Center for a New American Security

The Washington Post reports that the United States has adopted a tougher stance against China, including rejecting its claim to the South China Sea and pressuring Beijing to not increase its energy investments in Iran.

A heat wave continues in Russia, causing deaths and crop failure, reports The New York Times.

Also from The New York Time, Japanese officials have not determined the cause of mysterious damage to a tanker carrying about 2 billion barrels of crude oil in the Strait of Hormuz.

NPR's news blog The Two-Way reports that the Michigan oil spill may be much worse than first reported by the pipeline owner, Enbridge Inc.

From UPI: the EU expects to take important steps soon to build the Nabucco pipeline, planned to be routed through Turkey to break Russia's deadlock on the European gas sector.