Fragility (Kareem Fahim and Zakaria Zakaria, Washington Post)
Tensions still simmer in Sweida, where sectarian-charged violence left hundreds dead and laid bare the government’s struggles to unite the country.
How Much of Gaza Is Left Standing? (Economist)
Analysis by independent researchers reveals the scale of the destruction.
Beyond Recognition: the Challenges of Creating a New Palestinian State Are So Formidable, Is It Even Possible? (Martin Kear, The Conversation)
Recognizing a Palestinian state is at one level symbolic – it signals a growing global consensus behind the rights of Palestinians to have their own state. In the short term, it won’t impact the situation on the ground in Gaza.
Practically speaking, the formation of a future Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem is far more difficult to achieve.
The Israeli government has ruled out a two-state solution and reacted with fury to the moves by the four G20 members to recognize Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the decision “shameful”. (Cont.)
