Axios

The U.S. has a key advantage over China as the two superpowers compete for supremacy in artificial intelligence: The most advanced chips used to train AI are designed in the U.S. and built with tools from allied countries.

Driving the news: The Biden administration is poised to expand its efforts to keep those highly advanced chips out of China, and thus keep Chinese AI firms behind the curve.

U.S. envoy for Iran Rob Malley told Axios on Thursday he went on leave several weeks ago because of an investigation that has affected his security clearance.

Why it matters: Malley was a key player in the Biden administration's efforts to try and return to the 2015 nuclear deal and in crafting the administration’s Iran policy.

Among the books being released this year are several family sagas and tales of strife told through a Latina lens — a rarity in U.S. publishing.

The big picture: Publishing houses are increasingly putting out and promoting these types of books by diverse authors — and with diverse stories — in response to public pressure to be less white-centric.

Less than 40 years after emancipation, a group of Black Americans headed West with the dream of setting up an "Afrotopia" in New Mexico.

The big picture: Historian Timothy E. Nelson's forthcoming book, "Blackdom, New Mexico: The Significance of the Afro-Frontier" documents that migration and the rise and fall of a multiracial community known as Blackdom.

U.S. Latino and Latin American authors have carved out their own space in some of literature's most sought-out genres — fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, and horror — while including in their works critiques of colonialism, colorism, government violence, and mistreatment of Indigenous traditions.

The big picture: Similar to lauded authors like Octavia E. Butler who centered race and misogyny in tales of time travel or aliens, Latina authors are becoming best sellers with works that mix genres and real-life parallels.

Protests and unrest are rocking parts of France after the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old driver of Algerian and Moroccan descent during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb earlier this week.

The latest: A prosecutor announced Thursday that the officer who shot and killed Nahel M will be formally investigated for voluntary homicide. Authorities also said they deployed 40,000 police officers to help quell the unrest after some demonstrators set cars and public buildings on fire for a second day to protest against police brutality and systemic racism.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will address a joint meeting of Congress on July 19, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced on Thursday.

Why it matters: Herzog will be the second Israeli president to give such an address. The first was his father, Chaim Herzog, in 1988.

Firefighters in Canada are now battling 497 active wildfires across the country after 31 new blazes ignited, according to the latest data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

The big picture: New figures show 3,023 fires have burned across some 19.7 million acres of land during what officials this week declared has been Canada's worst wildfire season on record.

The U.S. Consulate in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah went into lockdown as a shooting outside the building left two people dead, American and Saudi officials said Wednesday.

The big picture: A Saudi police spokesperson said security forces opened fire on a man who got out of his car near the consulate "carrying a firearm in his hand," per local media. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement to media a security guard died in the shooting, "as well as the assailant," but no Americans were harmed.

Debris and "presumed human remains" from the Titan tourist submersible that imploded during a diving trip to the wreck of the Titanic earlier this month have been recovered, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday.

Driving the news: Debris and evidence taken from the site of the sub's "catastrophic implosion" that killed all five men on board was unloaded at the Canadian port in St John's in Newfoundland and Labrador on Wednesday, per a U.S. Coast Guard statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said in a classified briefing to Israeli lawmakers that China’s growing involvement in the Middle East "could be useful" because it "will compel" the U.S. to increase its engagement in the region, two Israeli officials who attended the meeting told Axios.

Driving the news: China has sought greater influence in the Middle East — a region long dominated by the U.S. Earlier this year, Beijing brokered a major agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran on resuming diplomatic relations.

Somalia and Comoros agreed to send senior officials as observers to a ministerial meeting of the Negev Forum, a group that includes the U.S., Israel, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, two Israeli officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The two Muslim-majority countries, which are also members of the Arab League, don’t have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in a tough call with his Israeli counterpart last week expressed concern that Israel is leaking information to the press about indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran, three U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios.

Why it matters: Recent press reports by Axios and other media outlets about the indirect talks, which have been confirmed by Iran but not officially by the Biden administration, generated criticism among congressional Republicans, who are demanding the Biden administration seek congressional review for any agreement with Iran.

Saudi Arabia has so far not signed a document committing to free access to all UNESCO members for the World Heritage Committee's meeting in September, with the issue of allowing Israeli officials to enter the country as the main sticking point, Israeli officials and Western diplomats with direct knowledge of the issue told Axios.

The big picture: Saudi Arabia appears to be taking a cautious approach to any public steps that could be seen as normalization with Israel. The two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations, though the U.S. is pushing to get an agreement between the countries by early next year, U.S. officials have previously told Axios.

South Koreans woke up Wednesday a year or two younger as the country replaced its own age-counting methods with the international standard.

Why it matters: The new standardization is expected to reduce social confusion, legal problems and other conflicts stemming from the mixing of age calculations, officials have said.