Macron meets UAE leaders to deepen strategic partnership, discuss defense, AI, trade and drug trafficking
Macron is due to meet with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss "strengthening the strategic partnership" between...
Geostrategy
US vows Hamas disarmament in talks on next Gaza phase as regional officials met
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday urged the disarmament of Hamas but voiced hope for headway on reaching...
Geostrategy
Economy
Tesla to build first grid-scale power plant in China
New York, United States - Tesla announced Friday that it signed an agreement to build its first grid-scale energy storage...
- The project will help with the flexible adjustment of grid resources, and "effectively solve pressures relating to urban power supply," Tesla said
- Chinese media outlet Yicai reported that Tesla Shanghai, Shanghai authorities and China Kangfu International Leasing Co. held a signing ceremony Friday for the project
Geostrategy
Pro-Palestinian protest leader released from US custody
Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide pro-Palestinian campus protests,...
- Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, has been in custody since March facing potential deportation
- "This shouldn't have taken three months," Khalil, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, told US media outside an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana
Geostrategy
Tech-fueled misinformation and disinformation distorts Iran-Israel fighting
AI deepfakes, video game footage passed off as real combat, and chatbot-generated falsehoods -- such tech-enabled misinformation is distorting the...
- The information warfare unfolding alongside ground combat shows a digital crisis in the age of rapidly advancing AI tools that have blurred the lines between truth and fabrication
- The surge in wartime misinformation has exposed an urgent need for stronger detection tools as major tech platforms have weakened safeguards by scaling back moderation
Geostrategy
Israel says delayed Iran’s presumed nuclear programme by two years
Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the rapid expansion of Iran's nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country's accelerated...
- Trump has been mulling whether to involve the United States in Israel's bombing campaign, indicating in his comments that he could take a decision before the two week deadline
- Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday and urged him to resume talks with the United States
Geostrategy
Israeli army chief warns of ‘prolonged campaign’ in Iran
"We have embarked on the most complex campaign in our history to remove a threat of such magnitude, against such...
- Israel launched attacks against Iran last Friday which have combined targeted assassinations of key military personnel with strikes on Iran's nuclear and missile facilities.
- Zamir said the Israeli military had prepared for "years" for the campaign against Iran, even while Israeli troops continue their devastating campaign in Gaza.
Geostrategy
IAEA warns of nuclear disaster if Israel attacks Iran’s Bushehr plant
Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the UN Security Council that he has not yet...
- Grossi warned of equally dire consequences even if Israel strikes the lines that supply electricity to Bushehr, saying such disabling of power could trigger a meltdown.
- In a worst case scenario, evacuations and orders to take shelter would need to be issued for areas within several hundred kilometers of Bushehr, which would include Gulf states.
Science
More microplastics in glass bottles than plastic
For water, both flat and sparkling, the amount of microplastic was relatively low in all cases, ranging from 4.5 particles...
- Researchers detected the tiny, mostly invisible pieces of plastic throughout the world, from in the air we breathe to the food we eat, as well as riddled throughout human bodies.
- There is still no direct evidence that this preponderance of plastic is harmful to human health, but a burgeoning field of research is aiming to measure its spread.
Geostrategy
US envoy says Hezbollah involvement in Iran-Israel war would be ‘very bad decision’
The US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack warned Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Thursday against getting involved in the...
- Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey, is on his first visit to Beirut, where he met top Lebanese officials including parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally
- In a statement, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said the group will provide Iran "with all forms of support that contribute to putting an end to this tyranny and oppression
Geostrategy
Iran appoints new Revolutionary Guards intelligence chief
Major General Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), appointed Brigadier General Majid Khadami as the...
- Major General Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of the IRGC, appointed Brigadier General Majid Khadami as the new head of its intelligence division
- He replaces Mohammed Kazemi, who was killed on Sunday alongside two other Revolutionary Guards officers -- Hassan Mohaghegh and Mohsen Bagheri -- in an Israeli strike
Geostrategy
US military aircraft no longer visible at base in Qatar: satellite images
Dozens of US military aircraft are no longer on the tarmac at a major US base in Qatar, satellite images...
- Nearly 40 military aircraft -- including transport planes like the Hercules C-130 and reconnaissance aircraft -- were parked on the tarmac at the Al Udeid base on June 5
- The US embassy in Qatar announced Thursday that access to the base would be limited "out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities."
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Macron meets UAE leaders to deepen strategic partnership, discuss defense, AI, trade and drug trafficking
Macron is due to meet with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss "strengthening the strategic partnership" between...
Geostrategy
Company News
Latest News
US envoy Witkoff felt ‘betrayed’ by Israeli attack on Hamas in Qatar
Washington, United States - US envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's chief negotiator on the Middle East, has said that...
Geostrategy
Pakistan, Afghanistan officials to meet in Qatar after latest strikes
Islamabad, Pakistan - Pakistani and Afghan officials were due to meet in Qatar Saturday to seek a path back to...
Geostrategy
Trump tells Zelensky to ‘make a deal’ as Tomahawk plea misfires
Trump said as recently as last month that he believed Ukraine could take back all its territory -- but a...
Geostrategy
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Geostrategy
OpenAI halts MLK videos as deepfakes spark outrage
Washington, United States -- OpenAI has suspended its Sora 2 artificial intelligence tool from creating videos of civil rights icon...
- The slain civil rights leader's estate and OpenAI said the company would pause generations depicting King while it "strengthens guardrails for historical figures."
- Videos reanimating other dead figures including Malcolm X, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse have flooded social media since Sora 2's launch on September 30.
Geostrategy
Trump says to meet Putin in Budapest after ‘great’ call, questions Ukraine’s push for Tomahawk missiles
In his latest abrupt pivot on Russia's 2022 invasion, Trump said he expected to meet Putin in Budapest within the...
- In his latest abrupt pivot on Russia's 2022 invasion, Trump said he expected to meet Putin in Budapest within the next two weeks for what would be their second summit
- Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that the threat of Tomahawks had pushed Moscow to negotiate, even as he deals with yet another Trump shift on the war
Geostrategy
Turkish experts to help find bodies in Gaza, as Trump warns Hamas
Turkey has deployed dozens of disaster relief specialists to help search for bodies under the mountains of rubble in Gaza,...
- Trump characterised the killings as a breach of the ceasefire deal he spearheaded, under which the Palestinian militant group returned its last 20 surviving hostages to Israel
- The Palestinian militants stressed their "commitment" to the ceasefire deal with Israel, and that they want to return all the remaining bodies of hostages left in Gaza