Axios

After little immediate progress seemed to result from President Trump's summit with Kim Jong-un, 38 North reports that North Korea has "begun dismantling key facilities" that have "played an important role in the development of technologies for the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile program."

Why it matters: 38 North notes that this appears to be "an important first step towards fulfilling a commitment made by Kim" at the summit. What remains unclear, though, is whether North Korea intends to do anything that would more directly impact its nuclear weapons program. One more thing to watch: Whether the remains of U.S. soldiers in North Korea are returned as expected in the coming days — another potential signal of goodwill from Pyongyang.

Speaking to the press alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Australian defense officials, Defense Secretary James Mattis said the U.S. has no immediate plans to conduct join operations with Russia in Syria, despite claims from Russia following the Trump-Putin summit.

"We will not be doing anything additional until the Secretary of State and the president have further figured out at what point we are going to start working alongside our allies with Russia in the future."

Silicon Valley's tech companies have a new argument in the unfolding debate over their size and power: We're better than the Chinese competition, Axios' David McCabe writes.

The big question: How long will those companies remain second to American ones?

The Chinese government is spending $199 billion on infrastructure to prop up domestic growth as the trade fight with the U.S. rages on, reports the South China Morning Post.

Why it matters: China is prepared to both retaliate and out-wait the U.S. in a trade war, and it has tools — like upping government spending — to blunt the effects of Trump's tariffs.

The Israel Defense Forces took down a Syrian Sukhoi-model fighter jet that reportedly entered its airspace, the IDF said on Twitter.

Why it matters: The IDF said there has been a spike in the Syrian Air Force's activity along the Israeli border and that the military remains on "high alert." Per the LA Times, this is only the second incident of its kind along the Syria-Israel border in 30 years.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned Israel's new "nation state" law in a speech to parliament Tuesday:

“The Jewish nation-state law passed in the Israeli parliament shows this country’s real intentions. It legitimizes all unlawful actions and oppression... There is no difference between Hitler’s Aryan race obsession and Israel’s mentality. Hitler’s spirit has re-emerged among administrators in Israel."

Why it matters: Formerly allies, relations between Turkey and Israel broke down after Erdoğan came to power in 2005 and took an aggressively pro-Arab stance to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His incendiary comments Tuesday prompted an immediate response from President Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Erdoğan heads a "dark dictatorship" that "slaughters Syrians and Kurds and imprisons thousands of [its] citizens."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s much-awaited Iran speech yesterday was symbolically important but lacking in new substance. The Trump administration, as Pompeo put it, will one way or another force Iran's Islamist regime into a corner, but he did not specify how or to what end.

Why it matters: Pompeo’s speech had for weeks been touted as the moment Washington would unveil its grand strategy to end the Islamic Republic, but its approach is still unclear. What's clear, at least for now, is that the main U.S. tool of pressure against Tehran remains the imposition of stiff sanctions.

Special counsel Bob Mueller’s request that five witnesses be granted immunity in exchange for testifying against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was granted today, per Talking Points Memo.

The details: The five witnesses — Donna Duggan, James Brennan, Conor O’Brien, Cindy Laporta, and Dennis Raico — all have been linked with Manafort’s finances, according to NBC News. Manafort is facing charges of financial crimes allegedly committed while working for pro-Russian factions in Ukraine before he worked for the Trump campaign.

Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology, a Chinese vaccine manufacturer, gave hundreds of thousands of defective vaccine doses to children as part of mandatory vaccination protocols in China, reports CNN.

The big picture: The Chinese government is walking the line between reforming its health care system and rapidly increasing access to care. "[A]uthorities are understandably keen to open the floodgates in terms of patient access to more affordable treatment," but making sure thousands of local drugmakers are following safety regulations is tough, Sophie Cairns, an Asia-Pacific health care analyst at IHS Markit, tells Axios.

Russia wants to push Iranian forces, Hezbollah and Pro-Iranian Shiite militias 65 miles from the Syrian-Israeli border in the Golan Heights, a senior Israeli official said after a meeting today in Jerusalem between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

Why it matters: President Trump and Vladimir Putin discussed the security situation in southwest Syria last week in Helsinki, and Israel coordinated closely with both the U.S. and Russia before the summit. The Russians are helping the Assad regime to regain control over territory close to Israel and Jordan, but want to prevent an armed clash between Israel and Syria.

President Trump's national security adviser John Bolton issued a statement to reporters reiterating the president's fury at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which was expressed in a late Sunday night tweet.

"I spoke to the President over the last several days, and President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before."

Go deeper: The story behind Trump's tweet about Iran

President Trump tweeted an explosive, all-caps threat directed at Iran's president Hassan Rouhani late Sunday:

Why it matters: Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in May and reimpose sanctions escalated tensions between the two countries.

Speaking on Sunday before a partially Iranian American audience at the Reagan Foundation in southern California, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran’s leaders of stealing the country’s resources to spread revolution abroad and oppress Iran’s 80 million people.

Why it matters: Pompeo’s heavily advertised speech was the biggest installment yet in a Trump administration information campaign designed to pressure and, if possible, destabilize the Iranian government.

The Israeli government's refusal to pass a legislation allowing LGBT couples to have children through surrogacy prompted a massive protest in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Sunday, reports the Washington Post.

The details: Thousands of demonstrators voiced frustrations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initially said he supports a key change to the existing surrogacy law, but later joined his coalition partners, in­cluding conservative and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, to vote against the measure last week. The approved legislation allows single women and heterosexual couples to use the surrogacy process to have children, but it was not extended to men.