“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel defended on Sunday his government’s plan to launch a renewed offensive against Hamas in parts of Gaza, following a wave of international condemnation from traditional allies and critics at home,” the New York Times reports.

“Liu Jianchao, a senior Chinese diplomat widely seen as a potential foreign minister, has been taken away by authorities for questioning,“ the Wall Street Journal reports.

“A veteran of China’s foreign service who also fought corruption as a Communist Party graftbuster, Liu has most recently been serving as head of the party’s International Department, which oversees relations with foreign political parties and socialist states.”

“President Trump is using the threat of stiff tariffs to try to peel India away from Russia, as he attempts to boost pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“But decades of close economic, political and military relations between New Delhi and Moscow mean Trump faces a challenge in persuading Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to drop a partnership that has survived great geopolitical turmoil.”

New York Times: “Despite previous refusals by Russian officials to negotiate over territory in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Russian leader, during a meeting at the Kremlin last week, left Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, with the impression that Russia was now willing to engage in some deal-making on the question of land.”

Said Trump: “We’re going to get some back, and we’re going to get some switched. There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.”

“By speaking a language Mr. Trump understands — the language of real estate — Mr. Putin secured something he had been seeking ever since January: a one-on-one meeting with the U.S. leader, without Mr. Zelensky present, to make his case and cut a deal.”

CNN: Trump-Putin summit in Alaska resembles a slow defeat for Ukraine.

Bloomberg: Zelensky rejects ceding land as Europe backs Ukraine.

“Russian officials and commentators crowed about landing a summit between President Putin and President Trump on Friday in Alaska, the first time the Russian leader has been invited to the United States outside the United Nations since 2007 — and apparently without the Kremlin having made any clear concessions over its war in Ukraine,” the Washington Post reports.

“Outwardly, China’s military has never been stronger. Its naval ships venture farther across the oceans. Its nuclear force grows by about 100 warheads every year. Its military flights around Taiwan are increasingly frequent and intimidating. Every few months, China unveils new weapons, like a prototype stealth fighter or newfangled landing barges,” the New York Times reports.

“Internally, though, China’s military is experiencing its most serious leadership disarray in years. Three of the seven seats on the Central Military Commission — the Communist Party council that controls the armed forces — appear to be vacant after members were arrested or simply disappeared.”

“That internal turbulence is testing the effort by President Xi Jinping, going back more than a decade, to build a military that is loyal, modern, combat-ready and fully under his control. Mr. Xi has set a 2027 target for modernizing the People’s Liberation Army, or P.L.A., and also — according to some U.S. officials — for gaining the ability to invade Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.”