World Desk
AI erases gap between state spies and lone attackers
An AI company’s account of thwarted misuse places Russia, China and Iran alongside freelancers and criminals drawing on the same tools.
Houthi strikes on Saudi test Mecca defence pact
The gap between what the Mecca pact promises and what it obliges are now in focus as news reports suggest Pakistan is weighing assistance.
US strikes on Iranian tankers put law in focus
The blockade behind Saturday’s strikes is not one operation but five, with different legal footings. Specialists who have examined them find the core of it lawful and the edges much harder to defend.
Ukraine’s state is under growing strain
Wednesday’s gunfight between rival intelligence agencies follows a corruption inquiry that unseated the president’s chief of staff, a month of street protest and a deepening manpower crisis.
Russia intensifies air attacks on Kyiv as its ground advance slows
Record missile volumes, a domestic fuel crisis and a stalling front line suggest intensity has become a substitute for progress in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Greece to sign Israeli air defence deal as Ankara plans for war
Six months of war between Iran and a US-Israeli coalition have left Athens closer to Israel and Ankara openly planning for conflict.
US seizes Chinese hacking platforms as allies toughen up
The Justice Department disabled a Nanjing contractor’s infrastructure on Wednesday. The intrusions it enabled at NASA, the Federal Reserve and the Senate began in 2019 — which complicates the case that cyberspace is a new front.
Does CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s arrival in Moscow signal movement on Ukraine peace talks?
Nineteen months after Donald Trump took office promising to settle the war within a day, the American reported to be in Moscow is his intelligence chief.
Gulf drone defences improve too slowly to deny Iran bargaining power
Footage of a small drone destroying an Abrams tank points at a gap the Gulf has been trying to close since February and while it fails to it leaves Iran’s leverage.
Southeast Asia divided in U.S.-China tech war
ASEAN members are disagreeing with each other over which path to take at the moment the U.S.-China AI war intensifying.