| War gaming | The rise of new military powers, alongside a resurgence of others, is leading to growing demands on defense and intelligence agencies around the world — and private companies — to assess whose capabilities are superior and how countries would fare in combat. But, as Marc Champion and Daryna Krasnolutska write, many common measures of strength, including defense spending, are misleading. Risky mission | As the U.S. prepares to exit Afghanistan's sprawling Bagram base after 20 years of war, NATO partner Turkey is willing to take the lead securing another airstrip — in Kabul, 40 miles to the south. As Selcan Hacaoglu explains, casting a protective ring around that airport is critical for those wanting to sustain a strategic presence in Afghanistan. Constitutional crisis | The departure of a key Peruvian election official has thrown the outcome of the June 6 presidential vote into further chaos. He must be replaced before the four-member committee responsible for declaring a winner can choose between leftist Pedro Castillo, who got the most votes, and Keiko Fujimori, who's alleging fraud and refusing to concede.  Australia's rock lobsters — a long-prized delicacy among Chinese consumers — may be finding their way onto mainland menus through a backdoor that circumvents trade tensions between the two nations, Selina Xu reports. Taiwan friction | Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi says the security of Taiwan is directly linked with that of Japan, as tensions around Taiwan build and its defenses are increasingly overshadowed by China's military might. It comes a week after China sent 28 warplanes near Taiwan, the latest escalation with the democratically ruled territory that Beijing regards as a province. Asserting control | Since outspoken Chinese billionaire Jack Ma openly criticized Beijing and authorities torpedoed the initial public offering of his Ant Group, the value of the company has plummeted by an estimated $70 billion. Regulators are now targeting other tech giants: While authorities in the U.S. and Europe struggle with how to deal with companies that have amassed so much power, China's answer is to assert its control. - Hong Kong's top security official will take over the city's No. 2 spot in a cabinet reshuffle, the latest sign that a crackdown on dissent is central to China's long-term plans for the Asian financial center.
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European Union leaders rejected an appeal from Germany and France for formal talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a rare public defeat for Angela Merkel at what could be her final EU summit as chancellor. -
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte challenged Viktor Orban to trigger the process of leaving the EU as a spat over LGBTQ rights deepened the Hungarian premier's isolation in the bloc. - India's record pace of Covid-19 vaccinations may not be fast enough for a country just emerging from a devastating second wave to head off a third one, experts say.
- Iran missed a deadline to renew a temporary atomic-monitoring pact with international inspectors, raising the prospect it could delete sensitive enrichment information and complicating efforts to revive its nuclear deal with world powers.
Pop quiz, readers (no cheating!). Which country is calling for a scaled-down, in-person gathering of leaders for the United Nations General Assembly in September? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net. And finally ... Berlin will next month cut the ribbon on one of the most striking European metro stations to open in recent years. The city's new Museumsinsel ("Museum Island") U-Bahn Station is a dramatic space that explicitly references the city's architectural heritage, taking inspiration from theater designs created by the figure who remains the best-known pre-modernist architect to have worked in Berlin — Karl Friedrich Schinkel.  The new station's main concourse. Photographer: Stefan Müller. Courtesy of Max Dudler. | 
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