Axios

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has stepped up his public diplomacy to criticize President Trump's foreign policy and amplify ruptures — real or purported — within the administration.

The big picture: In a string of televised interviews on Sunday, Zarif warned that Washington risks stumbling into a war with Tehran and defended Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, falsely claiming it “has never killed Americans.” Almost a year after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, this effort may signal that the administration's "maximum pressure" campaign is straining Iran's "maximum patience."

China is pushing deeper into space, but its human spaceflight goals don't directly compete with the U.S.

Why it matters: Much of the dialogue around the U.S. and China's orbital ambitions calls to mind a new space race. Rather, Chinese and U.S. interests — particularly when it comes to human spaceflight — run parallel to one another. If the world's two biggest economies and science and technology leaders were to collaborate, it could open up new avenues for space exploration.

It's no surprise that China is the world's largest electric vehicle market by far, but this chart above, constructed from DOE data, puts it in stark relief.

Joi Ito, the director of MIT's media lab, is one of the world's most prominent experts on the internet. He is featured in today's Masters of Scale podcast and talked to Axios about the less-open, "dark period" of the internet that is unfolding around the world.

The big picture: Democratic and authoritarian nations, while their style and language differ, are both recoiling at hate groups, terrorists, pedophiles and others. Frightened by violence and political turmoil, they are creating "a balkanized and not-so-open internet everywhere."

Former U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Joseph Yun told CNN Monday that he signed an agreement in 2017 to pay Kim Jong-un's regime $2 million for Otto Warmbier’s hospital care, a decision he believes was approved by President Trump.

The big picture: Trump has denied that the U.S. paid North Korea any money under the deal after the Washington Post reported its existence last week. National security adviser John Bolton confirmed on "Fox News Sunday" that an administration official did sign such a document.

Go deeper: North Korea billed U.S. $2 million before returning Otto Warmbier

The Navy said Sunday it sent 2 warships to the Taiwan Strait to demonstrate "U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," risking raising tensions with China ahead of trade talks resuming between Washington and Beijing.

Why it matters: Taiwan is one of several flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship. China regards the self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province. The voyage of the William P. Lawrence and Stethem destroyers Sunday and Monday marks the 6th time in 7 months U.S. ships have sailed in the strait dividing Taiwan from the Chinese mainland.