China is attracting "global attention" for its rapid stockpiling of crucial materials, said Newsweek. Among them are stocks of crude oil and natural gas, valuable manufacturing metals like copper, iron ore and cobalt, and in particular precious metals like gold.

Considering China's economic issues, the stockpiling "does not reflect growing consumption", said The Economist. It raises the question of whether Beijing is shoring up reserves in a "defensive measure", or one hinting at future aggression.

What did the commentators say?
China's actions, which have included asking its state oil companies to add "nearly 60 million barrels" of crude oil to its reserves and the state-owned agricultural stockpiler Sinograin to increase its grain imports, have "blared red" for the US as it amasses "key resources", said Channel News Asia.

The most alarming reason why countries tend to build up reserves of valuable materials is the prospect of war. Some analysts are speculating that President Xi Jinping is planning an invasion of Taiwan, which it claims as its territory, said Newsweek. Though there is division among US officials as to "the reality of this threat", China's stockpiling is "well beyond limits" of what is "considered normal during peacetime", said The Diplomat.

Another explanation is that China is preparing for a further economic downturn. It could be about to face even "tougher export restrictions", particularly if Donald Trump reclaims the White House, said The Wall Street Journal. There are further alternative explanations. Beijing could be trying to establish "leverage over competitors" or to gain "control of the market", said The Diplomat. There is also the chance it is operating through "paranoia", or "stoking international fears of war" with propaganda exercises.

What next?
Given China's military expansion in recent years and the increasingly heightened tensions with Taiwan, stockpiling exactly what "it would need to survive a protracted conflict" is beginning to sound some alarm bells, said The Economist. There is also evidence that China is taking further measures to distance itself from the US.

While buying huge quantities of gold earlier this year, China has also been "selling down its holdings of US government debt" to "protect it against dollar sanctions" if it comes into a conflict with the West, said The Telegraph.

Britain's foremost horsewoman had hoped to become the nation's most decorated female Olympian at this year's Paris Games.

But dressage star Charlotte Dujardin instead pulled out of the Olympics on Tuesday and was provisionally suspended from the sport pending an investigation, after she was accused of whipping a horse 24 times in one minute.

A Dutch lawyer sent a video of Dujardin to the Fédération Equestre Internationale on behalf of the 19-year-old who filed the complaint. The sport's governing body said the footage showed Dujardin "engaging in conduct contrary to the principles of horse welfare".

The whistleblower's lawyer, Stephan Wensing, put it more bluntly, telling The Telegraph that the "harsh" whipping was like "an elephant in the circus". The scandal has sparked calls for all equestrian events to be cut from the Olympic schedule.

'Most convenient' timing
Dujardin says her career is "in tatters". The incident "was completely out of character", she said in a statement: "However, there is no excuse. I am deeply ashamed and should have set a better example in that moment."
The video was recorded years ago, and the timing of its release has raised eyebrows. "Is it just a coincidence?" asked The Times' Owen Slot.

Britain's dressage team "were considered strong medal hopes". It seems "most convenient" that Team GB has "been hit with such a blow so close to kick-off".

What is "so extraordinary" is that Dujardin is known for her gentle way of working horses. This reputation is "totally at odds" with her behaviour in the video.

'Tip of the iceberg'
The video has done "irreparable damage to dressage's once-mystical public perception", said George Simms on the i news site. But it is also "unsurprising". Similar behaviour is "so commonplace within elite dressage as to be considered normal".

It's just "the tip of the iceberg", sources told the newspaper. Industry insiders spoke of "using barbed wire and heavy metal poles to drill showjumping [horses], and repeatedly kicking horses in the stomach and legs". In one case, horses were subjected to "blasting loud music" for days on end to acclimatise them to loud events – the "Guantanamo Bay technique".

Calls for a "blanket ban" on equestrian sports are growing, said Simms. "Everyone agrees on one thing – something has to change."

"Cannily scheduled" to coincide with the Paris Olympics, the UK premiere of Lucas Hnath's doping drama "Red Speedo" certainly feels topical, said Chris Wiegand in The Guardian.

The action follows aspiring Olympic swimmer Ray (Finn Cole), who is on the verge of signing a hefty promotional contract with Speedo when performance-enhancing drugs are discovered in the communal fridge at his club, throwing his life into disarray.

Ray is a "reptilian, repellent and ruthless" protagonist, said Rachel Halliburton in The Times, but the "darkly comic" show's "taut, muscular humour" makes him "utterly compelling" to watch. Cole brings "emotional honesty" to his portrait of a man "cocooned in his own stupidity" and convinced that his ill-judged actions are for "the greater good".

The casting is "finely balanced", said Helen Hawkins on The Arts Desk. Cole is a "believable chump", while Ciaran Owens expertly delivers "snide zingers" as a"snake-oil salesman with a suit and law degree". Engaging and pacy, Richard Dunster's production "zips along" and plot twists are carefully rationed out, right up until the very last pivotal scene.

Anna Fleischle's "striking" set, Sally Ferguson's "shimmering" lights and Holly Khan's sound add to the "tension", said The Guardian, but even so the "stakes do not feel high enough" in the closing moments and could do with being "ratcheted up" a notch.

Still, it didn't stop Halliburton in The Times from bestowing a glowing five-star rating on Hnath's play: I thought it was "poisonous perfection".

At the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, until 10 August

It might be hard to take the future of the Conservative party seriously right now – but we must
Martin Kettle in The Guardian
The contest to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader "may seem like an argument between corpses in a tomb", writes Martin Kettle, but the party's future is a "genuinely important matter" for "the workings of parliamentary democracy" and "the dynamics of British politics". It is "far better" that what follows is in "the mainstream centre-right tradition, if that can be reconstructed", than "from the populist right – or worse". So, "like it or not, you too have a dog in this fight".

The West must prepare for world war three
Elisabeth Braw in The Spectator
World war three is "no longer the impossibility it seemed even a few years ago", writes Elisabeth Braw. Had Ukraine's institutions, companies and citizens "not been so agile", it would be facing "not just a brutal Russian invader but a collapsing society too", and "that would have made the Russians’ task far easier". So "having strong military and civilian defence" will "not just be indispensable should world war three come", it "could deter our adversaries too".

What if we had no internet?
Deborah Ross in The Times
The internet outage last week "made many think about how life would be without the internet", writes Deborah Ross. "Could we handle writing cheques and queuing in banks or having to drive places with the A-Z open on our laps?" And "what about all the people online with incredibly stupid opinions?" If there were no social networks "would they be out on the streets, shouting one incredibly stupid thing after another?"