China has announced a 7.2% increase in its defense budget. Beijing already boasts the world’s second-highest defense budget at roughly $222 billion, compared to the nearly $890 billion authorized by President Biden for the Pentagon in fiscal 2024.

The bulk of Beijing’s new spending will go toward high-tech military technologies and a growing nuclear arsenal. The announcement comes days after U.S. Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, head of the Pentagon’s Strategic Command, alerted Congress that Chinese military leaders are speeding up the deployment of nuclear forces, warning that nuclear war dangers are also increasing because of strategic cooperation between China and other U.S. adversaries, notably Russia, North Korea and Iran.

Friction between the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is nearing a boiling point, as Biden administration officials ramp up public pressure on the Jewish state over “intolerable” humanitarian conditions in Gaza while embracing one of Mr. Netanyahu’s most popular political rivals: Benny Gantz.

In what seems a politically calculated move, Vice President Kamala Harris met in Washington Monday with Mr. Gantz, whose trip to the U.S. — disavowed by the prime minister — threatened to undermine Mr. Netanyahu’s already fragile government. National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang examines the developments, coming as high-stakes cease-fire talks play out between the terror group and Egyptian intermediaries in Cairo.

Hamas signaled Tuesday the talks will continue another day. Negotiators are pressing for a deal before next week’s start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. But the diplomatic path is uncertain amid reports of emaciated Palestinian children at Gaza hospitals, and a new United Nations assertion that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Hamas committed rape and “sexualized torture” of women during the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Some Israeli women and children hostages were also reportedly subjected to sexual violence while being held captive by Hamas.

Ukrainian military intelligence officials say the country’s special operations forces destroyed a large Russian warship in the Black Sea, using a high-tech, explosive-laden Magura V5 sea drone that was designed and built in Ukraine. Russia hadn’t acknowledged the claim as of Tuesday. If confirmed, the development underscores the impact sophisticated drones have had on the war, now in its third year. It also comes amid soaring front-line casualties in eastern Ukraine.

Washington Times Special Correspondent Guillaume Ptak delivers a deep-dive look at the grim human cost of the war. He travels alongside volunteers of a nongovernmental organization who’ve taken it upon themselves to recover and help identify the remains of both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers left to die on the contested battlefield.

“On occasion, the search yields identification papers and decaying traces of a lost life and a faded humanity: a burned copy of the Quran and a handful of rubles on one corpse and a rosary caked in mud on another. The volunteers cleaned the prayer beads with water before laying them beside the body,” Mr. Ptak writes. “From one of the best-preserved victims,…[they found] a small notebook filled with children’s drawings.”

Mr. Ptak spoke about his experiences on the Ukrainian front during a recent episode of the Threat Status Podcast.

The U.S. tech and entertainment giant Apple is fuming over the European Union’s decision to slap nearly $2 billion in fines on the Cupertino, California-based company in an antitrust case over music services — the first EU antitrust ruling of its kind.

European Commission regulators say Apple abused its dominant market position to restrict app developers from informing people who used Apple’s iOS operating system of cheaper alternatives to the company’s music service. Apple in a statement claimed the decision appeared to be tailored to help a European online music rival, Swedish-based Spotify.

National Security Tech Reporter Ryan Lovelace reports that the EU fine comes after an investigation triggered by a complaint from Spotify five years ago. EU officials have since crafted new regulations set to take effect this week to stop a handful of tech companies — largely U.S.-based — from dominating digital markets.

An issue “rarely discussed yet arguably the most significant moment” in the Biden presidency is the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, according to veteran campaign strategist Keith Nahigian, who ties Mr. Biden’s “underwater” approval rating to the mess that unfolded in Kabul in the summer of 2021.

“While this news event was covered for a few weeks, its overall coverage was short and minimal compared with that of issues like Ukraine, the border, Hunter Biden, spending battles, and Hamas’ attack on Israel and the response to it,” Mr. Nahigian writes. “Yet based on the data, this one event materially and seemingly permanently shifted public perception of Mr. Biden as a leader and continues to weigh down any chance he has for reelection.”