Axios

Among 18-29-year-olds, 49% view China favorably and 36% unfavorably (+13), compared to a 38%/47% (-9) split in the country as a whole, according to a new Pew survey.

Why it matters: Competition with China for supremacy in the economic, military and technological fields is ramping up, and could well define the decades to come. It’s therefore noteworthy, and a bit surprising, that young people are more likely to have positive views of the country.

Career Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, who has drawn the ire of President Trump over his role in the Russia investigation, was questioned by Republican lawmakers Tuesday about his connections to the Steele dossier and Fusion GPS, reports Politico.

Why it matters: Ohr was an intermediary between former British spy Christopher Steele, whom he knew from his work targeting Russian organized crime, and the FBI, having helped pass along information to the Bureau in 2016 after they had terminated their relationship with Steele for speaking to the media. The GOP lawmakers who met with Ohr in today's closed-door session said his testimony raises more questions about the credibility of the dossier when the FBI applied for a surveillance warrant on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on NBC's "Today" that President Trump's relationship with Attorney General Jeff Sessions is "not working," stating that the issue is "much deeper" than Sessions' recusal from the Justice Department's Russia investigation.

Why it matters: Tensions between Trump and Sessions have escalated in recent weeks, reaching a new peak when Sessions hit back at the president in a statement that asserted that DOJ "will not be improperly influenced by political considerations."

The global esports economy will reach nearly $1 billion in 2018, according to NewZoo, a market intelligence and research firm that focuses on gaming, with a lot of that growth coming from two distinct areas: the U.S. and China.

Russia will host massive military exercises from September 11 to 15 with nearly 300,000 troops, 1,000 military aircraft and two naval fleets, reports Reuters.

The big picture: The war games, which also include the Chinese and Mongolian armies, will be the largest since a Soviet military exercise in 1981 — with almost a third of Russia's troops expected to participate. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the exercises are a necessary response to "the current international situation, which is often quite aggressive and unfriendly to our country," per Bloomberg. NATO began to bolster its defense forces in eastern Europe after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Russian opposition leader and prominent Putin critic Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to 30 days in prison for breaking public protest laws, reports Al Jazeera.

Why it matters: Navalny was convicted in January but sentenced more than six months later, a delay he claims was part of the Russian government's efforts to stop him from leading nationwide protests over pension reform on Sept. 9. Navalny has been jailed several times for organizing protests against Putin and for other charges he says are bogus. He was barred from running for president in January.

French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday that France and Germany are determined to work on an independent payments system that would allow the EU to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran, backing a proposal made last week by German foreign minister Heiko Maas, reports Bloomberg.

The big picture: The EU's commitment to maintaining economic ties with Iran, among other things, is fueling calls for greater independence from the U.S. Earlier Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a review of EU defense cooperation, claiming the bloc can no longer rely on the U.S. for security.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced an "exhaustive review" of defense cooperation in the European Union, claiming the EU can no longer rely on the U.S. for its security, reports the AFP.

"Europe can no longer rely on the United States for its security. It is up to us to guarantee European security."

The big picture: Macron said defense proposals would be revealed in the coming months, and that discussions would include all European countries — even Russia. President Trump left his European allies reeling after the July NATO summit in Brussels, during which he made some veiled threats to withdraw the U.S. from the military alliance if other countries didn't boost their defense spending.

The Kremlin-backed hacking group known as Fancy Bear has spent years trying to infiltrate the emails of top Orthodox Christian clergy, reports the AP.

The big picture: Ukraine is lobbying aggressively for a religious split from the Russian Orthodox Church, which claims exclusive jurisdiction over the Orthodox community in former Soviet states. Attempts to steal church leaders' private correspondence by the Russian intelligence officers behind Fancy Bear, who were indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, are part of the Kremlin's efforts to help Moscow maintain its power over the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.