Hello,
Here are the five things you need to know today:
UNITED STATES. Trump finds new tools to energise his base.
CHINA. TAIWAN. A message of peace from the Secretary of War.
POLAND. RUSSIA. A drone incursion highlights NATO’s vulnerabilities.
ISRAEL. QATAR. Netanyahu remains defiant, and emboldened.
LEBANON. The long process to disarm Hezbollah begins.
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UNITED STATES. Days of rage
A series of killings galvanise Trump’s base.
Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead Wednesday. Donald Trump ordered flags to fly at half-mast. Trump earlier called for the killer of a Ukrainian woman to be executed. House signatories to discharge the Epstein files reached 217.
INTELLIGENCE. Trump has blamed "the left" for both murders. Irrespective of opinion, such claims will only deepen social divisions. After calls to go to "war" with Chicago or strip Rosie O'Donnell of citizenship failed to excite, the deaths of Kirk and Iryna Zarutska have galvanised MAGA. Yet it hasn’t taken long for some of Kirk’s fellow influencers to allege that Mossad was behind it all – designed to draw attention away from Trump’s links to Jeffrey Epstein.
FOR BUSINESS. Culture wars are no longer just noise. Brands like Bud Light, Cracker Barrel and American Eagle have all been recent victims or beneficiaries of internet-driven political sentiment. Politics is downstream from culture, and economics is downstream from politics. Western culture, more broadly, is downstream from the US. Ugly debates and spurious claims no longer just reside on Twitter. As Karl Marx would have it, the superstructure shapes the base.
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CHINA. TAIWAN. Tangle, not strangle
A message of peace from the Secretary of War.
Pete Hegseth told his Chinese counterpart the US did not seek "regime change or strangulation" but would protect its vital interests, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Marco Rubio and Wang Yi held a follow-up call from their meeting in July.
INTELLIGENCE. Preparations are underway for Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to meet
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