Reza Pahlavi:

If Europe can have its own union, why can't we have a union in the Middle East?

Why can't we cooperate on shared projects involving national security, intelligence, and even military cooperation?

Why should we spend so much of our budgets on weapons and arms races, instead of spending those resources on welfare, pension funds, healthcare, and education?

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon:

Iran having a nuclear weapon may be the biggest threat facing mankind.

Jake Sullivan on Iran:

It all just comes back to an imperfect but basically effective nuclear deal.

Every day that Trump doesn't go for that deal is another day we all suffer.

It's another day where America loses, where Iran gains, and it is just putting off, frankly, the inevitable.

Bessent:

So, for the 150th, there was a Calvin Coolidge coin with his image on it. We are going to have the image of President Trump on a coin.

And there is a proposed legislation in the House to put President Trump on the $250 bill.

Look, I think that if you were the president, just like Calvin Coolidge was for the 150th, if you're the president for the 250th, President Trump should be on there.

Bessent:

The economy has been very resilient through all this.

Look, for many families, it's not nothing, but it's been less than $200 in extra gasoline cost.

Bessent insists on Iran:

We did not have regime change, but we changed the regime.

The first-level leaders decapitated, the second-level leaders decapitated.

So, we're dealing with the third level.

Trump posts a 581-word Truth Social post about the Kennedy Center.

NEW: The head of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) held a rare meeting Friday with senior Cuban military officials at the perimeter of Guantanamo Bay to discuss operational security matters.

The Cuban delegation included a senior general from Cuba's military leadership.

Source: Reuters

Japan gave ~$14.7 million to NATO’s Ukraine procurement fund (PURL), its first contribution to the mechanism.

Money is restricted to non-lethal gear only (body armor, radar, etc.).

Ukraine hit Russian frigate Admiral Essen — a Kalibr cruise missile carrier — at Novorossiysk naval base with FP-1/2 drones, marking the fourth such strike on the ship.

New footage captured from a nearby vessel shows the drone evading heavy anti-aircraft fire before hitting the frigate.

Russian special forces used a handheld Yolka kinetic interceptor drone to shoot down a Ukrainian strike UAV in Donetsk direction.

Estonia may be forced to introduce mandatory military conscription for women by 2040, as male birth rates have collapsed from 15,000 boys born annually to just 4,000–5,000.

The head of Estonia's Defense Resources Agency says the country won't be able to fill its 4,100 annual conscription slots with men alone — calling mandatory female conscription a question of "when, not if."

Source: TVP World

China's PLA intercepted Dutch frigate HNLMS De Ruyter in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, deploying warships, corvettes, and J-16 fighters — and applying electronic jamming — to force the ship and its helicopter to leave waters Beijing claims as territorial.

The Netherlands says it was exercising lawful freedom of navigation under international law.

Russia fitted anti-drone netting across warships and submarines on all four of its fleets — from Baltic corvettes to nuclear-armed Borei submarines in Kamchatka — as a cheap countermeasure against Ukrainian drone strikes.

The improvised mesh barriers aim to tangle drone rotors or deflect small payloads.

A provision hidden in a House defense bill would formally merge US and Israeli military technology programs — including shared weapons development, joint production, and linked computer networks.

Source: Responsible Statecraft

French far-right leader Jordan Bardella says European countries must stop buying American F-35s and switch to French Rafales before they can benefit from France's nuclear umbrella.

Source: Politico

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou says he believes Jeffrey Epstein was a Mossad "access agent" — used by Israeli intelligence to gather compromising material on powerful figures for blackmail.

French far-right leader Jordan Bardella:

Before asking France to extend its nuclear umbrella, our European partners must stop buying F-35s and start buying Rafales instead.

French far-right leader Jordan Bardella:

As long as Putin pursues imperial ambitions at Europe's doorstep, his presence [at the G8] will necessarily raise questions.

Japan's 2025 census recorded a population of 123 million — a drop of 3.1 million (2.5%) from 2020, the largest five-year decline since records began in 1920.

Nearly 30% of the population is now aged 65 or older, births hit a record low of 705,000, and experts project the population could fall to 87 million by 2070.

French far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Trump:

I see an American president who changes his mind regularly. With President Trump, what is true on Monday is not necessarily true on Tuesday.

France must be an ally of the United States, but not a subordinate one.

If the United States enters a conflict that does not serve French interests, France has no reason to join that conflict.