The bigger picture: links, hypotheses, evidence.
The United States added 43 more Chinese companies to its blacklist over forced labor in the Xinjiang region, bringing the total to 187; China called this unfounded and denies forced labor happens there.
For a week, ships came under attack near the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that much of the world's oil passes through.
A new Italian study finds Russian, Chinese and Iranian influence campaigns running side by side against Italy's institutions, each exploiting the same openings.
In the same week, Luxembourg looked at buying a European air-defence system, Australia became the first foreign buyer of a new US air-to-air missile, India test-fired a nuclear-capable missile, and analysts noted Taiwan's missile stockpile still has gaps.
The US military has finalized a new plan focused on tactical nuclear weapons, which are smaller and shorter-range than the country's main nuclear arsenal.
The interest rate the US government pays on 30-year debt has hit its highest level since 2007, as investors worry about US debt levels.
A bulk carrier hit by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which much of the world's oil is shipped, is now on fire, with its crew fighting the blaze and one seafarer missing.
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.
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.
Saudi Arabia and 13 other countries founded a new alliance on July 30, 2026 to protect Red Sea shipping routes after Yemen's Houthi fighters declared a naval blockade and hit several oil tankers.
CFR's survey of foreign-policy experts puts the odds of coherent global AI governance at a median 29 out of 100. Meanwhile nation-state hackers are already folding generative models into every stage of the intrusion lifecycle, and Taiwan is racing to build an AI defense it cannot yet fund. Three threads, one convergence.