Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge A. Colby:

If you're a country like Poland or South Korea or something like that, and you face what you regard as a fairly serious threat, if you embark on let's take a middle powers defense industry initiative and it doesn't pan out or it results in something far inferior, you will pay the cost.

The middle power strategy is based on... It's based on I think, as we said, a faulty understanding of international relations, which is that power is in a certain bracket, will naturally have reason to align and work together.

In that context, we actually are encouraging middle powers not only to work with us, but also to work with each other.

Source: NYT

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge A. Colby:

Is it cruel to ask the Germans or the Japanese or the French to spend as much as Americans spend?

I don't think that's cruel. I think that's fair.

Source: NYT

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge A. Colby:

Iran can't compete with the United States. Iran is trying to use leverage over one particular thing.

Iran no longer has the military power projection capability to even pretend to threaten those things.

So we see the governments of the region actually, if anything, probably growing closer to the United States.

Source: NYT

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge A. Colby:

There are escalation options that don't involve doing Vietnam and Iraq.

There could be very substantial escalation options, obviously military, but also nonmilitary that would have a major impact on Iran that are in the presence of inventory if Trump chooses to if he thinks that's the right call and we'll support him if he does.

So I don't think it's not that he's like trapped. He has options.

Source: NYT

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge A. Colby:

Canada basically functionally demilitarized after the first Trudeau government, the Trudeau the father.

And that has direct implications for the security of Americans in a world that could be more dangerous.

What we're telling the Canadians is: be like the Germans or the Poles, use Canadian defense dollars to buy real military capability that fills joint needs.

Source: NYT

Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias on local defense production:

There is currently no program in the Greek Armed Forces that will not meet the 25%+ requirement.

If there is ever an exception, it will be treated as a special case and explained separately.

Our goal is to create a Greek defense ecosystem. That ecosystem will be built from two sources: existing Greek companies—including startups—and defense ecosystems that we bring from abroad to establish production in Greece.

These companies will produce in Greece or co-produce with existing or new Greek companies.

A Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President JD Vance has been placed on administrative leave during an internal investigation into an alleged leak of sensitive information about Vance’s travel and security operations.

The agent is suspected of providing information for a news report that detailed Vance’s travel plans, including a canceled helicopter trip with his son.

The Secret Service said the investigation could lead to criminal as well as administrative action.

Source: CNN

Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias on Greece-Israel defense cooperation:

The logic here is not to buy systems from the State of Israel.

The logic is to produce these systems in Greece with Israeli companies, creating a production base in Greece, working together with Greek businesses.

This would also enable exports of these products both to Europe and to the Middle East.

Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias:

The seventh program concerns three C-390 Millennium aircraft under a government-to-government agreement with Portugal.

The first aircraft will be delivered in 2027. They are twice as fast as the transport aircraft currently operated by the Greek Air Force.

But that is not the main reason behind this decision, even though their speed is a major advantage.

The transport time to Cyprus—or the number of flights to Cyprus, for example—could be doubled.

Elon Musk:

One of the tricks I think is quite funny is to take a speech from Obama and Hillary, and go to someone who's sort of on what I call the lunatic left, and say, "What do you think of this speech by Trump?"

They'll say, "Oh wow, he's the worst person ever." Actually, that was a speech by Obama. Actually, that was a speech by Hillary.

Source: The Economist

Elon Musk:

Here are the principles—and tell me which of these sound terrible: that we should have secure borders, that we should have safe cities, that we should have sensible spending.

Which of those three are far-right fringe? And I would like to just admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right.

It is false and misleading and nonsense. Please keep this part in. We'll keep all of this in. Don't cut this part.

Source: The Economist

Q: People say that you're a racist.

Elon Musk: My partner is half Indian, and I have four children with her. One of them was named after a famous Indian physicist. So I would say I'm not racist.

And also, if you look at the people that are employed at my companies, we have senior executives of all races. I don't think there's any racism there.

Source: The Economist

Q: Are you anti-Muslim?

Elon Musk: If people are coming to a country with antithetical views—I am against that.

I'm against rape and murder. I'm against the imposition of rules and laws that are contrary to what we've come to accept in the West.

Source: The Economist

The U.S. Senate voted 49–47 to block a resolution that would have required Trump to obtain congressional approval for further military action against Iran.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz:

We are prepared for any scenario. If Iran attacks Israel, it will suffer a crushing blow.

Elon Musk:

I think AI may exceed the sum of human intelligence in around five years. In five years—roughly five years—is my guess.

So there really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps.

Source: The Economist

Fox News commentators are debating potential US targets in Iran, specifically discussing which power stations could be hit.

Pro-Trump influencer Laura Loomer, who recently decided to turn pro-Ukraine, has interviewed President Zelensky in Kyiv.

Only 6% of Britons Would Volunteer to Fight If UK Faced Invasion Threat

Among the British public, only six percent state that they would volunteer to fight an imminent invasion to defend their homeland, according to a new poll.

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Trump:

Take a look at California. You have brownouts and blackouts every weekend.

Trump:

AI is bigger than the internet.

AI is bigger than anything anyone's seen thus far.