1. Japan deploys missiles on islands facing Taiwan. China calls it a provocation that "requires response" Al Jazeera
2. Pentagon threatens to blackball Anthropic after AI firm questions military use of its models Responsible Statecraft
3. The Iran spiral, from every side: Responsible Statecraft, Al Jazeera, AP News
   • What if today's Iran is resigned to a long, hellish war with the US?
   • All aboard America's strategic blunder train. Next stop: Iran
   • No, even a "small attack" on Iran will lead to full-scale war
   • Why Arab states are terrified of a US war fought on their doorstep
   • Military tankers deploying at Iraq War levels
   • Iran pushes back ahead of Geneva talks facing the largest US naval deployment since 2003
4. New START expired with no replacement. The collapse of the last nuclear arms control treaty Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
5. Arms manufacturers post record profits from four years of war in Ukraine while both sides bleed Responsible Statecraft
6. Hungary blocks EU aid to Ukraine on war's fourth anniversary, holding collective action hostage to a single veto Washington Post
7. Ukraine's war machine evolves into machine war as infantry runs dry Defense News
8. Western casualty estimates for Russia may rely on manipulated data Meduza
9. Pentagon demands unrestricted military AI. Anthropic is the sole holdout, insisting on two red lines Wired
10. Data centers race to orbit while no country's laws can follow them Rest of World
11. China blacklists 20 Japanese tech firms after Japan tightens chip export controls Japan Times
12. Germany's Merz seeks trade cooperation with Xi in Beijing, breaking from Washington's decoupling line DW
13. NATO ramps up Arctic operations to prove relevance to a skeptical Trump Responsible Statecraft
14. AI sovereignty requires owning the stack, not renting it from Silicon Valley Rest of World
15. Trump's break with Europe accelerates a defense tech shift across the Atlantic Defense One
16. Zimbabwe bans all raw mineral and lithium exports effective immediately Al Jazeera
17. New US cluster munitions risk civilian harm long after conflicts end Responsible Statecraft
18. Russia opens criminal probe of Telegram founder, calling the app a tool for terrorism Washington Post
19. Cuba under maximum US pressure: no electricity, no oil, and the sanctions keep tightening Wired
20. Gig workers in Kenya and Uganda have been labeling data for the US military through a contractor. They had no idea Rest of World
21. France summons Ambassador Kushner after US officials' comments on a French activist's death Politico
22. Brazil and India build joint rare-earth processing, routing around the US-China decoupling spiral AP
23. The US plans a "Tech Corps" — Peace Corps-style AI volunteers to counter Chinese AI exports Rest of World
24. Israel designates five Palestinian news outlets as "terrorist organizations" without providing evidence Al Jazeera
25. DHS wants a single search engine to flag faces and fingerprints across all its agencies Wired
26. AI companies are accumulating powers that once belonged to governments, and states are reluctant to regulate them Rest of World
27. Ambassador Huckabee says Israel has a "God-given right" to much of the Middle East NBC News
28. UN chief tells Human Rights Council that "the rule of force" has overtaken the rules-based order Al Jazeera
29. Five ways increasing militarization is reshaping scientific careers and what gets studied Nature