Chinese companies are giving Iran satellite reconnaissance help and drone parts, while China keeps buying Iranian oil, according to Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
On 2 August, several countries bypassed joint decision-making to act on their own.
A Russian military intelligence officer spent 17 months working undetected out of a Tokyo office disguised as an airline employee, buying parts that Ukrainian officials say are now found in about 90% of Russia's missiles and drones.
Across shipping lanes, sanctions votes, Schengen borders and the war in Ukraine, the seven days to 2 August showed the same pattern: coalitions fraying into unilateral action, while China compounds its advantages in the gaps.
Overnight, Ukraine reportedly tried to hit a spent nuclear fuel storage building at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, Europe's largest, which Russia has controlled since early in the war.
Italy has reinstated passport checks on non-EU travelers arriving from Spain, using a Schengen rule that lets any EU country restore border checks on its own, only informing Brussels afterward.
A Shanghai company called Aishengna, founded only in 2023 and backed by the state, has started full-scale production of DUV lithography machines, the equipment that uses light to print circuit patterns onto silicon and that every computer chip needs to be made.
Reuters reports, based on unnamed sources, that Japan is preparing to announce it acted jointly with the United States to support the yen, its currency, which has been weakening.
Trump says the US and Israel will hold off on new strikes against Iran if a deal is reached fast — a reversal from reported plans for an intense weekend strike package, even as US embassies keep urging citizens to leave and markets brace for the swing.
Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv for the second time in two days, killing at least nine people.
Several new reports this week look at Iran's missile attacks, low US weapons stockpiles, and hacking simulations, and find the same root cause: aging weapons factories and wavering political resolve are undercutting the West's ability to deter attacks.
Starting August 2, companies selling AI products in the European Union must follow new rules: chatbots must tell users they're talking to a machine, and AI-generated images, video, audio and text must be labeled.