Welcome again Foreign Policy‘s Status Report, where John gets some much-needed and well-deserved recharge on the beach ahead of what is sure to be a NATO summit. He and I will be in Ankara, Turkey, for the conference next week and will bring you stories and snippets from the ground in a series of SitRep pop-up editions. Drop us a line if you want to get some Turkish coffee, especially if you’re NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Well, here’s what’s available for the day: Trump (yet) not happy with NATO, Anthropic he gets another break, and United States-Iran The dialogue is appropriate with a little showing them.
Welcome again Foreign Policy‘s Status Report, where John gets some much-needed and well-deserved recharge on the beach ahead of what is sure to be a NATO summit. He and I will be in Ankara, Turkey, for the conference next week and will bring you stories and snippets from the ground in a series of SitRep pop-up editions. Drop us a line if you want to get some Turkish coffee, especially if you’re NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Well, here’s what’s available for the day: Trump (yet) not happy with NATO, Anthropic he gets another break, and United States-Iran The dialogue is appropriate with a little showing them.
There is nothing certain in this world except death, taxes, and Donald Trump criticizing NATO. The US president criticized the alliance for the umpteenth time on Thursday morning, returning to his frequent complaints about the US subsidizing the other 31 members. he wrote on Social Reality, adding that it was “ridiculous.”
Trump’s long-standing distaste for the alliance may be top hat this time around, but it’s certainly not the message NATO members Europe and Canada want to hear just days before Trump travels to Ankara for the summit.
Last week, Trump he joked that he is only going to the meeting because of his friendship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Rutte, who was sitting next to him in the Oval Office at the time, joked: “You would have come for me.” Much of Rutte’s power at the helm of NATO has been used to manage and guide Trump, which he certainly was last year’s summit in The Haguewhere NATO partners all agreed to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of their GDP by 2035.
“My expectation is that it will be more of the same from last year,” retired General Richard Shirreff, who served as deputy commander in chief of the NATO alliance in Europe from 2011 to 2014, told SitRep. “In other words, a serious effort to try to put Trump and America in the camp and the continuation of the detailed view of the NATO secretary general about the fact that America under Trump cannot be trusted as a NATO partner.”
However, Rutte wanted to paint a picture of progress during his visit to Washington last week. “In Ankara, we will show the world that we are implementing the promises we made in The Hague last year,” he said in his speech at the Atlantic Council after meeting with Trump, adding that the alliance “will announce tens of billions of dollars in new contracts” at the meeting.
There is the added question of whether the deals can produce what Europe needs and who will fulfill them, with the Iran war having so depleted US reserves to the point where Washington is worried about its supply. “The greatest threat to America’s national security today is underinvestment in military spending,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in op-ed in New York Post last week, calling on Congress to pass Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027.
There are likely to be tough conversations about what that means for NATO, especially as the Trump administration continues to play with the possibilities to withdraw some American troops from Europe. But Trump’s remarks leading up to the summit suggest that much of Europe’s energy this year will—again—be used to prevent inappropriate fireworks from across the Atlantic.
The pain of Ukraine. That also threatens to further derail a top priority for European NATO members—ending Russia’s war with Ukraine. Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, this week has left at least 27 dead in one of the deadliest attacks of the war so far, and Europe is desperate for a lasting peace.
Trump and his administration have been more positive about Ukraine in recent weeks – mainly because of the country’s success on the battlefield and the ability to bring great pain to Moscow, as our colleague Sam Skove. specified soon.
The best outcome of the meeting would be “a coalition agreement to design and implement a strategy to support Ukraine and defeat Russia,” Shirreff said.
That will again depend in large part on whether NATO can keep Trump focused and not confrontational (perhaps Poland can help)
The Department of Defense is looking for someone to oversee its drone program. New post created within the department- Live Portfolio Reporting Manager for Unmanned Systems (DRPM-UxS for short) – will oversee all autonomous systems used by the military and will report to the deputy secretary of defense, the Pentagon said in statement on Wednesday.
Another new job of the Trump administration that has already been filled is the head of a team of scientists tasked with investigating threats to national security posed by alien spacecraft. The person affected for the job is Avi Loebwho served as the head of the astronomy department at Harvard University until 2020. Loeb has raised eyebrows among some of his fellow academics and dubious theories about seeing a UFO.
What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.
The story has been restored. Eighteen days after the Trump administration suddenly forced The AI company Anthropic barred any foreign nationals from using its latest prototypes (which led to the company shutting them down altogether), and the White House also abruptly reversed its decision. The administration lifted its new export restrictions on Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 products late Tuesday, the company said in a statement. blog post.
Anthropic said it has made updates to model protections to prevent potential abuse and is committed to “deeper government cooperation” on model releases. But Trump’s initial decision to suspend access has threatened European allies whose credibility deficit may be difficult to overcome even with the models at work. More on that trans-Atlantic technology divide in mine the latest piece.
Doha doldrums. The US and Iran concluded the latest round of indirect talks in the Qatari capital of Doha on Wednesday, which is reported targeted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and freezing Iran’s financial assets. In particular, there has been no discussion of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, one of Trump’s key goals for starting the war. Our colleague Keith Johnson has piece today about how many of the initial results of the “compromise agreement” that stopped the war two weeks ago favor one side in the conflict – and not Washington.
America last week too brokerage the cease-fire agreement in the conflict involving Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which saw the Israeli army promise to withdraw from two areas it controlled in southern Lebanon (Hezbollah was not part of the agreement, and Israel has now delayed its withdrawal) John was classified in a new analysis.
US soldiers and Venezuelan military police patrol the streets of La Guaira, Venezuela, June 29 following two earthquakes that have devastated the country. Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images
Friday, July 3: Funeral ceremonies for the former Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are starting in Tehran.
Monday, July 6: United Nations Secretary General António Guterres speaking at the International Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva.
Tuesday, July 7: The two-day NATO meeting begins in Ankara.
Wednesday, July 8: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visits Saudi Arabia.
Thursday, July 9: Nominations are open for the election of the leaders of the British Labor Party.
$1,000-how much the Iran war has cost each American household, according to estimates and Moody’s Analytics chief economist, Mark Zandi. Zandi said his estimates are “conservative” and that the true cost “could be much higher.”
“We have amazing things like Buc-ee’s and Chick-fil-A, which are so easy to eat in your car when you’re on call.”
– US Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker praising some of the virtues of the US in interview on Fox News.
