Axios

Earlier this year, Israel spies stole a stack of documents from Iran, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used as part of his push to lobby President Trump to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

The latest: New details from those documents reveal that the Iranian government was using weapons-design information from a foreign source and was on the brink of mastering nuclear weapon development until it was ordered to stop 15 years ago, reports the Washington Post.

The multi-hundred-billion-dollar retail prescription drugs market is the new battleground for Big Tech, relying on its usual brute force in an effort to keep growing. But in neither the U.S. nor China is it proving as easy to crack as groceries.

The big picture: In the U.S. and China, retail drugs are too big to ignore — last year, Americans spent $466.6 billion on pharmaceuticals, and the Chinese forked out $122.6 billion in a market growing at about 9% a year. That's why Amazon and China's Alibaba have piled into the sector.

President Trump goes into his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the heels of 12 new Mueller investigation indictments against Russian military officials for interfering in the 2016 election. One big question is whether he'll ask Putin to hand over those officials.

The bottom line: Russia doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S., and Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, told ABC's "This Week" he thinks "it’s pretty silly for the president to demand something that he can’t get legally."

At his press conference at the NATO meeting in Brussels, President Trump said he would discuss with Vladimir Putin both Russia's violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, originally negotiated in 1987 by President Reagan, and the potential extension of the 2010 New START accord.

Why it matters: Trump and Putin together control more than 90% of the world’s nuclear stockpile, and it's Russian nuclear weapons pointed toward the U.S. that present the greatest existential threat to its national security.

Many critics of President Trump's foreign policy believe he is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a gift by agreeing to a summit while ignoring sources of tension such as the annexation of Crimea and foreign election meddling. But a chummy photo op goes a very short way to meeting Putin’s actual needs.

Reality check: In his fourth and final term, Putin is focused on domestic priorities such as lifting the economy out of stagnation, improving infrastructure and raising the retirement age to ease social-program budgets. Sanctions and a toxic international environment are big obstacles to these plans. To deliver on this agenda, he needs Trump to deliver on a calmer foreign-policy and business environment.

Days before Donald Trump meets with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, the agenda for the summit remains unclear. Putin craves legitimacy that only Western recognition can grant him, and his greatest demands include the West's recognizing his annexation of Crimea and lifting sanctions.

Yes, but: Congress is bipartisan in its opposition to recognizing Crimea as part of Russia, and it can also veto a rollback of Russia sanctions, no matter what Trump might promise in Helsinki. Thus if any deal comes out of the Trump-Putin summit, it's likely to be on Syria, where the West has had the least interest in opposing Putin’s intervention, and where Congress lacks similar leverage.

Next week's Helsinki summit poses the risk that President Trump could make a rash offer to Vladimir Putin in an attempt to improve U.S.–Russian relations. It's possible he might recognize Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, assent to Syrian President Assad’s continued rule or waver on America’s commitment to NATO.

The big picture: As much as Trump may want to turn the page with Putin, his recent call for a one-on-one meeting without aides is risky. Putin is a shrewd negotiator. A conciliatory approach with Russia has not worked out for the past three American presidents or a long list of European leaders, and it likely won't for Trump either.

We knew that Russians previously targeted more than 20 states' voter registration databases, and likely targeted all 50. Now we know the complexity behind how 12 Russian military officers interfered in the U.S. elections thanks to a federal grand jury indictment released Friday.

The big picture: The information in this indictment will be vastly important for those trying to bolster election security and monitoring, and learning what to train for in basic cyber hygiene practices — which is especially important since we know Russia is likely to try interfering again.

Hamas agreed to a cease fire on Saturday ending the violence between Israel and Palestinian militants after they entered into a heated battle with tensions boiling over from Friday when Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager on the Gaza border during protests, reports AFP.

The big picture: This is the biggest conflict between the two sides since 2014. Israel retaliated with an air strike, killing two civilian teenagers and injuring locals, as Palestinians forces fired rockets into Southern Israel.

The Trump administration has rejected a joint request from France, Germany and the UK to exempt their companies that do business with Iran from U.S. sanctions, reports NBC, citing U.S. officials.

Why it matters: Europe stands to lose the most from U.S. sanctions as President Trump withdraws from the Iran deal. China and Russia, on the other hand, are positioned to benefit by skirting sanctions. The U.S. will only offer limited exemptions for human rights and national security reasons, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told European allies.

Just like the U.S. tech industry, Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Xiaomi are racing to develop voice-command tech and put smart speakers in every home, according to a recent report from CB Insights.

Bottom line: "Cheaper speakers from Chinese companies could increasingly threaten big tech companies in the U.S. that are working on hardware, forcing them to focus on AI software development," writes CB Insights.

As Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the latest indictments in the Mueller investigation, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats compared the cyber threats posed by Russia to terror threats ahead of 9/11.

The warning lights are blinking red again. Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.

Timing: Coats' Friday comments come right before President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. Trump has said he plans to raise election meddling in the meeting.

The FBI told Maryland officials that ByteGrid LLC — the election system Maryland uses to handle statewide voter registration, online ballot delivery and more — has ties to a Russian oligarch, reports the Washington Post.

The big picture: States are working to secure their election systems in anticipation of cyber attacks by Russia or other foreign actors ahead of this year's midterms, but each state runs its own system — and there remain vulnerabilities across the board.

China now owns more than 72% of Kenya's foreign debt, Quartz's Abdi Latif Dahir reports.

Why it matters: Kenya is one example of China's larger strategy to win influence across the world. Beijing accrues massive amounts of a smaller, poorer country's external debt by offering funding for infrastructure projects, then leverages that debt for influence in trade, domestic politics and beyond.

Trump is battling trade on at least three fronts: a ballooning conflict with China, disputes over metals and autos that are infuriating allies like Japan and the EU, and combative NAFTA negotiations with Mexico and Canada.

Between the lines: New data from Gallup indicates that Trump's base is buying what he's selling, and the GOP is now the more skeptical party when it comes to international trade.