Monday's coverage tracks three threads: a US-China trade truce already repricing markets, Ukraine's deepest strike yet on Moscow, and doubts over whether Europe's arms buildup can move fast enough to match its own warnings.

Trade truce, markets

  • Trump and Xi have de-escalated their tariff war into a truce ahead of a planned summit, with gold drifting lower and the dollar firming on Fed rate-hike bets and summit geopolitics — more.
  • Beneath the truce, Washington and Beijing remain rivals for AI dominance even as both sides voice shared AI-safety concerns — more.
  • Open question: whether the truce survives past the summit itself — more.

Ukraine war

  • Ukraine fired a new homemade ballistic missile, the Pelican (officially the FP-7), at Moscow in what is reported as its largest strike yet on the Russian capital — more.
  • The missile was built inside Ukraine by defence company Fire Point, without foreign-supplied long-range components — more.
  • European capitals are increasingly concerned Putin may be preparing to widen the war beyond Ukraine; damage, Moscow's response and production scale remain unknown — more.

Europe's defence industry

  • European officials, from France's Interior Ministry to spy chiefs cited by The Guardian, warned this week that Russia is preparing more direct action against NATO states — more.
  • Germany's record defence budget mostly bypasses startups, Latvia chose a cheaper Czech gun over a Western rival, and South Korea's scale-up has been hit by drone failures — more.
  • Open question the piece raises: is this a coordination failure, with money flowing to incumbents over faster suppliers, or a deeper capacity limit that urgency alone can't fix — more.