A small group of protesters in Venezuela burned large printed portraits of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio in a public square.

The demonstration appears to have been organized by Maduro loyalists reacting to recent US actions.

Senior Iranian official Mohsen Rezaee:

They had planned the 40-day war to last only 4 or 5 days. And in the most pessimistic scenario, they had said it wouldn't take more than 15 days.

This thief who had broken into Iran's house was caught in the trap of the Strait of Hormuz while trying to flee.

They had no preparation for a prolonged war.

They said, 'I will now pull a theatrical stunt, take these enriched materials from Isfahan, and claim that I was victorious.'

Well, you saw they came to Isfahan, and how God Almighty struck them down.

Iranian state media reports the arrest of Mojtaba Kian, an employee at a factory near Karaj that manufactured parts for IRGC missile launchers.

During the recent war, Kian allegedly sent seven text messages to a monarchist group with ties to Israel, revealing the factory's location and asking them to pass the coordinates to "Bibi."

The site was bombed roughly three days later.

Kian faces execution and asset confiscation under Iran's law on collaboration with Israel.

Israel stopped paying monthly $100 stipends to roughly 3,000 Druze fighters in Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri's National Guard in As-Suwayda, with payments halted for over three months.

Material aid and medical support to hospitals in National Guard-controlled areas have also been cut.

Israel had previously provided weapons, ammunition, body armor, and airstrikes to protect the Druze during the July 2025 clashes.

Source: Asharq Al-Awsat

NATO's top innovation commander told Politico that the alliance has no viable alternative to Palantir's battlefield AI system.

"As far as I know, today there is no real competitor for Palantir," said Admiral Pierre Vandier.

NATO purchased Palantir's Maven Smart System in March 2025 in one of its fastest-ever procurement deals.

Vandier said European companies seeking alternatives must prove they can deliver within months, not a decade.

U.S. intelligence says Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is hiding in a secret location and communicating only through couriers, making talks with the Trump administration slow and difficult.

Officials say delays happen because messages take time to reach him and return.

Despite the communication challenges, a senior U.S. official says Khamenei has agreed in principle to a draft deal framework, and Trump expects a final response within days.

Source: CBS News

An RAF jet carrying UK defence secretary John Healey had its GPS signal jammed for the full three-hour flight home from Estonia, near the Russian border.

Russia is suspected of being behind the electronic interference.

Passengers lost internet access, and pilots switched to backup navigation systems after the aircraft’s GPS was disrupted.

The plane had been returning from Tallinn, where Healey met Estonian officials and British troops.

Xi Jinping sharply criticized Japan’s military buildup during his summit with Trump in Beijing.

Xi reportedly became unusually heated while accusing Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi of “remilitarisation” and condemning Tokyo’s rising defence spending.

Trump responded that Japan needed stronger defenses because of threats from North Korea.

Source: FT

Trump officials say Venezuelan elections are “not even on Trump’s mind” right now.

Source: WSJ

Venezuelan inmates climbed onto a prison roof in Barinas to protest shootings and abuse by guards, setting mattresses on fire and demanding the prison director’s removal.

Mike Huckabee said his appointment as U.S. ambassador to Israel felt like “an Isaiah moment” and compared it to the Biblical phrase “for such a time as this” from the Book of Esther.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says people in Lebanon should be thanking Israel for “cell phones” and “cherry tomatoes.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee:

I’m meeting some of the future billionaires of Israel. Some of these young people, maybe they're 15, 16, 17 now, but give them just probably a very short period of time, and in their 20s, we'll all be wanting to borrow money from some of them.

So, I want to go ahead and get their names and phone numbers now.

Mike Huckabee says Israel “looked like the finishedup nation” when he first visited in 1973, describing it as “almost third world,” with few roads, few cars because “people couldn't afford them,” and an economy that “was struggling.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee:

Right now across the world, there are people who blame Israel for pretty much everything. If something goes wrong, must be those Jews.

I can say that I'm not a Jew, but I don't blame the Jews for what's wrong in the world.

I certainly don't blame Israel. I blame the people who have believed a lie. A lie that is destroying entire nations...

Reporter: What did you make of the question you got yesterday on racist comments about India?

Rubio: I don't know who he was talking about, but I assumed he was talking about people posting stuff online. I asked him specifically, "Can you tell me what you're talking about and who you're talking about?" He didn't have a specific example.

Reporter: There was something reposted by Trump where he referred to India as a "hellhole."

Rubio: Well, I gave him a chance to tell me that. That's not what he said. Trump loves India...

I gave that reporter a chance to tell me who he was referring to and he didn't. So I assumed he was talking about random voices online.

People say stupid stuff all the time on social media in every country in the world, unfortunately.

Marco Rubio on Iran:

We have what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the straits, get the straits open, enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matters. And hopefully we can pull it off. It has a lot of support in the Gulf, has a lot of support globally.

Every country that we've walked through understands it's not just very reasonable, but it's the right thing for the world to get done.

As the president said, he's not in a hurry. He's not going to make a bad deal. I mean, the president's not going to make a bad agreement. So, let's see what happens.

We're going to give diplomacy every chance to succeed before we explore the alternatives.

Marco Rubio:

The problem is not Lebanon and Israel. The problem is Hezbollah.

Just last night, Hezbollah put out a statement calling for the overthrow of the Lebanese government.

And it just reminds you of who you're dealing with here, by the way, an Iranian proxy, 100% Iranian proxy.

Reporter: Would it be understood that Israel wouldn't strike Lebanon as part of—

Rubio: Israel always has a right to protect itself. Every country in the world does.

And so if Hezbollah is going to launch missiles at them, Israel has every right to respond to that or to prevent that from happening.

That's always been understood. It's being understood during the ceasefire now in Lebanon and it'll be understood beyond that.

Marco Rubio:

India is always pointing to the fact that there are armed terrorist groups operating from Pakistani territory that target India.

They're always concerned about that.

Belarusian opposition leader Tikhanovskaya arrived in Ukraine for her first official visit, invited by Zelensky.