Flagship

Trump to arm Kyiv

US President Donald Trump will reportedly today unveil a plan to arm Ukraine, a sharp pivot after months of trying to draw Russia to the negotiating table. The effort — described by a top Republican as “aggressive” — will include the transfer of offensive weapons, Axios said. Trump earlier told reporters that Washington would send Kyiv Patriot interceptors, paid for by the European Union. The US leader has turned against his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in recent weeks: Trump spoke positively of Putin in his first term, and sought a rapprochement with Russia in the initial months of his second. That has since shifted. Putin “talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening,” Trump said.

Drones reshape Ukraine’s front line

Hundreds of small drones hovering over the Ukrainian battlefield have brought much of the front line to a standstill. Both sides are using cheap, unmanned aircraft to deliver supplies, evacuate the wounded, and — crucially — spot and attack movement, acting as “low-cost suicide bombers,” The Wall Street Journal reported. Drones have made it dangerous to rotate troops from trenches, and rendered tanks largely useless, “slowing down the movement of the front line.” Cheap drones are crucial to modern wars, The New York Times reported, but the US makes hardly any: While it excels at building big unmanned aircraft like the Predator, the smaller drones dominating battlefields mostly use Chinese components. The Pentagon’s efforts to boost production have so far been unsuccessful.

US drives new trade partnerships

The White House’s renewed trade threats are driving American allies to join forces against Washington, weeks before US tariffs are set to ramp up. US President Donald Trump threatened 30% tariffs against the European Union and Mexico over the weekend, upending growing hopes for stability in Washington’s trade policy. Brussels is looking to increase its engagement with other economies hit by the duties, Bloomberg reported, including deepening trade ties with Asian countries: It reached a preliminary agreement with Indonesia on Sunday. Mexico, too, is considering its options, with one of the country’s former top diplomats suggesting a new trade deal between Canada, the EU, Mexico, and the UK. “In extreme times, extreme thinking,” he wrote.

US in anti-China drills

US forces trained alongside Australian and Japanese troops to prepare for a possible war with China, as Washington looks to combat what it sees as a growing threat from Beijing. The drills came after the three countries signed a naval logistics deal and partnered with India to try to wean themselves off dependence on China for critical minerals. Yet Washington’s efforts at building an anti-Beijing alliance are not without challenges: The White House has pushed for Canberra and Tokyo to outline plans for a potential US-China war over Taiwan, but Australia has rebuffed the demands. And a recent Asia tour by the US secretary of state — intended to project American dependability — was abruptly cut short, leaving regional allies frustrated.

AI talent war intensifies

Google spent $2.4 billion to hire the leaders of an artificial intelligence programming company, the latest big-ticket move in an intensifying AI talent war. Windsurf’s CEO and co-founder will join Google DeepMind along with several top employees. Tech giants buying stakes in rivals attracts the attention of antitrust regulators, but hiring decisions do not, The New York Times reported; Google’s huge outlay is comparable to a soccer team paying a transfer fee to acquire a top player’s contract. Meta, too, has been on a hiring spree recently, sometimes offering compensation packages of up to $100 million for top talent, as it tries to make up ground in the AI race.

Evangelicals’ growing LatAm power

Evangelical Christianity is growing fast in Latin America, with millions of new followers reshaping politics across the region, a new documentary said. Apocalypse in the Tropics followed the rise of the Evangelical movement since the Cold War, when the Nixon administration sent missionaries to Latin America to combat Marxism: Evangelicals now make up almost a third of Brazil’s population, up from around 5% in 1970, and the movement’s leaders have risen to positions of political power. As a result, the country has what The Guardian calls “a minority-rule theocracy,” which helped deliver an electoral victory for former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is again calling on evangelicals as he plans a comeback.

SAfrica suspends police chief

South Africa’s president suspended the country’s police chief over accusations of abuse and corruption, but the move failed to assuage allies who wanted a firmer response. The move comes amid mounting frustration with the country’s law enforcement, which for decades has faced allegations of abuse — including thousands of cases of a still-prevalent torture mechanism used during apartheid — and yet failed to reduce crime. President Cyril Ramaphosa has “once again outsourced executive responsibility,” by getting a commission to look into the accusations, the leader of the ruling coalition’s second-biggest party said, while the Mail & Guardian’s editorial board lamented that if the latest allegations were true, “then there is no mistaking that we are living in a mafia state.”

Trump faces Epstein uproar

US President Donald Trump is facing uproar from supporters after appearing to backtrack on a promised reckoning over deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump’s base has long been consumed by conspiracy theories surrounding the circumstances of the disgraced financier’s death in prison in 2019, and the existence of a “secret client list,” which MAGA influencers argued would reveal sex offenders in the Democratic Party. Attorney General Pam Bondi said it was “on my desk”; she now says there is no list. The news — along with a Justice Department memo saying he committed suicide — “detonated like a bomb” in the MAGA universe, one columnist wrote. “The president now needs to bend conservative media to his will once again,” Semafor’s media editor said.

Superman takes flight

Superman took off at the box office, scoring $217 million on its opening weekend despite backlash from conservative commentators. Director James Gunn’s comments that the Man of Steel was “an immigrant” sparked ire on Fox News and online, with some calling the movie Superwoke. But reviews were largely positive (with several high-profile exceptions) and the criticism kept it in the news, possibly boosting ticket sales. The strong performance is good news for its studio, Warner Bros., which had been on a bad run. Speculation had mounted that senior studio leaders would lose their jobs, but since April the company has had five big hits, including A Minecraft Movie and Sinners, and is feeling bullish once more.

Sinner the winner

Jannik Sinner defeated Carlos Alcaraz to win the Wimbledon men’s singles trophy. The final, a rematch of their French Open clash in which Alcaraz triumphed, surely signals the start of a new great rivalry after 20 years of dominance by the so-called Big Three of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic. Alcaraz had won two Wimbledons in a row, but Sinner overpowered the younger man in four sets, becoming the first player to beat him in a Grand