USA ✳
Congress has still not passed a national law on AI
For years, the US Congress has failed to pass any binding federal law regulating artificial intelligence, and there is no clear sign that will change soon.
#geopolitics
Analysis ✳
New global alliances have no one in charge to run them
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have signed a new mutual-defense pact, but each country sees itself as the senior partner, and none has enough leverage to settle the ranking.
Analysis ✳
BRICS Agrees to Trade in Local Currencies but Splits on Iran and Pakistan
Leaders of the BRICS group of major emerging economies met in New Delhi and agreed to let members settle more trade using their own currencies instead of the US dollar, though no timeline was set.
World ✳
US extends Middle East troop deployment plans to 2027 amid Iran conflict
The United States has stretched its Middle East troop deployment planning out to 2027, according to a report by India Today, as its military campaign against Iran continues with no announced end date.
World ✳
Dutch central bank moves gold out of the US, points to crisis planning
De Nederlandsche Bank, the Netherlands' central bank, has moved some of its gold reserves out of North America, saying this is 'crisis preparedness.' Central banks usually keep gold in places like the US Federal Reserve because that has been seen as a safe, apolitical arrangement, so an ally pulling gold out is unusual.
World ✳
Putin and Xi host summit in Kyrgyzstan with Iran and India leaders
Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping are meeting in Kyrgyzstan for two days, along with the leaders of Iran and India.
Czechia ✳
China begins mass production of its own chip-making machines
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.
Analysis ✳
The Governance Gap: Why AI Is Becoming the Master Variable of Global Power
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.
Analysis ✳
China now polls ahead of the US worldwide, and is gaining in trade and biotech too
Four separate studies published this month found China pulling ahead of the United States in several areas at once: global opinion polls now favor China over the US in most countries, China's trade surplus keeps growing, its biotech industry is running drug trials faster and cheaper, and its military has added disinformation and fake videos to its war plans for Taiwan (a self-governing island China claims).
Brussels stops calling it "trade friction" with China — and that quietly rewrites every file
A single phrase in Brussels' new China paper — that Beijing seeks to "reshape the global order" — reclassifies every EU-China decision from trade dispute to strategic contest.
Analysis ✳
Beyond the lock: the technology contest shifts to rules, data and the global South
The technology contest is moving from locks to rules — AI standards, data and industrial inputs — and Kenya, Mexico and the wider global South are where it is being decided.
World ✳
China Retaliates on Russia Sanctions — and Opens a Front With Brussels
Beijing hit 14 EU entities with export controls and called it payback for Europe's newest Russia sanctions — opening a second, major-power front in the sanctions war, though the details that decide whether it bites remain undisclosed.