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All branches of the military will be taught how to use technology that has become a ‘game changer on the battlefield’, says defence ministerAll of South Korea’s military forces will be trained as drone operators in a sweeping overhaul of its warfare strategy, the defence minister has said.“All soldiers should be able to use drones like a second personal firearm,” Ahn Gyu-back, who heads the defence ministry in Seoul, said on Friday. Continue reading...

North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un has observed major weapons tests and called for bolstering the military’s “deadly and destructive offensive posture."

China’s leader wants to promote his alternative to the current world order, and his efforts are being assisted by a capricious US Xi Jinping meets Bangladesh’s new prime minister on Friday, the latest in a wave of world leaders to visit Beijing this year as the Chinese leader builds his influence and economic ties, and seeks to “shift the balance of power” away from the west.Xi’s meeting with Tarique Rahman comes less than two weeks after the Chinese leader welcomed Myanmar’s military chief-turned-president, Min Aung Hlaing, in Beijing. Continue reading...

Kennedy repeatedly said 2019 Samoa trip had ‘nothing to do with vaccines’. An email from his then colleague says they were on a vaccine-related ‘mission’New evidence has emerged that Robert F Kennedy Jr was on a vaccine-related “mission” when he visited Samoa ahead of a deadly measles outbreak in 2019, raising further questions about whether the US health secretary lied to the US Senate when he said the trip had “nothing to do with vaccines”.Records obtained by the Guardian show Kennedy’s colleague told Samoan officials in an email that he and Kennedy were coming as part of a mission to study the island nation’s medical records in the aftermath of a “discontinuity in vaccinations”. Continue reading...

French health ministry says patient’s contacts are being traced and that risk to European public is very lowThe first case of Ebola has been confirmed in France, the country’s health ministry has said, in a doctor who had returned from a humanitarian mission to an area affected by the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.The patient was transferred to a specialist facility and was in a stable condition, the ministry said in a statement. “All precautionary measures, including the patient’s isolation, were taken upon his arrival in the country, with transfer to the hospital under secure conditions to prevent any risk of contamination.” Continue reading...

Trump attacked the Republican senators who crossed party lines and voted to check his Iran war powers.In a late-night Truth Social post, Trump claimed he had "Iran on the 'ropes,' ready to go down for the fall, willing to give us practically anything, and for the first time in decades, respecting the hell out of the United States and its president."He then set his sights on "Four Republican Losers" who "voted with the Dumocrats." He was referring to GOP senators Rand Paul from Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Susan Collins from Maine, and Bill Cassidy from Louisiana."These Senators have just made my job more difficult," Trump continued. "But I will get it done, one way or the other, because I always get it done!"Paul, Murkowski, Collins, and Cassidy sided with Democratic senators on Tuesday in a 50-48 vote in favor of a resolution that tells Trump to end the war in Iran or seek congressional authorization to resume it. The New York Times described the resolution as "the most significant bipartisan rebuke yet of the conflict," even though it didn't carry the force of law."The U.S. Senate decides to have a poorly timed and meaningless War Powers Act Vote, telling the Number One Sponser of Terror in the World that the United States doesn't like what I am doing to them," Trump wrote. "And by so doing has provided aid and comfort [to] the Enemy."

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned top executives that the United States was taking steps to respond to China's state-backed robotics industry, something viewed as a potential national security threat, Politico reported on Tuesday.During the closed-door meeting on Monday, he told the business leaders that the Trump administration was studying state-subsidized robotics imports, three people who attended the meeting told Politico. The move comes amid concerns that "subsidized Chinese robots could dominate global markets before U.S. manufacturers have the scale to compete."Dozens of executives from companies such as Boston Dynamics, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Siemens, SpaceX and Rockwell Automation were at the roundtable discussion, Politico reported. Some of the discussion included how the American industry could "reverse decades of manufacturing offshoring and rebuild the industrial base needed to build everything from semiconductors to robots."It's a sign of the escalating robotics import race between China and the United States."Lutnick’s comments reflect a growing view inside the Trump administration that robotics — not just AI chips — is becoming the next battleground in the technological competition," according to Politico. "We don’t want state-subsidized robotics attacking us in America; this is the arms [race] that is coming — robotic arms are coming," Lutnick said in the meeting, according to notes provided to Politico. "We need to make sure they’re produced in America so we’re going to study those right now."

Four Republican senators broke ranks with President Donald Trump and voted to limit his Iran war powers on Tuesday, according to CNN. The "major rebuke" from lawmakers, including GOP leaders, has directed the Trump administration to begin removing military forces in Iran, CNN reported.Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) all voted for the resolution. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted against it. The final vote tally was 50-48."The measure passed the House earlier this month. But because it is what’s known as a concurrent resolution, it does not require the president’s signature and, by definition, does not carry the force of law," CNN reported.A House Democratic aide involved in the effort to pass the war powers resolution told CNN earlier this month "that they believe the measure would be binding and it would be a legal matter to work out.""This is a major rebuke of President Trump," CNN anchor Boris Sanchez said.Republicans have had increasing concerns over Iran war negotiations, said CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Manu Raju."This is the first time that this has happened," Raju explained. "The Senate and the House have passed an identical measure to limit President Trump's powers with Iran, essentially to stop the war altogether, unless Congress has a say, and if the president wanted to escalate things in Iran, he'd have to come back to Congress to get approval." The White House has not yet responded to the vote."Democrats effectively pushed this bill through the House with the support of some Republicans," Raju said. "And now we are seeing the same thing happening today on the Senate side. A sign of some concern within the GOP ranks over the way this war is being waged and a message being sent to the White House, now that both chambers of Congress are calling to limit the President's war powers with Iran."