Is artificial intelligence driving the new era of great power competition? All signs point to “yes”. After all, every era of great power competition has revolved around a particular critical resource.

And right now, experts suggest a fundamental shift in strategic thinking: Europe announced over $23 billion investment in AI infrastructure, Saudi Arabia over $114 billion, and the United States between $1.14-2.28 trillion. These enormous numbers exceed the typical technology spending. Historically, such a fund allocation was used for power competition, suggesting that the major powers now see AI as not merely as a technology sector, but a fundamental part of national power, economic influence and even cultural identity.

Now, America and China are weighing co-operation and competition when it comes to AI. According to The Economist, fears that ever more capable models may launch cyber-attacks, design bio-weapons or slip loose from human control have made ai diplomacy urgent. Some in America and China are quietly weighing whether they can agree on guardrails for a technology that each regards as essential to beating the other. Distrust abounds. Neither side wants to slow its own development and risk handing the other an advantage. Of course, this is nothing new.

So it makes sense that the U.S. is preparing to tell dozens of countries they must pick sides in the race with China, warning they will be excluded from a U.S.-led AI coalition if they also sign up for Beijing’s competing framework. The draft letter, prepared by the State Department, is addressed to the 35 signatories of a U.S. “AI Opportunity Statement” signed in June, all of whom have expressed a desire to align cooperation on AI with Washington. By pressing countries to choose sides, the U.S. hopes to starve China of resources in a race to make the most sophisticated AI, which could be used for military or economic dominance. But will it hold? And for how long?

Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and negotiator on Middle East affairs, sat across from Hamas political chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on Sunday for more than two hours to discuss the latest U.S.-backed peace deal that seeks the group's disarmament and a road map for the transfer of power to a new government.

It was the first contact at that level since the October 2025 ceasefire was signed. Officials from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey were in the room. No readout was released, and everything known about the substance comes from anonymous officials, as The Guardian reported. The ask: lock in Hamas's commitment to a new 15-point, U.S.-backed road map. Under it, Hamas gradually disarms and hands weapons to a Palestinian technocratic committee while Israeli forces stop attacking and pull back. Hamas says it's waiting on a 14-day negotiation window that requires every party's sign-off, and wants Israel back behind the "yellow line." Israeli forces currently hold roughly 60% of Gaza.

The harder meeting comes next. Kushner, Tony Blair and Board of Peace director Nickolay Mladenov were set to sit down today with Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejected the plan last week and said the Israel Defense Forces won't withdraw until Hamas is "genuinely disarmed." That's a rare public break with the Trump administration, and CBS News framed it as the central obstacle.

Did you hear that last week, a lottery player in Illinois won more than $1 billion? It was the eighth-largest jackpot in Powerball history (and the largest Powerball jackpot win of the year so far).

A single ticket sold for $2 in the Prairie State matched all six numbers and won the eye-watering prize, potentially making the winner a billionaire. The lucky ticket holder can, of course, choose either a lump sum payment of $450.5 million or $1.04 billion in regular payments (plus all those taxes). What would you choose?

If you’re thinking the lump sum, billionaire Mark Cuban has a blunt suggestion: don’t do it. Cuban’s advice, originally offered when Powerball reached record territory in 2016, is remarkably relevant now. His argument is not that the winner should avoid wealth. It is that receiving an enormous fortune in one giant check creates an enormous opportunity to misuse it.