The State Department’s embrace of artificial intelligence includes testing new technology to combat foreign disinformation as part of an ambitious media monitoring and analysis project that spans the globe, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Mr. Blinken says AI is being used to scan and understand foreign information sites and sources, a task that would otherwise be impossible for the department’s employees to accomplish. The secretary told rank-and-file diplomats on Friday that AI tools can also help automate routine tasks, summarize reports and translate research.

His assertions follow scrutiny from Congress over the department’s leading anti-disinformation agency, the Global Engagement Center (GEC). House Foreign Affairs Committee lawmakers wrote to Mr. Blinken last year with concerns that the GEC has “subsidized censorship of free speech and disfavored opinions — particularly by established conservative media and individuals — through grants, partnerships and awards to entities.”

France’s anti-immigration, far-right National Rally party, once considered a fringe group, scored its biggest electoral triumph to date on Sunday, taking a clear first place in snap parliamentary elections called by centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

The focus is now on next Sunday’s second round of run-off voting and the prospect that the National Rally and party leader Marine Le Pen could seize an outright majority in France’s 577-seat lower house parliament. Threat Status is closely tracking how the outcome will affect French foreign policy and relations with the United States.

Mr. Macron has been a leading hawk in support of Ukraine in both NATO and the European Union in its war with Russia. Ms. Le Pen has firmly ruled out Mr. Macron’s trial balloon of sending French troops to aid in the fight, and Jordan Bardella, who will become France’s prime minister if the National Rally prevails next weekend, has said he would oppose sending long-range artillery to Kyiv.

Cardiologist Masoud Pezeshkian, considered the lone moderate in Iran’s snap presidential elections, finished in first place over the weekend, but he’ll need plenty of help to overcome Saeed Jalili, a well-known Iranian hard-liner, in a runoff set for July 5.

Critics of the Iranian regime, including the thousands of Iranian dissidents who gathered for a rally in Berlin over the weekend, seized on low electoral turnout of just under 40% as proof of deep popular dissatisfaction with the theocratic regime in Tehran, where Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei holds control over who is and is not allowed to participate in elections.

Regime opponents say the 85-year-old ayatollah wanted to use elections to solidify Iran’s theocratic governing structure. While the current outcome seems to prove that approach failed, hard-line, anti-U.S. forces inside Iran could coalesce to easily elect Mr. Jalili later this week. Threat Status will be tracking the outcome closely.

Russian forces are increasingly relying on low-cost drones to suppress Ukrainian air defenses and attack military and civilian targets because Kyiv has successfully denied the Kremlin’s bid to control the air space. That’s the core conclusion of a defense intelligence update posted on social media by United Kingdom military officials in recent days.

Ukrainian forces may have already accounted for Moscow’s change in tactics by attacking a key air defense training center inside Russia on June 21, the intelligence update says. “This base is one of at least five from which Russia launches its [uncrewed aerial vehicles] attacks against Ukraine,” the update says. “This strike reportedly destroyed 120 UAVs of differing types and wounded 9 personnel.”

Former President Donald Trump alarmed the foreign policy establishment with some norm-breaking comments in February earlier this year, saying that he would “encourage” attacks against “free-rider” NATO allies who refuse to meet alliance defense spending targets, writes Bilal Bilici, a member of the Turkish Parliament.

“For the international community, there is no sugar-coating the fact that these kinds of statements weaken trust in the United States as an ally,” writes Mr. Bilici. “But it is surprising how little discussion there is of the impact Mr. Trump’s rhetoric — whether you agree with it or not — may have on motivating positive action among member nations.”

He goes on to argue then-President Trump’s push on NATO members during the 2019 timeframe to spend more on defense generated real results. “Thanks to Mr. Trump,” writes Mr. Bilici, “many NATO members have responded positively to the challenge — now, at least 11 member countries, including Poland, Lithuania, Romania and Hungary, are meeting the threshold, representing a major increase from 10 years ago.”

• July 1 — America’s foreign policy: A conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Brookings Institution

• July 1 — Cyber Scams and Human Trafficking in Cambodia and Vietnam, U.S. Institute of Peace

• July 2 — Force Design: A conversation with Gen. Eric Smith, 39th commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Brookings Institution

• July 8 — Revisiting the Legacy of Shinzo Abe, Stimson Center

• July 8 — The U.S. Vision for AI Safety: A Conversation with Elizabeth Kelly, Director of the U.S. AI Safety Institute, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

• July 9 — NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

• July 11 — Supercharging the Development Finance Corporation: Opportunities and Pathways for Development, Infrastructure, and Investment, Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)