Trump meets Putin; Why US spies are worried; Nuclear-reactor diplomacy; What CEOs, military brass are talking about this week; and just a bit more.

Trump, Putin met one-on-one (with interpreters) in Helsinki for two hours and 10 minutes, according to the Russian side, after the Russian leader showed up an hour late. As we go to press, the two were to hold a post-meeting press conference.

‘U.S. foolishness and stupidity’: The American president began his day by blaming his own country for poor relations with Russia, in a tweet that landed 72 hours after the indictment of 12 Russian military officers on charges related to attacks on the 2016 U.S. election.

Writes NBC’s Bill Neely: “No Summit has ever begun with a US President attacking American ‘foolishness & stupidity’ and the Russian Foreign Ministry agreeing. It’s the world turned upside down.”

Mueller’s message: Almost as unusual is the amount of detail contained in the indictment documents released by the special prosecutor — details that reveal a deep, deep penetration of Russian hacking by U.S. intelligence agencies. Washington Post’s David Ignatius, a reporter well versed in spycraft, writes that the disclosures are likely Mueller’s attempt to show Trump, his associates, and the Russian government that he knows...a lot. A whole lot. Read on, here.

Quick reminder of recent Russian aggression across the world, via CNN’s Jim Sciutto:

• Russia annexed Crimea;
• Invaded & still occupies E. Ukraine;
• Used nerve agent to murder in UK;
• Murders & jails dissidents, journalists & opposition leaders;
• Backs Assad & targets civilians in Syria;
• Meddled in 2016 election & laying groundwork for 2018/2020;
• Shot down passenger jet over Europe;
• Attempted coup in [Montenegro];
• Seeks weakening of NATO;
• Is expanding its military including sub force to challenge US globally;
• Views world in zero-sum terms: loss for US is gain for Russia.

When asked who America’s “biggest foe is globally,” Trump named the EU immediately in an interview with CBS News this weekend.

Trump: “Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn't think of the European Union, but they're a foe. Russia is foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn't mean they are bad. It doesn't mean anything. It means that they are competitive.”

CBS: “A lot of people might be surprised to hear you list the E.U. as a foe before China and Russia.”

Trump: “No, I look at them all. Look, E.U. is very difficult, I want to tell you. Maybe the thing that's most difficult — don't forget, both of my parents were born in E.U. sectors, OK? I mean, my mother was Scotland. My father was Germany.” (That last bit is not true; Trump’s pop was born in Woodhaven, New York.)

Trump continued: “And, you know, I love those countries. I respect the leaders of those countries. But, in a trade sense, they have really taken advantage of us, and many of those countries are in NATO. And they weren't paying their bills. And, you know I, as an example, have a big problem with Germany, because Germany made a pipeline deal with Russia, where they're going to be paying Russia billions and billions of dollars a year for energy. And I say that's not good. That's not fair. You're supposed to be fighting for someone, and then that someone gives billions of dollars to the one that you're guarding against? I think it's ridiculous.” Watch the full Trump interview on Face the Nation, here.

BTW: Where is the U.S. defense secretary on this Euro tour? Jim Mattis was in Oslo on Saturday, Breaking Defense’s Paul Mcleary reminds us this morning. Mattis then flew back to Washington this weekend.

A bit more on Mattis’s diplomacy, via the Washington Post: “often it seemed as though Mattis was inhabiting a distant world” from President Trump last week in Europe, Greg Jaffe and Missy Ryan reported Sunday evening.

In contrast to POTUS this weekend, Mattis on Friday called Russia and Putin a force seeking “to undermine the fabric of nations... whether through false news reporting, economic strictures and interventions. They are not seen as helpful. That would be probably the most polite way to describe it,” he told reporters on his way to Norway on Friday. Story, here.

From Defense One

Why American Spies Worry When Trump Meets Putin // John Sipher, The Atlantic: Just as the Russian leader has unleashed his intelligence and security services, the American president has kneecapped and undermined his own.

How Russia, China Use Nuclear Reactors To Win Global Influence // Madison Freeman: It starts when state-sponsored nuclear-power companies underbid Western competitors.

At UK Air Show, CEOs and Military Leaders Talk Trump, Tariffs, and Allies // Marcus Weisgerber: Two very different scenes played out in Europe in the days leading up to this week’s Farnborough Air Show.

The Danger of a Deal With Putin // Mark Galeotti, The Atlantic: The Russian leader knows Trump needs to walk away claiming victory. That gives the Kremlin an advantage.

Russia Must Know That NATO is Unified // Sen. Jerry Moran: And President Trump needs to tell him so.

Cancel Turkey’s F-35s — and Maybe Its NATO Membership As Well // A. Trevor Thrall and Jordan Cohen: Sending America’s most advanced fighters to Ankara will do greater harm than good to U.S. interests — and that should give its allies pause.

A 2016 Congressional Candidate Asked For—and Received—Information Stolen by Russia // Max de Haldevang, Quartz: Robert Mueller's Friday indictment of 12 Russians who hacked for the military intelligence agency doesn't name the candidate.

Trump Won’t Pull US Troops From Afghanistan, Says Afghan President // Kevin Baron: At NATO Summit, President Ashraf Ghani said Trump gave his full support to coalition leaders and believes he convinced the U.S. president to stay.

U.S. Needs a National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, Lawmakers and Experts Say // Jack Corrigan: The government is well-positioned to flag specific research areas that would have the biggest impact on national interests.

The One Word Missing From Kim Jong Un’s ‘Very Nice Note’ to Trump // Uri Friedman: The North Korean leader cites “epochal progress,” but leaves out one very important issue.

Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief  by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. And if you find this useful, consider forwarding it to a friend or colleague. They can subscribe here for free. On this day in 1900, U.S. Marines Sgt. Edward Walker, Cpl. John Dahlgren, and Pvts. Harry Fisher, Martin Hunt, and Frank Young fought valiantly in the Chinese city of Peking (now Beijing) during the Boxer Rebellion. Each would be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their actions on this day 118 years ago. Nearly 60 U.S. service members would go on to be awarded the MOH during the Boxer Rebellion. Read all their names, here.

The White House has had enough of that Afghan war, and has now ordered “direct talks” with the Taliban, The New York Times reported this weekend.
Why now? Why not, would seem to be the answer after 17+ years of war. As the Times puts it, the decision to engage in direct talks was sparked by “a realization by both Afghan and American officials that President Trump’s new Afghanistan strategy is not making a fundamental difference in rolling back Taliban gains.”
For what it’s worth: “Neither the State Department nor a Taliban spokesman would comment on the shift of policy toward engaging the Taliban directly.”
For a quick review of where things stand, the Times writes “The government controls or influences 229 of Afghanistan’s 407 districts, and the Taliban 59. The remaining 119 districts are contested.” Read on, here.
FWIW: The Daily Beast had an early read on this possibility — er, “opportunity” — back in June.

“There's epic unrest raging in southern Iraq,” the Washington Post’s Liz Sly co-reported Sunday. “There aren't enough jobs, electricity or water — and it's HOT. The internet is still down, the protests continue. People are dying.”
Iraq’s government initiated a nationwide internet blackout this weekend, and Internet Intelligence has a few charts illustrating the reduction and restoration of services, here.

U.S.-backed YPG fighters in Syria have withdrawn from the northern city of Manbij, the group announced on Sunday in a quiet but big development along a major faultline in U.S.-Turkish relations — to say nothing of the fact that both countr
Turkey’s reax this morning: “We find it exaggerated, the news claiming PYD/YPG has fully withdrawn from Manbij,” a foreign ministry official told Turkey’s Anadolu news.
ICYMI: By invading Syria’s northern, previously Kurd-inhabited Afrin region, “Turkey Has Made a Quagmire for Itself in Syria,” Borzou Daragahi writes in Foreign Policy after returning from Afrin.
One way of looking at where things stand in Syria: “Now we only have regime Syria, Turkish protectorate in the north and US protectorate in the east,” The Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov wrote on Twitter after the Syrian regime raised its flag over the southern Syrian city of Daraa, also known as the birthplace of the Syrian civil war.

To the east a bit, Israeli operatives secretly absconded with nuclear documents from an Iranian warehouse in Tehran back in January — and the take included “partial warhead designs,” Israeli officials told The Wall Street Journal this weekend.
Adds the New York Times: “The archive also shows that after a burst of activity, a political mandate delivered at the end of 2003 slowed the [Iranian nuclear] program dramatically, just as American officials had concluded in a 2007 intelligence report.”
Notes NBC’s Ken Dilanian: “Great op, but facts remain the same” as U.S. officials understood in that 11-year-old intel report. More from NYTs here, or WSJ (paywalled) here.

This week in dubious stateside nuclear security news: Two security experts from the Department of Energy left plutonium and radioactive cesium in the back seat of their rental car at a hotel in a high-crime neighborhood of San Antonio back in March 2017. And it would have been there the next morning if only someone hadn’t smashed the window and stolen it, The Center for Public Integrity reports this morning. Story, here.  

Ten days ago, SecState Mike Pompeo accused North Korea of operating secret facilities for the enrichment of uranium when he met senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol during that July 6-7 visit to the country,” Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported this morning.
Recall his meeting was not with Kim Jong-un — and he reportedly didn’t deliver that Elton John LP — but rather Pompeo met with the vice chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
The unsurprising response from North Korea: “Pyongyang has never hidden or operated a secret uranium enrichment site.” Read on, here.

And finally today: For the record, British investigators now believe the March 4 Novichok attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter was likely carried out by current or former Russian military intelligence agents of the GRU. NYTs has that update, here.