This week, President Donald Trump called off U.S. strikes in Iran and signaled that parties were nearing a deal on peace talks, SpaceX was the largest IPO in history, President Xi Jinping met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, and the World Cup kicked off in Mexico City.
Read more below.
This Week’s Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Condoleezza Rice interviewed Jensen Huang for the Hoover Institution’s Only in America series: “Jensen Huang On Vision, Risk, and the GPU”
Nicholas Burns quoted by Danton Boatini Júnior for Valor International: “Former U.S. Envoy Calls Global Trade Disputes ‘Abnormal’”
Anja Manuel and Karim Sadjapour interviewed by Jake Tapper for CNN’s The Lead
Kay Bailey Hutchison interviewed for Newsmax’s National Report: “Europe Must ‘Stand Up’ Against Iran”
Stephen Biegun interviewed by Artem Dzheripa for LIGA.net: “‘That’s What Triggered the Invasion.’ Top Diplomat of Trump’s First Term on the Mistakes of Ukraine and the United States”
Christian Brose interviewed by Hugh Hewitt for The Hugh Hewitt Show podcast
Kurt Campbell quoted by David Pierson and Choe Sang-Hun for The New York Times: “Why Xi Jinping Is Going to North Korea to Court Kim Jong-un”
Chris Coons interviewed by Leila Fadel for NPR’s Morning Edition: “Sen. Chris Coons Talks About Trump’s New Nominee for National Intelligence Director”
Elizabeth Economy at the Hoover Institution: “The Long March With Elizabeth Economy”
Michael Froman for the Council on Foreign Relations: “A Turning Point in Ukraine”
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “Why Trump and Putin Can’t Escape Their Mistakes”
Dina Powell McCormick and Mike Rowe for The Wall Street Journal: “High-Tech Seeks Skilled Tradesmen”
Susan Rice and Chris Murphy interviewed by Bill Maher for Overtime With Bill Maher
David E. Sanger for The New York Times: “U.S. and Iran Zero In on Four Nuclear Issues in Talks”
Anne-Marie Slaughter and Avni Patel Thompson for Arab News: “The Intelligence That AI Is Missing”
Post of the Week
Young Leaders Spotlight
Features from ASG Rising Leaders and Former Fellows
Rebecca J. Anderson (‘26), Missy Henriksen, Anne Richards, and moderator Arielle Gurman at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Big Bets for America conference: “Powering Ohio’s Future: Building the Skilled Workforce Behind America’s Next Economy”
William Chandler (‘26) et al. for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP: “New AI Executive Order Calls for Frontier Model Security, Early Government Access, and AI-Enabled Cyber Defense”
Sofia Economopoulos (‘24) interviewed Elizabeth Hackenson at Bloomberg Tech 2026: “Schneider Electric Sponsor Spotlight”
Helen Toner (‘21), Nate Soares, and moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin at the 2026 CNBC CEO Council Summit: “Two AI Experts on the Full Spectrum Surrounding the Technology, From Extreme Promise to Intense Fear”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Dario Amodei: “Policy on the AI Exponential”
Savannah Billman for The Wire China: “Getting Strict on Chinese Military Companies”
Larisa Brown for The Times: “Starmer’s Defence Investment Plan Sets up Row With Trump and NATO”
The Economist: “Armenia’s Election Is a Setback for Vladimir Putin”
Mariel Ferragamo and Ivana Saric for the Council on Foreign Relations: “FIFA World Cup 2026: The Geopolitical Tensions at Play Off the Pitch”
Hyung-Jin Kim, Kim Tong-Hyung, and Ken Moritsugu for the AP: “Xi and Kim Push for Greater Ties Between China and North Korea”
Cherylann Mollan for BBC: “Three Indian Sailors Killed in U.S. Strike on Oil Tanker”
Aimee Picchi for CBS News: “Elon Musk Becomes the World’s First Trillionaire With SpaceX’s IPO”
Lara Seligman, Alexander Ward, and Benoit Faucon for The Wall Street Journal: “Trump Says Iran Deal Is Close but Tehran Says No Decision Has Been Made”
Brad Setser and Shahin Vallée for Foreign Affairs: “The Real Problem With Global Trade”
Rebecca Shabad, Sarah Dean, and Dan De Luce for NBC News: “Trump to Nominate Jay Clayton for National Intelligence Director After Backlash to Bill Pulte”
Gerry Shih and Heidi Levine for The Washington Post: “Israelis Push Netanyahu to Resist U.S. Pressure and Keep Fighting in Lebanon”
Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Ana Swanson, and Tony Romm for The New York Times: “Trump Says He May Not Renew Canada-Mexico Trade Deal”
Jude Webber, Robert Wright, and Daniel Thomas for the Financial Times: “Social Media Platforms Warned Over Role in Fuelling Belfast Riots”
Jim Wyss for Bloomberg: “Hegseth Visits Guantanamo and Warns Cuba Against Seeking Weapons”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation on the evolving vulnerabilities in technology and cybersecurity from the 2025 Aspen Security Forum.
From Cybercrime to Deepfakes: Securing the Public Square
Ginny Badanes, General Manager, Tech for Society, Microsoft
Jeh Johnson, Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees, Columbia University; 4th U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Moderator: Steve Clemons, The National Interest
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Book of the Week
1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
By Liaquat Ahamed
“Over the course of the 1850s and 1860s, during the first era of globalization, the world experienced an unprecedented economic boom. Fueling this expansion was an explosion in the global bond market, at the hub of which stood one family—the Rothschilds, arguably the wealthiest banking family in history. While the giant sums of capital provided through the bond market built the railroads, the century’s most transformative investments, the money raised also unleashed a frenzy of speculation, massive overinvestment, and wasteful borrowing by governments.
With excessive euphoria leading to disappointed expectations, in the early 1870s the bubble burst. Stock markets from Vienna to New York crashed, and dozens of railroads and many governments defaulted…. 1873 is a bird’s-eye reckoning with the full dimension of the crisis, from its buildup to its long aftermath. The Rothschilds and a cast of other witnesses give us the human perspective. And we have a brilliant financial historian’s grasp of the larger forces at play, resulting in a global narrative with thrilling explanatory power.”
Podcast of the Week
Olivia O’Sullivan and Marion Messmer joined Bronwen Maddox for Chatham House’s Independent Thinking podcast: “Defence Investment Paralysis: Why the UK’s Defence Minister Quit, and What It Means”
