Officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico gathered this week for what the State Department called a “high-level trilateral coordination meeting” to develop strategies to counter potential drone attacks at next year’s 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Governments across North America fear that terrorists could pack explosives onto small, cheap drones and fly them above the stadiums hosting World Cup matches. The State Department said the three nations committed to “strengthening public-private coordination,” meaning private tech companies are likely to play a major role in security and counter-drone efforts at World Cup events next year.

Potential drone strikes are a serious concern for officials not just at the World Cup but also at next year’s U.S. 250th anniversary celebrations, the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and other upcoming events. Rep. Michael McCaul, Texas Republican and chairman of the House’s Task Force on Enhancing Security for Special Events in the United States, recently joined the Threat Status weekly podcast to break down the likelihood of such attacks and what Congress is doing to prevent them.

Separately, Mr. Trump established a task force on Tuesday for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. He already created one for the World Cup.

It’s a question hanging over upcoming talks between American and South Korean leaders and any future diplomatic overtures from Washington to Pyongyang: Could the Trump administration formally accept a nuclear-armed North Korea?

Washington Times reporter Vaughn Cockayne examines this issue and the belief among some analysts that the Trump administration could abandon its insistence on full denuclearization on the Korean peninsula in exchange for a deal with Pyongyang. Such a deal eluded Mr. Trump in his first term despite three in-person meetings with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

“I think there is a likelihood, I don’t know how small it is, but a likelihood that the United States will cave. That we will say we can live with a nuclear-armed North Korea, even if they have 200, even if they have 400. We’ve got 10 times that much,” Robert Joseph, former U.S. special envoy for nuclear nonproliferation, said in his remarks at the latest Washington Brief, a monthly forum hosted by The Washington Times Foundation. 

It’s been widely accepted in national security and foreign policy circles that as sea ice melts, major world powers such as the U.S., Russia and China will become more active and competitive in the Arctic. But have those assumptions been blown out of proportion? 

Mr. Glenn breaks down a recent report from the Rand Corp. that offers a new take: There will be only modest activity in the Central Arctic Ocean over the next 25 years, and most of it will likely consist of light commercial shipping and tourism.

Rand analysts stress that the risk of military escalation exists, but they argue that “the risk of resource-driven geopolitical conflict in the CAO is limited.”

It’s hard to overstate the geopolitical and moral importance of a free, democratic Taiwan, according to Rep. Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey Republican. Mr. Smith writes in a new op-ed for The Times that Taiwan absorbs a great deal of “vitriolic attention” from communist China — attention that otherwise would be directed toward the U.S. and its interests abroad.

“As the vital center of the first island chain, Taiwan is a buffer and our first line of defense against the People’s Republic of China, which seeks global hegemony, supplanting the United States as the world’s preeminent power,” Mr. Smith writes. 

“In this regard, Taiwan is too often taken for granted by too many in the United States,” he says. 

Much of the world, and the Trump administration, has seemed shaken in recent weeks by images of starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. But does Hamas, not Israel, the U.S. nor international aid groups, deserve most of the blame?

Sacha Roytman, CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, explores that question in a new piece for The Times and comes to this simple but disturbing conclusion:

“Hamas is weaponizing the suffering of its people, hoarding aid and manipulating global narratives to vilify Jews and Israel. This is not just cynical politics; it’s a propaganda campaign lifted from the playbook of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s minister of propaganda,” he writes. 

“Hamas’ starvation campaign and antisemitic rhetoric are part of a calculated revival of Nazi-style propaganda, designed to deflect responsibility and manufacture crises to justify violence,” he says.

• Aug. 6-7 — 2025 Space & Missile Defense Symposium, SMD Symposium

• Aug. 11-13 — Ai4 2025: Artificial Intelligence Industry Event, Ai4

• Aug. 13 — The U.S. Space Force’s Jonathan Farrow on the U.S. Space Warfighting Framework, Atlantic Council

• Aug. 13 — In-Person Two-Day NetBrain Power User Training, NetBrain Technologies 

• Aug. 15 — Deterrence Dynamics in the Asia-Pacific: An Australian Perspective with Christine Leah, National Institute for Deterrence Studies

• Aug. 20 — The Future of U.S.-Australia Critical Minerals Cooperation, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Aug. 26 — The Future of Naval Aviation: A Conversation with Vice Adm. Daniel L. Cheever and Lt. Gen. Bradford J. Gering, Center for Strategic & International Studies