03 World

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Iran lashed out at its neighbors Saturday after U.S. forces downed missiles Iran launched at targets in the Strait of Hormuz.

“U.S. forces intercepted multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched by Iran toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf neighbors,” U.S. Central Command posted on X.

“Iran fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain hours after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that were launched toward the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said.

“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic. U.S. forces subsequently struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island to defend against further maritime attacks.”

The post said Iran’s missile attacks achieved nothing.

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NORMANDY, France — U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth warned about the invasion of Europe by third-world migrants in a Saturday speech commemorating the 82nd anniversary of D-Day. Hegseth spoke at the Normandy American Cemetery, where thousands of Americans are buried. All but one died storming the beaches on D-Day or in the subsequent Battle of Normandy during World War II.

“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies. Beaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria,” Hegseth said. “Boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not.”

Twenty-nine WWII veterans attended the ceremony, and 107-year-old Arthur Rose, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy on D-Day, read a letter he sent home days after the invasion. French and American flags whipped on their poles as wind blasted through the cemetery and waves of rain and sunshine alternated, giving Hegseth an appropriate backdrop to offer a stark warning to Europe: They face yet another existential crisis today, this time from third-world migrants intent on destroying the West.

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DONALD Trump has vowed to destroy Iran’s stocks of enriched uranium whether or not he makes a deal with the rogue nation.

As his bloody war on Iran reached its 100-day mark, Trump threatened: “We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them.”

Trump says he could work with Iran to destroy uranium Credit: NBC News
The US president said ‘it would take weeks of digging’ to get to the uranium Credit: NBC News

Trump told NBC in an interview recorded on Friday that the US could work with the Iranians to destroy the regime’s stocks of enriched uranium.

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On Friday evening, the US vice-president, JD Vance, blamed Henry Nowak’s murder on the “mass invasion of migrants” and said the “only response” was “righteous anger”, prompting a rebuke from Downing Street which hit out at “people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division”.

The UK justice secretary and deputy prime minister, David Lammy, revealed to Sky News’ Trevor Phillips that he spoke to Vance yesterday following his intervention. Lammy, who is rumoured to be good friends with the vice-president, said:

I spoke to the vice president yesterday, and I wanted to emphasise a number of things.

The first is that our democratic process is working well. This young man has been convicted. There is an investigation into the police by the Independent Police (Conduct)Authority.

There is an investigation into Hampshire Police by the inspectorate. The (attorney general) is looking at the sentencing in relation to this. The national police chiefs are looking at the guidance in relation to this.

The second thing was I disagree with him. This has got nothing to do with mass migration. This young man was a Brit. Let’s be clear about that. And I said, ‘look, Mr vice president, you’re wrong about this’.

And it’s also the case that actually murder is coming down in the United Kingdom. So we had an agreeable conversation. But we disagree.

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The Defence Investment Plan (DIP) was expected last year but may not be published until July – experts warn the UK needs significant spending to close big holes in its defence.

David Lammy has defended the Government’s plans for the UK’s defence, saying the pledge for spending to reach 3 percent of national income is “absolutely sacrosanct “.

Amid delays to an investment plan for the future, the deputy prime minister said “the money will be found” to set out how new equipment and infrastructure will be procured, as he faced questions about which departments may face cuts to fund the armed forces. The Defence Investment Plan (DIP) was expected last year but may not be published until July amid reported wrangling within Government over how to pay for the plans.

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The Israeli ambassador to the United States is slamming Hezbollah’s rejection of a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, saying they are “trying to destroy that hope.”

“There was real hope at the negotiating table for a new chapter of security and peace,” Ambassador Yechiel Leiter wrote on X. “Hezbollah and Iran are trying to destroy that hope. They must not succeed.”

Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based, Iran-backed militant group, was not involved in the negotiations taking part in Washington over the last several days, though it is the one striking Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

“Israel will defend its citizens,” Leiter wrote. “Lebanon deserves a future shaped by its government-not by an Iranian-backed terrorist organization.”

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The CEOs of several major artificial intelligence companies are urging members of Congress to adopt new laws that would make it harder for bad actors to develop biological weapons using their technology.

Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and Microsoft AI’s Mustafa Suleyman are among the signatories on a public letter calling for laws requiring companies that sell synthetic DNA and RNA to screen customers and orders to prevent the misuse of genetic material.

Organized by the nonpartisan Institute for Progress and the right-leaning Foundation for American Innovation, the letter acknowledges that given the pace of AI development, “there is a real possibility that the knowledge barriers which have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons will meaningfully erode.”

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The United States has imposed sanctions on ​Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, along with his wife and three other individuals, according to a filing Thursday from the U.S. Treasury Department. It’s the latest Trump administration move to pressure the island’s leadership.

Included in the sanctions are Alejandro Castro Espín, the sole son of former President Raúl Castro and Vilma Espín. He served as an adviser to Cuba’s Defense and National Security Commission and was present when Raúl Castro greeted then-U.S. President Barack Obama in Havana during a historic March 2016 meeting. Castro Espín’s son, Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis, was also listed.

The sanctions come after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions against the island and has been threatening military action ever since ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January and then ordering an energy blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba. That has led to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

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A warm enough friendship can survive a few heated words.

That was the gist of President Donald Trump’s dismissal of a widely reported confrontation Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We’ve worked very well together, I like Bibi a lot,” Trump said. “And I’ve worked very well with him.”

WARNING: The following social media post contains vulgar language that some may find offensive.

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Germany’s long-running “firewall” that sees the country’s legacy parties exclude cooperation with the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) is moving further out of step with a large section of the electorate, with new polling showing voters now evenly divided over the governing CDU’s refusal to work with the nationalist party.

According to the latest Deutschlandtrend survey by Infratest Dimap for ARD and Welt, 47 percent of Germans now say the CDU’s exclusion of cooperation with the AfD is not right, while the same proportion say it is right. That marks a significant shift since September 2024, with opposition to the stance rising by 12 points and support falling by 13 points.

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VIENNA — The U.N. nuclear watchdog has been unable to inspect nuclear facilities in Iran affected by the war last June according to a confidential report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog circulated to member states and seen Thursday by The Associated Press.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that it “cannot provide any information on the current size, composition or whereabouts of the stockpile of enriched uranium in Iran or whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities.”

The IAEA warned that it was “unable to discharge its safeguards responsibilities” that it has under the Safeguards Agreement of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, adding that it is “indispensable and urgent” for Tehran to implement its obligations under that Treaty.

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John Bolton, US President Donald Trump‘s national security adviser, during his 1st term, and later one of his most prominent critics, is expected to plead guilty to mishandling classified documents, according to three CNN sources familiar with the matter.Bolton plans to plead guilty to one felony count of illegally retaining sensitive national security documents and has agreed to pay a fine exceeding $2 million, one of the sources said.According to federal sentencing guidelines, a conviction on the charge carries a potential prison sentence ranging from zero to 60 months.

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Israel and Lebanon have agreed to implement a renewed ceasefire after US-mediated talks in Washington

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to implement a renewed ceasefire that requires Hezbollah to stop firing and withdraw its operatives from southern Lebanon, according to a joint statement released after US-mediated talks at the State Department on Wednesday.

The talks followed weeks of Israeli strikes and ground operations in Lebanon, as well as Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel. Washington has said previous ceasefire efforts were undermined by Hezbollah attacks carried out without the approval of the Lebanese government.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader has taken a chilling swipe at the US – but still hasn’t been seen in public since the start of the war more than three months ago.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement that the “malicious enemy” has been defeated with “a decisive blow”. The message was read out on Thursday during a ceremony marking the 37th anniversary of the Islamic Republic’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini’s death, and said: “I tell the dear Iranian nation that the malicious enemy … is now experiencing a profound and meaningful humiliation, both on the military battlefield and in the public arena and it is now focused on trickery.

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China’s plan to become a world leader in AI by 2030 is a fixture of practically every Congressional briefing and expert commentary on Beijing’s AI ambitions. The plan’s logic — introduced in 2017 — was simple and alarming: Beijing would direct capital, mobilize its firms, recruit talent, and execute with the strategic patience of a state-led innovation ecosystem. Nearly a decade later, that frame has only hardened. Beijing’s recently issued 15th Five-Year Plan directs Party organs to take “extraordinary measures” to strengthen technological self-reliance and launch a new “AI+” initiative to integrate AI across the nation’s strategic sectors. Beijing has the legal architecture to compel its firms to do its bidding, so Washington has largely concluded that Beijing’s AI sprint reflects deliberate industrial policy, and built America’s response around that assumption.

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Beijing’s censorship cannot erase memories of its 1989 military assault on peaceful demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, ‌U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, ahead of the anniversary of China’s violent suppression there.

Rubio’s statement largely mirrored his past remarks on the crackdown but ‌is likely to be reassuring to Chinese dissidents and ⁠pro-democracy supporters at a time when President Donald ⁠Trump has repeatedly ⁠touted his relationship with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, whom he met ‌in Beijing last month.

According to human rights groups, Chinese troops opened fire on ⁠pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square ⁠and killed hundreds if not thousands of people.

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He also insisted that for the war in Lebanon to end, Israeli forces must get out of the country.

“The end of the war in Lebanon also means the end of the occupation. That is, the end of the war must be accompanied by the withdrawal of the Zionist regime’s forces from the areas they have occupied,” he told the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese broadcaster.

His comments came as Israeli and Lebanese diplomats were to hold a second day of direct talks in Washington.

They are part of a fourth round of talks since the fighting in Lebanon erupted when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.

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A new study shows that computer malware powered by easily accessible artificial intelligence models is here—the research is a “wake-up call” to take cybersecurity risks from AI more seriously, one expert says.

In the study, researchers created an AI-powered computer “worm” designed to attack and spread between devices—revealing a threat that they say the world is woefully underprepared to fight.

“Our results demonstrate that self-sustaining AI-driven cyber-threats are no longer theoretical,” the researchers wrote. The paper, first reported by the New York Times, was posted on the preprint server arXiv.org and has yet to be peer-reviewed.