Reporter: How much did it cost American taxpayers to upgrade the plane?

Trump: It cost very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way. This was a gift from a country that's treated us very well.

They are an ally of us in the Middle East—Qatar.

We couldn't build a plane like this. We wouldn't be willing to spend the money necessary. They spent top dollars.

Trump:

We're gonna declassify almost everything.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp:

I am the most publicly supportive CEO of Israel.

I think Israel is on the side of good.

Source: CNBC

Palantir CEO Alex Karp:

Half the people criticizing Israel just don't believe it should exist.

And that's just a fact.

Source: CNBC

Russia has begun importing gasoline from India to ease nationwide fuel shortages caused by Ukrainian drone attacks on its oil refineries.

At least 60,000 metric tons have already been shipped, with Russia reportedly planning to import up to 400,000 tons per month from multiple countries, including Belarus.

The shortages have led to fuel rationing, long queues at gas stations, and record gasoline prices.

Source: Reuters

Keir Starmer:

I'm really proud that we got the gayest Parliament.

I don't think there's any Parliament that is gayer than this parliament.

Anthropic's Claude Code covertly checks if users are from China. The obfuscated logic embedded into its binary reportedly evaluates whether:

▪️A user is operating from China,
▪️Routing through a Chinese URL,
▪️Affiliated with a Chinese AI lab.

READ MORE

Video from Irkutsk, Russia shows the impact of the fuel shortage.

Blank fuel price displays at a Gazpromneft station, long queues for gasoline, and severe traffic congestion as vehicles line roads leading to gas stations.

Irkutsk is about 4,200 km east of Moscow.

Italian PM Meloni:

I improved my English because I was a Michael Jackson fan—I wanted to understand what the lyrics were saying.

I went further with French because I was passionate about the Decadent poets.

I spoke Spanish because, when I was little, my father lived in the Canary Islands, so I had to manage.

Medvedev will attend the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran as Putin's special envoy.

Source: Tasnim

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker:

Türkiye is an incredibly capable ally. They are seriously committed to the NATO alliance and also the security of themselves and their allies.

We need to continue to strengthen that relationship.

We need all of our allies to be more like Türkiye—to have an industrial base that can manufacture, for example, 50 ships at a time, which is what Türkiye is building right now in their shipyards.

And so, we need to make sure that everyone's moving at pace.

Source: Fox News

For First Time in 20 Years, Majority of Russians Say Economy is Worsening

For the first time since 2006, a majority of Russian adults believe their local economy and living standards are worsening, as wartime growth slows and labor shortages intensify.

READ MORE

Norway To Ban AI for Elementary School Pupils

Norway's government announced a near-ban on generative AI for elementary school pupils aged 6-13, proposing more funding for books over tablets, starting in the fall term.

READ MORE

How the UAE Arms Sudan's RSF

UN investigators and defectors reveal an illicit weapons bridge built by the UAE to sustain the RSF:

▪️Darfur gold finances operations
▪️Covert air hubs in Chad & Libya
▪️Cargo includes Chinese drones & UK-origin arms

READ MORE

JD Vance:

One of the things I learned in the United States Marine Corps serving from '03 to '07 is that we sometimes had leaders who would ask you all to go to war but would not give you a clear mission on the other end.

And one of the reasons why I'm proudest of what the President of the United States has done over these last 18 months is because, when he has asked you to go to war, he has given you a defined mission, he's asked you to go and accomplish it, and, most importantly, he's given you the tools to kick the hell out of the enemy and to come home safely.

Syrian President Sharaa Finalizes Country's First Post-Assad Parliament

Ahmed al-Sharaa appointed the final 70 lawmakers to the 210-seat body, as the transitional legislature prepares to convene on Monday to draft a new constitution.

READ MORE

JD Vance on Iran:

Iranians are further away from developing a nuclear bomb than they have ever been since basically the last 20-30 years.

JD Vance on Iran:

There are people in this country who want to keep going and keep going.

Why do we engage in negotiation? It's not out of weakness, but it's out of strength.

JD Vance on Iran:

What I noticed about the people who are attacking the administration for negotiating is that they are the very same people who encouraged us to drop a few more bombs on places like Afghanistan.

Those people refused to say what we were dropping bombs for.

JD Vance on Iran:

We dropped some bombs a couple of days ago. You know why? Because the Iranians were shooting at commercial ships.

We dropped some bombs, we applied some leverage, and we've had free commercial transit for the last three days.

JD Vance on Iran:

If the Iranians try to rebuild the nuclear program, the President's got options.

If the Iranians try to threaten their neighbors or fund terrorism, we've got options.

But what we must never do is drop bombs just for the sake of dropping bombs. And that is what the President will never ask you to do.

He'll ask you to go to war, yes. But when he asks you to go to war, he'll tell you exactly what you're going for. And I think that is what you should expect out of your political leadership.