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Russia/Ukraine
A satellite overview shows the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Facility, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, near Qom, Iran, June 29, 2025
1: A new US intelligence assessment says that the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last month destroyed only one of the three sites targeted. While Fordow – Iran’s most fortified enrichment site – was mostly destroyed, the Natanz and Isfahan sites likely did not suffer the same damage. US President Donald Trump, who has said all the sites were “obliterated”, reportedly rejected a more thorough, weeks-long bombing campaign because it would have clashed with his stated objective of disentangling the US from foreign conflicts.
18: The European Union on Friday approved the 18th package of sanctions against Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The centerpiece of the measures is a new cap on the price that members can pay for Russian oil. The package, which requires unanimous approval from EU members, overcame opposition from Slovakia, which won some exceptions from wider EU plans to phase out Russian energy imports altogether.
10: After ten years in business, a Pakistani bird-seller recently found his bank accounts suddenly frozen by the government. The reason? He had sold a parrot to prominent journalist and bird collector Asad Ali Toor, who routinely ruffles powerful feathers with his criticisms of Pakistan’s military and judiciary. The government has locked the accounts of others who had done business with Toor too, in what looks like a bid to isolate and silence a prominent critic.
32: After 32 seasons on air, the lights will go down next year on the Late Show, CBS's flagship evening comedy and interview program, which has been hosted by Trump-critic Steven Colbert since 2015. CBS said the move was made for financial reasons, as late night shows have been losing audience and revenue for years. Parent company Paramount said it was unrelated to a controversial settlement with Trump over an allegedly biased edit of a “60 Minutes” interview with his 2024 election rival Kamala Harris. Paramount is also, as it happens, currently seeking US government approval for an $8 billion mega-merger with Skydance Media.
⅓: Good news from the front lines of the “War on Cancer”: the age-related death rate from the disease in the US is fully ⅓ lower than it was in the 1990s, mirroring progress in other developed countries. Experts attribute the improvement to a combination of public policy (such as smoking bans) and scientific breakthroughs. Building on those gains, and expanding them globally, remains a key challenge.
British soldiers with NATO-led Resolute Support Mission arrive at the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan March 6, 2020.
19,000: According to a BBC report, the personal details of 19,000 Afghans who had applied to move to the United Kingdom following the 2021 Taliban takeover were leaked in February 2022. The government learned of the data breach in August 2023 and created a secret resettlement scheme for those affected, as it was deemed they were at risk of harm by the Taliban. Under the program, 4,500 Afghans have relocated to the UK.
20: At least 20 Palestinians were killed in a stampede at an aid distribution site operated by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund on Wednesday. The UN says at least 875 people have lost their lives in the past six weeks alone while trying to access aid at these sites, with the majority reportedly gunned down by Israeli security forces. While Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians, it has said it is investigating the incidents.
$400 million: US Republican senators reached a budget deal on Tuesday that will preserve the $400-million President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program, which helps to stem the spread of HIV in more than 50 countries and has reportedly saved 26 million lives. President Donald Trump had previously frozen funding for PEPFAR as part of his foreign-aid freeze.
2: A US citizen, Daniel Martindale, who spent more than two years spying on Ukrainian troops for Russia was awarded citizenship by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Martindale reportedly biked from Poland to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in 2022, and surveyed key military positions and facilities from a Ukrainian village near the front line.
4: Our new robot umpire overlords have arrived! Last night’s Major League Baseball All-Star game – a meaningless but fun contest between the sport’s biggest stars – featured a trial system allowing players to appeal to a computerized system to challenge ball-and-strike calls made by human umps. Four out of the five challenges in the game were successful. The system could be introduced in meaningful games at the Major League level as soon as next season. Do we want this?
In this episode of World in :60 Ian Bremmer breaks down why Trump is now backing missile shipments to Ukraine after long opposing them.
"Trump has flipped on Ukraine more than any other issue in foreign policy over the last six months,” says Ian.
On Israel, Ian emphasizes a coalition shakeup could make a Gaza ceasefire more likely, but don’t expect quick progress.
As for Trump’s threat of 100% tariffs on Russia? “Not a serious point,” Ian says.
What We’re Watching: Nvidia chips head east, Trump threatens tariffs on Russia, India balances alliances
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, speaks during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025.
US will end restrictions of AI chips exports to China, says Nvidia
The US-based chipmaker Nvidia is on a hot streak. After becoming the first ever company to be valued at $4 trillion, the firm said that the Trump administration ended its export limits on US-made H20 artificial-intelligence chips to China. The initial White House decision to curtail these exports, made in April, came after the Chinese firm DeepSeek released a powerful AI model that required far less computer power than its American cousins. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argued that these restrictions were counterproductive, because they spurred Chinese firms to develop their own chip industry. His argument appears to have resonated, and shares in Nvidia shot up 4% on Tuesday morning.
Trump threatens tariffs to force Putin into peace deal
US President Donald Trump increased pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine on Monday by imposing a 50-day deadline for Moscow to strike a peace deal or face 100% tariffs on the few goods still traded between the US and Russia. He also threatened harsh secondary sanctions — up to 500% tariffs — on any other countries still doing business with Moscow. That could in principle cripple Russia’s economy, but it would put the US at odds with major trade partners China and India, which still import most of their crude from Russia. Are people buying Trump’s threat? The ruble reversed quickly initial losses on the news, buoyed by the 50-day grace period and Trump’s tendency to extend deadlines on his most severe threats.
India’s juggling act
During a visit to Beijing this week for a gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, India’s lead diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar praised China’s leadership of an organization it hails as an alternative to Western clubs like the G7. It’s another reminder that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which is also a member of the Quad security group with the United States, Japan, and Australia, and buys large volumes of Russian crude oil, is working to protect solid relations with all the major players on the world stage. Relations with China, though improved, are the most difficult balancing act, given recent violence along disputed parts of the India-China border.
China is growing its stockpile of nuclear weapons faster than any country in the world and very soon, its total number of warheads will match that of the US and Russia. How will that change the global balance of power? On GZERO World, Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, joins Ian Bremmer for a sober assessment of the current nuclear threat, and warns that China’s nuclear ambitions are his top concern.
The Chinese have dramatically ramped up their strategic nuclear weapons program, with a stated goal of 1,500 deployable nuclear warheads, likely within the next five years. The US will soon be facing a second nuclear superpower for the first time, but Stavridis says the US still has time to modernize, shore up alliances, and avoid losing the nuclear race.
“China is going from a pretty modest inventory of around 300 to a stated goal of 1,500 deployable nuclear warheads,” Stavridis says, “There is a whole new structure we have never encountered. We’ve never had a three-handed triangle of major nuclear powers.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
Is the world entering a new, dangerous nuclear era? China is expanding its stockpile of nuclear warheads at an alarming rate. Russia continues to rattle its nuclear saber in Ukraine. Even US allies are publicly and privately questioning whether they need their own nuclear deterrent.
On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer and Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, discuss the growing nuclear threat and what we can do to stop it. With new existential threats like AI and bioweapons, the question now isn’t just who gets the bomb. It’s whether systems designed to prevent catastrophe still work in a world where the weapons (and the rules) are changing. The good news is we aren’t yet at crisis point. Stravridis says the best way to counter the growing nuclear risk is to reopen arms limitation talks, modernize military tech and to reinvest in strong alliances, to prevent Russia and China from drawing even closer together.
“People are less trusting of the US as a nuclear umbrella,” Stavridis says, “If nations like Iran and North Korea can obtain nuclear weapons, which one has and the other has been very close, other countries start to think maybe it looks pretty good to get one.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
Listen: The world is heading toward a new nuclear arms race—one that’s more chaotic and dangerous than the last. The Cold War built rules of deterrence for a world of dueling superpowers and static arsenals. But in a fragmented, GZERO world of fast-moving technology and unpredictable leadership, the safeguards are fraying. On the GZERO World Podcast, Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, sits down with Ian Bremmer to discuss the growing nuclear threat and what we can do to stop it.
The indicators are alarming: China is stockpiling nuclear warheads at record speed. Russia continues to rattle its nuclear saber in Ukraine. Even US allies are privately and publicly questioning whether they need a deterrent of their own. So how serious is the nuclear risk? How do we guarantee security in a world where the weapons (and the rules) are changing? Are we ready for a future where not just missiles, but lines of code, could end civilization? Stavridis and Bremmer assess the current arms race and what it will take to lower the nuclear temperature.
“We're already involved in a proxy war with a nuclear power,” Stavridis warns, “We'd be smart to try and continue to have strong alliances to balance China and Russia drawing closer and closer together.”