Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said an Italian Eurofighter F-2000 jet was damaged in an attack on Saudi Arabia’s Ta’if Air Base on Thursday night.

No Italian military personnel were injured, and no other vehicles or infrastructure used by Italian forces were damaged, he said.

Japan’s central bank raised its key interest rate from 1% to 1.25%, the highest level since 1995, as it continues to move away from decades of ultra-low borrowing costs.

The Bank of Japan has raised rates six times since 2024 to tackle inflation pressures, including rising energy costs linked to disruptions from the Iran war.

Japan is also dealing with a weak yen, higher prices and a shrinking workforce.

Türkiye Dismantles Israel-Linked International Scam Network

The justice minister said Turkish authorities targeted an Israel-linked international fraud network accused of using investment schemes to deceive foreign nationals, with 175 suspects detained.

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Zelensky:

We are launching a new format, the C8 – the Carpathian Eight – which unites us and our neighbors in Europe:

Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, Austria, Hungary and, of course, the European Union as a whole.

This is a significant beginning of a movement that aims to further strengthen ties between our countries and deepen EU-level cooperation on security, energy, logistics, cross-border trade and support for our communities.

We Give Up: JPMorgan Says It Can No Longer Model an End to Trump's Iran War

JPMorgan says it no longer has a baseline forecast for Iran war after oil and Treasury yields crossed levels the bank once expected would push Washington toward a lasting deal.

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Syrian singer Assala Nasri performed in Damascus, her first concert in Syria in over 16 years.

She left in 2011 after publicly backing the uprising against Assad and was blacklisted.

The show, titled "The Return of Assala," opened with patriotic songs including "Raise your head high, you're a free Syrian."

US Marines' boots fell apart during NATO's Cold Response 2026 Arctic exercise in Norway.

Brand-new Belleville Intense Cold Weather Boots developed holes in the leather, soles peeling off, and heel cups digging into tendons within days.

Marines had to be pulled from the field and buy Norwegian-made replacements from local stores.

Inspections back at Camp Lejeune found a 12% defect rate across 4,400+ boots — nearly 540 pairs with "out-of-the-box" failures, peaking at 20% in the July inspection.

Industry norm is 2-3%.

US law (Berry Amendment) requires military boots to be American-made, and proposed BOOTS Act legislation would tighten this further.

Source: Newsweek

The U.S. military is moving MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to the command responsible for South America ahead of planned counternarcotics and counterterrorism operations.

The transfer is part of a broader military buildup in the region, including cooperation with countries such as Ecuador and Colombia.

Source: CNN

NEW: Israel is expected to seek additional weapons systems from the U.S. after Washington informed Israel of plans to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in a reported $25 billion deal.

Israeli officials told Walla they would seek "compensation" from Washington, including access to advanced weapons systems, classified defense projects, Arrow 4 and Arrow 5 interceptor cooperation, space-based weapons, and other capabilities.

Source: Walla

German federal prosecutors have taken over the investigation into a drone found near the Bundeswehr’s Wunstorf air base in Lower Saxony.

The damaged drone was discovered by a walker near Lake Steinhude earlier this week.

According to reports, it may be the same model used in the suspected drone attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport in August, where a drone carrying explosives was found near a Ukrainian transport aircraft.

Authorities are investigating possible links, but no explosives have been found on the Wunstorf drone so far.

Source: BILD

Hasan Piker to Axios:

Zionism is fascism.

I think that the goal in a country like the United States or a country like Israel is to move people away from these far-right tendencies.

It's not to fight them. It's not to kill them. It's to try to get them to no longer believe these things.

NEW: Saudi Aramco has told at least two European refiners they will receive no Saudi crude next month after an attack on the kingdom’s key East-West pipeline to the Red Sea.

Source: Bloomberg

Hasan Piker to Axios:

I even say, "God, I hate this country sometimes." Having said that, if I truly hated this country, one, I'd probably be a Republican, let's be real, because I think they're destroying this country, or I would just leave. There's a reason why I stay here.

There's a reason why I keep advocating for the things that I'm advocating for, because I truly believe in the promise of America. I believe in the goodness of my neighbors.

I believe in the goodness of American citizens, and I know that people of good conscience can see right from wrong.

Hasan Piker to Axios:

The American trajectory is downward, and China on the other hand is rapidly improving its material conditions for a broad basis of Chinese society.

I think, trajectory-wise, I worry that a Chinese child might have better conditions in the next decade or next two decades than an American one.

And I think that should worry every American citizen, not worry them from a xenophobic perspective, mind you, but it should be an alarming thing that we recognize and seek to address.

Hasan Piker to Axios:

Look, if you've done a genocide, and you defend the genocide that's taking place, and if you want to continue offering material support to the country that's doing genocide, then you're pro-genocide.

Hasan Piker to Axios:

In 2019, I said "America deserved 9/11." I apologized shortly thereafter, I think it was a day after, for the language that I used, the wording that I used.

I don't think it was appropriate because of, obviously, the heinous crime that had taken place. 3,000 Americans died.

I don't think that's acceptable in any way, shape or form. I'm not pro-terrorism. And that's precisely the reason why I apologized.

Not that I'm expecting anyone to show grace in that moment to say, "Oh, well, you apologized, and it's fine." Of course, it's politics.

People are going to insincerely keep pushing whatever they find to be advantageous.

Hasan Piker to Axios:

The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a heinous crime and completely unjustifiable.

My opinion and the opinion of my community is that political violence is completely unacceptable.

I'm not mocking Charlie Kirk's assassination by singing the song "We Are Charlie Kirk." I'm not justifying Charlie Kirk's assassination.

Hasan Piker to Axios:

When I say Mao's a great leader, I mean he's a great man of history.

I think that there are things that Mao Zedong did that were unbelievably impressive.

Having said that, of course, the Cultural Revolution was an abject disaster. I mean, it was a completely disastrous policy.

The industrialization policies led to the Great Leap Forward and the industrialization policies also led to horrifying numbers of excess casualties, excess deaths.

So the argument that I present is if those things had not happened, I think we would look at Mao Zedong as probably one of the most impressive historical forces, but those things did happen, nevertheless.

Hasan Piker to Axios:

Russia's actions are utterly unjustifiable in Ukraine.

It's an illegal invasion. It has been monstrous, horrifying.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis:

The right to extend up to 12 miles is guaranteed by international law. This is not something that can be legally disputed, and Greece can exercise it whenever it judges that the circumstances are appropriate.

I will not say anything more.

Jake Sullivan on Trump:

Trump has always looked at Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin and said: "I want what they have."

These are strong men. They dominate their countries. How cool is that? I want to be like that.