Space- and cyber-technologies are raising the likelihood that war will crash onto America's doorstep, Axios' Colin Demarest writes.

• Why it matters: Centuries of national-security strategy rely on protection from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But these weapons conquer vast distances.

America has long had the edge in space and cyberspace. But China and other powers are closing the gap:

• Hackers tied to China's People's Liberation Army abscond with countless files detailing stateside arsenals. That theft propels its modernization.
• Other saboteurs stalk critical infrastructure, including in Guam, a key U.S. foothold. A digital onslaught there would sap American military responses in the Indo-Pacific.
• Russian hacks plague Ukraine.
• North Korean cyberattacks rake in money to fund the regime's weapons programs.

A record-setting 2,877 spacecraft were launched in 2023. While most were attributed to the U.S. and its booming commercial sector, Chinese and European numbers were on the rise.

• Both China and Russia have made strides in developing space weapons that could knock out satellites essential to navigation, overhead imaging and long-distance communications.
• Destructive testing of anti-satellite weapons has produced dangerous debris.
• A senior Pentagon official earlier this year warned of Moscow's efforts to put a nuclear device into space.

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WILMINGTON, Del. — Kathleen Buhle dropped the Biden name in 2019. But she hasn't been able to escape being a Biden and the family drama that has come with it, Axios' Alex Thompson writes.

• Why it matters: Hunter Biden's felony trial in Delaware this week has been the latest painful episode for President Biden's ex-daughter-in-law. She was largely exiled from the Bidens as they rallied around Hunter, her former husband.

The melodrama playing out in court reveals a family devastated by the death of Hunter's brother Beau in 2015, and then again by Hunter's drug addiction — traumas that shadowed Joe Biden's campaigns for president in 2020 and 2024.

• The Bidens' relationship with Buhle has further soured during their time in the White House. Joe and Jill Biden circled the wagons around Hunter as he got sober and started a new family, according to six people familiar with the dynamics.
• Testifying this week under subpoena, Buhle somberly recounted a series of embarrassing incidents that occurred as her marriage to Hunter crumbled in 2015 and 2016, and his addiction to crack cocaine took hold.

Keep reading.

Far-right groups and white nationalists have responded to last week's guilty verdict against Donald Trump with vague threats of violence and racist posts about people of color, monitoring groups tell Axios' Russell Contreras.

• Why it matters: Trump himself has repeatedly made threats about prosecuting opponents, used bigoted language to describe immigrants and suggested a loss in November may result in violence.

"Don't be surprised, you know this was going to happen. Stand back and stand by this is far from over, we promise," the far-right Proud Boys wrote on one of its websites. An Ohio Proud Boys chapter vowed "war."

• Many of the posts on social media blame immigrants for the guilty verdict even though the case had nothing to do with immigration, says Lindsay Schubiner, program director at Western States Center.

Keep reading.

At 10 a.m. ET in Normandy, France, President Biden will make a major address on democracy from a legendary, hallowed spot — Pointe du Hoc, where U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs during the D-Day invasion, 80 years ago.

• President Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most famous speeches there in 1984, 40 years on from D-Day: "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war."

🔮 A Biden ally familiar with the speech tells me: "Without nostalgia, without sentimentality, and without ego, the president sees this moment as an hour of decision for America: Will we preserve and strengthen democracy — the democracy the forces of World War II saved?"

• "It's that straightforward, and that important. The usual measures of 'Whose speech was better?' or 'Will there be a bounce?' — those measures are out of date.
• "The substantive truth of the matter is that President Biden, like President Reagan, believes in a world where democracy must stand against dictatorship, and freedom has to be defended against authoritarian impulses. That's what matters."

Read Peter Baker's preview (gift link).

Apple is set to detail its generative AI strategy at next week's developer conference. But don't expect what's shown to be the final word, Axios' Ina Fried writes.

• Why it matters: The iPhone maker is under pressure to unveil a strategy and it will do so. That strategy is very much a work in progress.

At the conference, which kicks off Monday, Apple is expected to showcase an AI-revamped Siri that better understands what iPhone owners want to do and to help them take action.

• Apple is unlikely to show off a full-fledged homegrown chatbot. Instead, it will turn to a partner or partners to offer these services — and has reportedly reached a deal with ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

Keep reading ... Get Axios AI+.

Internal conflict and seismic structural changes this week — combined with a $77 million hole — are throwing The Washington Post into turmoil.

• Why it matters: One of America's most prominent legacy news organizations, owned by Jeff Bezos, is struggling to find a path to financial sustainability and domestic peace.

New CEO Will Lewis, a former News Corp. executive, is facing a growing list of controversies less than six months into the job, Axios' Sara Fischer writes.

1. There's major backlash after the abrupt departure of executive editor Sally Buzbee last weekend.
2. Staffers are frustrated that the two new editorial leaders Lewis is bringing in are both white men. Sources told Axios that the Post's top two women editors were not considered or interviewed for either of the new top editor posts.
3. Many staffers are flustered by Lewis' plans to create a separate division for social media and service journalism.

🔎 Over the past two days, reports of his attempt to meddle in editorial decisions are shaking the newsroom.

• The N.Y. Times wrote Wednesday that Lewis told Buzbee her decision to print a story mentioning his ties to a British phone-hacking scandal represented a lapse in judgment — an account he described as inaccurate (gift link).
• David Folkenflik, NPR's media correspondent, reported yesterday that after Lewis was named publisher and CEO, but before he started, Lewis "repeatedly — and heatedly — offered to give me an exclusive interview about the Post's future, as long as I dropped" a story about allegations Lewis helped a Rupert Murdoch hacking cover-up (which Lewis denies).

On the business side, Lewis is attempting to figure out how to replace customers who canceled their Trump-era subscriptions. Total revenues have declined 12% since 2021. There's been a 50% audience drop-off since 2020.

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The Olympic Rings — all 30 tons of them — are unveiled today on the Eiffel Tower, 50 days from the Opening Ceremony along the River Seine on July 26.

🏐 Men's and women's volleyball players will compete at the foot of the tower, nicknamed La Dame de Fer (The Iron Lady).

• 13,000 fans will watch at the temporary Eiffel Tower Stadium on the Champ de Mars, where Parisians and tourists picnic.

Read on.

One of the biggest upsets in cricket history happened in Texas yesterday:

• The U.S. defeated superpower Pakistan, Axios Dallas co-author Naheed Rajwani-Dharsi writes.

Why it matters: It's perhaps an American national team's most stunning upset since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" over the Soviet Union.

The U.S. team in the T20 World Cup — hosted in America for the first time — features many players who don't play the sport full-time. A hero of the win, Saurabh Netravalkar, works full-time at Oracle.

• Keep reading ... Cricket explainer!