What Caught My Eye (no. 72)

Some interesting articles and podcasts that caught my eye this week

Here’s this week’s edition of articles I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.

• Marc Daalder, “How Two-Way Charging Between Your Garage and the Grid Will Slash Power Bills,” Newsroom, July 17, 2026. Daalder reports from New Zealand on the emerging vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology that lets electric vehicles discharge stored power back into homes and the grid, following a real-world trial in earthquake-prone Queenstown where officials see EV batteries as a resilience tool during major outages. He cites a Concept Consulting study finding the country’s growing EV fleet could soon store nearly twice New Zealand’s daily power use, and details the barriers holding the technology back — automaker warranty concerns, sluggish regulatory processes, and market designs that could create new demand peaks. Daalder notes New Zealand is falling behind the UK, France, China, and Australia in adopting the technology. Industry insiders remain broadly optimistic that coordinated action could make V2G mainstream by 2030. As one advocate says, buying an EV now effectively means “you’re getting a battery for less than $1000/kWh.”

• Josh Dawsey, “Exclusive | Unreleased Documentary Footage Captures Lindsey Graham’s Obsessive Push for Iran War,” The Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2026. Dawsey draws on hundreds of hours of raw documentary footage — filmed by Alex Holder with extensive access to the late Senator Lindsey Graham — to chronicle Graham’s yearslong campaign to topple Iran’s regime and his outsized influence on Trump’s decision to strike. The footage captures Graham on calls with Netanyahu, Zelensky, and former national security adviser Jake Sullivan, celebrating the U.S. strikes and privately predicting a swift regime collapse that never came. Dawsey shows Graham’s remarkable access to Trump and world leaders alongside his mounting frustration as the war dragged on. The piece also revisits Graham’s complicated legacy, from his early break with Trump after January 6 to his later embrace of him as history’s greatest president. In one of his final interviews before his death, Graham tells Holder: “There’s no way I can die yet.”

• Adrian Blomfield, “Zelensky Survives His Worst Week Since War Began,” The Telegraph, July 25, 2026. Blomfield examines the fallout in Ukraine after President Zelensky sacked his popular young defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, then bowed to street protests by also dismissing army chief Oleksandr Syrsky. He frames the clash as generational — between Fedorov’s push for drone-driven reform and Syrsky’s more traditional military doctrine — and notes Zelensky ultimately named Fedorov’s ally Mykhailo Drapaty as the new commander-in-chief. Blomfield argues the episode, while damaging to Zelensky’s authority at a delicate military moment, also shows Ukrainian democracy remains functional even in wartime, unlike in Russia. He quotes analysts warning that the recurring pattern of crises is steadily eroding Zelensky’s standing. One protest placard captured the mood, Blomfield notes: “Fedorov is innovation. Old grandpas are degeneration.”

• David Remnick, “How Netanyahu’s Top General Became His Strongest Challenger,” The New Yorker, July 27, 2026. Remnick profiles Gadi Eisenkot, the retired IDF chief and grieving father now positioned as Netanyahu’s strongest challenger ahead of Israel’s October election. He traces how Eisenkot’s working-class Moroccan background, blunt affect, and personal loss — his son Gal was killed in Gaza in 2023 — have made him an “anti-Bibi” figure capable of drawing disaffected voters from Netanyahu’s own base. Remnick recounts Eisenkot’s role on Israel’s wartime cabinet, including his push against an early strike on Hezbollah, and details the brutal tactics both campaigns are expected to deploy, from AI-generated attack ads to accusations of being pro-Arab. He also travels to the West Bank with Eisenkot’s critics, who warn that even a Netanyahu defeat may do little to change the underlying trajectory of settler violence. As one aide puts it, Eisenkot’s appeal is less ideological than personal: “We need the antithesis.”

• Franklin Foer, “How Netanyahu Lost America,” The Atlantic, July 27, 2026. Foer argues that Netanyahu, who built his career on the claim that no one understood American politics better than he did, has presided over the collapse of the bipartisan U.S. consensus supporting Israel. He traces the unraveling from Netanyahu’s contempt for Obama through his all-in bet on Trump to his repeated undermining of Biden, culminating in a bipartisan backlash visible in Senate votes, AIPAC’s declining influence, and cratering favorability polls. Foer contends Netanyahu consistently chose coalition politics and personal survival over steps — a Gaza plan, curbing Ben-Gvir, Saudi normalization — that might have preserved American goodwill. He situates this within Netanyahu’s father’s belief that antisemitism is immutable, suggesting Netanyahu ultimately governed as though persuasion were futile. “His legacy,” Foer concludes, “is Israel’s isolation.

• Bret Stephens, “A Blunt Warning for Israel,” The New York Times, July 28, 2026. Stephens, a longtime defender of Israel, argues that its failure to rein in settler terrorism in the West Bank has become a direct threat to Israel’s own security and to Zionism itself. He cites a public letter from retired IDF generals, including Entebbe veteran Matan Vilnai, warning that unchecked settler violence — 867 documented incidents in 2025 — could ignite a third intifada. Stephens dismisses Netanyahu’s characterization of the perpetrators as mere “juvenile delinquents,” arguing the government could contain the violence if it chose to but is constrained by its dependence on Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. He warns that growing lawlessness across Israeli society risks a broader erosion of state authority. Stephens closes by reaffirming his belief in a law-governed Jewish state, one he says is “slipping away” under the current government.

• Rogé Karma, “The Great Chinese Oil Mystery,” The Atlantic, July 29, 2026. Karma investigates why global oil prices haven’t spiked as predicted since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, tracing the answer to an abrupt, unexplained halving of China’s crude oil imports. He walks through competing theories — secret Russian shipments, undisclosed strategic reserves, a geopolitical signal aimed at Taiwan, or an effort to cushion trading partners’ economies to protect Chinese exports — while noting Beijing has offered no public explanation for any of them. Karma quotes analysts who describe the shift as a near-total surprise to the industry, with one admitting he feels like he needs “a tinfoil hat” to discuss it. He concludes that regardless of motive, China has demonstrated new leverage over global energy markets and, by extension, world affairs. As one expert tells him, the capital the world may now need to call during an oil shock isn’t Riyadh — it’s Beijing.

• Chrystia Freeland, “You Aren’t Going to Like What Comes After America,” The New York Times, July 28, 2026. Freeland, a former Canadian deputy prime minister, argues that Trump’s escalating tariff threats against Canada — despite the two countries’ mutually beneficial trade relationship — have little to do with economics and everything to do with demonstrating dominance. She traces the shifting, often contradictory justifications for the tariffs and argues the real message is that Washington now views allies as vassals rather than treaty-bound partners. Freeland warns that appeasement only invites further demands and calls for coordinated resistance among “middle powers,” pointing to Canadian PM Mark Carney’s efforts to rally like-minded countries. She notes with alarm that global polling now shows many longtime U.S. allies, including Canada, view China more favorably than the United States. Freeland closes by borrowing a line from Leonard Cohen for her title: people, he wrote, “aren’t going to like what comes after America.”

Finally, below are links to some of the things I did and wrote this week.

• This week’s World Review focused on the US-Saudi nuclear deal, more US tariffs, and the new UK Government.

Happy reading, watching, and listening! Stay safe.